The dreaded youth storage room. Every week you walk into it looking for something that you know you have and have used many times before and yet this week it is like it has been consumed by the black hole that is the youth storage room. Things go in and sometimes never come out, what started out as a storage room has now become a dumping ground. It is time that this ended, it is time to take control back of that storage room and make it great again. So here as some practical tips and ideas to improve your storage room.

Tips and Tricks 

  • BOX IT UP –  If you keep just putting things on shelves or the floor separately then you will run out of space quicker and things will get messy before you know it. So put all the smaller items you use, everything that doesn’t stack well into a box. Get those big plastic containers and put everything you have in them. They stack well, keep it neat and also keep your things in better condition, and we all know that we don’t have money to replace anything so it’s perfect.
  • GO UP – You need shelves, if you don’t have shelving you aren’t making the most of your space. Go and buy some shelving from Bunnings. Cube shelving is great for the smaller things and garage shelving is perfect for holding those big storage tubs and heavier items. Putting boxes on the shelves and not stacking them on top of each other is much better because they are easily accessible and much better for taking out and putting back.
  • LABEL IT – You need to label everything, have a box for giveaways, hangtime stuff, consoles, decorations, game supplies, etc. and label it so everyone know where things go back. The biggest problem with storage is it is neat one week and trashed the next. Get that Sharpie out and start labelling your boxes.
  • HOOK IT – Not everything belongs on a shelf. Hooks are fantastic for cables, extension leads and almost anything that can somehow be hooked. It keeps cables neat neat, gets things off the ground and makes them super easy to get to.
  • THROW IT AWAY – Stop keeping that stuff you will never use again. If its trashed, if its old, if its just cheap and never used then put it in the bin. Store resources not rubbish. You may even find some things you haven’t used for ages and never will again that you can sell, make some cash and put it up on gumtree, but don’t keep storing it.
  • PRIORITISE IT – We all have things that we use weekly and some things that only get dragged out once a year for Winter Camp. So prioritise what you have, put seasonal things towards the back of the cupboard or up the top of the shelves and make it easiest to get to things that you use every week. Also try putting your big, chunky things to one side, like your Table Tennis table, foosball table, etc. so they don’t get in your way.

Storage is certainly not the funnest thing to talk about or to do, but once you get it done then it will make all the difference for your setup and pack up every week and will have you wondering why you didn’t do it sooner.