Make room for more than things

We often talk about making more room at home. But room for what? For Elfa storage expert Frida Swanson, that question is a rather good place to start.

“The aim isn’t to fill the home with storage. It’s to create space for the life that happens around it,” says Frida Swanson.

What does it mean, then, to make room for life rather than simply more things? Maybe the answer is to start somewhere else: not with what we want to fit in, but with how we want the space to work.

Sometimes that means looking at familiar spaces with fresh eyes. The unused height above a clothes rail. The rather awkward alcove that has never quite found its purpose. Or the best shelf in the wardrobe, currently occupied by something that makes an appearance twice a year.

But there is another side to Frida’s point too. Life changes, and our homes need to keep up. Children grow, interests come and go, working habits shift. What works brilliantly today may need to do something entirely different a few years from now.

That makes flexibility an important part of good storage planning. A shelf can become hanging space. An area once devoted to toys can take on a new role. The home can change without everything having to start again from scratch.

Perhaps that’s when storage is at its best: not when we notice how much we can fit in, but when we notice how well the space around us works.