In this post I want to cover something that can change not only how you organize your space, but also how intentionality storing things can feed into the design of your space.

Beyond the spectrum of accessibility I discussed in my post on active, passive, and archive storage, another dimension defines our storage choices: whether items are hidden or displayed. This seems quite obvious, yet many seem to struggle with it when it hasn’t been stated explicitly.

Certain types of storage solutions display their contents, while others hide it. Being aware of that difference will help you be more intentional about how you store things. 

Just to be clear, I am using the word ‘storage’ in a very broad sense: keeping stuff around. This includes stuff as mundane as remote controls, cans of chickpeas, concert memorabilia, and socks. The stuff we own usually needs to be in our space one way or another, whether that’s on a table, in a drawer, or in a basement.

In this post I’ll cover:

• Understanding the terms hidden and displayed storage
• How to use them in practice 

What is hidden vs displayed storage?

What we store where, has a huge effect on how we experience our spaces. Different storage solutions should be used to store and organize different things. 

Here’s the quickest, most painfully obvious explanation: 

Hidden storage - Anything that hides its contents from view e.g. Cabinets, cupboards, drawers, and boxes.

Displayed storage - Any open surfaces e.g. Shelves, ledges, alcoves, tables, beds, sofas, and even the floor.

Hidden Storage

Photo by Luis Kuthe

When we think of organization, hidden storage is often the first thing that comes to mind. It's the storage solutions that can conceal clutter, creating an illusion of space and simplicity. Think of your bathroom cabinet, neatly housing your cosmetics in various shapes, sizes, and colors, or your digital workspace, with files and folders neatly organized in their respective directories.

One of the key benefits of hidden storage is its ability to maintain a clean and uncluttered visual aesthetic. By keeping items tucked away in cupboards, drawers, bins, or folders, you create a serene and tidy environment.

Hidden storage isn't without its challenges though. The "out of sight, out of mind" mentality can sometimes lead to forgetting what you have or feeling like you can just shove everything into a drawer and avoid organization altogether. It's important to strike a balance between hiding clutter and using hidden storage as a crutch to avoid dealing with your things.

Having absolutely everything stored out of sight can also feel a bit sterile or impersonal, so that balance is also important in terms of design. This is where displayed storage comes in.

Displayed storage

Photo by Tony Smith

Displayed storage embraces visibility. It involves intentionally keeping items out in the open, serving both functional and aesthetic purposes. These pieces turn into an integral part of your space's design. This can include sentimental items, tools, food, or collections that contribute to the personality of a space. Displayed storage is an opportunity to showcase your style and interests. 

In your kitchen, this could mean displaying a beautiful set of artisanal bowls on open shelves or keeping your aging wooden cutting boards on the counter. In your living room, it could involve keeping fruit on the coffee table or displaying (a part of) your book collection on a shelf next to an art piece by your kids.

One of the key benefits of displayed storage is its ability to add personality and character to a space. It's an opportunity to showcase your stories using items that are beautiful but also functional (or at least sentimental). 

Places to store things for display include shelves, tables, counters, sofas, beds, and walls. You can probably tell from that list that displayed storage also has its challenges. It requires careful curation and organization to avoid clutter and maintain a cohesive aesthetic. 

I prefer having less displayed storage because, while it can be so pretty, it requires more dusting and general maintenance. The things in displayed storage will always draw the eye, so it’ll also contribute to visual load. It's important to strike a balance between showcasing your favorite items and overwhelming your space with too much stuff.  

The intersection between hidden and displayed

Photo by Orgalux

If you’ve spent any time on the organization side of the internet, in particular on social media, you’re probably thinking that only differentiating between hidden and displayed doesn’t quite cut it. There’s a host of people setting up the inside of their hidden storage solutions as if they were meant for display. Accounts like The Home Edit have brought us closets that look like rainbow themed boutiques and pantries that look like scandi-chic grocery stores. 

There are layers to storage and organization. Starting at the highest level is everything you can see when you walk into a room. Then there’s everything you see when you open a large form of hidden storage like a closet (which, depending on the size, can be seen as a room in itself). Within that hidden storage, there might be more forms of hidden storage like cabinets, drawers, or boxes. And within that, even more. Like nesting dolls, but make it storage. 

I love being organized within my organization because I love the feeling of opening up hidden storage and seeing beautifully curated contents. BUT I never want this to come at the cost of needing to constantly maintain it or feeling stressed if it doesn’t look beautiful. My storage methods have to support me and how I live my life, not the other way around. 

How this works in practice

A quick refresher on hidden versus displayed storage options.

Hidden - Anything that hides its contents from view e.g. Cabinets, cupboards, drawers, and boxes. 

Displayed - Any open surfaces e.g. Shelves, ledges, alcoves, tables, beds, sofas, and even the floor.

On to using these options:

1. Declutter

The first step to storage, organization, and design is always simplification. Let go of anything you don’t use, love, or find absolutely beautiful. It’s simple: The less stuff you have, the less there is to clutter up your space and storage, hidden and displayed alike.

2. How often do you need to access it

Before organizing anything: understand what your accessibility needs are. Check out post on active, passive, and archive storage to learn more. From there you already have two easy guidelines:

• Things in your archive storage can go in the most hidden of hidden storage.
• Things in your active storage can be displayed or hidden in the first “layer” of hidden storage.

As with everything, there are always exceptions. Here’s one: Just because you don’t use something, doesn’t mean it can’t be displayed. You can display things you don’t use, but want to keep, as decor. Think family heirlooms, art projects, and completed books. 

3. The hidden vs displayed matrix

When choosing whether to display something or not, it’s really important to decide whether it works with your space. Consider things like size, color, and theme. This goes both for things you don’t use often (like decor) as well as for things you use all the time (like moisturizer). 

If you use it but it doesn’t work in your space: it goes in hidden storage

If you use it often and it works in your space: it can be displayed 

If you don’t use it (often) and it works in your space: it can be displayed

If you don’t use it (often) and it doesn’t work in your space: it goes in hidden storage

And because I love geeking out about this stuff I made a matrix to illustrate:

Remember, if you don’t use something often, be very honest with yourself about whether you should actually be keeping it. Especially if you don’t love it or it doesn’t work in your space. 

4. Make your “clutter” work for the aesthetic of your space

If you don’t like putting away the things you are constantly using, adapt your “clutter” items to blend in with the aesthetics of your space. This is a great way to leverage display storage’s accessibility to help keep your space calming and low maintenance. Often there are small changes you can make to these items to make them work in your space: I’ve created a new fabric cover for my microwaveable heat pack, painted a key fob with nail polish, and removed the labels from the front of my beauty products (sometimes even decanting them). 

If something is always out in the open and the look of it bothers you, but you can’t really change the look: you could replace it with something more fitting. Only as a last resort though. Before you replace something, it’s better to get to the bottom of why something —that you don’t find visually appealing— is always out in the open (hint: it’s usually because your hidden storage solutions —like drawers or boxes— aren’t easily accessible).

5. Make your storage work for your “clutter”

If you have a lot of displayed storage like shelves, find ways to add the hidden storage you need. My apartment came pre-furnished, and has a lot of shelves and almost no drawers. Ample displayed storage and barely any hidden storage is a recipe for a space that feels cluttered. While I don’t have a lot of stuff to begin with, I still didn’t want to be storing my sewing kit and glue stick on my bookshelf. To solve this I found some good looking boxes for items that I’d rather keep out of sight.

If you have some more freedom than I do when it comes to the furnishings, consider going for more hidden storage solutions in the form of cabinets or dressers (or more displayed if you don’t have enough of that). Drawers are by far my favorite option for hidden storage. They make things so easy to access that putting stuff away feels effortless, especially if the drawer in question is located near where the contents are used (a bedside table, for example).

6. Declutter

Since simplification is the core message of my brand, I’m going to repeat it once again: declutter. Declutter before you organize. Declutter while you organize. Declutter after you’ve organized. The less stuff you have, the less you need to organize and manage. Oh, and the more discerning you are when bringing new stuff in, the less time you have to spend finding new places for them to live (saving you money and time, my favorite). 

Some final notes on storing stuff:

• Don’t fill any storage solution to more than 80% of its capacity. Stuffed is not relaxing, or lux, and is impossible to manage.
• Do not stack a variety of things on top of each other in your storage, especially if you need to access these things often. This makes things messy fast because any time you are accessing things you have to also tidy them.
• Display the things that make you happy
• Find a balance between hidden and displayed storage that works for you. This is personal, some people want to display more and others less. Don’t feel external pressure one way or another. As you work through simplifying your space, you will start to get more and more in tune with how certain areas make you feel: add or remove based on how you feel.
• When you feel up for it, organize the inside of your hidden storage as if it were displayed storage, starting with the hidden storage you open most often. There’s nothing better than opening a wardrobe and feeling and seeing the space filled to just the right amount of full, displaying your carefully curated collection like it’s a high end boutique.

Take a look around your space. Can you identify the different forms of hidden and displayed storage in your space? Are you accidentally displaying things that might be better to tuck away? Or are there perhaps things that are fun to display at this point in your life that have been out of sight for too long? 

Whatever your situation might be, I hope you enjoy this way of looking at various storage solutions and that it brings you some clarity around what to store where.