Storage Solutions Of Every Size

If you've ever been to IKEA, you will know they don't offer products: they offer solutions. Bath solutions. Kitchen solutions. (Here is a game you can play with a friend: ask a member of staff, with a straight face, if they stock any toilet solutions.) And, of course, storage solutions. Masses and masses of them. I bloody love IKEA.

But if you're looking for something a bit different, that - while lacking the opportunity to stop off for meatballs and Dime bar cake - will look beautiful as well as functional, then take a look. I'll take you from cheapest to most expensive (stick around for the last one, it is flipping gorgeous).

Oh Muji, your acrylic boxes do not photograph fabulously, but imagine these acrylic drawers full of your make-up and how pleasing it will be to see everything lined up. No more rummaging around for your sensible work eyeliner in the mornings, giving up, and applying the blue glitter one instead. They're £10.95. And get these stackable boxes for your nail varnish - annoyingly, they're not on the UK website but always available in store for just £3.25.

Lisa Angel's vintage map storage boxes speak of travel and adventure, even if you just use them for cat treats and hair bands. They're £14 for the pair, there's free delivery, AND you get 5% off your first order. Use that 70p for a Crunchie bar, which you can then store in the box of your choice.

 

Ladies: I cannot emphasise enough the importance of learning DIY. It is immensely satisfying, plus you get to save huge amounts of money by not forking out your life savings so someone can fix your sink. There is nothing you cannot learn with a YouTube video and a willing spirit. And you can buy this Happy Jackson toolbox from Hunkydory Home for £15 and fill it with screwdrivers and spirit levels and sandpaper.

If you were going to start a COMPANY selling BASKETS, what would you call it? Too late - the Basket Company have got in before you. It's worth exploring their whole range as it's ludicrously huge, and you can shop by type, room or size. This grey wicker storage basket is £15 and is typical of their traditional style and reasonable pricing.

Now let's imagine you've got loads of vintage crates you want to sell. Your company is, of course, Vintage Crates. These storage companies take a very Ronseal approach to naming. Now let's imagine in a previous life you were a lady fruit picker and you struggled to carry your Braeburns to market. You need a women's apple crate, although at £27.50 that would have probably been your annual wages. It's ok: it's 2014 and you can use it to grow herbs in or, as the site suggests, 'carry things around'.

I didn't know I needed a steamer trunk covered in foxes until I saw this hunk of joy, and now it is all my heart desires. It's £225 from Anorak but I have a cunning plan: I will sell my bed, sleep in this for the next 50 years, and then pack all my belongings in it and go on a round-the-world cruise.