How to Transform Your Attic into a Storage System Your Neighbours Will Be Envious Of

The game of attic storage solutions in New Zealand has some rough competition – it’s all about strategy when it comes to fitting all your clutter into the smallest, highest area in your home and winning the title of Best Attic on the Street. Fret not, with these handy attic storage solutions, your spring cleaning come attic renovations are sure to outshine the rest of suburbia by a long shot.

Take Safety Measures

Top of the list, the first thing you need to do in order to make your attic great again is to take all the safety precautions to make sure your attic is a safe place for you and your family. Many attic spaces are left unfinished when homes are built and can be left looking like they are still a building site, while years of neglect can also make them the perfect home for creepy crawlies which – depending on where you live, can be dangerous.

Safety measures to take before you start to optimise your attic include sweeping the area for loose nails or other sharp edges and taking steps to secure these or put them away. A lot of attics have low hanging ceilings and so it might pay to make sure there is nothing sharp that anyone could hit their head on. If you are wary of insects, getting the place exterminated is a good idea as well.

Lastly, many attics are left without a floor and are instead made up of structural beams before the ceiling of the floor above. It’s important to have a stable floor in place because it is all too easy to lose footing on the beams and fall through the ceiling. This doesn’t have to be polished timber or anything fancy but should be at least a structurally dense material that can hold the weight of your family.

Optimise Your Space

All attics are different, so it’s hard to tell you exactly how to optimise the space available.

Some attics will have low ceilings and have to be optimised much more strategically because they have less wall space. One way to combat a low ceiling is to build a shelving system that stands diagonally, resting against the ceiling to create a triangular shape which then has horizontal platforms to create shelves. Measure your storage containers before you design any shelving systems so that you can make them big enough to fit everything you need. There’s nothing worse than making a whole shelving system only to learn that they are too short to fit the items you need to store.

For attics of any size, a key way to make the most of your space is to inventory your items and place them categorically in containers. We recommend using plastic bins with lids that can be sealed shut. Doing an inventory of your items means you know exactly what you need to make rooms for.

Vacuum Pack

An important thing to remember about attics is that they can become incredibly hot spaces, due to them being a confined space up high in your house. For this reason, you can’t just throw anything you don’t want to use into the attic. Items like clothing, stuffed toys and shoes will be the perfect targets for dust mites and other critters to make their homes among your stuff.

A great way to combat this is to invest in some vacuum bags and make sure the items you care about are properly sealed. Vacuum packing things is also a great way to stack them on shelves without leaving anything loose – it will look much more sleek and professional to anyone you are showing your stunning reno’d attic off to.

Make Your Attic Accessible

All these storage systems are going to be useless if your attic isn’t easily accessible. Surely, it’s obvious that you need to be able to reach your attic in order to get anything up there in the first place – right? Yeah, you’ve probably got an attic door around somewhere for when the exterminator comes and you can probably climb up there with a ladder – but this isn’t a flashy system and can be very unsafe for you and your family.

An easy option for accessing your attic is to install some attic stairs. Fakro attic stairs from Hometech are the perfect system to finish off your fancy new attic. The stairs are made with European Pine and are designed to fold up into the ceiling, covered by a trap door that locks them away when you don’t need them. The quality of this contraptions means that they are incredibly stable, so you don’t have to worry about carrying heavy items up and down them. The door hatch is even fully insulated, so heat won’t escape from your house in the colder months.

Install Fakro Attic Stairs Today

If you are looking for the perfect opportunity to transform your attic into a storage system you will love, talk to us today about installing the perfect stairs to give you all the accessibility you need for the job.