Getting creative with storage for my 'stash'

Weather you call it a 'stock pile' a 'stash' or practical hoarding  one thing for sure is you need to have a designated space to put things.  Oh how I wish I had a basement, a garage that was closed in, or even an extra closet.  That is not the case so I have to get creative with the space I have.  Creative is only the beginning, I have to make room, in our 4 bedroom town house is occupied with 5 adult sized bodies, this is not an easy task.  It is a work in process, it has taken me some time, and quite honestly some sacrifice of my creative space to come up with something that will work.  It has been a slow slog, it started with a major clean out of our linen closet....  

Here is where my "stash" started  about 8 or so months ago

It was apparent fairly soon that this space was going to be much too small.  The wheel's were turning. Eventually the sewing machine (that is the white box in the bottom left of the first photo) moved to a new home which gave me almost double the room - however in a couple of months that was full. 

I needed some sort of shelving unit, but did not want to put out any $$$$ to make that happen.  There were no shelves around home to make that happen so I turned to Craigslist and the free section, with in days I had new shelves that cost me nothing!  They were in a neighbourhood that we frequent often.  All the peices were coming together. You have got to love FREE!  They are not pretty, but they are clean & sturdy and will do the job.   I then cleaned out a corner in my creative space (studio)  (oh there is so much more work to do there....) and set up the  shelves. A Perfect fit! 



 A quick visit to my local dollar store where I picked up the coloured baskets for $1.00 each and the white wire hanging baskets for $1.50 (6.72 including tax).

The plan is to put smaller items like dental floss, and tooth brushes into the baskets.

The little things that will get lost on a shelf.

Larger and boxed items will stand on the shelves.

There is space washer & dryer so I am able to store extra detergent & fabric care product extras there. As well as lots of space under my kitchen sink for dish washing supplies. 

This worked out better than I had hoped, a little creativity and planning went a long way.  I especially love that it took very little out of pocket expense to pull it all together.  It makes me happy.

There is still lots of  "creative" space in this room plus a little room for expansion if needed for the "stash" as my family refers to it as. The sewing machine is back in it's original home, shared only with the toilet paper, just like the good old days. The task at hand now is to get the other end of the room sorted and organized, so I could actually create in my creative space, a novel idea seeings as I can hardly get to the table, right now it looks like a disaster zone.  Another project for another day.....