Rajiv Surendra’s New York Storage Space Is Curated Like a Museum (2024)

The hardest part of curating an appealing storage space, Surendra said, is the first part: editing down your possessions until everything can actually fit inside whatever space you have to store it. Only after culling your belongings and keeping just the essentials are you really ready to organize and put them away; otherwise, you risk reverting to a messy, dread-inducing storage space.

“Most people really struggle to throw things out. … I’ve become ruthless,” he said.

If you’re hanging on to certain things because you might use them one day, or because you paid a lot for them, or because you got them as a gift and feel guilty getting rid of them, you need to reframe your thinking. First and foremost, Surendra prioritizes keeping items that hold significant emotional value, even if they’re not the most practical possessions to keep. He even calls his remaining items artifacts.

Sometimes the task of schlepping bags to a donation dropoff or a secondhand shop can be enough of a deterrent to prevent you from clearing things out, so Surendra suggests looking for local charities that will pick them up and haul them away. You can also try posting them on your local Buy Nothing group. Or, if you live somewhere with a “stooping” culture, you could just leave items on the curb with a “free” sign on them.

Measure your space, and make a floor plan to figure out how much shelving you can fit inside it. Surendra likes Uline’s Wide Span Storage Racks because they’re tall and sturdy, and they can be adjusted in small increments to help eliminate wasted space.

Square footage is just one aspect to appraise before moving your stuff into a space. When determining what can be safely stored there, it’s also important to consider temperature, humidity, and light.

Humid or damp environments are generally inhospitable to objects made of wood, paper (including artwork and photographs), cloth, and other natural fibers. To prevent damaging such items, Surendra said his rule of thumb is to avoid storing them in spaces where temperatures can dip below freezing or climb higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sunlight, meanwhile, can cause textiles or works of art to fade over time, so if your storage space has windows, such pieces should be stored in opaque containers. Keep in mind, however, that sunlight acts as a natural deterrent against clothes moths. So if you need to store a lot of clothing, bed linens, and the like, you might actually want to use a windowed room.

Surendra suggests thinking beyond conventional storage spots, like basem*nts and garages. “If you have a spare bedroom that you use for guests, but you never have guests, turn it into a storage space,” he said. “You’ll get more joy out of that space.”

And, of course, if your storage space is prone to flooding (as some basem*nts and public storage units can be), make sure that any valuables susceptible to water damage are kept in waterproof containers. In our testing we’ve found that Iris WeatherPro Storage Boxes offer the best seal. Or place those items on the highest shelf possible.

Surendra said his storage space was inspired by the concept of open shelving he’d seen in museum vaults and display cases. This approach allows certain objects—again, those not at risk of being harmed by things like temperature, humidity, light, or moths—to be seen and easily accessed, rather than concealed in a container.

“I have these beautiful things, but I’m not getting joy from them when they’re tucked away in these cardboard boxes,” he said. “You can put your china in open storage if it’s a garage, a basem*nt, or an attic. Granted, they’ll get dusty. That’s fine. You can wash them off.”

This concept works even for mundane objects, like his grandmother’s rolling pin, which sits on a shelf right beneath a series of reference books on art and pottery—all of them visible upon entering the unit.

For aesthetic purposes, however, Surendra doesn’t rely on plastic tubs entirely. The shelves of his unit also boast several unexpected pieces of vintage storage, like his repurposed wicker gift hampers from the London company Fortnum & Mason, which has been making elaborate gift baskets filled with teas, marmalade, and more since the 1700s. Surendra uses them to hide filing boxes filled with paperwork.

“If it’s all old stuff, it can start to look period, kitsch. Wicker shines when it’s next to a plastic box, and plastic looks good next to something old,” he said. “When I’m antiquing or thrifting, I often look in the furniture section and find things that are very industrial or utilitarian that you can use for storage. They’re made to last but also so beautiful.”

For example, to store small watercolors that Surendra painted himself, no modern storage unit seemed to do the job as well as a vintage set of wooden drawers (tucked onto a high shelf), where the artworks are able to lie flat.

If you need long-term storage for works of art with sentimental or monetary value, though, it may be best to have them professionally stored in a climate-controlled environment. For photos, Wirecutter recommends using archival-quality boxes (like these from Archival Methods) and keeping them away from areas where flooding may occur.

Surendra is an advocate for storing like objects together and labeling them clearly. He uses a Brother P-Touch label maker (we’ve been recommending P-Touch label makers since 2019) to print labels for every box. His advice: Have a little fun with it. Labels like “Tax year 07” can be a mood-killer. Instead, he prints labels with phrases like “Taxes (the worst)” or “Really nice clothes.”

Inspired by the way clothes are handled in film production, Surendra organizes his clothing the way a costume department would. For pieces that should be hung up rather than folded, that means keeping them on a rolling rack inside cotton garment bags, which allow clothes to breathe. In Surendra’s experience, this is the most effective way to preserve pieces like suits and jackets. (As we note in our storage-container guide, cloth garment bags or storage bins can provide breathability to fabrics that benefit from airflow, such as wool.) To identify what’s inside each bag, he affixes a photo of the garment to the outside of the bag.

For extra protection against clothes moths, we recommend taping over the seams and zippers of your garment bags. And store items only after they’ve been thoroughly washed because moth larvae prefer to munch on dirty fabrics. Also, moths don’t like movement, so by visiting your storage space frequently, you can thwart them from setting up shop. If you have a windowless storage space that you don’t think you’ll visit often, though, it may be best to keep fabric items in sealable boxes, vacuum bags, or plastic garment bags. Surendra also uses moth-repellent sachets from The Container Store to further protect items from pests, and he stores foldable clothes, towels, and linens inside plastic totes. All of the shoes on his shelves are filled with shoe trees to help them keep their shape.

One reason people dread their storage is that the spaces themselves are often, well, dreadful. Yet there are ways to add simple touches that will make your storage space a place you might actually—gasp—enjoy spending time in, even if it’s just for a second to grab something.

“There is an aspect of interior design to everything, even a closet,” he said. “When putting together this storage space, I was constantly considering, ‘Where is the best place for this thing?’—not only to be stored so it’s accessible but also to look good.”

The highest shelves in Surendra’s unit are lined with pots and vases (many that he made himself), similar to what one might find in a boutique or an archaeologist’s office. An engraved brass clip holds the door shut. A rug sits invitingly atop an otherwise cold, gray concrete floor.

“If people treat their storage spaces like their living room, they’re gonna take the extra step to think about what everything looks like,” he said. “There’s always a way to do that, even in a tiny storage space.”

This article was edited by Rose Maura Lorre and Catherine Kast.