The Small-Space Storage Fit Plan

Measure the stuff before the space, count the bins you can reach, load shelves by the maker's rating, anchor before you load, and buy only the shortfall

CozyLittle's free calculators answer "how much fits" in inches, litres and cubic feet, and until this plan the Bookshelf & Media Capacity Calculator counted by width alone: a 36-inch shelf "holds roughly 30" hardcovers, about 60 lb at a rule-of-thumb 2 lb each, whatever the shelf is rated for. The Under-Bed Calculator reports litres beside a one-way bin count, and the Storage Volume Calculator prints a volume ceiling no real packing reaches. None of them asks which bins you can actually reach. The Small-Space Storage Fit Plan measures the stuff before the space and fits it by whole bins and by the maker's rating. On a worked example, 100 hardcovers, 40 paperbacks and 80 records fit a five-shelf bookcase by width with 12 inches to spare, and are 20 lb over its 50 lb shelves by weight; loaded the width way, 4 of the 5 shelves are over. The plan loads heavy low and light high, moves the records to a low unit, and anchors every tall unit before it is loaded. Under the bed, 515 usable quarts read as twelve 40-quart bins on the label, six on the grid, and four you can reach: the plan buys four. Every figure is computed by the site's own calculators from example numbers you replace with yours; item weights are rules of thumb, and no load rating is ever invented, only the maker's. Furniture that tips over can kill or injure a child: anchor with the maker's anti-tip kit, keep heavy things low, never let children climb, and keep doors, escape windows and smoke alarms clear. Included: 24 printable pages with 7 steps, an inventory sheet, a space sheet, a shelf load plan, a safety and buy checklist, a shelf-load reference table, and a personalised sheet worked out from the numbers you entered in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the plan, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• Measure the Stuff Before the Space: books and media in linear inches and pounds, soft things in quarts, and how to weigh your own
• Usable Space Is Smaller Than the Gap: under-bed clearance with the mechanism down, the fill factor, and each shelf's rated load from the maker
• Count the Bins You Can Reach: the label, the volume ceiling, the grid both ways round, and the bins with nothing in front of them
• The Rating Sets the Count: items per shelf by width and by the maker's rating, for seven kinds of books and media
• Heavy Low, Light High, Never Over: a shelf-by-shelf load plan, and when the heaviest group moves to a low unit
• Anchor Before You Load: anti-tip kits, children and climbing, the way out, smoke alarms, and the floor and door check
• Buy the Shortfall, Not the Volume: a buy list written as specs, checked against the grid, the plan and the door
• The inventory sheet and the space sheet, printable
• The shelf load plan and the safety and buy checklist, printable
• A shelf-load reference table at four example ratings, and a one-page quickstart

The plan picks up where the free Under-Bed & Drawer Volume Calculator leaves off. The calculator turns the space under a bed into litres and cubic feet; the plan turns it into whole bins you can actually reach, by their outside size and both ways round, with the Storage Volume Calculator. It counts shelves by the maker’s load rating as well as by width with the Bookshelf & Media Capacity Calculator, loads the heaviest things lowest, and checks the floor and the door with the Room Layout & Furniture Fit Calculator before anything is bought. It never invents a load rating: only the maker can give one. Furniture that tips over can kill or injure a child, so the plan anchors every bookcase, dresser and tall unit to the wall with the maker’s anti-tip kit before it is loaded, and keeps doors, escape windows and smoke alarms clear. The worked figures are examples and the item weights are rules of thumb.