In general, attics are the unseen, overlooked, and and often forgotten places in your home. Attic spaces vary as greatly as the homes underneath; but if organized properly these hidden places can provide vast storage space.
When trying to assess your attic space and determine it’s potential utility for storage you will need to consider a few key elements:
First, roof truss type. In most modern day homes, the attic space is utilized more for ventilation for the heating and cooling of your home than as usable space. These attics include trusses and studs crossing all throughout the attic space — making a lot of x’s and w’s. Thus, leaving you with a unique space above your home. You must maintain the ventilation aspects for your homes efficiency and insulation values, and work around all of this woodwork to create organizing solutions and store items in this otherwise wasted space.
When organizing among the maze of cross beams and studs, try to use them to your advantage. Depending on what you are trying to store, you can hang some items over these studs or lay items across several studs. The key to utilizing any of the floor space in an attic with blown-in insulation is to not compress the insulation. This can be done by building up the ceiling/floor joists with additional 2×4’s or 2×6’s and then placing sheets of plywood across the higher joist levels so air can move in between the bottom of the plywood and top of the insulation. In some instances you can reduce some insulation depth and build a small flat area for storage while still maintaining the insulation benefits.
Older homes and some newer homes, which do not include this type of attic space, can provide a much more open and usable space. In attics of this type you have a blank canvas to build and create storage solutions.
Second, temperature extremes. Almost all attics are subjected to temperature extremes of hot and cold.
If you’ve ever checked your attic in the summer you will find a space that is very hot and in the winter it will feel rather cold. Due to these temperature variances, not everything can or should be stored in this attic space. A prime example of something that should not be stored in an attic are candles as well as anything else that can melt under heat. Something good for attic storage are the holiday decorations.
Third, accessibility. Some attics have fold down stairs for easy access and allow for almost any size item to be stored in the attic. Other attics can only be accessed through a small access door in the ceiling, often tucked away in the ceiling of a closet or out-of-the-way place; limiting the size of the items that can be stored in this space.
Accessibility will determine the size and weight of items which you can easily get in and out of the attic space. If it is easy to get into your attic, then it may be fine to store items that you need/want to get into every month. Whereas, you may only want to crawl through the small access door in the ceiling of your closet once a year to get out the holiday decorations or to get down the beach gear for your summer vacation.
