In a perfect home, there will be a place to put everything, where it would either look beautiful or be out of sight until you need it.

Right furniture

This can help expand storage space. If your home is overflowing with things, you might want to use some of these storage furniture to find the right place for everything.

Skirted tables: A skirted table can hide a myriad things in almost any room of your house. You’ll need a tablecloth that goes to the floor. It can be something as simple as a large sheet that coordinates with your decor. For a really fashionable look, layer two or three different length cloths and trim one or all with decorative tassles, fringe, or beads. Use any table you have, or put a plywood top over a base. You can easily buy a pre-cut round or rectangular plywood top.

Place your tabletop over a pre-cut base, small bookcase, low filing cabinet or even a trash can turned upside down. Camouflage your base of choice with a floor-length tablecloth. The space hidden below the top can be used to store almost anything. Stack books or boxes, bedside clutter or craft supplies underneath.

Other furniture: When you’re shopping for furniture, think ahead how you’ll use the piece. A cabinet with adjustable shelves offers many shelves, yet looks wonderful in almost any room.

A chest of drawers doesn’t have to be large, but can provide more storage than a side table. A coffee table with drawers can hide things that a beautiful glass-topped table cannot. Choose a bench with a hinged lid for the end of a bed or under a window. Use the space inside to store blankets, sheets, extra towels, out-of-season clothes, or toys. A dining table with a pedestal can hide a lot of seasonal storage.

Spot the space

If you maximise what you already have, you’ll have spot space in every room of your home.

Under-bed storage: There’s a lot of floor space under a bed, even if it’s just a twin bed. Think of all the room under a queen- or king-sized bed!

Measure the height from the floor to the bottom of your bed frame, looking for support legs. Find long, flat storage boxes to slide under. They’re great for shoes, out-of-season clothes, sports equipment, festival and party decorations. Place a label on the box, listing the contents.

If you are blessed with a high-ceiling house, raise your bed even higher by building taller legs using plumbing pipes. Remember that if you raise your bed, you’ll need a deeper, longer skirt to cover the frame.

Shelf space: If your bookcases or cabinets have adjustable shelves, make sure they have space to house what you have. If all the shelves are arranged at 15” but your books are 8” high, you’re missing out on about 6” of space. Take the time to reorganise this existing storage space.

Add shelf supports and new shelves where they can serve you best. Measure the items you need to store to determine the most useful shelf heights.

Use your closet space to maximum advantage. Don’t have a fixation for more hanger space in wardrobes. After providing for your basic wardrobe, if you find, say, even a 14-inch width of cabinet space, use it for narrow shelves and drawers. A filing cabinet can also be made to fit into most closets.

A two-drawer filing cabinet can help to keep loads of papers organised and the space above it can hold short clothing or shelves of books. The 4 to 6 inches of skirting below all cabinets/wardrobes can be well used for footwear and other things.