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Steph has the best attic space at her house. The entire area has flooring providing lots of storage space. Access is via drop-down stairs located in the middle of an interior hallway. It's very easy to drop the stairs to take things to and from the attic.
Take a look at how Steph and I went about getting her attic spaced cleaned (there had been rats up there! Yuck!) and organized. Materials:
This is a very dark look at the space before the improvement. The first improvement is to replace that one 60 watt light bulb with an easy to install light fixture.
We found a 5-panel LED garage light in a two-pack at Costco. It simply screws into the existing socket. The panels are adjustable so you can direct the light where it is needed. Also you can change the color intensity. It's a quick fix with big results. I also have these in closets at my house where formally a single light build existed. They are such an improvement over the single bulbs.
Scroll back up to that first pictures to see how much brighter the attic is with the 5-panel garage light.
The Greenmade utility rack is versatile in that you can set it up in two and three high sections.
Here it is assembled in the garage. We later found it easier to assemble them once the parts were in the attic.
Before the shelving could be brought up, the bins and boxes had to be moved out of the way. When things were being moved that's when we discovered the leftover evidence of the rat infestation. We quickly put on N-95 mask and gloves and continued working. We got rid of anything that was too far gone with evidence that rats had been there.
For the boxes that were undamaged, Steph found these tear proof (and hopefully vermin proof) bags from Home Depot to use.
Here's the first set of shelves in place. The bins were already in the attic so it was just a matter of placing them onto the shelves.
Four of the blue bags fit perfectly on a two-shelf high unit.
Steph even found storage space for her large suitcase.
If you've been around for a while, you know Steph has an extensive Lego collection. She doesn't save all the boxes, but there are some that she wants to keep. The ones that can be folded flat are on the top shelves and the ones that can't be folded are stored below.
Ideally, these boxes should be stored in temperature controlled spaces, but Steph does not have room for those. For added protection, she found some large plastic bags on Amazon to enclose the Lego boxes.
Everything is neatly organized and easy to access.
The oversized bags also enclose her suitcase. The extra dog bed was also put into a bag to keep it dust free.
The attic is all organized and now vermin free and clean of evidence of the unfortunate rat infestation. My job was to pass things up and down from the ground. I never did go up into the attic!
I would say the first thing about cleaning up and organizing an attic would be to choose a time when it's not too cold and not too hot. We worked during a coolish week in October (we are in North Florida.) It was perfect.
Because of the evidence of rats dropping, etc., we did put on N-95 face masks and gloves. We should have done this from the get-go as attics are dusty and can be moldy. Lastly, we did go back to Costco to get another set of shelving and will probably buy a third. The Greenmade utility racks really were the perfect option for the attic space. Please note: This is not a sponsored post. FYI: We are not professionals, and we don't claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first! FYI: Affiliate links are being used on this page. Purchasing via these links help support MDP. Related Projects
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