I have an itty bitty pantry/ laundry room. That also is the back door/ back hall way. We don't use the back door, because it is always full of stuff. The area is about 5 foot by 5 foot. In this tiny area I have a stacked LG washer/dryer, and a 50 gallon hot water heater. Between the washer and heater there is about a 17 inches of floor space. So my question is does anybody have some good storage ideas for these items that have to fit in the space that is left between the water heater and the wall (where the door is) and between the washer and heater. These are the items that go there: 50 lb sack of chick pellets 50 lb sack of chick scratch 50 lb sack of dog food 25 lb sack cat food 1 tall trash can for trash 1 short trash can for recycling 4 five gallon water bottles 2 laundry baskets stacked. ----- The feed needs to stay inside because we don't have a good dry outside place to put it, and fire ants get into it every chance they can. I was thinking of something along the line of this http://www.amazon.com/Vittles-Vault-50-50-Pound-Stackable/dp/B0002DJOOI Or this http://www.acemart.com/kitchen-supp...ngredient-bin-lid-scoop-rub3600/prod4608.html But they are both way expensive! I am just not sure what else to do. My water heater is on the fritz and I would love to change it to a tankless heater, but don't know if dh will go for it.
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753804&lmdn=Category That is what we used for pet food storage that could stack.
Our local water place has plastic "crates" to stack 5 gallon jugs (the jugs lay on their sides facing out and the crates stack up). I think they are a couple of dollars, and you might be able to store them outside the back door if they aren't in direct sun? Can you put a shelf above the washer/dryer to place your laundry baskets? I didn't click into the petfood storage links, but we use one of those big totes with a heavy duty lid for our 40-lb bags of food. I'm sure you could stack a couple, although DH may be the only one who could move them to access each. MT3
We have a laundry basket in each room that fits nicely in the closets. This way we do not have to keep a laundry basket on top of the machines or on the ground. You can also hang laundry bags in the bedrooms, one for whites and one for colored clothes. When you wash laundry you can make your rounds to collect. This allows you to only need one basket and you can keep it under and bed or tucked away in another room when not in use. You might have to make changes to your routine but it would make more room for storage. Do you have a garage?
I like the look of those and they are cheaper then the ones I found. Do you think they would stand up to the weight of 40lbs of feed in them stacked 3-4 high?
I will have to look into the plastic crates for the water jugs as well. It would be wonderful to make them not just sitting on the floor. I hadn't even thought about storing them a different way. The washer/dryer is almost to the ceiling, and the light is right over the top of them. I have some of my baking pans stacked up there right now. But I do think the basket would fit there. We tried totes before, but we can't stack them, because the kids are the ones who feed the animals and they have to get into each bag almost every day. The chickens feeder needs to be filled every other day or so. If we had a longer area where the totes could be flat and then just a shelf over them for other things I would rather do that. I have thought about using totes and storing them under the bench at the kitchen table. But then we would have to crawl under the table to drag then tote out and get the feed then push it back in.
Our house has only two closets!!!! All the dirty laundry goes into my bedroom because it is the only one that has any extra floor space. The closets are full. I line dry my clothes so I have two large baskets to haul the laundry out to the line and back inside. We do not have a garage or any other outside place to store things. I really don't have any place inside to store things either. Our house is very small, only 800sq ft (measured on the outside including the front porch. ) We also run our business out of the house too. So between the 5 people, one business and homeschooling we have very limited space for anything. The house also was built by a man who must not have wanted to store anything, because there are just not many storage places. My husband says the best way to fix the storage issue is to put a new name on the deed. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon, so I need to figure this stuff out.
We have a small home as well... If you have a shed, you can store the chick pellets and scratch. (We do this). I use those Rubbermaid plastic containers for my dog food and just keep in on the front porch, up high on a shelf my husband made. But I do know that if you don't have these things than what I have said is of no help to you..
Check with your local grocery stores for some free storage for the feed. You could try the bakery dept and as for the buckets the icing comes in might be a good choice. My first thought was what are you storing in there that you could store elsewhere or do without? We live in a small town, we have a couple of these 55 gal drums http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=B002SVZ4XM&ref_=sr_1_1&qid=1333048035&sr=8-1 we keep our feed in, outside, not under any type of shelter and it keeps the chicken feed dry just fine. We got ours free from a local independent grocery store. It doesn't hurt to ask.... One that size I believe will hold 2 - 50 lb bags of feed. We've never had a problem with the feed getting wet unless someone forgets to put the lid back on after feeding the chickens. Do you have to have a trash can in there? How much trash does that room produce? Is it attached to the kitchen? (assuming because of pantry) If the only real trash that's produced is lint from dryer, that can easily be taken to the kitchen trash can after each load. Another thought I had, which might not be very practical for you (I don't know your full situation), but store the bulk of the dog/cat food under the beds in something like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...002BA5F4I&ref_=sr_1_10&qid=1333048635&sr=8-10 and then buy something like this (for $1 if you have a dollar tree) http://www.dollartree.com/kitchen-t...ers-in-Two-Sizes/213c274c274p305091/index.pro to store a few days or week's worth of food ina handy place-you could refill it weekly. (Not sure about the size/number of dogs/cats-we have one indoor dog so not a big issue)
I know what you mean about limited space. We only have two closets too. Our house is between 800 and 900 sq ft, depending on different appraisals. lol But we only have three people living in the house and we have a garage. We had four living in our house at one time but slowly we are working down the numbers. We park my vehicle in the garage so there is little on ground storage, but we are able to store things we do not use often up in the rafters. We have talked about adding a shed but we never think about it when we do have the money. Our washing machine and dryer are also in the garage. Our kitchen and bathroom have little storage room. Even though we have two bedrooms, I think the house was meant for one person. lol Seriously, it has taken some serious planning to find room for everything and even then, everything does not have a permanent home.
We keep our dog food in Rubbermaid containers too. We have to keep them on the top of Handsome's work table in the garage and just move them when we need the top of the table. We can't keep them outside due to the squirrels. We have a very small tool shed, once upon a time dog house, on the side of the house. We kept the food in there for a few months, but the squirrels ate through the bottom of the walls to get to the food.
Haha at hubby's solution! Are you making use of you wall space? Do you have shelves everywhere? That's what we had to do when we had a tiny house, shelves everywhere. Built in ones where you can and just free standing or hanging ones everywhere else. The biggest lifesaver for us though was a clear, over-the-door shoe organizer in the bathroom. (That and our HUGE laundry room which I greatly miss! LOL)
I am working on putting shelves up everywhere. I want to rebuild shelves into the closets to make more usable space in them. I also have some wire crates that snap together ( they were used as a display in walgreens) I have those everywhere! I would love to have a huge laundry room, or just a hall closet.
