After fourteen years in my current home and thirty years of home ownership I recently realised that I had accumulated a rather enormous amount of what can only be described as stuff! So much stuff indeed that I was running out of places to put it. A fairly ruthless clear out of unnecessary clutter eased the problem but I still found that I needed to create more storage space. My loft was looking like a warehouse facility and my garage more like landfill. Something had to be done!

Adding Space and Value

I was certainly becoming acutely aware of why so many house buyers put storage space at a premium. This did make me think that if I could create more storage space then I would not only solve my immediate problem but I could also be adding to the value of the house. I started to survey my territory to see where improvements could be made. At first glance things weren’t looking good but eventually my partner weighed in with some very practical solutions.

Going Up

The first thing that occurred to him was the space above the garage. We have a double garage only half of which is integral to the house. The other half of the garage has a pitched roof and therefore copious amounts of loft space. He created a loft hatch, fitted a ladder and boarded the floor. In just one day a whole new loft had appeared and the clutter in the garage was improved. We still had a lot of gardening equipment which needed a new home though.

Looking Sideways

Our first though was to construct a shed but our garden featured no obvious place to put one. We then turned our attention to the sides of the house. One side has a path which is the access to the back garden so we couldn’t touch that but the other side was just a big gap between the house and the garden wall. My partner suggested a lean-to construction. Once this idea had popped into his head he was driving to the DIY store in a flash to buy everything he needed to build it. I hadn’t realised that he was so desperate to clear out that garage!

Using wood, a door and some polycarbonate glazing bars and panels for the roof, a pretty sizeable storage facility emerged. That space at the side of the house had been all but redundant. Now all of our gardening equipment was hidden away behind lock and key and you couldn’t even see the construction from the house or the garden.

I suppose we were lucky in that the way our house had been constructed offered up a couple of neat solutions which cost very little to complete. I dare say that other homes will not prove to be so convenient but I do believe that most could be adapted to offer more storage space if required. You just need to case the joint and seize upon any unused corners, nooks and crannies which can be converted.  It is certainly a lot cheaper than moving house and you could make your home more appealing to potential buyers.

Article by Sally Stacey