Under the stairs

Now we live in a bungalow I do miss our 'Glory Hole'. Used to put the buggy, vacuum and ironing board under there and our DD played in it as a den when friends came round.

Why hang on to things you don't use, just be ruthless, the things like suitcases, you only need a couple, could go in a spare room or the loft. I plucked up the enthusiasm to get rid of anything I didn't love or was used, I do the one thing in one out now. I used to have things going back years that I never wore, its different if you use all those coats and shoes. Books I never reread, apart from reference books, then only rarely as everything is on I pad now. Good luck.

Tanith, this is exactly what ours is. Wa!l removed to make a bigger room. However under the stairs is still boxed in.and the sofa is across it. There is actually nothing stored in there and only last week I mentioned doing this to dh. The seed is sown.. And now I will show him your pic.

That does look good, tanith. It looks as though it has combined storage with creating a wider hall, which is the best of both worlds.

Maybe the first step would be ruthless clean out and give away to Oxfam or a similar place. Once that is done, then you will have a better idea of exactly what storage you need and want. It is so easy to put things back for "someday when I might need it". I read a post here that mentioned what your survivors would have to face when they have to do the clean out. That gave me a real boost to get more realistic in my situation.

If you want the hall to be not so narrow, I don't understand why you are thinking of putting storage in the space.

How about getting rid of the living room wall, as in tanith's pic, even if you don't change the stairs?

AKA The Glory Hole according to my DM.

Coats, a box of yarn, another of fabric, a pair of crutches, two boxes of LPs. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Only six dozen coats, there is no room for more.

A concrete lintel which is handy if you feel like banging your head.

I'd like to have the stairs turned round so that we could make better use of the space.

Put the clutter you want to keep in your loft and go for what Tanith suggested. It looks fab.

No room- move over Hattie!

In my house the previous owners had the wall taken down between the small living room and hall, had the stars made open as in no risers and removed the under stairs cupboard.
They built a very narrow cupboard and shelf unit under the stairs barely 15” wide to enclose the gas and electric meters could be used as a computer table although we use it as a book/ cd unit.
It’s incorporated the space into the living room and makes the under stairs space much more useful instead of a dark cupboard filled with ‘stuff’.
The probably explains it better than me

It's less the storage than the space I want, really. I can move the things I want to keep (and yes, I do need a ruthless clear out!), but I could put some sort of units in there when I do.

In our last house we had an 'office' space under the stairs, but then we had two children at home and a desktop computer which needed to go somewhere, and the hall was a thoroughfare, so we could keep an eye on what they were doing on the PC. Nowadays we both have laptops, and it's more comfortable using them on our laps.

I also wondered about shallow shelving, but I'm trying to thin out the books which also threaten to overtake the house, and I don't want something else to keep tidy. Maybe I should try to adopt a minimalist approach, but it doesn't come naturally to me .

I agree with Lucca really.

They would hide the clutter

Get rid of the clutter and hopefully you won’t need the storage.

Be ruthless. Dispose of at least 3000 coats.