Storage: Furniture to Spaces

"There's a squirrel in all of us:  storing something today so that we can find and use it tomorrow,  next week or next year, is a basic and admirable human impulse.  Few of our possessions are in use at at one time; the rest must be stored away in such as way that can find them at a moment's notice.  Care full storage conserves, prevents deterioration and saves money, careless storage usually causes damages, wastes time and might just as well not be done at all "
(Excerpt from Geoffrey Salmon's Storage c. 1967)

"It is little wonder than that many of the first furniture designs were developed as storage devices.  In the Middle Ages, people were not burdened with a great many  possessions, partly because there were not easy means for producing things in great quantity, partly because the powerful Church was hostile to unnecessary possessions and there were sumpturary laws that limited conspicuous private consumption.  Nevertheless, storage was an important concern.  What possessions people did have that we not in constant use were put away on the ground floor of the house in storeroom that shared the space with stables and perhaps an armory.  One all important piece of furniture at the time as the chest.  People carried entire household about with them as they followed the court or the hunt.  Nearly everything they owned went into a portable packing chests, and at each destination these chest became essential furniture-both for continued storage and for seating and tables.     Only when life became less itinerant and different rooms in the house developed specific functions did more elaborate furniture come into being."
(Excerpt from Melinda Davis' A House and Garden Book:  Storage in the Home c. 1978)

"The human squirrel will certainly think out new places and ways to store his possessions in the future.  One big question remains.  Will our homes be designed recognizing not only that our living activities have changed during the last decade, but that our storage needs will probably double during the next. "
(Excerpt from Geoffrey Salmon's Storage c. 1967)