Damian Huneycutt, AIA, NCARB, ACHA — Healthcare Architect

Don’t laugh, but during design meetings, we’ve actually been asked: “Where does the Christmas tree go?”

It sounds funny, but it points to a much bigger issue in healthcare architecture: storage is almost always an afterthought—until it becomes a problem.

Hospitals and clinics are filled with things no one planned space for. On the flip side, sometimes we plan for storage, but it’s in the wrong place, poorly sized, or it just becomes a dumping ground for items no one knows what to do with.

Think about all the things that get overlooked: holiday decorations, portable patient lifts, IV poles, rolling carts, crash carts, PPE, surplus furniture for the patient’s family. They all need a home, but they don’t always have one.

The Hidden Storage Challenge in Healthcare

I once worked on an orthopedic surgery center where the staff insisted on keeping a specialized apparatus on the floor plan. The piece was about three feet wide by seven feet long—21 square feet of valuable space. When I asked how often it was used, they admitted it was for a procedure performed maybe once every month or two.

Ultimately, they realized they could store it off-site and bring it back only when needed. Without that conversation, it would have occupied prime storage space, constantly being wheeled in and out and blocking access to other items.

This is the heart of the issue: poor planning leads to cluttered hallways, safety risks, and wasted square footage.

Yes, building codes and guidelines direct designers for certain items—like requiring a stretcher alcove near operating rooms or ensuring nurse stations have access to crash carts. But codes don’t cover everything. The “in-between” items still need a thoughtful strategy.

The Design Opportunity

The best solution? Integrate storage into the design process from day one.

Storage doesn’t need to be the very first thing on your mind, but it should be a close second. The goal is to design flexible spaces located near the point of use. Think about your morning coffee. Where do you keep the cream and sugar? Near the coffee maker. It’s the same logic with healthcare spaces: keep PPE near the patient room, not three hallways away.

If storage isn’t planned properly, staff will take matters into their own hands. Nurses, for example, will stockpile supplies in whatever corner they can find, even if it violates other standards or protocols, because they need quick access to do their jobs effectively.

Perspectives That Matter

Storage isn’t one-size-fits-all. Different perspectives bring different priorities:

• Nurses’ Perspective: Equipment should be close by, easy to access, not locked away at the other end of the unit.
• Facilities / Maintenance Perspective: Storage should be practical and organized—not leftover corners or shared with unrelated items. (For example, don’t store a crash cart alongside HVAC filters and spare pipe fittings.)
• Patient & Family Perspective: Clutter-free environments to create a sense of calm, safety, and dignity. No one feels reassured walking past hallways filled with equipment and clutter.

Designing for Resiliency

Storage also plays into resiliency. Years ago, I had a project where the debate wasn’t about the aesthetics or efficiency of a new lighting system—it was about bulbs. The facility had standardized on fluorescent bulbs, but the engineer wanted to specify a more efficient type. The problem? There wasn’t enough storage space to stock multiple kinds of bulbs.

It sounds trivial, but it was a real limitation at the time. Today, with LEDs dominating the market, that issue has faded—but it’s a good reminder: storage capacity can directly impact how adaptable a facility is to change.

The Wrap-Up

Yes, I love a good pun, and this has been loosely guised as a holiday theme writing, but here’s the truth: even the Christmas tree deserves a place in your storage plan.

When storage is thoughtfully designed—even in July, when no one’s thinking about holiday decorations—we reduce operational headaches, keep spaces safer, and allow the real focus to remain where it should be: on patient care.

So, if you’re planning a new healthcare facility or renovating an existing one, let’s talk about your storage strategy. Because if we can find a home for the Christmas tree, we can find a home for everything else too.