Solve Storage Stress
By Embracing Clutter

March 5, 2002 -- Like many Americans, this winter Page Owen has been cocooning with the kids -- buying board games, toy cars and plastic building blocks. By January, "there was Lego everywhere," he says. So the Stonington, Conn., botanist made one more purchase: a 10-foot-tall, $40,000 custom-designed storage unit -- for the library.

These days, when it comes to storage, Americans are letting it all hang out. The country's stay-at-home mood has sales rising for everything from DVDs to hobby gear, but closets are already stuffed. To deal with the overflow, homeowners are hiring professional "organizers" and buying storage systems at a near-record pace -- sales at one national storage chain were up 10% in December, despite the economy. And the latest solution to hiding clutter is not to hide it at all. More and more, the stuff that was once shoved into drawers -- from art supplies to underwear -- is being put out on display. Says Arlington, Va., interior designer Michael Roberson, "Closets are coming out of the closet."

The result: Across the country, sales are booming in things like the Container Store's $249 flip-door bookcase, which lets you switch between revealing and concealing the stuff on your shelves. The recently launched Martha Stewart "Keeping" collection for K-Mart has 300 separate items, including a see-through vinyl closet. And then there's the "Family Convergence Center" -- a 20-foot-long wall system that includes a media center, a craft table, two computer stations and nearly 30 cubbyholes. The maker calls it the "Swiss Army knife" of storage. Price: $5,000 to a hefty $45,000, depending on materials and finishes.

Hallways to Nowhere

In New York, architect Ronnette Riley's clients are so reluctant to send anything to the basement that she's designed a number of fake "hallways" this winter by building a new wall with built-in bookcases a few feet from an existing wall. The hallway goes nowhere, of course, but it creates lots of shelf space. Isn't that dark? Yes, says Ms. Riley, but her clients would "rather not have sunlight" than have their things where they can't be seen. They're hardly alone. These days, says Rachel Shelton of the Closet Factory, an L.A. retailer, "there's less hiding away of both storage systems and what you store."

Indeed, some people may be taking the trend a little too far. Carol Tanzi, a Burlingame, Calif., interior designer, had one client convert a lingerie closet into a -- tiny -- guest room. Where'd all her underthings go? The living room, where they were put into decorative boxes. Ms. Roberson, the Virginia designer, was asked to put so much storage and display space in one child's room that there was no room for the bed. She had to downsize the mattress, from a double to a custom three-quarter-size.

Part of what's driving all this at-home exhibitionism is that storage and shelving units are now a lot more stylish. Once the choice was pretty much between wire shelves or that white, plasticky wood (it's called melamine). Now units come in hardwoods, with crown moldings and raised-panel doors. The fancier look has bumped up the price, too. Once a system cost about $500 (for a 7-foot-tall unit with bookshelves and doors). These days, the same thing in a nicer wood runs about four times that. And, says Pam Hillebrand, who owns a Baltimore storage store, "I can add even more bells and whistles, and the price will keep going up, up, up."

Trying Bungee Cord

Of course, not everyone's willing to shell out. When things got out-of-hand in Shaun Tray's family room this winter, the Laurel, Md., father simply bungee-corded everything -- including his kids' drum sets and a suitcase full of finger paints -- from the ceiling. "I hit my head sometimes, but they're out of the kids' reach," he says. To make more room for their kids' toys, Steve and Summer Kidder, of Fairway, Kan., ripped the doors off the guest-room closets and cabinets and lined them with plastic bins. But now, they no longer have a place for visitors to sleep. That's OK, says Mrs. Kidder. "I told my mother there's a good hotel nearby."

Mr. Owen's unit is a lot more attractive -- made of cherry, it's got lots of shelves to show off his collections of books and Hot Wheels cars. But it's not without problems. To get the thing into the library and assembled, they had to move out most of the furniture -- which is currently making the family room almost impassable. "It's quite ridiculous," says his wife, Diana Owen. But at least they can use their shelves. A friend of Joan Morgan-Murray's spent hours assembling his build-it-yourself shelving kit and even bolted it to the wall of his New York apartment -- only to discover he'd put it in upside down.

But the booming industry could soon face a crisis even bigger than bad instructions and nightmare assembly: spring cleaning. Indeed, while Ms. Riley, has designed more display space for clients lately, personally she's pared down. She even lent out 900 miniature souvenir buildings she owns. "It's a relief to have them gone," she says. "My cats kept knocking them over."

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