You know what it's like; struggling to find room in your home for old Christmas decorations, those clothes you can't quite bring yourself to throw away, and all the other bits and bobs you've accumulated over the years that have come to be very precious to you.

Then there's the stuff that you actually need!

All in all, storage space can be a real problem for a lot of us. It makes no difference whether you live in a tiny terrace or a great big country manor – there is never enough room for all the things you want to keep.

But before you go renting an expensive storage locker to stash your beloved memories and “maybe one day priceless” bric-a-brac, it might be worth a quick trip to the attic to see how best you can use the available space up there.

Loft space

If you have a loft in your home, and you really need some extra storage space, it's a really simple area to utilise as a place for efficient, discreet and above all, practical storage.

So without further ado, here's 4 top tips to turn that mountain of clutter into a well catalogued, properly stored archive of all the things you might use again someday... maybe.

  1. Plastic storage crates with lids will protect your belongings from dust, damp and creepy crawlies. Not only that, but you can also stack them on top of one another, creating even more space.
  2. Remember, loft spaces get very hot and humid in the summer and cold in the winter, so avoid storing anything that might get damaged by extreme temperatures, such as old paintings and rolls of film for example.
  3. Take the time to write contents labels for each crate to make things easier to find in the future. The last thing you want is to go to the effort of creating a well organised storage space, only to still end up taking forever to dig out those old vinyls you knew you had someplace.
  4. Finally, keep your stored belongings in circulation. Whenever you take a new box up to the attic, be sure to bring one down to sort through and check to see if there's anything you can bear to part with. This way, your newfound space will last a lot longer.

However you decide to use your loft space, there are plenty of of varieties of loft ladders available to best facilitate exactly what you're looking for. So be sure to check them out on our site.