Frugal Living    Thrift     Saving Money     Penny Pinching       Home

Frugal Living Tips and Frugal Living Articles for
Frugal Happy Families

The Frugal Library

Search Frugal and Simple Living Sites by Keyword Below

 

 

Welcome to one of the thousands of pages on Frugal Happy Families.

You and Your Attic by Nikki Willhite Do you have an attic in your home? My love for attics is right up there with front porches and sun rooms. Attics, when they have good head room, are a wonderful place to store things. When shabby chic become a popular decorating style, there were a lot of people pulling down old furniture and "hand me downs" from their attics. Sometimes homes have unfinished attic space, and it is only a matter of putting down plywood for the flooring, and adding some battery operated lights to make them useable. When you have a useable attic, it helps to keep the clutter down in your home without you having to dispose of memories from the past. The key to making your attic an asset to your home is organization. While it may be fun to spend an afternoon rummaging through the attic reminiscing, when you need to find something in a hurry, and you make a big mess trying to find it, your attic becomes less of a "happy space." Attics are usually irregular shapes. The walls are oddly shaped, and the space may be filled with  obstacles from the structure or mechanics of the house. You can't just buy some utility shelves and arrange everything neatly against the walls. You have to put things where there is space, and that can be very unstructured. You don't have to be concerned about the appearance of the storage containers in your attic. You can use anything that works, from cardboard boxes, to trunks or plastic storage containers.What you need is a system so that you know where your items are located. The best way to keep your attic organized, besides arranging items as neatly as possible, is to keep a master list on your computer. Write down everything that is stored in your attic, and where it is located. It is not important how you write things down, because every word processing program has a "find" feature. It is only important that you do it.  The hard part is taking the inventory, and writing down the items and their location. Obviously it is best when you can group similar items, like Christmas decorations, in the same area. However, sometimes space considerations make that impossible. That is where the list comes in so handy. Be sure and keep your list updated. Print it out, and make changes when items leave the attic, or are moved to another location. A few times a year you can update the master list on your computer. Take your list with you when you return items to the attic, so you put them back in the same location. I don't believe in accumulating a lot of clutter. However, when I look back to some of the things I had in my hands when I was young, and that were lost, I can only wish that my parents would have had an attic, with a space designated for my things. Perhaps I would have kept some of those things that have either risen in financial or sentimental value. If you are lucky enough to have an attic, make good use of it.  About the Author: Nikki Willhite, mother of 3 and an interior design graduate, has been writing and publishing articles on the topic of frugal living for over a decade. Visit her at www.frugalhappyfamilies.com - where you will find hundreds of frugal living tips and articles. Frugal Happy Families- more than just money!

 

 

 

The Frugal Network
Free Clipart	Frugal Happy Families	Mini Preppers	Scrappy Quilting	Simple Living Toolbox
Be warm, be safe;   save time and money.    Be frugal and be happy.

Home