5 Outdoor Storage Solutions That Aren’t Eyesores

It’s no secret I love staying organized. I have to have things go back where they belong, or it drives me crazy! And while it can be easy to keep clutter at bay with cabinets, closets, and armoires inside, the outdoors is a different story. For instance, I need a place to keep our pool floats corralled and the garden tools and hose neat. So outdoor storage is a must to contain these items, but I want storage solutions to be as aesthetic as possible so they don’t disrupt the visual landscape. Read on to see five types of outdoor storage solutions that I’ve found (or have my eye on) to solve for this problem!

Deck Box

A deck box is great for items that live outside, but benefit from being protected from the elements. We’re talking sports equipment, outdoor toys/games — even citronella candles or outdoor throw pillows. Ours holds pool toys, goggles and our pool robot when its not in use. A deck box should be sealed well, so I try let things fully dry before storing them.

When it comes to choosing a deck box style, I gravitate toward ones that blend in with the surroundings. I like a dark gray or brown one that’s against a wall or in a corner, and it’s just part of the background.

Towel Storage

I used to have all our pool towels — a pack of 32 I found for a great price — in a cabinet in the mudroom. We added this towel valet to the backyard last summer and it has been a game changer. Most of the time when people come swimming, they bring a towel. But many times they don’t and I don’t want people to feel weird asking, “Can I borrow a towel?” I want it to feel like we have so many towels poolside, don’t even worry about bringing a towel unless you really want to. This also means less opportunities for the girls to run through the house dripping wet. Plus, it just gives resort vibes in the best way.

Towel Valet

Pool Float Storage

I get asked all the time “where do you keep your pool floats when they’re not in the pool?” and the answer is, we don’t have a great solution for this yet. When we started, we had a handful of smaller inner tubes that tucked neatly into our deck box. But as we’ve swapped those out for different shapes and sizes—pool loungers, mostly—they’ve stopped fitting, and they’ve ended up tossed in the outdoor shower instead. We have a handful of oversized floats that we only pull out for special occasions (like this one we use for outdoor movie nights), those get deflated when we’re done and put in the deck box.

So I’ve been weighing a few storage solutions, and I keep coming back to the ones that feel the most versatile. A simple storage rack for the inner tubes, and a slotted rack for the loungers. Nothing bulky, nothing overcomplicated—just a considered spot for everything to live.

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Outdoor Kitchen Storage

We’ve got a good amount of storage built into our outdoor kitchen—a spot for Chris’s grilling tools, pellets for the smoker, and a beverage fridge for drinks. But here’s the thing: you don’t need a full outdoor kitchen to make your cooking space work hard for you.

Last summer while making over my sister Andi’s back deck, we added an outdoor bar cart right next to their grill, and it’s become a true workhorse—part cooking station, part tool storage, part serving surface. There are so many good options out there, plenty of them affordable, that can turn a simple corner with a grill into a thoughtful, well-considered outdoor cooking space. And even though we have the beverage fridge, last year we added this elevated cooler for hosting—it’s so much better for flow than having everyone wander into the outdoor kitchen for drinks, and it’s become a beautiful part of the space in its own right.

Cooler

Hose Storage

This is not a sentence you see every day, but hose storage has really come a long way in terms of aesthetics. If the hose is going to be attached to the front or side of the house or in an exposed place, make it beautiful.

For ours, I wanted something I can wind up really easy and that blends in with the masonry. It had to have a hand crank, because I don’t want to ever reach my hand into a concealed space. When it comes to a hose box, I like ignorance. I don’t want to know what’s in there ever (I still think about those snakes we had to deal with when we first moved in!). But it’s nice to find one that is a little more designed. if you’re like us, you’ll be using it a lot! I cannot believe how much we use our hose: I think we use a hose 2x a week, so hose storage is a really big one.

It’s so nice to have things easy to access and yet stored away!