Outdoor Furniture

Have you taken a good long look at your yard lately? If you have, chances are you’ve been dreaming about more outdoor storage space. If you’re tired of tripping over yard equipment, looking at unsightly weed whackers and lawn mowers or dodging your kids’ outdoor toys, a storage building may be the solution to all your outdoor storage dilemmas.

The best way to contend with your outdoor overcrowding is to add a storage shed to your property. But how can you best prepare for a storage building while you wait for it to be constructed? Here are some storage planning tips to maximize your storage shed experience.

- Get rid of anything you haven’t used in the past year. Have a yard sale, donate your useless outdoor storage items to charity or auction them off on eBay. The less clutter you have to begin with, the less cluttered your new storage building will be.

- Get organized. Arrange your outdoor storage items by category and/or season. When your storage shed is ready, put the items you won’t need for a while in the back so that those outdoor items you do need are at your ready disposal. Rotate the items in your storage shed each season for optimum efficiency.

- Carefully examine each of your outdoor storage items. Is the starter on your grill failing to ignite? Then replace it. Do your inflatable pool toys have leaks? Then toss them. Are the blades on your lawn mower dull? Then get them sharpened. There’s no point in filling up your new storage building with outdoor storage items that don’t work properly.

With a little advance preparation on your part, a storage shed from Heartland, America’s #1 backyard builder, can change your life for the better. Follow the aforementioned outdoor storage tips and enjoy a backyard transformation.

Look in your backyard. How many things out there don’t have a place to call home? There are balls, hoses, planters and maybe a yard tool or two. You keep thinking you’ll figure out a place for them, but so far, they are nothing but a blight on the landscape. It’s time to invest in outdoor storage chests.When many people think of storage chests, they think of cedar chests inside the house, as a place to put away all those wool items for the summer months, but there are also storage chests that are a good place to store things on the outside that need to be put away when not in use. Some of them are quite attractive and can even become a part of your backyard décor.

Do you need more seating on your patio? Some storage chests double as benches. These comfortable, cushion-topped seating options can be popped open to show a large collection of pool and yard toys, or even lawn games that the kids can play while you sit back and enjoy a drink. Many even have built in backs with optional cushioning, so they seem more like a backyard sofa than just a bench.

If your gardening area is a ways from the house, you may get tired of trudging back and forth from the garage to get and replace all the tools you need as you work in the garden. But you don’t want a huge shed in the backyard, so you suffer. Periodically you get a little lazy and leave a tool or two behind in the yard instead of carrying them all back. Time does its damage and you end up needing a new trowel before you know it. This could have been prevented if you just had invested in garden storage chests. Sure, you’re thinking how gaudy would it be to put a big plastic tool bin in the middle of my garden. You’re right, it would be. That’s why you would choose something better than that. Outdoor storage chests are not just made in a generic plastic cooler mold. Some are made of teak, with protected areas inside to keep your tools dry, while the outside goes with the natural look of your garden environment.

If price is a consideration when purchasing outdoor storage chests, but you don’t want to be stuck with a big blob of plastic in the yard, look into resin. Resin storage chests are much cheaper than wood, but are also hardy and can take on a number of finishes to make them look as if you spent a lot more than you did. Since resin is a compound that is mixed and poured into a shape, it also comes in a number of colors, styles and textures, so you will have a better chance of matching the storage chests to your yard.

Take back your back yard, pick up the clutter, and make it accessible with outdoor storage chests and you yard will no longer be an eyesore.