One of the oldest space-saving storage tricks in the interior design handbook involves making use of that leftover area underneath the stairs, the awkward extra space that does not always lend itself to cheap or easy storage solutions. These 10 clever storage hacks, however, show just how creative one can be with what seems like the hardest space to deal with in a house.

While not a new idea, turning stairs into drawers is a relatively simple way to get easily-accessible storage space out of a staircase. Integrating the drawers wouldn’t be difficult, and once the project is complete, you won’t even be able to discern the change by looking at the staircase.

Along similar lines, there a number of other clever but more technically advanced ways to hide under-stair storage or even an entire hidden room or secret passage. Definitely the coolest way to use this overlooked space in a home.

At the other end of the spectrum, this bookcase-and-stairs combination shows off your favorite volumes to anyone traveling between the floors of your house, inviting them to linger and sit down for a while.

An extension of the simple stair drawers design idea, there are other ways to make more complex and spacious compartments out of a staircase such as these storage stairs above.

A less in-your-face idea, each tread of this alternating-tread bookcase/staircase becomes a self-contained storage-and-display shelving unit of its own.

There are also do-it-yourself solutions out there for those people who already have a staircase but have simply run out of space, like this traditional-looking stair-and-drawer system one pictured above.

Whether you want extra places to display your odds-and-ends collections, more room for your clothing or simply additional filing space there are a lot of creative ways to take advantage of all the extra area below something that every two-story-or-more home already has.