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10 Best Storage Pieces

Following on from yesterday’s post on the secrets to an organised home and the need – all right my need – to declutter before the end of the year, I thought we would focus on good storage today.  Also – good to have a break from the relentless tinsel-tinted coverage everywhere else no?

shaker shelves with downpipe wall
you can buy shaker rails from ebay

So first up is my larder with its row of Shaker pegs and you can see how useful they are for storing everything from bags of bags, to feather dusters and aprons. On the bottom (out of shot) I have tea towels as well. Take this idea into any room in the house. The boys both have them in their rooms – one has just five school shirts on his – the rest is on the floor – the other now uses them with hangers on so that he can hang more things. But, as mentioned yesterday, this works well in the hall for handbags and schoolbags, coats and keys.

locker room magazine rack from rose and grey
locker room magazine rack from rose and grey

Still with hanging, these locker room magazine racks from Rose & Grey are a good idea for post and all those annoying bits of paper that come home from school every day. We have four individual ones – one for each member of the family. That way each person is supposed to store their own mail, homework, reminders and Important Bits of Paper. The system is quite perfect but it fails because of the people who operate it rather than the idea. You might be better than us.

brass shelf from cox and cox
brass shelf from cox and cox 

If you can’t hang it then shelve it is the next piece of advice and this pretty slimline shelf from Cox & Cox is perfect. Its £25 so you can buy as many as you can afford and arrange them on the wall to look pretty and hold stuff. It also comes in black too if you want to mix and match….

black shelf from cox and cox for £25
black shelf from cox and cox for £25

If you don’t fancy metal shelves then how about wooden with a leather strap? These were harder to find than hens’ teeth a couple of years ago – I remember looking and contemplating shipping them from Australia – but they seem to be around now so grab ’em while you can. These are £89 from Graham & Green.

leather strap shelves from graham and gren
leather strap shelves from graham and green

But if you can’t shelve it then what about pegging it? This board from Nikki Kreis is great for any room in the house – hall, kitchen or home office.

pegboard by nikki kreis
pegboard by nikki kreis

And if you can’t peg it then tray it. A few of these coming up as trays are so useful. This round one is from H&M and I have a couple of similar silver ones that I picked up in junk shops. One, like this holds a couple of glasses and a decanter on the drinks trolley, while the other, much smaller, takes care of a whole lot of of bathroom stuff.

round metal tray from H&M
round metal tray from H&M  

Next up is this clear tray from Zara. This works if you don’t want the tray to be the centre of attention, but just to get on and do the storing. I’m not quite sure why they styled it like this as this is about as useless as it’s possible to be, but think of it on a desk with office stuff on it, or on a coffee table keeping things together but in a minimal and contained fashion. Smaller ones are also great for bathrooms.

clear plastic tray from zara
clear plastic tray from zara

Moving on from trays to hanging it. This is a mirror and valet stand combined. If you have space in a hall it would be great with scarves and bags hung from it but also good in a bedroom. Especially if you are one of those super-organised people (I’ve read about them) who decide what they are going to wear the night before and take it out of the wardrobe and hang it up. I would more likely use it to drape the clothes I was wearing the day before rather than putting them back in the wardrobe but hey, that’s a system too. Just in reverse. This is from Rockett St George and costs £240.

standing mirror and valet stand from rockett st george
standing mirror and valet stand from rockett st george

Not sure what this classes as so I’ll just add it to the list. I’m also not sure if it’s totally practical as shown here with just a couple of plates on it but it looks gorgeous so I’ve included it. Yes, you can put some plates on it and have it as a beautiful thing and in its defence I do have a set of very pretty dessert plates which would be happier being displayed rather than stacked on the shelf. Or you can store magazines flat or even a few books. It could be like a vertical coffee table display. Or it would work in a home office or a kid’s bedroom when they like to see the fronts of the books so they can choose what to read.

oak plate rack from rowen and wren
oak plate rack from rowen and wren

Lastly what about a piece that combines shelving and hanging? This refined industrial black mesh shelf from Design Vintage includes a hanging rail so it’s perfect for a bathroom or a kitchen, or even a hall with scarves hanging from it. Endless possibilities….

black mesh shelf from design vintage
black mesh shelf from design vintage

Right then that’s some of the storage sorted. Happy decluttering….

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

3 Comments

  1. We have been using shaker peg rails in our bathroom for years. Towels dry well on them. Blow dryer, shower cap, robes. They are so practical. The Shakers even hung their ladder back chairs on them. We have a lot to learn from the Shaker’s simplistic, yet infinitely practical, designs.

  2. I quite like them all, Kate. My hat’s off to your stylish organizational ideas. Thank you and Merry Christmas, Ardith

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