Storage Furniture: 10 Pieces That Add More Space for an Organized Home

In this post: Trying to find places to store all your clutter? Use these 10 pieces of storage furniture to create bonus space for an organized home.⇒

There’s more to an organized home than buying storage bins.

There are tactics and strategies for keeping your home clutter free and some of them are not as obvious as editing your things or buying less in the first place.

One of my favorite approaches for staying organized is to select furniture that provides some type of storage space. Even one extra drawer can make a big difference, as it helps you keep things near the place you will use them.

If you’re buying a console table to place in the entryway, why not pick one that also has drawers? This little added bonus, when utilized throughout your home, can add quite a bit of additional storage.

Storage Furniture

Each piece of furniture that you add to your home is an opportunity to opt for an additional storage perk. We all know that dressers and bookcases provide storage, but I’m referring to pieces whose main function is something other than mere containment.

Let’s look at 10 pieces of furniture that can have surprising storage benefits.

The pieces in this post were selected for their chic style, storage capacity and affordable pricing. I’ve selected the ones that appeal to my rustic French taste, but they also lean updated, if not modern.

Dining Table with Drawers

You may be thinking “what can you put in those tiny shallow dining table drawers?”, but I promise you the answer is they are amazingly helpful. In fact, this is one I swear by.

I keep 2 sets of silverware in my dining table. It opens up space in the cabinet where I used to keep them, and makes them way more convenient to get to. I entertain a lot, and the dining table drawers are a lifesaver.

You might also use them for placemats, napkins and napkin rings, or anything else you use on the table that would be easy to grab from the drawers.

Storage Ottoman

Storage ottomans come in all shapes and sizes and the key to their utility is to use them wisely. If you keep them empty, that’s as futile as having an empty closet, yet if you toss various odd-shaped things into their deep cavernous space, your things will get lost and you won’t be any more organized.

The best things to store in an ottoman are large soft items like spare pillows and throws. You should be able to find what you’re looking for easily and add them back neatly when you’re putting things away. Other good candidates depend on the room the ottoman is in, but could include towels, extra bed linens, or out of season clothes.

The main thing is to ensure you put things in neatly as the large undivided space can easily get cluttered. Be sure you can see things at a glance when you look inside.

Media Cabinet with Doors

With wall hung TVs and smart devices, most of us no longer need large entertainment units. But keeping a media cabinet under the TV is a great place to store all kinds of media. Whether you still have DVDs or use game consoles and the like, a cabinet with doors keeps the room looking tidy.

If you’ve streamlined enough to have no media to store, this is a great place to keep those papers that would otherwise be sitting on the coffee table. Get a few inbox containers to keep behind the doors and you can pull out a project to work on while relaxing on the couch. It’s likely only a few steps past the coffee table!

Coffee Table with Drawers

And speaking of the coffee table, this is golden opportunity to have a piece of furniture that does more than hold your morning coffee. A lower shelf is the perfect place for books and magazines, or fabric covered boxes that hold all sorts of things.

But even better if it has drawers, so you can hide the remotes and yet keep them accessible, or store board games and other items that are used in the room.

Just be sure there’s a logic to your storage system and try to keep things in only one place. With extra drawers, the last thing you want to do is create more spaces to have to search through. Always keep the same things in these drawers. If this is where you keep the board games, keep them all here and nowhere else.

Bar Unit with Nooks

There’s nothing like a piece of furniture with all sorts of nooks and crannies, but as above, decide what you store here and stick to it. Make sure that it’s logical so you always know where to look.

In the bar unit, keep things related to cocktails or serving and entertaining, so wine bottles in the wine rack, glasses in the pull down bar, cocktail napkins and serving trays in the pull out drawers, and perhaps a mixer behind the larger cabinet doors.

What not to keep here: toys, clothing, random room decor. When deciding where to store things, ask yourself where is logical and make sure the answer is the same every time you think about it. That way, you’ll always know where your things are.

End Table with Bin

Another wasted opportunity is the end table with only a top surface. Sure, if you love it and you don’t need the space, go ahead and get it, but if you have clutter laying around, this is your chance to provide a home for a few often used things.

If it’s a table with a drawer, that’s another option for the remotes, or daily papers like the mail and your to-do list.

If it’s got a shelf or a bin like the piece pictured above, it’s the ideal location for the books and magazines you are currently reading (not the full subscription from the inception of the publication!) or small devices like an iPad or a laptop. As with the ottoman, use caution in what you store here, as it can become a landing zone for all sorts of clutter.

Desk with Hutch

I marvel at the people who use a desk that’s comprised of 4 legs and a flat surface, as the key to an organized workspace is compartments and more compartments.

You need drawers and file space at the very least. All the better if you can have a desk and hutch with additional sections to store things. If there’s one thing even the most organized person needs to corral, it’s the steady flow of papers that come through our lives. The more segmented your desk, the better.

Console Table with Cabinets

Like the other tables on the list, a simple console table with no storage is a missed opportunity. A shelf is the bare minimum, as it can hold pitchers, vases and other decor. A few drawers and a couple of cabinet doors is an even greater bonus.

Assign the piece a purpose and use it accordingly. As always, it will greatly depend on the room it lives in, but in an entryway, it might be the place you store all of your hats and gloves. In the dining room it can be the home for all your candles and votives. In a hallway, perhaps it stores all of your stationery. Whatever its role, be unwavering. That’s the secret to being organized.

Bed Frame with Drawers

The concept of keeping things under the bed is one that drives me crazy, much like keeping things on the floor of the closet. But add drawers to the bed frame and it’s a whole different story. If you absolutely need the storage space in a small bedroom, take advantage of the beds that come with storage drawers. Keep extra blankets and linens here, or in a pinch, it can even house your clothing. Just don’t be random about it. Decide on a use and be all in.

Shelf Unit with Storage Boxes

While I didn’t include dressers, china cabinets or bookcases because their uses are so obvious, an open shelf unit is a different matter. When paired with rattan baskets or fabric covered boxes, a shelf unit can provide quite versatile storage, and at the same time be styled in a decorative manner.

These are the unsung heroes of the storage furniture pieces because depending on the containers you match them with, they can store almost anything.

When it comes to storage furniture, the most important thing to remember is that each piece should have a specific part to play, and the more you adhere to that assigned role, the more organized your spaces will be.

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