Nix The Plates and Use the Pizza Box Instead

Binging on pizza this week? Ditch the plates. The pizza comes with its own plates.

Surprised? Read on to explore how?

Don’t dispose of the pizza box before using it!

Pizza! Oh, we can write a poem on our love for pizza. The crushed red pepper toppings. And the cheese. So much cheese. And the cola that it goes perfectly with.

Drooling, aren’t you? Only recently, we discovered that it is not only pizza that is useful, but the pizza box too.

Repurposing the pizza box

huffingtonpost.com

Above shown box is just a part of large pizza box. Confused? Observe the image below:

Top of the box
You can tear off the top of pizza box turning them into 4 serving plates. This idea eliminates the need for dishes.

Bottom of the box
And the bottom of the pizza box can be folded and is instantly transformed into a handy storage container. It is amazingly eater-friendly and fridge-friendly!

Key takeaways:
1.    This is great during birthdays and picnics. You don’t have to arrange for plates for everyone. The pizza comes with its own plate.
2.     Employees can order a large size pizza and slip in the leftover slices into the pizza box container to take home.

This discovery enhances your love for pizza even more, doesn’t it?

Continue Reading

Organizing The Playroom? Read this first!

Love your playroom but worried about the mess?

Here is how you can de-clutter your playroom with some easy and fun hacks.

How LEGO minifigures can spread cuteness around your house

LEGO minigfigures can help keep your loose wires and electronic cords in place. They are perfect for managing cables and wires. Surprised? Here’s how you can do it-

Put a particularly ferocious looking LEGO minifigure on your desk. Position it so that the mini-figure seems to be grabbing the cord in its tiny hands. There is a little space between it’s fingers to put your cable. Don’t worry, the wire won’t slip out of the LEGO mini-figure. Pretty clever, eh?

You can use a LEGO mini-figure for cord management in other places too. The side of your bed-side table for example. Or the corner of your book-shelf. Get as creative as you can. Whenever you put a loose wire, use a cute LEGO mini-figure to keep it in it’s place.

Make carton boxes a part of your playroom

Why go for carton boxes when you can give your child a mini-tablet?

A carton box gives your child something that a mini-tablet cannot: inspiration and the chance to be creative.

The simplest toys are often the best toys for your child. Give them a carton box with some holes along with color names written besides each hole. This is one of the best ways your child can learn to differentiate colors in a playful way. It is a classic example of playing and learning thus making the playroom a source of “creative learning!”

A tennis ball can be fun too!
Thinking of throwing away a worn-out tennis ball? Halt, it might be just as useful!

Did you know that used tennis balls can be as useful as the new ones? Of course the new ones let you play tennis or cricket. However, the used ones can be used more creatively. Confused? Look through the pictures below and you’ll understand.

You see? The 1st one shows how you can use it as a key holder. You just need to cut the ball half-way through the centre. Make the eyes with sketch pens. Insert an unused key or an unused bottle opener into the mouth (This is to support the hanging keys as shown above).

Voila! You have a DIY tennis ball key holder. Similarly you can explore your creativity and make use of a tennis ball as envelope-holder, towel holder or a stand to keep your pen.

Such creative touch points are a great way to expose the minds of children to creativity.

Picture label everything
Playroom can get messy really fast! That is what playroom is intended for.
However, it does not mean that kids can get away with it. You have to start teaching your kids to organize from a very young age.
You can start by labeling boxes according to what goes inside them? But how can that be helpful when they can barely read? We bring an easier solution:

Picture labels are the best way to ensure that toys end up in their correct place at the end of playtime. Use colored papers for quick identification as shown below:

Bonus Tips to keep the playroom organized
•    Children love to spend time on the floor especially during play dates. Hence, keep floor cushions handy. They’re great options for children and are indeed spacious.
•    Keep the playroom spacious- Now playroom is a place to play around. And what facilitates the freedom of playfulness is “abundant space.” Hence, don’t let the play table take a lot of space. Keep a small play table which can be easily moved by the children. This will leave a wider area enabling children to creatively enjoy at their fullest! 
•    When you kids outgrow their toys or are simply bored, it is always a good idea to recycle redundant toys or upcycle them to create innovative and useful products.

Continue Reading

How Much Storage Space Do You Really Need?

A lot of our customers have this question when they come to us for storage. To find the answer to this question, you should ask yourself another question first:

How many items you are going to put in storage?

Once you are sure of that, refer to our table to get an idea of how much storage space you will need.

Size (in metres)	Residential Storage	Business Storage
5x5	1 closet, 10 boxes, small furniture	35 file boxes, inventory
5x10	Enough furniture for one small studio apartment	Furniture and equipment for 1-2 small office cabins
5x15	Furniture and equipment of a 1 bedroom apartment	Furnishing for 1 office space
10 x10	Furniture and equipment of a 2 bedroom apartment	Furnishing, equipment for 2 offices. And a few boxes.
10x15	Furniture and equipment of a 3 bedroom apartment	Furnishing, equipment for 3 offices. And a few boxes.
10x25	Furniture and equipment of a 4 bedroom apartment	Furnishing, equipment for 4 offices. And a few boxes.
10x35	Furniture and equipment of a 5 bedroom apartment	Furnishing, equipment for 5 offices. And a few boxes.

All the above measurements given above are approximate. Please contact us and we can inform you about the exact storage space we have available at a location near you.

We can also offer a well-experienced storage consultant to advice you how much storage space you will need and if you require a particular kind of storage.

Continue Reading

The Guide to Caring for Leather Shoes

Which would you buy: a cheap pair of shoes or a pair of leather shoes?

A cheap pair of shoes lasts for a few months. But a pair of leather shoes will last you long and look great for as long as they last.

Leather shoes are organic objects that need regular cleaning and care to keep them as lustrous as they were when you bought them at the store. If regularly cleaned and conditioned, leather shoes can easily last you several years.

Caring for leather shoes is vital if you want them to maintain their luster year after year. Without proper conditioning or care, leather will dry out and crack.

Caring for leather shoes is more than coating them with shoe polish. There are steps you should follow to keep your leather shoes looking their best for long:

1. Clean
2. Condition
3. Shine
4. Waterproof
5. Store

1.    Clean

Prepare for cleaning by spreading a newspaper on the surface you are going to be cleaning your leather shoes. Make sure that it is a well-ventilated area and wear gloves.

Once you have all the preparations in place, remove dirt from the shoes with a saddle sop or a soft shoe brush. Make sure to get the dirt out from the cracks in the shoes as well.

You can also use a shoe cleaning for cleaning the shoes. For a home solution, you can use a mix of equal amounts of water and vinegar.

After you finish removing the dirt, let the shoes dry for a few minutes and then shine the shoes with a soft cotton cloth. You can use an old T-shirt or a shoe shine cloth

Once you have finished doing that, let your shoes dry for a day. Then it is time for conditioning your leather shoes.

2.    Condition

Conditioning will soften and moisturize your leather shoes and will prevent them from drying and cracking.

We recommend you use natural conditioners as they are absorbed into the leather unlike synthetic conditioners that just sit on the surface.

Put a dab of leather conditioner on a towel and run it on your shoes 20-30 times till the entire shoe has been covered with the conditioner. Wipe any extra conditioner off the shoes as the leather surface will absorb only what is can.

After conditioning, let the shoes rest for at least an hour before you move on to polishing.

3.    Shine

Shoes polish can be found easily in stores but be aware the shoe polish contains toxic chemicals that can be absorbed through skin or inhaled. Always wear gloves while polishing your shoes. Polish in a well-ventilated area. Keep shoe polish away from reach of children and pets. Throw away any cloth that you have used to polish your shoes.

A good alternative to commonly available shoe polish are natural oils such as olive oil or walnut oil. Work a small amount into your shoe and polish with a soft cotton cloth.

If you want to go ahead and polish your shoes with shoes polish, make sure you get the correct share of shoes polish. It should be closest to the natural colour of your leather shoes. Opt for shoe polish creams as they last longer than shoe polish liquids and is not as messy to work with as shoe polish paste.

Apply the shoe polish with a soft cloth and allow it to dry thoroughly. When the shoe polish has dried, buff the leather shoes with a brush to make them shine.

4. Waterproof

Waterproofing leather shoes is the most essential part of caring for your leather shoes but is often ignored by most people.

Choose your waterproofing product depending how much time your leather shoes spends in wet and messy conditions. If you wear your shoes outdoors and they get wet very often, use a beeswax product to waterproof them. If they spend very little time in the outdoors, you could use a protective spray.

Protective sprays are almost invisible and protect your shoes against moderate amount of wet and dirt.
Beeswax products form a protective layer on the surface of the shoes. They alter the appearance of the leather but do a great job of protecting your leather against the climate.

5.    Store

When you are not wearing your shoes, store them with shoe trees. A quality shoe tree is an investment that will last you the life of your leather shoes. Shoe trees maintain the shoe's original shape and prevent creases and shrinkage.

For shoe trees, we recommend you use unfinished cedar as it absorbs moisture and keeps your shoe free of odour.

If you are not going to be using your leather shoes for many months, we highly recommend you put them in storage.

Climate-controlled storage units are best for leather shoes as hot temperatures and dry weather can crack the leather. If you decide to store your beautiful leather shoes in a storage unit, you can find your closest storage unit here.

Continue Reading

3 Simple Ways to Get Super-Organized In the Kitchen

This simple hack can keep those bulky pots and pans out of the way and organized and save you lots of space in the kitchen. Simply run a tension rod across a shelf and use shower hooks to store saucepands inside. The pans also stay very accessible as they are not piled on top of each other.

There is nothing more beautiful than fresh vegetables in spring and fall. Display those beautiful vegetables lovingly by installing baskets on the walls. Fit them with screwdrivers on an empty wall and see the wall light up with vivid red, greens and yellows.

We told you how to get your pots organized. But in most homes, pots and pans are not the problem, the pot lids are. They slide away, get in the way or are replaced. You can get them organized by installing bars inside cabinet doors and hanging the lids on them. This is also a good way to use space which otherwise goes unused. Before you install the bars, check if your cabinet doors are strong enough to support 4-5 lids.

An organized kitchen is key to an organized house. If you find you have a lot of appliances and utensils that you do not use regularly, you can store them at Du-store facility.

Images from: thekitchn.com

Continue Reading

How the Storage Industry is a Game Changer for Hotels

In the hotel business, supply is of utmost importance. Food items, toiletries, upholstery and cleaning material are needed fairly frequently by hotels. Hence their regular supply is essential to the running of the hotel industry.

While these items are needed on a regular basis, they are not bought on a regular basis. They are bought in bulk and then stored in storage units under the right condition and then withdrawn from the unit as required.

Dustore rents out space to a lot of hotels in Dubai. Hotel supplies arrive in bulk at our storage units and they have to be stored in proper temperature and humidity conditions.

Our storage units that store foods like curd and cheese are maintained at precisely cool temperatures. Moisture has to be kept out of the storage unit at all times as even a little moisture can lead to infestation of microbes. We also believe that price and purpose can be optimized if the right type and size of storage container is used.

Here are a few food safety tips that we highly recommend to our hotel industry clients:

- Keep the FIFO rule in mind. FIFO stands for First In, First Out. It means that when new shipment arrives, it is always put behind the old shipment to make sure that the older item gets used first. This preserves the quality and safety of food.

- Put a date on the food products in storage. This reminds the user how old the product is and whether it is past its expiry date or not.

- Food products should not be stored on the floor. It should be stored at least 6-12 inches from the floor. This is to ensure that dust and water does not soak through the food containers.

- Meat products have the potential to leak through. Hence they should be stored below other food products to prevent contamination.

- Food should not be overstocked in storage. If food is overstocked, the cooling unit gets burdened to maintain the right temperature and might stop working altogether.

Contact us to know more about how we can help you with you storage.

Continue Reading

5 Unconventional Ways you can use Mason Jars to Decrease Clutter

What if we said there is a simple solution to keeping small clutter under control and making it look pretty at the same time. To answer to all your small clutter worries is a simple mason jars. With their vintage feel and glass designs masons jars can store your little odds and ends and keep them from creating clutter. Here is how you can use mason jars for effective storage:

The indispensible sewing kit

Keep your sewing supplies in one place with this Mason jar that keeps all the little bits together.

Stack it up with cupcake liners
Now those cupcake liners will not be flying all over the place when you keep them stacked on top of each other in a broad mason jar!

Storing toiletries

Mason jars are excellent for storing toiletries. Get creative and have a separate mason jar for each person who uses the bathroom.

Twine holder

Keep all the twine neatly in one place with this beautiful twine holder than you can make with a simple mason jar.

Pretty desktop storage

Put some mason jars on your work desk and use them to store pens, pencils, pins, bookends and other odds and ends and keep your workspace clutter-free.

If your house is still cluttered and you have more stuff than you know what to do with, you can always consider storing them at Dustore, your personal storage space in Dubai. We use racking systems that are ideal for personal storage and makes sure your stored stuff is more accessible.

Continue Reading

4 Awesome Ways to Control Kids’ Clutter

When you have kids in the house, it becomes harder to keep the house tidy and neat. Often toys and books are strewn across the floor and on every available space and it is hard to keep up with the mess.

But we are here to tell you that managing your home with kids is not hard. Allot plenty of spaces to store toys and give your kids a sense of responsibility to deposit their toys in a storage space before they turn in for the night.

Here are some nifty storage ideas that ought to keep the clutter in control.

Image source: shelterness.com

Tie a net at the end of the bed to store toys that are used often. At least it helps to keep them off the floor.

Source: 101woonideeen.nl

This is a perfect way to keep your kid’s toys safe and give them a sense of ownership and responsibility. Just Tell them to place their toys in their respective baskets after they are done playing for the day.

Image source: landofnod.com

These wire wall bins are great for storing toys, stationary or even books.

Image source: babycentre.com

Plant hanger baskets are a great way to deal with cluttered toys. Just dump the toys in the nearest plan hanger basket and keep the clutter off the floor.

If you have implemented these ideas and still find the clutter getting out of control, contact our personal storage services. We offer storage units that are climate controlled and give you 24 hour access to your items. Moreover, you have many sizes of storage units to choose from.

Often when you have several kids at home, they each have favourite toothpaste. It is hard to find space for the number of toothpastes and other toiletries in your bathroom. This is a simple hack that will make life easier for you. Install cups on the bathroom wall, one cup for every kid’s toilet supplies: toothbrush, toothpaste and rinse cup.

Continue Reading

Follow this Checklist before you Store your Vintage Car

Classic, antique cars have a special feel about them. A vintage car is a memory of a world long gone. It is the feel of years of legacy between in your hands. With an antique, it is not a car that you drive; it is generations of regal experience.

If you are considering storing your car in a vehicle storage facility, here are some things you should keep in mind.

• The first step is to prepare our car for storage. You want your car to be in perfect shape when you remove it.
• Clean your car thoroughly and make any repairs that might be necessary. Make sure you clean the corners and the space between seat fittings. Food particles often slip in these areas and might attract bugs and rodents during storage. Also clean the dirt from under the car before you put it in storage.
• When you reach the storage, drain the engine oil while the car is still warm. Wear gloves to protect your hands from the hot oil.
• Drain the fuel tank too if you are storing your car for more than 6 months.
• Replace your brake fluid with new unused brake fluid.
• Drain the car's cooler and heater.
• Disconnect the heater hoses.
• Unscrew the radiator cap and leave it off. Replace the cooling system with rust-inhibiting antifreeze.
• Remove, clean and store the battery.
• Remove the tires and store them covered. Your car should be up on jacks.
• Lock the clutch
• Stuff a rag in the car's tailpipe to prevent rodents from hibernating there.
• Put baking soda sachets inside the car to absorb foul odors.
• Roll down your car windows and cover your car with a blanket.

An antique requires special love and care. It makes sense to invest extra effort into storing your antique car to keep it in perfect shape.

Storing your car in reputed vehicle storage is worth the investment. Dustore is a storage facility that stores any kind of vehicle efficiently. These facilities ensure that your automobile is stored in a highly secured environment and you get a 24×7 access to the storage units. The units are monitored with CCTV cameras and every entry and exit is recorded. If your vehicle needs climate controlled storage, you can opt for it too! Choose your storage unit depending upon the size of your vehicle. So, sign up with a vehicle storage provider today, and leave all the worries about your favorite automobile behind!

Book your car storage with Du-store.

Continue Reading

5 Great Recycling Ideas for Useless Items Lying Around the House

While living in a city is often very chaotic, what becomes a big nuisance is the amount of junk we tend to hoard in our homes. Finding a space to fit all of our possessions is a big task for us. How do we fit all the small items in the tiny urban living space? Well, Do It Yourself.

Going out in the sweltering heat and finding the right storage equipment for our goods is as difficult as finding an oasis in wilderness. To save your time, money and energy, we give some creative DIY storage ideas.

1. Put up the bar!

Image Souce: marthastewart.com

This looks clever, does it not?  A simple way to stock your alcohol the creative way! Use old tins, cans or water-pipes when you implement this idea. Stick them together and drill them on the wall. And, voilà, your supremely inventive wine cabinet is up!

2. Rake over...

Image Source: fashiondivadesign.com

What could you do with an old, rusty rake? Not much, you think. But wait, you can use it to store your jewellery! Creativity unleashed, isn’t it? You need not get yourself a fancy jewellery box to stack your jewellery. Drill this in your wardrobe or next to your dressing table. Cover the rusty bit with a silver paint or paper to add a tinge of extra creativity.

3. Stop Crib-ing!

Image source: bobvila.com

What do you do when your baby has grown up and does not need a crib anymore? You use it to keep your magazines!

Often people worry about stashing their novels and magazines in someplace safe or getting book shelf made. But in a cramped up drawing room, your options are limited. Storing your magazines this way will save you space and not create a mess.

4. A basket of joys

Image Source: bobvila.com

When you have an infant running around in your house there ought to be lots of soft toys stacked in every nook and cranny of your home. How do you systematically organize their toys? Store away those toys someplace safe so nobody trips on them. Use old garden baskets and drill them to your wall.

5. Suit up!

Image Source: boutique-homes.com

Is there’s an old suitcase lying in the cabinet? It can’t be used anymore, you think? Think again. Perhaps you can drill it to the wall and use it as a cabinet! You can turn it into a table, perhaps a study table for your kids. Use your creativity and make the best from waste.

We hope that you liked the ideas we shared.

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Meanwhile, if creativity isn’t your cup of tea, leave it to us to help you with storage. Visit us.

Continue Reading