10 Best Attic Organization And Storage Ideas – How To Turn Your Attic Into An Organized Haven
Good attic organization can earn you more useable space in that often neglected area. Here are 10 ideas to help you maximize your attic space and turn it into an organized haven.
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Whether your attic is a walk-in or has pull-down stairs, you can very likely make more of that space by taking the time to do a little (or a lot!) of organizing. Many of these ideas could work in just about any storage area in your home!
This post isn’t filled with pretty pictures, unless you get excited about organizing that is, but it will be one of the most helpful when it comes to maximizing your storage space!
In all honesty, I had no intention of writing a blog post about organizing my attic when I started this project, so the photos are not the best.
The BEFORE photos are blurry because I had to grab a frozen image from a paused video. BUT – the project and the ideas that I used were so well received when I shared what I was doing in my stories on Instagram, I decided that many of you may benefit from a few attic organization tips too!
DECLUTTER, CLEAN OUT & SORT
The first job I knew I needed to tackle (and the one that I dreaded the most) was to clean out the attic and go through every single item that I had been storing. It was especially tedious with my seasonal and holiday decor, but it was a very necessary step.
This allowed me to take an inventory of what I wanted to keep, gift someone with, sell or simply trash.
Make sure to sort your items once you’ve decided what to keep. For example, put all of the red Christmas decorations together, all of the fall foliage picks together, all of the pillows together, etc.
REMOVE EVERYTHING TO INSPECT & ANALYZE THE SPACE
As part of your decluttering, go ahead and move everything from the attic, so that you can:
- inspect the entire area looking for wires, loose insulation, bugs, mold, pipes, loose nails or screws, etc
- come up with a floor plan for how you can best maximize your space.
You’ll want to be sure to address any problems that you find, or make a plan for how to work around them, before you start the actual organization process.
EXPAND THE FLOORING
Now that the attic is empty, this is the perfect time to expand your flooring. I recommend using 1/2″ or 3/4″ thick plywood to give you the most sturdy floor.
If you are butting new plywood up to existing flooring, make sure that you use the same thickness so as not to create a lip/tripping hazard where the seams join together.
Attach each piece of the plywood to a ceiling joist with a few screws. Screws work better than nails in case you need to remove or change anything in the future.
COLLECT SUPPLIES
Now that you’ve decided what will go back into the attic, separate your piles of like items down even more. For example, you may want to separate your red Christmas tree ornaments into a separate pile from general red Christmas decorations.
Take note of all of the different types of things you need to store. In my case, I needed to store general home decor, long faux greenery and floral stems, pillows, pillow covers, throw blankets, wreaths, ribbon, craft supplies, and myriad types of seasonal and holiday decor.
I decided that I needed to use both small and large plastic bins, laundry hampers, closet dowel rods and brackets, shelves and shelving units, Christmas tree storage bags, different types of clothing hangers and more.
The way that you’ll store any plastic bins is just as important as considering what you’ll store in them. In other words, will you be stacking them one on top of the other or will you be adding shelves of some kind? Are you only going to use plastic bins or will you also be using hooks or other organization gadgets?
USE SEE-THROUGH BINS & LABEL EVERYTHING
Part of my purge included getting rid of older, solid colored bins that I couldn’t see through. I put up with not being able to see what was in those bins for years and finally decided to replace them all with translucent see-through bins. All of the bins that I got rid of were either gifted to someone else or donated.
The old bins actually came in handy for hauling items to be donated to the drop off point. I was able to pack my items for donation into those instead of having to find boxes or use trash bags and just leave the bins there.
Even though my new bins are see-through, I still think it’s important to label what goes into each bin. Not only will it give you a better idea of what’s inside the bin, it will also help you to put things back into the same bin that they came out of. THIS LABEL MAKER is the one that I used.
GOOD SHELVING IS KEY
If you will be using shelves in your newly organized attic, good, sturdy shelving is a must! We have a combination of shelves made from plywood and brackets, wire shelving and actual shelving units.
All these different types of shelves hold bins, pillow forms and general home decor that’s too large or bulky to fit into a bin.
THESE SHELVING UNITS are my favorite, as they are super sturdy, hold hundreds of pounds of weight, come in multiple sizes and are easy to assemble.
WREATH HANGING SOLUTION
As a blogger, I tend to accumulate a lot of different wreaths. You can just imagine how they accumulate over time since I try to do something different for every season and holiday.
I previously had them hanging from nails driven into the studs of the walls of our attic space. That worked for a while, but I ran out of wall space long ago, so they were stacked on the floor. After some planning I came up with a solution that holds more wreaths in a smaller amount of space.
The solution? Wooden closet dowel rods and brackets! Several of the wreaths are hung directly on the rod itself. To remove them, I simply lift the rod up on one end and slide the wreath out that I want access to.
There were some wreaths where I was concerned about creating a permanent dent in the wreath, so those are hung with a piece of twine tied to the wreath and looped around a coat hanger.
RIBBON ROLLS ORGANIZATION
After considering several options, I took advantage of the dowel rod solution for my wreaths to also organize my burgeoning collection of rolls of ribbon. After a little modification, THESE PANTS HOLDERS turned out to be perfect!
The pants holders came with foam wrapped around each hanging rod, which we removed to allow more space between the rods to accommodate the rolls. Using a Dremel, my husband also removed two of the rods to give me the additional space that I needed. One end of each rod comes out of a little bracket and swings out for easy access to the ribbon.
Now I can easily see exactly what ribbon I already own! Such a huge improvement over the overflowing bin that the ribbon was previously crammed into.
PILLOW COVERS, THROW BLANKETS & STENCILS
I used the same closet dowel rod solution once again to store my pillow covers, throw blankets and stencils, but in this case I used skirt hangers with clips to hold everything.
After much research, I found that THESE SKIRT HANGERS were the least expensive and are just fine for this purpose.
I made sure the top dowel rod was left longer than to two below it to allow hanging space for the longer throw blankets.
USE THE SPACE ABOVE YOUR HEAD
Don’t forget that you can also take advantage of your roof rafters. I drove nails into some of our rafters and used them to hang garlands, bags and other long items from.
I prefer to keep my garlands in plain sight as opposed to cramming them into a bin where they would get misshapen and crushed. Not to mention the aggravation of having to shuffle through a bin to get to the one that I wanted.
I’ve spent the last several days whipping my attic space into shape and it is already making such a difference in my everyday life, especially right here around the holidays!
Great, practical post. Your attic space looks like mine. Is your space heated?
Thank you! I’m thrilled to have it done! No, it isn’t heated or cooled.
Good ideas! I don’t have an attic but instead use our basement for storage. I commend you for sorting all your decor and plan to use this as I change fall to Christmas. I have way too much ‘stuff’ for both of these holidays and as I’m packing things away, will be a good time to purge!
I hope you can use an idea or two from here in your basement. I’ve been telling myself I was going to do this for years!
You’ve done a great job sorting and organizing. I envy you all that easily accessible attic space. Do you put sheets or plastic over the items that aren’t in bins? If not, how do you keep them from getting dusty?
No, I don’t cover anything up. There’s a little dust that accumulates over time, but not much at all. I just wipe things clean as/if needed when I pull them out.
Love, love, love the use of hampers/garbage cans for holding large greenery & florals. And can’t wait to use your idea of skirt hangers to hold all of my covers for my toss pillows. Need more makes you do more!
Glad you found some ideas to use!
This just makes me green with envy ( in a good way of course). I live in the Arizona desert and no way could I do this.. but too have all the room ! I hardly put any decor out in the garage just because of the temps! Eeekkkkkkk !
This house definitely has more storage than any other home I’ve lived in – it’s one of the reasons we bought it. 😀 My attic space gets well over 100 during the summer, but I’m sure it’s nothing like what you experience where you live!
Love your idea of hampers, garbage can for faux greenery storage. Mine are in long, shallow bins but I have to unstack and open them to see what’s really in them even though they are clear And labeled. I do use a hamper for storing rolls of wrapping paper. And I use 2 rubber bands On each roll to keep them wrapped and tidy. I am an organization freak….so can I come over and drool at your attic? LOL
Come on over and drool all you want to, GF! My wrapping paper is currently in a long, flat bin, but I love your idea!
Love love this post because you came up with ideas we can use in our attic. I am so tired of bins stuffed with greenery and garlands. The wreaths and ribbon storage…genius! Thank you! Happy Tuesday!
Glad you found some inspiration! I was SO over having such an unorganized mess and not knowing where everything was!
Love this! I wish I had a walk in attic. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! It sure is making my life easier at the moment as I put away fall and start decorating for Christmas.
Suzy, this made my heart beat fast! I am an organized person at heart, but disorganized in reality. For years have been overwhelmed with “stuff”, but this has given me inspiration.
thank you for your wonderful blogs.
Hi, Suzy,
Thank you for such great ideas! I am currently changing Christmas into my snowmen/winter decor and sorting. I love the idea of the pants and skirt hangers. I also have a large ribbon collection and I will definitely use your suggestions. I also have used the hanging system for my table runners as well.
I enjoy your blog and always find at least one thing either decorating or new ideas with each posting that I will use.
Happy New Year!!
Sandi
How do you keep things from getting dusty, like pillows and pillow covers?
So sorry for the delay in replying – for some reason I didn’t get a notification of your comment. I often use dry cleaning bags or old sheets that I attach to the hangers with clothes pins.
Thank you Suzy. I enjoy your style so much and copied many things you have done. I will try the storage tips. I have way too many rolls of ribbon and someone suggested to put the ribbons in a section to house guttering but do not know how to mount it. I will try your way.
What a great idea for storing pillow covers. That looks like it would be so much easier to look through them. I have three guest rooms with empty closets. Will try this. Thanks.
So happy you found an idea to use! 🙂
This is so inspiring Suzy!
Hi Suzy!
I just came across your organized attic & though it’s a few years old, it has helped me! Thank You!
Now I need your help & smart ideas for organizing other home decor items such as vases, candle holders, candle rings, lanterns, trays, risers, etc. I’ll search your site in case you’ve already shared this info, but if you haven’t, please consider doing so.
I can’t wait to get back to organizing some of my decor using some of your ideas!
Thank You, again!
I’m so glad to hear that you found it helpful! And thank you for the suggestion. I’ll add that to my list.