On Vertical Storage
Apr. 11th, 2016 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebEmpirical Question posted a link to Honestly Modern's Spark Joy: One Simple Change to Organize Your Space. The author recommends storing things vertically. This way they are easier to see and to get at. They also have a smaller horizontal footprint.
One problem with storing things vertically is that they might not balance very well. Looking around my house, I see various strategies for helping things stay vertical.
Rigid Things
When things are rigid, just having something to lean against can be a big help. For example:
* Bookends and edges of bookshelves - Good for books, notebooks, CDs, and DVDs of course. We also use this strategy for some games and some toolboxes.
* Containers - We use mugs for pencils and scissors and a pitcher for kitchen utensils. Some people use cups for paintbrushes or make-up brushes or silverware. Sometimes you can find just the right sized box to store your plastic lids in vertically. The author of Honestly Modern now uses magazine holders for papers.
* Racks - We use plate racks to hold cutting boards, cookie sheets, and serving platters. I use a mail rack to hold envelopes into which I put receipts (one envelope per month). We also have pot lid racks.
* Walls - You can lean pictures or a cutting board against the wall. I also used to do this with my books before I owned bookshelves; I just lined them up against the baseboard like it was a bottom shelf.
Floppy Things
One strategy for dealing with floppy things is to make them less floppy. I think that's part of what bookbinding is all about, or even scrolls from the olden days. You can definitely prop scrolls up to store them. In fact, we roll our napkins and put them in a basket like flowers in a vase.
This is part of what people like about Marie Kondo's Spark Joy book. She shows you that you can fold things into smaller, more cubical shapes that can stand on their own better. I do now actually fold my knee socks into squares that can be lined up in my drawer.
Another strategy is to put floppy things in a space that's so small, they can't fall over. This is problematic when you actually use some of things, because then the other things can fall over into the vacated space. But a little slouching might not be a big deal--some people like magazine boxes, for example. The boxes that envelopes come in are like that. Or you can put dividers in so that nothing can take the spot of other things.
Another strategy is to hang floppy things so that gravity works for you instead of against you. For example:
* Hangers - Of course shirts, pants, and skirts are commonly hung, but you can also hang things like towels and tablecloths.
* File folders - The ones with the hanging rails are especially nice because you don't have to rely on stuffing the file drawer to keep things upright. You can use files for papers, but sometimes other things can work, like seed packets (especially if you have some way to keep them from falling out the sides).
* Towel bars - Robin uses one for ties and belts. We also have some in the kitchen with hooks to hang pots from.
* Tie racks - I hang accessories from these (mostly necklaces and glasses).
* Furniture - Many people drape clothing over chairs or exercise machines. I've also see people who do cross-stitch and needlepoint draping yarn lengths over a chair (or tying them to a hanger).
* Dark rooms and laundry lines - people clip things up to dry, and I've seen people string something like this against a wall to display greeting cards or their children's art.
* Laundry racks - Probably not too handy for storage because the bottom back rungs aren't very accessible.
Tiny things
Little things and liquids don't make very neat piles. So it's nice to put them in containers. And some things like cereal boxes are ideally suited for vertical storage--they're labelled on their sides and even stand alone. Glass jars are nice, too, because you can see the contents, and they also stand on their own.
Ideally it's easy to get the contents into and out of the containers. Spice jars are often designed to be able to either shake out the spices and/or use a measuring spoon. Some paper clip containers have a magnetized edge so it's easy to get one paper clip at a time.
Then you can line up the containers or corral them into bigger containers (like travel shower stuff).
Horizontal Storage
Of course sometimes horizontal storage is fine. When things stack well and they are identical, like plates, or functionally identical like different colored hand towels or library books ready to be returned, it's no problem that the bottom ones are easily accessible. And sometimes things nest well and it's pretty easy to get things even out of the middle of the nest.
And sometimes it's just best to store things flat. I have a stack of scratch paper that is wrinkle-free because I can store it flat. Printers store printer paper pretty flat, too. I've seen stacks of "in" boxes like bunk beds to let you be able to access different kinds of papers without going through the kinds of papers you don't want.
Do you have any favorite ways you store things vertically (or otherwise)?
One problem with storing things vertically is that they might not balance very well. Looking around my house, I see various strategies for helping things stay vertical.
Rigid Things
When things are rigid, just having something to lean against can be a big help. For example:
* Bookends and edges of bookshelves - Good for books, notebooks, CDs, and DVDs of course. We also use this strategy for some games and some toolboxes.
* Containers - We use mugs for pencils and scissors and a pitcher for kitchen utensils. Some people use cups for paintbrushes or make-up brushes or silverware. Sometimes you can find just the right sized box to store your plastic lids in vertically. The author of Honestly Modern now uses magazine holders for papers.
* Racks - We use plate racks to hold cutting boards, cookie sheets, and serving platters. I use a mail rack to hold envelopes into which I put receipts (one envelope per month). We also have pot lid racks.
* Walls - You can lean pictures or a cutting board against the wall. I also used to do this with my books before I owned bookshelves; I just lined them up against the baseboard like it was a bottom shelf.
Floppy Things
One strategy for dealing with floppy things is to make them less floppy. I think that's part of what bookbinding is all about, or even scrolls from the olden days. You can definitely prop scrolls up to store them. In fact, we roll our napkins and put them in a basket like flowers in a vase.
This is part of what people like about Marie Kondo's Spark Joy book. She shows you that you can fold things into smaller, more cubical shapes that can stand on their own better. I do now actually fold my knee socks into squares that can be lined up in my drawer.
Another strategy is to put floppy things in a space that's so small, they can't fall over. This is problematic when you actually use some of things, because then the other things can fall over into the vacated space. But a little slouching might not be a big deal--some people like magazine boxes, for example. The boxes that envelopes come in are like that. Or you can put dividers in so that nothing can take the spot of other things.
Another strategy is to hang floppy things so that gravity works for you instead of against you. For example:
* Hangers - Of course shirts, pants, and skirts are commonly hung, but you can also hang things like towels and tablecloths.
* File folders - The ones with the hanging rails are especially nice because you don't have to rely on stuffing the file drawer to keep things upright. You can use files for papers, but sometimes other things can work, like seed packets (especially if you have some way to keep them from falling out the sides).
* Towel bars - Robin uses one for ties and belts. We also have some in the kitchen with hooks to hang pots from.
* Tie racks - I hang accessories from these (mostly necklaces and glasses).
* Furniture - Many people drape clothing over chairs or exercise machines. I've also see people who do cross-stitch and needlepoint draping yarn lengths over a chair (or tying them to a hanger).
* Dark rooms and laundry lines - people clip things up to dry, and I've seen people string something like this against a wall to display greeting cards or their children's art.
* Laundry racks - Probably not too handy for storage because the bottom back rungs aren't very accessible.
Tiny things
Little things and liquids don't make very neat piles. So it's nice to put them in containers. And some things like cereal boxes are ideally suited for vertical storage--they're labelled on their sides and even stand alone. Glass jars are nice, too, because you can see the contents, and they also stand on their own.
Ideally it's easy to get the contents into and out of the containers. Spice jars are often designed to be able to either shake out the spices and/or use a measuring spoon. Some paper clip containers have a magnetized edge so it's easy to get one paper clip at a time.
Then you can line up the containers or corral them into bigger containers (like travel shower stuff).
Horizontal Storage
Of course sometimes horizontal storage is fine. When things stack well and they are identical, like plates, or functionally identical like different colored hand towels or library books ready to be returned, it's no problem that the bottom ones are easily accessible. And sometimes things nest well and it's pretty easy to get things even out of the middle of the nest.
And sometimes it's just best to store things flat. I have a stack of scratch paper that is wrinkle-free because I can store it flat. Printers store printer paper pretty flat, too. I've seen stacks of "in" boxes like bunk beds to let you be able to access different kinds of papers without going through the kinds of papers you don't want.
Do you have any favorite ways you store things vertically (or otherwise)?
no subject
on 2016-04-13 12:49 pm (UTC)Folding things into smaller, more cubical shapes--I immediately thought of this comic:
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3180
-Sally