I am totally on board with the shoe bags for hiding places. This is my vertical junk drawer behind the laundry room door. I also use behind the door for yard sticks. This is truly hidden because no one go into the laundry room then close the door behind them. I don't think even DH knows there are things behind the door.

Under the skirted bench in the living room is the grand babies' toy box. No one knows--except them!

Don't even think about looking behind the shower curtain in the guest bath!

Speaking of "on the floor" hiding places: When I had 3 overflow pantry units installed in the garage, they left some space under the units-I'm sure for good reason maybe in case water got in the garage?? Anyway, I measured and yes, just enough room for 6 storage containers sans the lids. I attached some cabinet handles so I could pull them out easily. I installed handles on all of the under bed storage containers.

My daughter is a clothes horse. She has a good job, lives at home, but her entire payject goes to the mall. She owns so many clothes she can't keep them off the floor. She has a regular closet and a chest of drawers in her room, yet the majority of her clothing is piled on the Floor. Not-so-secret storage!

See, here I thought this thread was going to be about where to shove stuff when company was coming. :-)

And that is why my office was in such bad shape - because when people come over, I put the dogs in the office so they won't bother anyone. Everything else that needs quick hiding goes there too, because no one dares open the "dog guarded" door.

As for secret "everyday" storage - the top of my closet, under the bed, under the nightstands (with long tablecloths, of course), and in our end tables (storage behind doors).

Great use of space Mustangs! We have four of those type of cabinets in our garage for storage for hubby. He too hung them on the wall above the floor so we could park the rider mower and snow blower monster under them. Storage without the loss of floor space is grand, isn't it? You made great use of that space. Bravo!

Jannie, Does your daughter use the space under her bed? If not have her buy some containers. Just tell her they'll still be on the floor the way she "likes" them. ;^) And add handles like mustangs did. I love that idea!

Jamie, I think we all have those rooms for quick clean up when company comes without much warning. I know we did in our last home. It was the master bedroom. "Grab the paper bags kids, so and so is coming over and we don't have time to do a proper cleaning!" LOL. I actually miss those days. I'm usually home alone with just the kitties. Though Mollee loves picking things up I've missed and bringing them to me, she does't put them where they belong. We never know what we'll find at the bedroom door in the morning. Whatever she happens to think doesn't belong where she found it she brings up during the night and leaves it for us to find in the morning. She's such a dear. We first noticed this when she was nine months old and we'd finished screening in the front porch. She was there while we picked up what we thought was all the nails and bits of screen and screen tight clippings. I took a break at my computer and soon heard her itty bitty mew, looked up from my computer and there she was. She'd come to me with a nail in her mouth dropping it at my feet when we made eye contact. She did this until there was no longer any scraps on the porch. I've had many cats in my life and known of many more, but none have ever brought things other than dead or half dead critters to me. She's a big kittie. Mainecoone breed so she's not done growing yet. 8^O

~Becky

My first thought was the chocolate that is *always* hidden in the tampon box (shhh!), but then realized that's not quite what you're looking for! My kitchen "pantry" is in the back of my laundry room closet and the master bedroom closet seems to be a catch all space for... too many things!

Did I mention using the attic? If you don't have a pull down ladder for easy access it's so worth installing one. I could kick myself for not realizing we could have had a real staircase from our daughter's walk-in closet to the attic just like real Victorian homes had. Though there's were usually from the hallway and not a walk-in closet since they most often didn't have closets at all.
Hubby is waiting for cooler weather so he can finish adding flooring to part of our attic so we can use it.

Oh merrygardener, I love that idea! Now that my hubby like dark chocolate there's reason to hide it. LOL. Never had to do that before since I was the only one that loved dark chocolate. I've created a monster!

May I please join in? I've been a regular over on GW's Kitchens and Decorating forums for a while now, but just today found this great forum. Being a big fan of Mustang's organizing ideas over on Decorating, I know this is a place I'm really going to enjoy . . . and make good use of. I'll have to think about my own organizing spots; for now I'm just enjoying all your great ideas.
Lynn

Hey Lynn, Welcome to you! And I am a big fan of your decorating style and eye for color.

Hi Lynn...welcome !

merrygardener...cute! My own stash of chocolate is in my office behind closed doors...where only I know where it is! I just had to go and look for it to make sure...almost couldn't find it! Yep...it's there and O.K.

I also use a plastic door hanging bag behind my office door and DH has a hat rack for over his office door.

I am not sure if I need more space or less stuff...right now I am going with "less stuff"! But always open to find a place for what I do have.

Not my idea, but I love the idea of storing blankets between the mattress and box springs. I haven't done it yet, but have recommended it to others after reading it here.

My favorite addition to the new kitchen...toe kick storage. They're in every cabinet base:

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Well hello Lynn and Igloo. I'm glad you found it over here too. I just recently decided to check what other boards where all here and found this great one too.

Mustangs, I'm going to have to look for you on the decorating board, Ofcourse things move so fast there if you don't keep on top of it you'll miss quite a bit.

Bruglover, I'm with you on the *most likely need less stuff* instead of more space to hide it. I just know myself well enough to know "less stuff" is never going to happen.

Igloo, I didn't hear about that kind of storage until after our kitchen was in or I would have wanted it too. It should be a law that all kitchens have to have those drawers in them. Don't you agree?

~Becky

Igloo, I had just one of those in my kitchen and thought it was so great. That's were I got the inspiration to put the storage boxes under my garage storage units (posted above).

Obviously I feel like my house might be home some day LOL otherwise I wouldn't dream of storage...or it could be that when I walk into either gargage (both filled with our things) I scream and run back into the house...heh heh

Mustangs - you have a PLATE HOLDER in the picture! you sent me a PLATE HOLDE in 2003!! HA HA HA our junk just goes around and around...

There are THREE plate holders in there!

How many plates do you have, that need a new hanger now and then?

Ha Ha-There in lies my organizational problem, I don't have any plates to hold! MommaBird, I can't believe you caught that! Talley_Sue, I am going to throw them away right now!

I originally kept buying them to hang this platter that I brought home from Italy but none were large enough until I found this wrought iron one.

Well if having more than one plate hanger that's not in use if not allowed then I'm in big trouble! I love hanging plates and am always grabbing different kinds when I see them "just in case".
Love your plate by the way mustangs.

WOW Mustangs - that corner of your kitchen is really beautiful! I LOVE the wallpaper and that platter looks great with it! The PLATE HANGER is also really beautiful!

Now that I am well into middle age (assuming I live to be 120), I realize that if I hide it, I forget it, so I might as well pitch it...

An old friend of mine who is a long-time well-regarded interior designer here has a big dining room in her Victorian town house, and for as long as I can remember, she has had a huge round table in there covered with a rather gorgeous upholstery-grade floor length cloth. She puts a liner and a linen cloth over it for dinner parties. She had the legs and top cut for her out of something plain and ordinary, and she hides huge amounts of stuff under there.

Our house, also a Victorian town house, has the most ridiculous closet in the dining room...picture a wall with 11-foot ceilings, a tall window in the right hand corner, and a little Smurf door less than 6 feet high in the left hand corner...the door opens to an 18-inch deep closet that runs back behind the wall for about seven feet with a clothes pole and shelf at the 5-foot height. Sort of like a pizza box up on its side. So I decided to store the out-of-season clothes in zippered bags made of something like Tyvek stacked up in the far back, and I hang tablecloths on hangers above them. I found a very skinny 22-inch wide mesh rolling cart with four basket-shelves at The Container Store, and I bought two...they just clear the doorway side to side, and two will fit the depth of the closet. I put one behind the other just inside the door, with small serving dishes and cloth napkins I use for dinner parties rolled up on cardboard tubes in the front one, and light bulbs and extension cords in the back one. I'm still working on how to use the shelf, and the space above the little carts.