The Minimalist Lifestyle

Your home came with a certain amount of storage space, and that is sometimes just not enough. The simplest way to get more storage is to add it in with furniture pieces or with built-ins.

Add storage with flea-market finds. Look for old dressers, chests, cabinets, and bookshelves. Look for anything that can store stuff.

An old chest, paint it to match the wall color in your closet, and put it in the closet. Store whatever you want to in it. An old trunk, clean it up, and store blankets in it and let it do double-duty as an end table. There are so many ideas that will come to you once you’re in that mindset.

When you go to the flea market, have something in mind. Measure the area in your home that you want to add storage to and have these measurements in mind while you shop. Have an image in your head of what the storage should be like. Maybe you want a chest-size piece. Be on the lookout. You’ll eventually find what you’re looking for. No, maybe not that day, but you will eventually run up on it.

That’s why it’s good to have all of your storage needs in mind when you go shopping. You’ll be more likely to find something that day to use somewhere.

You can take your flea-market items and use them as they are, once you’ve given them a cleaning, or you can paint them, add new hardware, and just generally get creative with them.

Built-in cabinets or wall units. Build them along walls in any room you want to. Even in the closet, the laundry room, the screened-in porch, the kitchen. Wherever there’s a need. How about that space over the commode?

You can also buy built-ins that you put together unit by unit and attach securely to your wall.

Aside from added storage and more organization, built-ins and flea-market finds give your home much more character. Keep these two methods in mind as you go about your minimalist lifestyle.

And happy Friday!