Smaller spaces don’t often offer an abundance of concealed storage. Those of us who work on compact interiors often find ourselves tasked with navigating and outfitting areas lacking wardrobes, pantries and/or utility closets. It’s for this reason that I often end up displaying everyday essentials in plain sight, whether in our home or for client projects, from storefronts to offices. And it’s partially because of this that I am so picky about the everyday items we invite into small spaces.
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I don’t find a lack of built in storage space to be inherently problematic — there are never ending workarounds in such situations. Instead, what frustrates me is how so many consumer products are designed as though ample storage space is a given. Pens at nationwide retailers come in packages of a dozen or more. Commonly used household hardware is packaged in divided plastic boxes containing multiple copies of each design within the collection. Thumb tacks are made available by the hundreds. And while buying in bulk is often be helpful, more economical and less wasteful depending on the situation, I am guessing that most average households don’t require dozens of identical, new pencils at a time, or fifty picture hangers and corresponding hardware that may or may not suit the project at hand. Why is it so tough to access only what we need without paying for and acquiring extras?
(Related post: Managing product packaging in small spaces.)
Sourcing secondhand typically allows me to find exactly what I’m seeking, package-free, without acquiring extras I don’t need. This is how we go about getting educational supplies for our kids, office goods for our small business, and hardware for our home and garden projects.
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