Houston, we have an excuse

I have a thing for old travel trunks and vintage luggage. Brand-new storage with a travel theme or vintage look triumphs over uninspired, unremarkable items every time. Folding blankets this morning, I realized that I have an appropriate number of blankets, pillows and comforters for my needs and NOT ENOUGH STORAGE. I keep those linens in chests at the foot of my bed. The trunk in this photo is one that my sister first had for summer camp, then I inherited for college and beyond. It got wrecked over time, stuck in pretty rank environments after a couple of house floods. I spent a year restoring and decoupaging it.

YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! An excuse to buy storage, and from my favorite sources, thrift and salvage shops. This is going to be a good week.

It truly can be the case that you’ve got the right amount and kind of something, whatever that something might be, and not enough or the right sizes or shapes or places for its storage.

BUT BUT BUT always look at the stuff first. You’ve got to be ruthless, scrupulously honest, about whether you have too little, enough, or too much or whatever it is you’re trying to store. There are several reasons for that carefulness: (1) if it’s true that you have too much of something, no amount of storage is going to really solve the problem – you’re simply going to be overwhelmed by your lack of space; (2) if you don’t analyze how much, what sizes, what shapes, the items are, you’re really really likely to get storage that doesn’t fit; (3) if you don’t assess your situation, you may end up trying to put the things in places they don’t fit.

BUT BUT BUT take the process a step further. If you can really truly convincingly make the case that you need more storage, be sure it’s storage that makes sense to you. Clear bins that you can see into might be better. Color-coding the bins, like the classic habit for many people of using holiday-colored bins, can be a tremendous support for maintaining your patterns around putting things away. Labels are a wonderful tool. Be creative, experiment. Don’t be intimidated, finding out what doesn’t work is just as useful as finding out what is effective. HAVE FUN.