Episode 12 - Storage

In this episode, Jenny and Kate discuss how to design for clever storage solutions during the renovation process. We are delighted to be sponsored by the Organised Store for this episode - check out their extensive catalogue at organisedstore.ie

Items mentioned:

- The Elfa system
- The Interior Design Handbook by Frida Ramstedt
- Ottoman bed and storage stools
- Bench seating with storage underneath and a hinged lid (not drawers)
- Muuto wall dots
- Wicker baskets 
- Recessed  wall storage (especially in bathrooms)
- Low hallway storage
- Ikea Vesken narrow storage

Transcript

Episode 12 - Storage

Jen: [00:00:00] You are listening to rip it up the renovations podcast. hi, I'm Kate. I run the Instagram page, Victorian 

Rathmines. And I'm Jenny. I run the Instagram account, Worker's Cottage.

Kate: This podcast is all about renovation and interiors from the renovator's perspective. We've been through it a few times between us and it hasn't scared us off. In fact 

Jen: we loved it so if you are planning to do up your own home you can expect to hear lots of advice from our own experience along with plenty of tips and inspiration. 

Jenny: For this episode, we are proud to be sponsored by The Organised Store, Ireland's answer to organization. The Organised Store offers quality products to help organize every room in your home or your business. 

They also offer the specialized Elfa shelving system. Kate and I both have the Elfa system wardrobes from the Organised Store. And we cannot recommend it highly enough. . You can plan it out yourself or avail of their free Elfa design service, which is available to customers all over Ireland.

 Simply email in [00:01:00] details of your space, to admin@organisedstore.ie. Or call into the store where they have fabulous showrooms upstairs. Check out their extensive catalog online at organisedstore.ie. or drop into their store in Dundrum Town Centre. 

 Welcome back to the podcast. Hi, Kate. Hi, Jen. Episode 12. 12. It's going great. What are we going to talk about? Thanks everyone who's been listening. 10, 000 episodes. 10, 000 listeners out there. 10, 000 episodes. Uh, 10, 000 listeners. Big milestone for us recently.

Huge milestone. And we are so happy. I love getting messages from those of you that are listening and that have Either further questions or just like dropping into my DMs and saying hi and that's great. Thanks. Yeah, it's great to hear 

Kate: You're 

Jenny: getting 

Kate: something out of the podcast. Very 

Jenny: satisfying.

Feedback's 

Kate: been really nice. So, thank you. 

Jenny: Today We're talking a little about storage, which is Maybe often a bit of an afterthought when you're going through your innovation process But actually there's so much you can think about even before you moved into your house Even before the final touches are finished before your [00:02:00] plasterer is in around like, how are you going to design?

You I think it's my favourite topic. 

Kate: I have a lot of favourites. You have, you have a lot of storage for a small house as well. But I think storage is something that's overlooked but can have a huge impact on how your house looks in the end. Yeah. Because it can keep it tidy, potentially. Yeah. Keep it looking nice and you don't have random stuff strewn everywhere.

So I think storage is key and it's something to think about and we might step through how to think about it in the different rooms and different areas of your home. And I'm not overestimating things here when I 

Jenny: say. like clutter and bad storage would impact my mental health. That would be just, I hate sitting in mess.

It's just not for me. And like, it's not that I'm super on top of things in the house. Oh, it's perfect. And super, super clean. I just don't like crap lying around the place for a prolonged period of time. 

Kate: Yeah. I mean, who does, but you know, Cluttered house, cluttered mind. Yeah. Like we all love a clean kitchen countertop.

Is there anything more I should say? Light a candle. 

Jenny: And I also. [00:03:00] I'm kind of lazy so like I want my kitchen countertop to be clean in the easiest way possible. So designing that in early on and making life easy for yourself and making your house easy to tidy up and easy to clean, that's the key to the life success really.

Why 

Kate: don't we do a little bit of a walk through the house. My house. From the kitchen. You know door to door front door to back door and upstairs and go through the different areas Love how we might think of storage as you walk through. 

Jenny: I love that. Yeah, great idea So my house for anyone who hasn't seen photos of my house check out my Instagram.

It's at workers cottage and there's a bunch of walkthroughs up there, but for those listening who haven't seen that, the reason I love storage so much is because my house in total is about 60 square meters. I think it was 38 or 42 when I bought it and renovated and extended it a little bit. So 60 square meters total, which isn't a huge amount, kind of the size of a, you know, grand apartment, I would say, decent sized apartment.

But it feels so much bigger. But it feels a lot bigger and there's a lot of storage [00:04:00] and I've like, I've never struggled to. So yeah, so when you come in, the front door probably the first thing to notice shoe storage. And actually there's something here that I didn't do that I would love to have done.

I would go back and change and that is building more storage into my staircase. So when you come in my front door. I have coat hangers and hooks on the left. And 

Kate: the door opens up onto those. Onto those. I did exactly the same on mine because you don't see the coats now when you come in. 

Jenny: Yeah. Which 

Kate: is key.

Jenny: And I have peg hooks so it's just kind of an open hanging hook and they're hanging at about Just under shoulder height, I suppose, are my coats hanging. Yeah. Maybe kind of chest height. Yeah. Chest height. 

Kate: But you don't notice them when you open your hall door. Because you're opening it into the kind of more open stairs and that kind of size.

Jenny: Yeah. And my hall is double height too. But one thing about, I think, the positioning of those coat hangers. People often put coat hangers, Or coat hooks at eye height or head height or even above. And there's no real need for that because most of your coats are not gonna be longer than your shoulders.

Right? Yeah. Even [00:05:00] if they're big, long coats. But hanging them on up that high can visually create a lot of clutter, which is frustrating. And it can look a lot messier than it needs to be. So keeping that eye line clear and hanging, having your coat hangers down around chest height, shoulder height, it visually makes it feel more open and less cluttered.

Very, it's important. Yeah. 

Kate: Now I had a slight reverse in my last house because we had the meter box at the holder and we couldn't move that. And then we had the new trip board above. So we had to come up with some sort of smart solution to kind of try and hide that. So we actually recessed our meter box into the wall.

So, our electrician did not thank us for that. We actually put our coat hooks just above it so it hid all that. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah. 

Jenny: I'm all for hiding those meter boxes. So, a brilliant thing, someone sent it to me on Instagram recently, of people taking pictures, you know, framed pictures, photos, whatever it might be, to size, a big enough size to cover your meter box or your switchboard, whatever it might be, and putting a hinge on it and turning that into a door.

I think that's [00:06:00] such a good idea. A mirror is another thing you could do. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: But in general, hiding those is a great idea. Yeah. 

Kate: I think as well, a lot of people Go for very fancy hooks. And I actually think there's no point because there's always stuff hanging on them. You don't see lovely hooks. There's one, I can't remember the design, it's something Copenhagen I think but they have little timber kind of circle hooks.

And they look gorgeous on the wall when there's nothing hanging on them, but like, there's never nothing hanging on them, so all they add is bulk. So then when you're hanging things, it's just, there's 

Jenny: no time. They're so nice though, I find them 

Kate: very hard to resist to 

Jenny: buy, I don't have them. Yeah, they're cute.

But my friend Ruth, if you're listening, Ruth, I, you have these really cool, they're like cows and elephants, animal hooks, and they just look deadly. I love them. So yeah, if you can see them, great, but you're like unlikely to be able to see them, I suppose. So one thing that I do have is I bought vertical shoe storage, and I'm going to come back to this a few times because vertical storage in a small space is, is key, necessary, and really helpful.

So it's the stacked shoe storage, which goes into the corner just beside where [00:07:00] my coats are hanging, and that's really helpful. But one thing that I would have done and might still do at some point in the future, is I would have put drawers into the risers of my staircase there. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: So a lot of people have understair storage, and we'll come back to this, but I can't access the side of my stairs because my downstairs bathroom, my stairs wraps around it, so there is, I can't, you know, access the underneath and the side of my stairs.

But what I could have done and might do is, you can, You know, each step in your staircase can become a drawer. It's not that hard to do. You remove the, you know, the riser is the bit of the stairs, the vertical bit of the stairs that moves up. You add in, you get a drawer size to fit within there. You put in a runner and then it becomes a staircase.

Now, I've got a runner going up my stairs, a carpet runner, so I would have to get that cut out and, 

Kate: you know, 

Jenny: taped in and all that kind of stuff. So it wouldn't be the easiest thing in the world. But it would have given me so much extra storage for shoes and 

Kate: gloves, scarves 

Jenny: and 

Kate: bags and all that kind of stuff.

You see that quite a lot in like Japanese apartments and stuff, that storage in the stairs. Very smart. Very satisfying. Very cool. Yeah. I'm using every little nook. I've [00:08:00] also seen bookshelves in staircases as well. Yeah. Kind of in from where they're turning so you can kind of access underneath that way.

Beautiful. Which is also a good use. It's a good use. For kind of open staircases. 

Jenny: Yeah, I love that. I've also seen staircases being part of the kitchen. So if you come into the house and you've got stairs. You know, if you're straight into the kitchen, for example, and you have stairs going up then a lot of kitchen cupboards and hanging utensils and even workspaces go along one of the stairs there, which is genius.

Kate: And talking about coat hooks, actually, in the hallway, another thing that we always have hanging in the hallway is the dog lead. Oh yeah. this, but I got this dog's head, like a silver one. And it actually looked like a Vita, so it was perfect. Perfect. Bye. I hung that up on the wall and the dog lead doesn't cover it, so it is quite cool.

That's cool. But it's just kind of a decorative one as well, which I thought was kind of different than just a standard hook for the dog lead. 

Jenny: I think all that to say, like hallway storage is a huge issue because you think of it last minute and then he, stuff gets draped everywhere. So we always say this in the podcast, always think about like, how are you going to use the space?

[00:09:00] What is going to be hanging in your hallway? It's a big, Bulky winter coats, do you have enough space for that? How many people are in the house? Do you have enough hooks? Is it going to, like, be honest with your lifestyle, are you going to be really messy? So do you need a mat and maybe an area where you can be removing, you know, mucky boots or wellies or anything like that?

If you've loads of kids who are out playing sports, or big kids, small kids, whatever, do you need somewhere to store, like, hurleys, hockey sticks, balls, things like that? And then definitely dogs, dog leads, your dog coat you know, be honest with yourself about how much of that is going to be in your hallway because with the best will in the world, you could plan to have that stuff put away, but if it's in daily usage, then you're not going to, it's going to be by the front door.

So think about, do you need, for example, maybe a bench running along your hallway that lifts up? I love this. I love those too. They're so classy. I loved 

Kate: it. And so usable actually, bench storage in your hall, especially if you have kids because you're sitting them up there putting on their shoes or whatever.

Okay. And I just think it's more realistic than a load of presses that you have to open to then hang something inside. Nightmare. I mean, no one's going to [00:10:00] hang, people are going to throw their coat over the new posterior stairs. Yeah. Do you know? Yeah. So I think it should be easily accessible. Unless you have a butler.

Nobody's hanging their coat. In a press. Exactly. So with all, like you said, the best will in the world, no one's going to go in, open a press, hang something up, potentially on a hanger for using tucks or something. But I think that's, Kind of useless storage in a hallway. Yeah, whereas I think the bench and a few little, you know Hooks in proper places or predefined places.

I think is the best way 

Jenny: Yeah Cuz the bench like shoes can go into the bench, you know Like you can have a little box in there if you need it to a plastic box or just plastic lining To put mucky shoes in there. But yeah, I think the bench is the way to go. Perfect Yeah, perfect for storage in a hallway for sure.

And if you don't have space for a bench You can just put it in there Put drawers in your stairs. I think under stair storage is just so much space under there. There's so much space. 

Kate: Yeah. And have you ever seen the little dog beds and houses under the stairs? It's like the little dog bedroom in there.

So cute. I've seen some of them done up so nice rather than like, you know, having a dog bed randomly in the middle of your [00:11:00] floor if you're a big dog. Yeah. It's a nice idea as well. 

Jenny: It is the cutest thing. I love those so much. That's it. Okay. So that's the hallway. Then I'm into. When you come in through my hallway, you turn left into what is my downstairs.

Kate: Spare room. Well, this spare room now, , just to tee this up for people it's not your standard spare room. You fit quite a bit in here. So this is a lot of there. This is like if we're to kind of give an example of, you know, how you fit the most amount of storage in any room in the world, ever. This is probably this room and it's tiny.

It's maybe. 

Jenny: So, I use it, I work from home a couple of days a week and so it needs to be a home office. Also, just I love a hobby. I've got about 12 hobbies and I love them all. And so, It has a piano in there. I cut gemstones as a hobby. I have a gem cutting machine that's in there. It's called the Facitron 3000, if anyone is interested.

The lapidary machine. I've got a load of books in there. And then I also need a spare room for friends [00:12:00] staying over. So I have a sofa bed in there. We spoke about that before in our furniture episode, the Klaus sofa from Finline. And a brilliant thing for fitting that in was taking the arms off it.

So it fits in there. So. With all those needs I got a custom made unit to go in there. So that, that has a desktop that is there most of the day and that's where my laptop goes and my notebooks and all my working paraphernalia. And then the lid of that lifts up and underneath it is my piano, my piano. So I have a digital piano, full size, you know, 88 key digital piano and that lives under there.

So I can lift that up and turn the whole space into a music room when I want to. And that's really handy. And then up along the side and up along the window is bookshelves and other shelves that just store paraphernalia and a few boxes up there as well that stores it. 

Kate: One thing I think, sorry, I think this room is a masterclass in like what custom joinery can do for storage.

And I think this needs to be drummed home again. And again, if you're paying for custom joinery, Like, think and plan it [00:13:00] out, you know, to the nth degree at the start. Because don't waste blank space in behind joinery. If you're paying for custom joinery, use every inch. 

Jenny: And use the expertise of the people that you're hiring.

So shout out in this one to, it was Borian, B O R I A N, Borian Studio, their husband and wife team. And they're, they're great. He, they're joiners and designers, really, really clever designers. So, like enlist them, engage them. Like, these are people who have expertise and, you know, take satisfaction from their work.

So, a lot of that design and the cleverness in the design didn't come from me. I went to it like, this is what I need. This is what I would like it to look like to a certain extent. This is what it needs to store. What do you think? And there was, there was a lot of back and forth in that. A lot of the cleverness of the design and using the full height along the window and, you know, adding in an extra under, under counter presses and things like that, that came from, from, from them.

Yeah. But that's 

Kate: a really key thing as well. While we're talking about this is what are you going to use the storage for? [00:14:00] Yeah. Storage for the sake of having storage won't be used properly. It'll be a dumping ground. So like, think about what is going to go into that press? What is going to go into that storage bench?

And then when you actually plan out the actual items and the size of them and the proportions. You'll have much , smarter storage. 

Jenny: Yeah. It is, if I could ask anyone to ever take one thing away from any of our podcasts is think about how you're going to use the space the way we designed it, it's number one.

And 

Kate: costume joinery, it's not something I had a huge of in our last house, and I think we were kind of lucky in the last house in that like we had big square open rooms, so freestanding furniture kind of fit fine. Except for our kitchen obviously, so we had quite a big bank of kind of hidden storage in there.

And that was because it was custom joinery, we could use every inch and we use it right up to the ceiling. Yeah. Even though, you know, those top ones are hard to access, although there's lots of smart ways you can do that. Like a , sliding library ladder, step ladder, whatever. Just using that kind of height and those top bits, it's amazing what you fit in there.

Jenny: That is crucial for storage. So back to vertical storage again. Like if you have a small house, you've got small floor space and so you have to go up. There isn't [00:15:00] enough space to go out, so you have to go up. So, getting floor to ceiling is really important. And then again, thinking about what shape and size are those upper cabinets.

Are they big? Are they for big bulky items? Are they for lots of small items? Do you need to be stacking boxes in there? You know, thinking about that. What are your lesser used items that you can put up there and access less frequently? And I'm conscious not everyone is going to be able to climb a ladder.

So, that is, you know, do you need someone to come and get it for you every now and then? If, if, if that's where you're going to be putting it. So, like, what's going to don't use, 

Kate: don't 

Jenny: waste space. But don't waste it. Don't waste it. You need to have, you need to make use of it. Do not, there's no need anyway to be having gaps between units.

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: Between the unit, the top of the unit and the ceiling. Like that space is so valuable. And if you do have a gap between the top of the unit and the ceiling and you're like, Oh, I'll put boxes up there. That looks messy. Just don't do that. That's, you want that covered over and put away. Or you want to open shelves and then in that case design for that and buy nice storage boxes that look good on open shelves.

Yeah. Absolutely. So that's important there. So that's spare room storage. And what I don't have in there is [00:16:00] a wardrobe or, you know, A chest or drawers or something like that because it's a tiny room and in a spare room if guests are staying for a night or two they just don't need that. 

Kate: Yeah. But I have a lot of hooks.

You might need one hook or something. For something hanging up. 

Jenny: Hooks will all be around to there or even if it's one clothes rail or something, those nice pretty ones that you can, you know, hang. Freestanding kind of little ones. Yeah. Those are lovely. But that's plenty. Like unless you have guests that are going to be staying in your house for over a week, they just don't need a wardrobe to put all their stuff in.

 So then I'm into the bathrooms, the opposite of my spare room is my bathroom. Bathroom storage. 

Kate: Bathroom storage is really important actually and it's definitely an afterthought because people are thinking, oh I just tiled the walls, I've got to tile all the walls and then you forget, oh my god, there was an alcove there you could have used or cut in or why didn't I recess kind of a wall cabinet or something like that.

So like, there's definitely thought to be put into bathrooms, bathroom storage, what are you going to store in there. And a tidy bathroom is a nice bathroom to use. It's relaxing, it feels calm, rather than ugly toiletries everywhere. And very few toiletries that we use look nice. There's a few [00:17:00] brands like Aesop and whatever you don't mind having on view.

But most of it I wanted hidden. You've got a big toothbrush sitting out there. No one has a nice toothbrush. Exactly. Most of it I wanted hidden for sure. So like big storage kind of mirrored vanities, maybe you might recess them into the wall. If you have any alcoves for any reason, use those alcoves and build them out.

Hang a mirror in front of them, something like that. And then the shower alcoves are storage. It's more of a shelf than really storage. But, you know, think about, I've seen these little pocket storage. That I have that. And you've changed my mind on these 

Jenny: actually. 

Kate: I mean like, they're useful, but sometimes people put them in too small.

Yeah. But if you like big bottles of shampoo, it doesn't fit. Or it doesn't fit all your stuff. And if it doesn't fit all your stuff, may as well not fit any of it. 

Jenny: Yeah. And I think people do this because they go between the joists. Yeah. In the wall because that's easier. But in a lot of cases you can cut out a bit of a joist, it's not an issue.

It might be a bit of an extra work for whoever's renovating your house, but it's not much extra. No. 

Kate: Just think about it when you're doing your stud 

Jenny: work, 

Kate: your shower storage, and I usually [00:18:00] put that ledge or that pocket for your kind of shower toiletries on the wall that you don't see when you come in.

Jenny: Yeah. Yeah. So 

Kate: hide it or tuck it in somewhere. 

Jenny: Yeah, that's a great idea. So just for those listening, alcoves are where you go into the wall, so instead of a shelf coming, sticking out of the wall, it's where you go. Inside the stubwork of the wall because every internal wall is quite thick. There's a thickness in there, you know, which is where the wires live and everything lives.

But you can cut into that in various places and it's such a handy way to get extra storage. And I'm so with you on bathrooms, it's always an afterthought. You design out your bathroom, like I get a little vanity, and it's a hard space to design because a lot of bathrooms, especially downstairs bathrooms, are small.

But you need to have cleaning products in there, you need to have spare rolls of toilet paper, you need your toiletries, bottles of shampoo, whatever it might be like other cleaning paraphernalia that needs to live in there and it's going to look so messy you're gonna have you're like oh brilliant I got my dream bathroom it's gonna look amazing and sure then you've three bottles lying around the place and it ruins the look.

So just having somewhere thinking about what is going in your bathroom being honest about it again and planning for [00:19:00] it and you need to plan for it earlier than you think if you're going to be working it into that joinery the alcove. So I have an alcove in my shower. Which is really handy for those bottles of shampoo and whatever else goes on in the bathroom.

Then I have another big cutout in above my toilet, in both my upstairs and my downstairs bathroom. It's cut into the wall. In the downstairs bathroom, this goes in quite deep because it's underneath my stairs. So it's, it's using up all that space underneath my stairs. So I have, like, the jumbo. boxes of toilet roll in there like 48 toilet rolls all my cleaning paraphernalia and a bunch of extra stuff like spare lipos and stuff live Underneath there and all my spare whatever bottles and and that's genius like it's just there's so much storage in there like yeah alcohols for sure and the door to it is just the same as the wall paint the same as the wall It's just It's, it's flush with the wall, it just has a little tiny handle on it so you don't even notice it.

It doesn't look like a club, you know, an extra thing in your bathroom. 

Kate: And if you do use your bathroom for [00:20:00] relaxing or you like having a bath there or whatever it is, it's just nice, isn't it? It just feels calm. When there's not like a load of toiletries out and it's just like tidy and relaxing. Yeah, 

Jenny: and think about it where your vanities are like what, like I, I would normally recommend go for the biggest vanity underneath your underneath your sink.

Or no vanity at all. I can't either like, the biggest one possible or not at all. 

Kate: Yeah, I think there's a lot of vanities you know with like kind of a floating shelf idea and then there's maybe an open bottle trap under your sink and then maybe another floating shelf below. And that's nice if you're the type of person to have fluffy white towels rolled up and it looks lovely all the time.

Or baskets are your friend. Baskets 

Jenny: are great. Nice 

Kate: looking baskets, like nice wicker baskets or whatever, all matching, not really poly, rattan ones, they don't look, isn't look that expensive I think. But I definitely think, you know, if you're going to have open shelving, you better be the type of person that makes it look nice or else just get back.

So there's very few things that you need in a bathroom that look very nice, so yeah, I totally agree with that. There's one bathroom design I saw recently that I really liked, and it had a [00:21:00] stud wall between, say, the vanity, it's quite a small bathroom, but a stud wall between the vanity and the toilet area.

Just like a little, maybe 30, 40 centimetre stud wall up to the ceiling. And it made it like, a little division and you didn't see the toilet as much. Oh, brilliant. And then above the toilet it gave you an alcove for kind of shelving, kind of like the ones you have, the open shelving in your kitchen. Yeah.

That kind of, you know, chunky recessed open shelving. So then you could have, you know, stuff you didn't want to see up there. You could have your toilet rolls up there or whatever, but it was hidden behind a little stud. 

Jenny: That's a really good idea for someone that might have a larger bathroom and they don't want to see it.

You know, if you're thinking you need a press somewhere or you need storage somewhere, but you don't have space, you don't necessarily have to shove it up against the wall or into a corner. It can come out into the bathroom and separate out the toilet from the shower or something like that. It's a really good idea.

It's kind of like that 

Kate: hotel bathroom idea. Think about like putting stud work out in the middle of the floor. Sometimes one big open area in the bathroom is not necessarily the most usable. Yeah, that's a great point. And doesn't 

Jenny: look the most 

Kate: Great point. But definitely think about the stud work. [00:22:00] Think about, you know, where you can recess.

It's loads of storage in your bathroom. You won't be sorry for it. Yeah, 

Jenny: totally agree. Okay, so then you come out of my bathroom and you're into my open plan living kitchen dining. So, we're sitting currently in my little dining area. It's a bench seating on two sides and then the third side is the back of my kitchen peninsula, where there's more storage.

There's so much storage in the area that we're sitting right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You must have. 

Kate: I'm guessing 200 books there, is it? I don't know. Maybe, no, maybe like a hundred. 

Jenny: Do you know what, you might not be far off actually, yeah, it could be, it's 

Kate: a lot. And like big cookbooks and everything, like the amount that fits in there is unreal.

And then board games, candy. We're sitting on these lovely banquette benches that also open up to loads more storage. 

Jenny: Like you will never talk me out of getting banquette seating in a dining area. It is such a no brainer. Like for almost, for any sized house, unless your house is gigantic and your dining room is, dining table is in the middle of the room, if you're in any way looking at saving space, get [00:23:00] banquette seating.

Get banquette seating where the lid lifts up. Don't get it where there's drawers pulling out because you've got chairs, you've got a table, legs and everything pulling out drawers underneath there. It makes it much harder to access and you can't fit as much in there. Make sure the lid is hinged and you can lift up.

Like where you're sitting now Kate, there's a hoover underneath there, a full sized hoover, lots of Perry's dog food. It's actually bags and bags of dog food. Loads of cleaning stuff, scrubber brushes. Underneath where I'm sitting I have a bunch of art work that I like to rotate out from the area behind me where there's a bunch of paintings and stuff like that.

I have Because I'm an egomaniac I have a bunch of magazines and newspapers that my house is in that I like to just hold on to for posterity. I have tools, I have loads of tools. I have a drill, hammer set, nails, all sorts of stuff. There's spare paint bottles that are underneath there. There's so much space 

Kate: underneath there.

That's actually a great one because if you don't have a garden shed. 

Jenny: Yeah, it's basically my little garden shed. Yeah, yeah, 

Kate: for [00:24:00] sure. I think Bankhead is a no brainer. But also, say Bankhead. It doesn't suit your layout or you have a specific dining table, you already have it. I've seen a lot of people in your kind of open plan kitchen living dining doing a media unit.

So make a media unit as long as you can for the space if you're doing custom in my mind. I think a pokey little media unit with a big TV over it just looks stupid. 

Jenny: Yeah. Yeah. I don't 

Kate: think they do anything for any space. So I would build almost wall to wall. For a media unit. Yeah, and do it as a bench down below.

So you kind of have this banquette bench seat Yeah, and then if you've kids like they tend to play in it like a bench or whatever They can throw their toys in there . So this is 

Jenny: in your kind of living area. Yeah So you're kind 

Kate: of do you know when you have an open plan kitchen living dining typically people will have obviously a kitchen your dining But we're sitting in and then the living space might have a TV and a media.

Yes, I would say Make that media unit or built ins as much storage as possible rather than just a little freestanding table Because a little 

Jenny: freestanding table you might think that you don't have enough space to [00:25:00] work with and therefore you end up getting something smaller But actually that it's counterintuitive, but it makes that it shrinks the place down.

It makes it feel smaller You're not using space that you actually do have available and it visually just shrinks the space down So I rarely don't want wall to wall Especially in a small space. If you have a huge space, it's a bit different, you know. But especially in a small room, use all the space that you have available to you.

I'm totally with you on that. 

Kate: Yeah, so in our last house if you look at my back, kind of, a couple of years on my Instagram feed, there's a panelled wall of units, kind of, on the left hand side as you come in. So it's kind of made to look like it's a panelled wall. But that's all stores. It was our utilities, it was a pantry.

It was a downstairs toilet under the stairs, but right at the end we had a kind of, I don't know exactly why there was a step, but there was a step in the building, it was an original party wall or something like that. And the only thing we didn't continue with the joinery to go all the way to the windows was maybe a bench seat.

And I don't know why [00:26:00] we didn't. It just didn't feature at the time. Because you 

Jenny: had a little, you put a little kind of couch there. 

Kate: We did. Yeah. We did eventually, yeah. But I was like, why did we just not do a bench here? It just didn't feature at the time or we didn't think of it. Yeah, but going back, like, if we were still in that house, I 100 percent would have put one in.

Yeah, 

Jenny: I mean, leave, you know, kind of 20 centimetres or 10 centimetres even at the end of something, just like that. Just like at the end of a couch or something, but a built in unit go all the way, all the way. There's no need not to. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: Cause just leaving that open wall there, it just, it's not necessary.

And it looks unfinished and, and the furniture 

Kate: there looks a bit piecemeal, I think, just freestanding in the middle of a big open space. 

Jenny: Yeah. 

Kate: So all, all about wall 

Jenny: to wall, all wall to wall. And I'm with you on. Have the underneath part of it, again, especially in a smaller house, coming out deeper. And then have the upper part of it shallower.

So then you make it a bench. You make it a bench. But then it doesn't dominate the room. Because you can afford to bring things out underneath, you know, waist height or underneath kind of hip height. But, and then if you have it back further, [00:27:00] you know, shallower, above and at eye level, then it doesn't dominate the room.

Yeah, for sure. It's much, much nicer. And 

Kate: I also think this is something, This is something we spoke about when we were talking about glazing. It doesn't necessarily have to go to the floor glazing. And sometimes when you say you're looking out into the back garden, you can stop it at 50 centimetres above the ground.

And that allows you to put a bench inside in that window. Oh, yeah. Think about the storage you can get below a window if you don't go floor to ceiling on the glass as well. 

Jenny: Yeah. Or if you have a nice little, you know, window at the front of your living room, or if you've got one of those beautiful bay windows or something, you can put a little bench in around there.

Yeah, definitely. The amount of storage you've got. Yeah. Okay, so that is dining area storage and then I also have a little shelf at the back of my dining seat and a tiny little picture shelf so that means that I have an art wall but that isn't just flat and hanging on the wall, I'm storing, there's candles and stuff on it and there's a few vases and flowers and things like that so that's technically more storage even though it's really all just for visual, pretty things.

Yeah. Then, so we spoke briefly about the back of my kitchen peninsula but, So, [00:28:00] really what I just did there was extend my kitchen peninsula to the depth of, the regular depth of a shelf which again, doesn't take up any real additional space in the real sense of the word because that space would have, you know, maybe allowed me to have a slightly longer dining table, but it wouldn't have been used really.

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: And that is full of books, board games, candles. There's a whole bunch of stuff on there, like there's, I would have had to find somewhere to build in another bookshelf if I hadn't done that. So I think the storage lesson there is think about your existing structures and with just extending them a little bit or, you know, adding something onto the, what's already there give you a lot more storage than you would think.

And a lot of people have islands and peninsulas and they might not think about storage at the back of them. You know, they might have presses underneath on one side, but could you extend a little bit to put shelves and presses on the other side? Exactly, 

Kate: yeah. If you don't have a peninsula, yeah, it works equally well on the end of an island or something like that.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely use every, use every inch. Another part actually we had in our last house, we had this original, the original foundations were like big stones, [00:29:00] huge rocks. It wasn't proper concrete foundations, obviously. That's good. So when we excavated, we couldn't move This kind of giant rocks that were there.

So we had to build a box out around it. Oh, cool. And this box out was like, maybe, whatever, 40 centimetres. Well, it was actually meant to be lower and I said, Can you make it higher? Because then at least it's a bench seat. Yeah. But then it gave me kind of this natural alcove above. Yeah. So if you, if you come across things where maybe you have box outs for pipe work or like that, old foundations or some old wall or something like that.

Don't think, Oh God, there's a step in the wall now and it's not flush. Use that little alcove to build in storage. 

Jenny: Where was that? In your kitchen? 

Kate: Yeah, so where we had hung our TV. Oh, I know, yeah. So we were sitting at the island there. There was kind of a, almost like a little ledge. Yeah. And that ledge then was I kind of used it for storage.

I just made him build it out higher, made the builder build it out higher than we needed to so it was usable as storage. Very good. Okay, yeah. So like, sometimes those can be kind of problems in a build. where you have to box out stuff and whatever but use those box outs to [00:30:00] create alcoves then to create storage.

Jenny: Very good. Love that idea. Yeah. Okay, then we're into my kitchen and I have a lot of open storage in my, on one side of my kitchen because I really don't like overhead cabinets. You can go back and listen to one of our kitchen episodes if you want. You really don't like it. Listen to my full rant about overhead kitchen cabinets.

You might hit your head and die. You will, you might die. I'm saving lives here, one by one. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: I find them too claustrophobic, especially, I'm really specifically referring to small kitchens here. If you've got a huge, big kitchen, then fine. But. Personally, I just don't like them. I want at least one wall to be open.

So I've opened shelving and that's where all my glassware is stored and what I would encourage you to think about there if you've opened shelving. So that's in a recess as well. The reason that the wall is thicker is because it moves from an external wall where my extension is. to an internal wall where it separates from my neighbor's house.

And so rather than just having a step back, I built out shelves that come out to the, the bigger, the thicker wall [00:31:00] depth. So there's a continue, a continuous look there and it looks like an alcove and shelving. I would just always encourage you to think about what are you putting on those shelves. If you're having open shelving, I'm all for it, I love it, but just make sure that what you're putting out there is, looks nice.

So I really like glassware, I have loads of nice glassware and I think that looks really good and it's just an easy one, you know, glassware is lovely, it doesn't need to be behind it and as long as you have a few matching sets. And mine are not all perfectly matching, they're, you know, there is mismatch there, but there's, you know, sets of a few different types of things.

But I 

Kate: also think if you had four shelves of all glasses, it would look a bit kind of insipid to me. But when I look at yours, right, you've glassware and some, then you've, you know, your drink bottles at the top, which adds actually color and contrast. And then in the bottom you have that kind of blue delft or whatever, that kind of china cups.

So that adds a bit of color. And then when you're hanging, you're hanging your pots and all that, that's another kind of dimension where you've kind of copper and you've wood and you're chopping boards. So it's not boring to look at. 

Jenny: Yeah, true, it's not all the samey. It's not all the same. But it is, there's themes.

I'd say there's groupings [00:32:00] Groupings of materials. 

Kate: Yeah, look really nice. Whereas I think if that was just all glass here, it might look a bit boring. 

Jenny: Yeah. So yeah, my copper pans are hanging up above along the top of my backsplash, above my hob. That's so handy. There's a chopping board up there as well.

There's measuring spoons, there's tea towels and stuff like that. Everything that you need to just access. It's really handy and quickly, it's so helpful to have it on there. 

Kate: I also think if you have shelves in your kitchen, it should be stuff you access a lot, otherwise you're taking it down and you're dusting it.

Jenny: Yeah. Which you don't want to do. So I access my wine glasses a lot. Yeah. Because I'm really 

Kate: My wine glasses never get dusty. It's 

Jenny: actually housework. When I go to have a few glasses of wine, that is housework that I am doing for the greater good. For sure. 

Kate: You know, what about kitchen gadgets then? There's so many gadgets now.

For insiding your presses, so say you weren't very smart in, you know, thinking about the layout of the internals of your kitchen. You can kind of retrofit them now with cool kitchen gadgets. 

Jenny: I actually just wrote an article about this last, so my article on [00:33:00] the Saturday, the weekend of the 13th of September.

April 2024 in the Irish Examiner is all about kitchen gadgets for, for small kitchens. Did you tee that up on purpose? Sorry, I haven't read your article. But there's a whole bunch of different things you can get. And by gadgets, there's both electronic and non electronic, just cool little gizmos and stuff that you can fit into your kitchen.

I, there's a few I love. One is anything to let you hang stuff underneath a shelf is really helpful because shelves are usually standard height, but. In behind my pocket doors, there's a few little things. One hangs my kitchen roll, which is super helpful because otherwise that's just standing and taking up space somewhere in your kitchen.

And then the other is a little Joseph and Joseph, Joseph, not Joseph, Joseph, Joseph. One of my favourite brands, I just love them so much, they're so clever, very ergonomic. They have this insert that slides and just sits underneath and hangs kind of underneath a shelf and it holds four rolls of greaseproof paper or parchment paper or whatever.[00:34:00] 

They take up so much space. So much space. 

Kate: So annoying. 

Jenny: And there's always a little gap underneath your shelf between, 

Kate: you 

Jenny: know, whatever you're storing in there. That's genius. Yeah. 

Kate: Yeah, but all those little gadgets, Joseph, Joseph and whatever and shout out to the Organised Store actually. They have everything.

When it comes to gadgets and actually talking about the Organised storage, that's probably what you should talk about next, because the next thing is storage that we both have from there is the alpha wardrobe. 

Jenny: Oh, I love the alpha wardrobe. And the alpha wardrobes are 

Kate: not necessarily just wardrobes.

I'd call them maybe alpha storage solutions. Because you can have them as kind of vanities and makeup counters. You can have them as utility presses. You can have them as wardrobes. And I got them as kind of a walk in wardrobe in our current layout, but I'm not 100 percent on exactly how we're going to use them when we renovate because we might not have the space for a walk in wardrobe in our new layout.

Yeah. But, I know I'm going to use them somewhere else and I'm trying to decide where. I'm like, do I use them as attic storage or do I put them into my utilities room? 

Jenny: Yeah. Do you know? And build my 

Kate: washer and dryer around them and then I have all these baskets and shelves and everything. [00:35:00] But you can keep it 

Jenny: and 

Kate: reuse it, that's the genius thing about it, it's so 

Jenny: configurable.

It's so adaptable. I'm obsessed. I've been talking about this since day one. I actually. It's almost too good to be true. I just love it so much. It's 

Kate: so handy. If you have a phone and you just feel like a nook or alcove or a small room that's a bit of a dumping ground, look at the Elfa storage solutions because there'll be a solution to fit it, I think.

Jenny: Yeah. So how it works. So Elfa is the one I have. You have the Elfa as well. There is an Ikea version called the Boaxel. I haven't personally used it, but apparently that that's available as well. Just if you're, if you're looking at options and then. What it is, right, you buy one long railing that bolts or screws into your studwork along a wall.

So you need a wall that has, you know, some kind of solid studwork in it. And off that one railing, you hang the railing. Everything else. Yeah, so you hang up like that usually goes up You know the top of the wall from that can clip on these vertical strips that have little holes all the way down them And so you hang [00:36:00] them out.

There's a few 60 or 40. So they have 40. Yeah, there's 40 as well so they then have a range of Inserts that clip into those vertical strips at either 40 centimeters or 60 centimeters So you can then space out along your wall You can design for whatever, like however much space you have, you can just make it up to 

Kate: that.

And you can do everything. Like you can do hooks, you can do rails, you can do drawers, you can do baskets, you can do, what else have I seen there? You can do 

Jenny: laundry hanging things, 

Kate: you 

Jenny: know clothing rails, you can do clothing rails, you can do shoe specialist shoe storage, specialist jewelry storage.

For your kitchen, there's these pull out things, I mean, there's just I have mine 

Kate: going right up, almost as high as I could to the ceiling and then the top rack is just like an open rack and I put my suitcases up there. Yeah. So you don't even see them, right? They're up, right up, and they're right up touching the ceiling in the room.

But you wouldn't even see them. Then I have hanging rails, then I have baskets, then I have shoe storage, then I have open shelves. [00:37:00] Like there's every kind. I just love the layout of it. And I 

Jenny: actually switch mine around a little bit from winter to summer. There's one place where I take out a shelf and I clip it into another area in winter time because I need longer things, kind of longer coats and stuff hanging up that I would put in storage underneath my bed during summer time.

And then I switch it back in summer time because I don't need that length. Yeah. It's so handy. And then when you're moving house you just screw it all out and take it with you. Yeah. It's brilliant and I was talking to somebody recently about doing it for utility room because the nature of the shelves, they're kind of these metal mesh shelves or, or or baskets or whatever you end up like whatever items you end up buying perfect for utility room because if you have you know if you want to build say shelving or cabinetry above a radiator or something like that then it's got a little drying area do you know what i mean like it airs out your clothes 

Kate: so handy yeah definitely have a look if you have any kind of weird knock room, whatever, to fill the Elfo will have a solution for it, I think.

I think it's 

Jenny: fecking brilliant, I just love 

Kate: it is. 

Jenny: Great for a garage, too, if [00:38:00] you, like, if you're working with tools and all that, yeah. Anyway, I could go on for ever about this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just recommend it to everyone. It's so handy. But that's what we both have for 

Kate: wardrobes at the moment, and I'm sold.

Talking about wardrobes, and you mentioned Ikea, I have used Ikea wardrobes, and I have to say, I quite like Ikea carcasses. And I think you can get all the gadgets. I wouldn't say they're cheap when you start adding all the kind of internals and the gadgets and the drawers and the jewelry holders and all that kind of stuff.

But a nice solution and they've a lot of kind of adaptability as well. Yeah, but very permanent I would say. Yeah, I'm not going to take them with you, and I don't personally think that IKEA disassemble well and reassemble. No, they just don't. They're kind of a Yeah. 

Jenny: But they are really handy. They're very configurable.

Yeah. They've got planners on their website that you can go and plan things out, which is really handy. The 3D 

Kate: planner is great to use, actually. Yeah. 

Jenny: To be honest, I'm sorry, Ikea, but I use it for just planning out space anyway, even if I'm not planning to buy it or something. Sorry. 

Kate: You can drop in the windows.

You can drop in doors. You can drop in everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's 

Jenny: great for planning out space, I think. That's really good. Sorry. [00:39:00] One thing as well, back to the Elfa. If you want, because it's all it's you know, wire mesh kind of inserts which open, I think look cool if you're going for that look, but also you can just put normal doors on them if you want to cover them over.

So they just look like regular, you drawer 

Kate: fronts on my drawers. I have the solid front drawers and then some of them are baskets. Drawers are kind of like gym gear stuff that you just throw in there. Some of the other drawers with the drawer fronts are for maybe underwear or whatever, stuff like that. 

Jenny: I got wardrobe doors made up, but just doors that just cover in to the thing.

But anyway, okay. That's, yeah, that's it. Definitely worth it. And 

Kate: So while we're talking about wardrobes and that side of your house, you also have a very smart story suite in your bed. 

Jenny: Oh, my Ottoman bed.

Yeah. Oh my god. I've, I think I put a Instagram, sorry, I know everyone who listens to me, I'm so bad at Instagram, I just know, I rarely post up there, but I did put a post up there, a reel up there, maybe a month or so ago, just going through the, the details of the Ottoman bed, and you can see everything that I have underneath there.

Again, it's like a garden shed, the amount of stuff. I have a [00:40:00] tent in there, because I've got a campervan. I stick a tent inside of it. I have two pairs of skis. A pair of regular skis, a pair of touring skis. I have a blow up paddle board. What else? I have a spare pair of curtains that I need to get rid of that I haven't used in ages. I have a duvet. I actually think I have two duvets. A spare duvet and then like a summer duvet for when people visit.

Like, that's barely even half of it, I'd say. It fits so much. Now, that's a king size bed, in fairness, but there's, if you're in a smaller house and you need storage, there is no reason not to get an ottoman bed. Like, they're just brilliant. Ottoman bed, 

Kate: ottoman kind of footstools in front of your sofa. So the ottoman 

Jenny: footstool, we spoke about this briefly on the furniture episode, that is instead of having an L shaped couch, I got an ottoman footstool, and thanks, that was Cillian's advice in Finline Furniture, to get a separate footstool that can be moved around and used as a coffee table, whatever.

Bye bye. There's loads of storage in underneath 

Kate: there. Loads of storage in that. So much in there. I have an ottoman in the playroom. So much toys in there. I just throw all the toys in there out of sight and mind the place that's kind of tidy. So storage bed boxes kind of at the foot of your bed maybe as well.

So if you [00:41:00] already have your 

Jenny: bed and you don't, you didn't get an ottoman one, you idiot. But if you have space underneath it, you can buy boxes or, you know, kind of flatter things. Oh yeah, yeah. 

Kate: They can wheel in and out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's handy. But the actual old school kind of bench bed box kind of ottoman things are nice at the foot of the bed for even your bed.

Oh yeah. And all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So think of any large items of furniture you have, could they be made lift up and storage inside them? 

Jenny: And a lot of them can be. A lot of them can 

Kate: be. 

Jenny: And one thing I'll say about the ottoman bed is if you're looking, you, there's lots of beds with storage underneath.

I would look for one that lifts up at the end. So they're made with these kind of hydraulic hinges that make it easy to lift up and they stay up. And it's much, much easier to put things in there and to take things out of there and to see what's underneath there than it is if you had those ones with the drawers that come out the side.

They're just, it's the same as the bench seating underneath your dining table. Like pulling out a drawer is just harder because you need the space to do it and you don't fit things in there as much as you can because the drawer mechanism takes up space and it's just not as [00:42:00] easy. So look for one that lifts up from the end.

It's the easiest the easiest way to do it. 

Kate: So it's lots of storage there. One thing actually that we didn't talk about. I have one. In my landing. I have a console table, but the console table with the shelf underneath So this is one you might have seen I just bought on adverts. It was a solid wood one So I kind of sanded it and stained it.

But the shelf underneath I got a huge wicker basket like a huge kind of log basket almost And I put that underneath and the amount of crap I have in there Nappies like all the kids swim stuff like flotation stuff, you know, like little lifejacket things all fit in there I love those baskets in general.

Yeah, I think baskets, I'm a big fan of baskets in general. I have loads of baskets in my pantry as well. I think they look nice, if they're good baskets. Yeah, you need a good 

Jenny: basket. 

Kate: Yeah, it doesn't have to be super expensive. Like, there's really nice ones in Woody's, there's really nice ones in Don's. But I just think the actual I actually saw some nice ones in Penny's.

Oh, really? Yeah. The actual kind of wicker ones I think look the nicest. The kind of natural materials as opposed to like, poly Wicker, [00:43:00] polyurethane or whatever but I just think they're a solution in so many places. Yeah, and you can get 

Jenny: ones with lids or if you get one without a lid you can still feck whatever you want inside there but then just throw a nice blanket on top of it and it looks perfect.

Kate: And there's little ones you can get on Amazon as well that have kind of divisions in them so you can kind of Velcro these little dividers into them. So I have them as kind of like nappy caddies and stuff, but they could be used for like cosmetics anything like but they're, they're brilliant and they're tidy and they've got a leather handle on them and they look lovely.

Jenny: And you can get big ones that just stand alone, like you can just put them on the ground. Yeah. Or you can get little ones that go into shelves, so if you have open shelving and you're finding it all a bit messy, like you can get a lovely shelf one as well. There's loads of ways you can do it. Yeah.

Baskets are your friend, if you haven't thought of it in the renovation stage. On the topic of baskets other storage containers, because you had an attic in your last house and you loathe storage up there. Yeah, 

Kate: we have an attic in this house as well, well we kind of storage in these and have an attic room.

But we have so many of those clear boxes from when we moved. So any of the stuff we want to store in the attic I have in clear boxes so you can kind of see what's up there. And you're not like hiding [00:44:00] around, or you're not 

Jenny: digging around stuff. I'd say that for the under bed storage as well. Yeah. Clear plastic boxes.

There's like, just don't, if you're looking for storage boxes that are just going to be put out of sight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make them clear, you will forget so quickly 

Kate: what is in those things. 

Yeah. Really, really nice. And I think Well, I don't know if it's a closing thing or not, but clear the f k out, like clear out. Stop having so much stuff left. Just throw s t out. Like, I go, like it's so, it's like therapy for me. Yeah, same. Maybe it's around the time I'm on, the time I'm on or something. I'm just like, get this s t out of my house.

And I fill up like about four bags and I just put them up for free on AdWords. The kids toys, everything. 

Jenny: And people will take it. Yes. Like, you holding on to stuff and be like, oh, I don't want to throw it away because it's good. It's good. That thing is not getting used. To someone out there who could 

Kate: use it and make use of it.

So get rid of it. Get it out 

Jenny: of your house. 

 I was out for a walk with the dog today and I passed up the road. A house had a lovely sign out saying free children's books, please take. And they had this big box of children's books and people were looking through them. And, you know, that, that all gets [00:45:00] used.

Jenny: Get rid of it. And I think. Try to have a one in one out mindset. Like if you're browsing around and you're someone who likes shopping, I'm not trying to stop you from shopping but just think about when you're buying something, where is it going to go? And if you need, if that place doesn't have space, what can you get rid of?

Kate: I love that one in one out. I had to kind of employ that when I came back with glassware for like the millions time from TK Maxx. My husband's like, we don't need any more glasses. I'm like, I come back with another, look I got these lovely old fashioned glasses. And Cian's like, what? How do we need more glassware?

And I'm like, one in, one out. Gonna have to get rid of some. 

Jenny: People use them, it's so good. One, one last item that I didn't talk about actually, actually no, two. I've thought about two more items. We spoke briefly about hooks and hanging things up when I was saying in the spare bedroom, but hooks are your friend, especially inside cabinets or, you know, if you've got like big cupboards or something like that.

You'd be surprised, a few of those command hooks They're unreal. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: I love command hooks. I use them for everything. All my artwork, everything around my house is hanging up using command hooks. They're [00:46:00] so good. But having them on the inside of your, you know, utility cupboards or whatever, your kitchen storage I have like dishcloths, I have my broom, I have Peri's little winter jacket, like all hanging up on little hooks on the inside.

Rather than all 

Kate: thrown in the bottom of the bag or whatever, yeah, yeah. 

Jenny: Everything just makes it so much easier. And then the second thing I was going to mention is slim spaces that are left over. We spoke about this in our kitchen episode, but I have, again, my favourite piece of storage in my house, I think, is a 10cm wide cupboard, kitchen cupboard.

It would have just been a gap between the main, the exterior wall and the end of my kitchen. Fridge and kitchen units, because units are a standard size, so you'll often have little gaps like that left over. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: Because, you know, kitchen units are a standard size, they're a standard width, but not every house is the same width or built to that specification, so you might find yourself at like a 10 cm wide or something like that left over.

And typically, your kitchen supplier or someone will just cover it, right, they'll just cover Just filler pieces. Filler. They'll just put a filler piece there. But even if you think there's [00:47:00] nothing, there's no use to it, like 10cm is nothing and I have so much in there. It's unreal. That's the first one. The second one that I've seen in that slim space category is people using the space underneath their kitchen, the kickboards, behind the kickboards or behind the plinth.

They're putting little drawers in there, there's little inserts in there because that's just And they're putting, you know, baking sheets if you've got like baking sheets or flat pans or something like that. 

Kate: I saw one person putting their Roomba vac. Oh, genius! Or vac in underneath. Ours went under our previous island because our island was up off the floor.

But it also works into your kicker. Yeah. If you have a robot vac. 

Jenny: Mine's under my couch. Oh. Love a robot vac. Yeah, yeah, it's great. There is another episode of cleaning supplies would be handy. 

Kate: Yeah, yeah. But that 10 centimeter thing is so true because where our washing machine currently is is 10 centimetres to the wall in that little kind of utility slash toilet that we have.

And I bought this little plastic three tier kind of trolley, I guess, but it's only 10 centimetres wide. I think it was Ikea. It was just black plastic. I [00:48:00] think it comes in other colours. But it fits exactly my dog food trays. Oh my god. That's so satisfying. All stacked. Then the next one is like cleaning stuff.

So it's tall enough for cleaning stuff. And then the top one is all my Kind of washing capsules, fabric softener, all that, it fits all that. And it was just like, like you said, 10 centimeters down the side of the washing machine, would have gone to waste otherwise. And you, like, you would 

Jenny: think there's nothing in it.

You would not, you wouldn't believe how much stuff gets fed into that tiny little space. Shelves it out, cook it out, whatever you can. And you'll get so much more storage. Okay, so key takeaways I think from this episode. Think about how you're going to use the space, what you actually have, and just be honest with yourself.

I think sometimes when we're planning our houses, it's We've got this dream vision in our heads of how like it's going to be so beautiful and blah blah and then the second that you have a coat thrown over a kitchen chair or you've got a bag somewhere or like just stuff lying around then you've ruined it.

You've ruined your dream. 

Kate: That's it. Don't ruin your dream. 

Jenny: Don't 

Kate: ruin your storage. Think about the storage early on. Use costume joinery. Think. Think it through. Go to the ceiling. Use those slim spaces. [00:49:00] 

Jenny: Think about what furniture can double up as storage. What can be an ottoman or a bench storage. 

Kate: Yeah, use those alcoves, recesses, any of those that can be your friend rather than your foe.

And baskets. Yeah, baskets. I love an old basket. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. And then finally, clear out. Just clear out.

One in, one out. Yeah. Be regimented about it. House will 

Jenny: thank you for it. Will thank you for it. Everyone will thank you for it. Stop buying so much stuff. Stop buying so much 

Kate: stuff. The planet will for 

Jenny: it. Thank you as always for listening. Thank you guys. See you next time. See you again in two weeks. 

Thank you once again to the Organised Store for sponsoring this episode. You can check out their catalogue online at Organisedstore. ie or drop into their store in Dundrum Town Centre.

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