Everyone has extra stuff cluttering up their environment. Holiday decorations at home that are only used once a year need to be stored somewhere. Specialty tools at work that only need to be used every few months. The problem is what to do with these things when they are not in use. The obvious answer is extra storage space in the form of sheds, garages, and outbuildings.
Where To Start When Planning Your Storage Building
The first mistake that many people make when they start looking into storage buildings is the cost. They let the cheapest prices dictate what they can and cannot have. In this about.com article, the author starts right off by telling you that for just a little extra you can get a higher quality building.
Cumberland Buildings said to us, “The true first step is to determine how much extra space you actually need. Be generous when you are deciding what will have to go into storage and leave plenty of extra room. Storage is one of those things that there just never seems to be enough of. As time goes on you will accumulate more things that will need to be put away from time to time.”
Also, keep in mind the purpose of the storage building. Will it be mainly used for yard and garden equipment or for items out of the house? A lawn tractor requires room left clear to walk around it and climb on while a push mower only needs space behind it. Boxes of decorations can be stored on shelving while bags of potting soil and fertilizer need to be placed on the floor. Tools that have their own special hooks on the walls take up space that then cannot be used for shelving. These are just a few of the things to keep in mind.
Making A Storage Building Part Of The Home
Your storage building should be something that compliments your house or main building. As such things like roof style, shingle type and color, siding, and color all need to be considered. You want to avoid any colors that clash with the main building. The storage building should fade into the background of the yard. There but unnoticed. It is possible to go too far in both extremes when you are trying to achieve this effect.
For instance, an expensive large home in a gated community that has a cheap metal shed will stand out for all of the wrong reasons. Likewise a lower income home with a storage building that resembles a cottage nicer than the house will also cause comments. Similar colors and external materials can help to avoid these problems.
Determine Your Storage Building Security
Storing tools, garden tractors, and other items in the shed means that you should include some form of security. For most people, that means locks and strong walls. Check to see what you can use when you are deciding on your type of building. On some of them all that is available is a hasp and a padlock while on others you can install the same type of knob and deadbolt that you use for your home. Even a hasp and padlock can be made more secure depending on what lock you purchase to go with it. There are locks available that are specially designed to resist cutting that work quite well for the purpose.
As you can see, there are many considerations to take into account when choosing your storage building. This wikihow.com article should be able to help you with any further questions that you might have. Just remember, the amount of your stuff grows in direct proportion to how much storage space you have.
