78Onlinea place for everything: a guide to storage at home

An independent guide to storage and organising space at home. We do not sell furniture or carry out work, and we are not connected with the previous website on this domain. Leave complex installation to a professional.

Key concepts

Overview and key concepts

There is no shortage of storage tips, but almost all of them grow out of a few simple ideas. Once you understand those ideas, any life hack makes sense, and you can build your own system without borrowed layouts — to suit your home, your things and your pace of life.

Order is not the absence of things but a short path from each thing to its place.

— Food for thought

Why principles matter

Ready-made solutions from the internet often do not stick because they were designed for someone else's home. Principles, on the other hand, travel anywhere: to a small studio, a spacious house, a teenager's bedroom or a storeroom.

We focus on the core concepts: zoning, vertical storage, frequency of use and the 'less on display' principle. Together they answer the main question — where to put this item so you will not have to look for it later.

Zoning

Zoning means storing things where they are used. Keys, umbrellas and bags live by the front door, spices next to the hob, towels in the bathroom and chargers by the sofa or bed.

A single room can have zones too: in the hallway, one for leaving the house and one for coming home; in the kitchen, one for supplies, one for cooking and one for washing up. The more closely the zones match what you actually do, the fewer things end up out of place.

Vertical storage

Vertical storage uses the height of walls and wardrobes, not just floor space. Shelves above a worktop, hooks on a door, kitchen rails and tall shelving units free up the floor and make a room feel more spacious.

The vertical principle works inside drawers too: clothes folded upright can be seen at a glance, and you do not have to dig through a pile to get the bottom item. Tall furniture, however, must always be fixed to the wall so it cannot tip over.

Frequency of use

  • Daily items: between waist and eye level, near the front of the shelf and close to where they are used.
  • Weekly items: slightly higher or lower, but reachable without moving things or using a stepladder.
  • Seasonal items: on high cupboards, at the top of the wardrobe, under the bed or in the storeroom.
  • Rarely used and sentimental items: in labelled boxes where they do not get in the way of everyday life.
  • Heavy items: close to the floor, however often you need them.

Less on display

The fewer objects on open surfaces, the easier it is to clean and the calmer a room looks. Worktops, windowsills and bedside tables quickly fill up with odds and ends unless you agree on some rules.

Keep on display only what you use all the time or what genuinely makes you happy. Put the rest behind doors, in drawers and baskets. This is not about austerity; it is about giving your eyes a rest.

What we rely on

  • Furniture and fixings manufacturers' instructions
  • 78Online editorial materials

Our advice is kept general and is based on furniture and fixings manufacturers' instructions and on common household safety rules. Always check the fixing method, permitted load and the right wall plug for your wall in the instructions for the specific product, and leave complex installation to a professional.