One fact that is impossible to get away from is that every home needs items for storage. We need somewhere to keep hats and coats, CD's, books, jewellery, wine bottles, umbrella stands, and even waste baskets for throwing rubbish into until it is time to put it out for the dustman to collect.

Fortunately, designers and manufacturers have come up with some great ideas for storage in the 21st century that is very different from those we have had in years past. Take wine racks, for instance. A UK company called Furnantics has produced a wooden wine rack that has a lovely ebony veneer and has three sides. The back is solid while the two sides have holes cut in them – a small one on one side for the neck of the bottle, and a large one on the other for the body of the bottle to rest on. These alternate one on top of the other so that the first bottle has the neck pointing to the right, the next to the left, and so on. The rack takes up very little space and will hold up to five bottles.

Blomus have produced a wine rack which screws on to the wall and is basically a strip of stainless steel with small rings one above the other. You simply place the neck of the bottle in a ring and voila! – it holds the bottle by the neck. Nothing else needed at all. You can store eight bottles one above the other.

Another wine rack is a rectangular design with a wire chrome-plated finish. It is floor standing, and you can get this with three shelves or four to hold either a dozen or 16 bottles of wine.

There is a choice of different magazine racks too. Umbra make one in clear acrylic that can be used as a side table or a stool. The one-piece legs curl upwards so that you can store your magazines in each side.

Imagine the shape of a cat with the outline of it sitting on the floor. Now put another five of these one behind the other and you have six "cats" with five sections between them for holding your magazines and newspapers. Available in black or white this is a really contemporary design and costs a tiny £14.95.

Where do you keep your hats and coats when you come in from the cold? Most people keep them in the hall, and you could have a row of hooks on the wall, but why not use a coat and hat stand instead. Some of these allow for umbrella storage as well. The Umbra Flapper Hat and Coat Stand doesn't store umbrellas, but like many other coat and hat stands has a circular base with a central pole with hooks at the top. The idea is based on the Umbra Flip coat hooks, but in the case of the Umbra Flapper Hat and Coat Stand it has a white base with the central pole in a light natural wood finish. There are nine hooks in a white finish at the top and you can flip them out as you need them and when not in use flip them back into the pole. Another very contemporary design.

What about all those CD's and DVD's? The Kare Snail Wall Shelf is in a silver finish and is in the shape of a snail or coiled spring with ten wood finished dividers in it. It hangs on the wall and will hold up to 150 CD's and DVD's. There is also the Kartell Bookworm Shelf which comes in three lengths and can be twisted into any desired shape before hanging on the wall. It is actually designed with books in mind but will serve as a CD holder equally well.

There are also novelty storage designs such as the Balvi Splash Umbrella Stand which sits on the floor and looks as though someone has splashed red paint on the floor. It has a small central hole to hold one umbrella, but since it takes up very little room you could have one for each member of the family.