5 Tips for Organizing Your Attic

By Laura Ashbury−

Attics make great storage space, but they also can get cluttered very quickly. If your attic is filled with bent boxes, or if you’re sick of never being able to find what you’re looking for, these five easy steps will help you de-clutter your attic.

Focus First on Clutter

The point of organizing your attic isn’t just so you can find all your clutter. The point is to get rid of things you don’t need or use, and create easy access the things you do need to keep. First, go through absolutely everything and donate or throw away anything you don’t need. You may want to enlist a friend or family member to help give you a reality check on what you really should keep. Once you’ve sorted everything, then it’s time to truly organize.

Pack Plastic Bins

Don’t use cardboard boxes for storage in your attic. Although they are cheap and easy, they typically won’t be able to sustain the attic environment, and you may end up with a mess or with your things ruined. Plastic bins stand up to the elements and are easy to lift without bending or breaking. Although sorting is tiring, take care to pack the bins with other relevant items. You will do yourself a disservice if you just throw all the things you decided to keep together without organizing them.

Label and Document

Once you’ve decluttered and packed your things in bins, label those bins so you don’t spend hours next year trying to find the bin with Christmas lights or your summer clothes. You may also want to consider photographing the contents of the bins, so you know exactly what you have upstairs in the attic. Keep the photos on your phone, or you may also want to print out the photos and tape them to the outside of the bins so you can see the contents without having to open them.

Invest in Shelving

Metal shelves can handle the heat and humidity of an attic, and they also get your things off the ground. If your attic walls are conducive to shelving, hang shelves on the wall to keep smaller bins on the shelves instead of having to stack them in the limited floor space. You can also use the shelves for photo albums or odd-shaped items that would be awkward in bins.

Use Wall Space

With any remaining wall space, buy wall hooks to hang items from the wall. Your fishing poles will survive better hung from the wall, and you lessen the risk of getting the line tangled. With the right hooks, you can also hang fire extinguishers and skis from the walls so they are easily accessible and safer than on the floor.

Even though you probably don’t frequent your attic too often, you still need to find what you’re looking for and keep your items safe. Just by taking a few extra steps, you can keep your attic organized and help to make sure it stays that way.

Image via Flickr by Ross Elliot