Dirty Secrets: Where do You Stash Your Stuff in a Hurry?
Tidying up for unexpected guests is a breeze with these storage solutions
Let’s face it, it’s hard keeping a house tidy all the time. There are dishes to clean, food to put away and clothes to wash. If you’ve got kids, you’re probably facing an uphill battle keeping toys, crayons and bodily fluids off the floor. It’s so boring and monotonous tidying the same things, day after day. So, occasionally (often if you live in my house), these things just don’t happen; the dishes litter the sink, the dirty washing piles up and the toys lay scattered across the floor like household land mines. And then … there’s a knock at the door. What? Visitors? When the house looks like the post tornado scene from Twister? I mean, a house doesn’t have to look perfect all the time, but sometimes you just don’t want people knowing exactly how imperfect it is, or just how long you’re willing to leave porridge glued to the floorboards. If you find yourself stuck in this difficult situation, or just want some ideas on how to conquer a lightning quick (but not necessarily thorough) clean-up, check out some of these ideas for placing (let’s be realistic – chucking) your stuff in a hurry.
In the stairs. If you’re anything like me, you like to place things that belong upstairs on the steps, waiting patiently for their owners to pick them up and walk them back to the place in which they belong. This almost never happens. Everyone in my family walks straight past them – I’ve even seen them leap over them as they run up to their bedrooms. The solution? For a quick tidy-up, simply shove them inside the step. Or, for those who are actually organised, have the stairs as a designated home for things such as shoes, and sit on the steps to take them off … then put them straight back. Ingenious!
In a window seat. Tidying up this room in a flash would be so easy with those huge pull-out drawers under the window seat. I could do some serious crimes against organisation with that much space in such a high traffic area. Anything out of place could be scooped up and thrown in there so quickly my unexpected guests wouldn’t even have time to sing out coo-ee, I know you’re in there before I’m cleaned up and at the door. Also, they’d be a great home for toys that your kids could easily clean up themselves – and with such a tidy living room, you could have more time to curl up on those big seats, read a book or daydream out the window.
More: Wondrous (and Unexpected) Ways with Window Seats
More: Wondrous (and Unexpected) Ways with Window Seats
Behind a raised benchtop
Now this one is not for your serious disarray, but perfect for a more amateur mess – a slight disorder. The raised benchtop gives you a shield with which to quickly hide plates, cups, saucers and those secret chocolates you don’t want your kids to find. Stash them behind a bench like this, pop them in your mouth quickly and your little darlings will have to believe you when you tell them you’re munching on the steamed broccoli they’re getting for dinner.
Now this one is not for your serious disarray, but perfect for a more amateur mess – a slight disorder. The raised benchtop gives you a shield with which to quickly hide plates, cups, saucers and those secret chocolates you don’t want your kids to find. Stash them behind a bench like this, pop them in your mouth quickly and your little darlings will have to believe you when you tell them you’re munching on the steamed broccoli they’re getting for dinner.
Under the stairs. How fabulous are these drawers? They are behind push-open doors and don’t require handles, so they are almost camouflaged in the wall of the stairs. Camouflage is the best friend of a quick clean-up. These would be great as a temporary holding cell for displaced stuff. If you kept them empty you could just whizz around a messy room, picking up the debris and shoving it in these drawers. Or you could assign your possessions to specific drawers and make sure they are consistently returned here so there’s no need for a quick clean-up, but who are we kidding?
In the furniture. Have I already used the term ingenious? This speaks for itself. No one would ever suspect that the beautiful ottoman that now suspends their feet also houses all manner of household refuse. You could stow lego, dolls, coffee cups or just about anything, but not half eaten apple cores. That would be wrong, wouldn’t it?
Under the bed. Now this is a classic. I’ve been using this particular system since 1978, though mine didn’t look nearly this sophisticated or beautiful. A drawer under a bed keeps all manner of household artefacts neatly corralled. If I’d had this system when I was eight years old, I wouldn’t have been woken in the middle of the night by an electronic Simple Simon game (remember those?) blasting bright lights out from under my bed, convincing me there was an alien spaceship somehow lodged under my bed. Even I would have known that the built in drawers would have made it impossible for the spaceship to fit. Duh!
In custom joinery. The person who invented bins really knew what they were doing. They are perfect for a kid’s bedroom or playroom, and having them custom-designed to fit in with other joinery means they look good, too. Most importantly, they make straightening a bedroom quick and easy, and there’s not a child in the universe who couldn’t use a quick and easy tidy-up.
Behind cupboard doors. The kitchen can be a very messy place and it’s the part of the house that is most like Groundhog Day. If your family, like mine, insist on eating constantly (they can’t possibly be hungry again? Can they?), then the kitchen is constantly messy. It’s so mind-numbingly boring to clear those dishes again and again. That’s where the sliding doors come in handy. I propose that with this set up you could just pile everything behind a door, close it up and feel the peace wash over you – for most of the day. It could quite happily sit there for a few hours, until the next meal when you do all those dishes together, thus saving time, energy and mental health.
More: Hidden Agenda: 15 Cleverly Concealed Kitchen Storage Spaces
More: Hidden Agenda: 15 Cleverly Concealed Kitchen Storage Spaces
Behind screens. This is essentially the same set up as above, but with pull down screens instead of doors. It’s like a garage for your kitchen appliances (and mess). It would be so easy to clear a benchtop by just sliding them along the bench and into the cavity. Slide down the screens and voilà! Instant tidy kitchen.
More: Clever Corner-Cupboard Storage Solutions for Your Kitchen Renovation
More: Clever Corner-Cupboard Storage Solutions for Your Kitchen Renovation
Behind closed doors. Office and study spaces are among the most difficult to keep clean. There are papers to organise, pens and pencils to order and children’s crafts to contain. In today’s internet age, it’s a good parenting practice to keep the kids’ study area in the main living space or kitchen, so that you can keep an eye on them and their googling interests. However, that means looking at the mess. One great idea is to put a study or office nook inside a cupboard like this one. If you or the kids are in the middle of a big messy project, but you want the area to look clean, you simply shut the door on the whole thing, take a deep breath and pretend it’s not there.
In the seats. For a quick backyard clean-up, pack all the outdoor sports and gardening equipment into some bench seating. These can be either built in or purchased from gardening or homeware stores. It’s so much easier to tidy up after a game of backyard cricket if all you have to do is open a lid and drop the bat, ball and stumps inside.
In the kick board. This crafty little drawer in the kitchen kick board isn’t just an excellent use of space, it’s also a rather cunning hiding spot. Place your wine bottles here to keep them off the bench or out of the pantry. You could even stash some empties in here in a hurry. Hey, who am I to judge?
In laundry baskets. Built in laundry baskets are a fabulous addition to any laundry joinery. Why not get two or three made and use them to separate your colours, towels and whites? Not only do they make doing the laundry easier, they also make tidying the laundry a cinch. Just pick up those clothes and towels that have been dumped on the floor, open a drawer and the laundry is, well, sorted!
In the bathroom wall. A laundry chute can be such a handy addition to a bathroom in a house with different levels. Rather than have the dirty clothes sit and fester on the floor, waiting limply for some kind soul to deliver them downstairs to the laundry, all that your family has to do is pop them in the chute and they slide there in style. It’s like an amusement park for your apparel! Also, it encourages everyone to keep their dirty clothes off the floor. You may not even need to do a quick clean up with something this easy to maintain.
BONUS TIP: Just make sure that you make the hole small enough that adventurous young children don’t decide to take a trip on the clothes slide, sorry, laundry chute. There’s nothing worse than having to explain to unexpected guests why your child is stuck inside a wall.
BONUS TIP: Just make sure that you make the hole small enough that adventurous young children don’t decide to take a trip on the clothes slide, sorry, laundry chute. There’s nothing worse than having to explain to unexpected guests why your child is stuck inside a wall.
In a secret room. This is so very James Bond that it’s hard not to love it. I think every home needs a secret room. Whether it’s hiding in pantry joinery, a wall in a closet or behind a bookshelf (as in the photo below), a secret room can be used for all manner of fun things. Kids love using them for playrooms and games of hide and seek and they are excellent for keeping kids toys from overtaking your living room. They are also great as walk in pantries and games rooms. However, I think the best use for a secret room is to give you a special place you can dump everything in a hurry or to shove things when you just want the house tidied quickly for your own peace of mind.
I particularly love this one. The bookshelf looks like it is simply a built in piece of joinery, holding a few knick knacks and some books. In actual fact it opens up to reveal a room accessing the area under the stairs. This would be great for storing all those big bulky items like Christmas trees and golf clubs.
TELL US
Where do you stash your stuff in a hurry? Share your secrets and pictures in the comments section.
MORE STORAGE IDEAS
10 Design Moves to Borrow From These Tricked-Out Bathroom Cabinets
Small Space Living: Where to Stash the Cleaning Supplies
10 Smart Tricks to Find Extra Storage at Home
Hidden Treasure: 12 Things to Do With Wasted Space Around the House
Where do you stash your stuff in a hurry? Share your secrets and pictures in the comments section.
MORE STORAGE IDEAS
10 Design Moves to Borrow From These Tricked-Out Bathroom Cabinets
Small Space Living: Where to Stash the Cleaning Supplies
10 Smart Tricks to Find Extra Storage at Home
Hidden Treasure: 12 Things to Do With Wasted Space Around the House