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Storage & Style: Organizing Your Pool Cabana

Catalina: Howard and Alyson have it all in their cabana - and it fits!

You do a lot of living around your cabana. Just think of all its uses.

First, you store the many tools and accessories there which come with owning and maintaining a pool. From heaters that require their own venting to closets for towels, you have a lot to consider before modeling your interior. But your pool cabana is also your social locus. You change there and dry off, fix drinks and snacks, and ensure the comfort of your guests. That's a lot of duties for a single structure to take on. But Alyson and Howard S of Long Island have made it work. "We have plenty of closet space for the toys and towels, tools and things," says Alyson.

"But we entertain there too. There's a sink and full pantry." They even a change room and bathroom. So, how can your cabana accomplish all that? Organization!

Tips for organizing your cabana: Separate and lift

Palmerston: When looking for storage space in your cabana remember to look up.

Divide up your space with walls and establish which rooms will be for storage. Install plenty of shelves in the storage room and cupboards with sliding drawers in the others.  Get things off the floor. That's what the storage space is for. When you go up, you'll find loads more room.

Sometimes we're not sure how to divide space we need till we've lived with the cabana for a season. A tasteful but temporary curtain can separate the space, creating an easily moveable wall. And low-cost stackable shelves can provide a cost-effective alternative to custom built shelves.

Organize by weight and wait time

Windsor: Create storage space under built in cabinets and benches.

Ask yourself how often you use something and how much effort it requires to move. Objects more frequently used should be more accessible. Heavier objects need to be easy to get at and lift. Keep these mid-level, around your torso. Objects so heavy they have wheels should stay on the floor, out of the way.

Remember, sliding drawers can store larger objects too – just build larger and save your back. Build shelves that are no higher than the average person's reach. Anything you store that high probably won't be used much anyway.

Turn wasted space into a storage place

No room for a walk-in closet or cabinet? Collapse storage rooms into sliding compartments with drawers, shelves and hanging rods. Tape an alphabetized list of everything you've stored inside the door where it's practical but not on view.

Look around for wasted space. Is there a sliver between the studs for shelves? Or a few inches above the pool heater for a rack to dry towels on? Can you build some sliding drawers to maximize the space in cupboards?

Try to avoid clutter

Sonoma: "Space?" says Denniz. "Well it has a little space heater in case it gets cold."

Evict objects you don't use regularly. Every year when you open the pool (assuming you don't live in a climate where you never shut it) do a quick inventory of everything in your cabana. If you didn't use it the year before, ask yourself whether it needs to stay – or at least if it needs to stay in your cabana.

If you find it hard to get rid of things, try this. Clear all the space out and sort everything into boxes labelled "keep", "don't keep" and "maybe". Even if most of your things end up in the maybe pile, you may reconsider their status when putting them back!

You could always add on.

Another solution is to simply build another cabana. Denniz and Brian of Modesto, California did just that. "It's our little haven," says Denniz. "We love it. We entertain there, watch TV – we even sleep out there sometimes. It has a lovely rattan pull-out bed."

But where do all the pool supplies go we asked? "The new cabana was so nice, we just kept the old cabana for storage."

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