Okay, this is an old idea that has worked wonderfully for us. Our family used to spend a lot of time in the bush camping. Dad was a wildlife biologist and we spent 3-4 months a year “in the field”. He had these huge plywood storage boxes made up for camping supplies. There were three of them. My brother took one of them when Dad's field days were over. I took the other two. They are the size of a large travel trunk – about 18” high and 2'x3'. I cover one with a nicely woven runner and the other with a small teacloth.

I am not into furniture that makes poor use of vertical space. I recognize that good quality furniture also has multiple uses. It does not waste space.

One trunk is in the living room and stores children's toys. We no longer have young children, but if someone comes with children, the toys are close at hand.

The other is in the sunroom and stores rug hooking supplies. As the sunroom is my rug hooking studio, this is a great option for me. It reduces the amount of clutter in that room.

I just finished staining the sunroom trunk with great success. Someday soon I am going to paint the living room trunk. Right now I just plain get nostalgic whenever I look at it. But soon...