Your loft is potentially a godsend, offering all the space you need for your clutter and paraphernalia. Yet, left to go uncontrolled, your loft can quickly become a problem you have avoided for years.
When your attic is a converted space, it is even more important to consider your storage. The low ceilings and sloping beams do not necessarily allow for wardrobes or open shelving. Therefore, there is a need for imagination, which sometimes means expense.
Here we explore the possibility that you can have loft storage solutions for a low budget.
Labels and clear containers
The plastic, clear container is the most budget of budget ideas for your loft storage space. These cheap tubs also help you avoid the classic mistake of loft storage, the unlabelled cardboard box. Knowing or not knowing what is in storage in your loft is the difference between a functional space and a stop-off before the rubbish dump.
The classic example here is your Christmas decorations. Storing those colourful baubles in a clear tub makes the whole job of finding them in December that much easier. For other items, sticking a clear label on the storage boxes can save you hours of searching.
Shelving
Types of shelving offer loft storage ideas that can resolve the clutter and chaos of dumped items just inside the hatch. You can pick up a relatively cheap wood or wire rack from your local home or DIY store. These utilitarian shelves are basic, easily assembled, and perfect for an attic used only for your storage requirements.
The shelving can fit under the eaves and keep the space organised. It is the easiest and best way to make your loft storage space useful, and you can take it down and move it with you if you need to.
If you want something more permanent, use old scaffolding planks or buy some plywood and hook this to the walls with brackets. It might be that you could do something similar in a loft conversion, using the eaves and buying wood that adds to the aesthetic of an attic bedroom.
Behind the door storage
If you have chosen to convert your attic space into a bedroom or office, you will know that every inch of space is crucial. The area around the door could be a potential dead zone unless you put up hooks and used coat hangers to keep coats secure and hanging flat against the surface.
Storage bags with different pockets and openings can store smaller items that clutter your area.
Build storage around the bed
Around the bed is another area where you could unnecessarily waste space. While you need a place to get in and out of bed, there is a place around the head where some storage would be practical. By creating shelving from floor to ceiling with an area around the bed, you make the most of the wall and have somewhere to store your most precious possessions.
DIY custom-made shelving
While new build homes may have a standardised space where you might be able to buy shelving that fits, older homes are beautifully imperfect. There are wonky walls and floors and bits sticking out here and there.
In such houses, getting any sort of storage is a nightmare. Therefore, it is better to get your tools out and make your made-to-measure shelving that snugly fits into the edges of your attic.
Creating this as a freestanding unit will be easier than trying to make something that connects to walls. The unit, especially if it is wall to ceiling, will create the feeling of symmetry that the walls cannot offer you.
Making the most of the eaves
One of the most challenging places to use is the acute angle where the roof meets the walls. For some of us, these shapes make a loft conversion so beautiful. For others, it is annoying to have several feet around the edge of the room that serves little use. In these places, it is still possible to build some drawers that can again become functional storage areas.
If you are thinking about converting your attic, this is a job that is best done during this process. Managing an attic area after conversion can become challenging, so getting the storage in as you convert will save much heartache.
Don’t use doors
While we often put doors on our storage to hide away our things and create a sense of order, this can make an attic feel much more closed in. Having modules with your things organised within can help give a greater sense of open space. If this does not appeal, then using a mirror on the door can give the impression of a lot more room than you have.
Equally, if you don’t want to build units into your loft, so you have more flexibility, you can create this open and relaxed look with modular furniture. Modular storage has the advantage that it can be added to and adapted as your needs change.
Do something, anything with your shoes
Shoes offer the most significant danger of clutter to an attic space. Therefore, adequate shoe storage is an absolute must if you want a tidy room. The eaves are a perfect shape for a shoe rack, and this might be the best use of this angle in your loft. If you buy a standard show rack, you have the additional benefit of the unique shape of the attic showing through the other side.
Conclusion
Our attics are an opportunity to make the most of our homes. We may use it only for storage, in which case organisation is the name of the game. If you push box after box into the hatch, you create a problem for your future self that will feel impossible to overcome.
If you convert your loft and use it as an office or a bedroom, you have created a unique area to spend some time in. Here, you will need to use your imagination to build the storage that fits your room and your needs.
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Millie is a perfectionist with a passion for property and writing articles. You’ll find her researching the latest housing trends and the newest up and coming areas worth investing in. Read more about Millie here.
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