My house is tidy 95% of the time – here are the realistic storage tricks that make it possible

Home decorator and content creator Grace H is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on colourful home design, mixing vintage pieces with new and making personality-filled spaces. See the rest of her articles here.

If you follow me online, you’d be forgiven for thinking I live in a pristine, perfectly curated sanctuary where dust doesn't exist and clutter goes to die. People often tell me, ‘I can’t ever imagine your house being messy!’ - which is hilarious, because under this polished exterior, I am far more of a slob than the internet gives me credit for.

However, and I’m slightly nervous to admit this here, our house is never really that messy, for two main reasons. First, my other half is utterly obsessed with cleaning (I genuinely think he’d attach a hoover to one of his arms if it were an option). Second, I am a massive fan of realistic storage. Some of it is prettier than others, but I thought I’d share how we actually manage to keep on top of things.

I’m going to break this into two parts – upstairs and downstairs – as I have a lot to say on the matter! First up is the downstairs; let’s take a room-by-room look at how we’ve made it work for us.

Hallway

When I say my other half is clean, that doesn’t necessarily mean tidy… He has quite the collection of trainers and seems entirely incapable of putting them away. To combat this, I came up with the idea of building a shoe cubby, and it’s worked a charm. The overflow lives under the stairs in a pull-out basket, but it keeps his never-ending collection of Converse’s off the floor... most of the time.

It’s also crucial to have drop points the moment you walk through the front door. Keys, coats, letters, sunglasses (remember those days?) they all need a dedicated home. This is a great place to introduce vintage pieces. A wicker letter holder, a wooden box, a brass coat rack, a ceramic dish, an umbrella stand – make it beautiful, but keep it practical. If it takes effort to put something away, you won’t do it, so make every inch of space work hard.

Living room

We’re really lucky to have built-in alcove storage. Do I think it looks incredibly chic to have two demi-lune tables with oversized lamps above them? Yes. But I’d much rather our home looks tidy 95% of the time than have nice images to share on Instagram for just 5% of it so closed storage wins. Our cupboards house old DVDs (we’ve whittled them down, but there are still a few my partner insists on keeping just to annoy me), books, charging cables for our rechargeable lamps, and basically anything else I shove in there when I can’t be bothered to tidy properly.

My gorgeous ‘Grace’ ottoman from The House Upstairs is a real statement piece in our living room, but lots of people don’t realise that it opens up. It holds all our ugly electric throws (why can’t someone make pretty ones?!) and magazines I’ve yet to read. A tray sits on top, which can easily be moved aside when we need to get inside.

Speaking of trays, I cannot recommend them enough. I’ve sung their praises before, but they really help to corral items together so that clutter looks intentional. Matchboxes, candles, coasters, and a mini lamp are all things we use regularly, so it makes sense to keep them in one place. Our remote-control lives in a vintage dominoes box as it’s the perfect size, looks chic, and keeps the tech hidden.

Baskets by the side of the sofa are another must-have – lidded is best, though I’m still searching for one in the right size. They're great for holding extra blankets (I love to be cosy) and phone chargers so they can be whipped out at a moment's notice.

I prefer to keep everyday clutter hidden away so that the special objects on display in this room get their time to shine.

Downstairs loo

Why go to the effort and expense of fitting fabulous wallpaper just to ruin the aesthetic with ugly essentials on display? The downstairs loo is on my Saturday 'Big Clean' list (don’t let him fool you that I don’t do any cleaning around here), and because I want an easy life, I’ve hidden all my favourite cleaning supplies and spare loo rolls in a narrow basket next to the toilet.

The ledge holds trinket dishes alongside room spray, reed diffusers, and candles so the space remains clutter-free. I really wanted to add a sink skirt to add more storage but lost the battle. However, this is a great solution to eke out more storage space.

Kitchen diner

You’ll usually have fitted cupboards in a kitchen, but when designing a space, you really have to think about real life. We inherited our kitchen, and my biggest bugbear was the complete lack of vertical storage – where on earth were the mop and hoover supposed to live?

We had one tall cupboard we could have sacrificed, but it features incredibly handy pull-out pantry drawers that are worth their weight in gold, so we didn’t want to lose them. There was another tall unit housing the boiler and a somewhat pointless shelf, so we took a jigsaw to it and cut out a corner so we could mount the hoover inside (we actually have a hoover upstairs and downstairs – I told you he was obsessed!) We also bought a cheap caddy online to make use of the full height of the bottom shelf, so now all the cleaning products have a home. Rummaging through cupboards no longer stands in the way of one man and his cleaning routine.

The trusty tray strikes again by the cooker, holding everyday items like olive oil, salt and pepper grinders, and a garlic pot. It helps that they’re all pretty, too: we’ve decanted the olive oil into a spatterware jug, the grinders are aesthetically pleasing, and the little garlic holder is a cute vintage find. repurposed candle pots filled with colourful teaspoons sit by the kettle, ugly teabags are tucked into vintage tins, and cute mini jugs for warming milk all serve to make everyday tasks that bit prettier and more accessible. If there is a prettier version of something that you use every day, it’s well worth it in the long run.

The alcove cupboards in here are full to the brim with tablecloths, candles, an overflow of vinyl records, picture frames waiting for a coat of paint, our Wi-Fi router, and anything else I can cram in to be honest. These cupboards (along with one particular kitchen drawer) are the equivalent of my ‘Monica cupboard’.

Our vintage sideboard looks lovely, but it’s a total workhorse. Each of its six drawers has a dedicated purpose: tools, spare cables, taper candles, paint sample pots and brushes (you never know when inspiration will strike in this house!) and general knick knacks that can only be filed under ‘miscellaneous’.

I’ve even hung a curtain over our fireplace to transform the unused cavity into secret storage. It might be unconventional, but it works a charm! As does our drinks cabinet, which actually houses my partner's gym gear. I was so sick of his stuff piling up by the back door that I gave it a chic new home – out of sight, out of mind.

Finally, a ratty old basket lives by the back door for kicking shoes into. Is a battered basket by the back door particularly chic? Probably not, but it works, and it reflects the reality of how we use our home.

I share all of this not to be smug about how tidy we generally are on the whole, but in the hope of helping others realise that we need to be practical about storage and how we actually live day-to-day. We don’t have kids, so I fully appreciate that keeping on top of things with little ones around is far trickier, but there is always a storage solution out there. It might not be used for its original intended purpose, but finding it is half the fun!

At the end of the day, living out your clutter-free fantasy doesn't mean changing who you are; it just means choosing pieces that do the heavy lifting for you. When every beautiful storage item has a genuine purpose, you get all the aesthetic credit with about 5% of the actual effort. So, buy the pretty basket, hide the ugly chargers, and let everyone think you’ve totally got your life together (I certainly seem to have fooled everyone online!).

I’ve got plenty more tricks up my sleeve, so keep an eye out for Part Two, where I’ll be spilling all my secrets for upstairs storage – from taming bedroom chaos to hiding the inevitable bedside mug collection.