She Spent Summer Filling the Porch With Houseplants. Now They All Have to Come Inside
Moving houseplants outside for summer gives a collection far more room than most homes can provide. Grace E Allen is now facing the other side of that arrangement as temperatures begin to fall: all of the plants spread across her covered outdoor spaces need to come back inside.
“I have to bring all of these green babies inside the house before cold temps start,” Allen wrote in the Houseplant Central Facebook group, before asking the question the photos make hard to ignore: “Where am I gonna put ’em???” Her problem gets harder because, as she explained, the inside of her home is already full of plants.
The photos show what she is up against. Large rubber plants, palms and elephant-ear-type plants need substantial floor space, smaller pots occupy benches and tiered stands, and trailing plants hang from hooks overhead. Allen joked that there may be only one solution left: “I may need another house.”
Some of These Plants Need More Than an Empty Corner
The first view shows why counting pots doesn’t tell the whole story. A tall rubber plant sits on a wheeled wood caddy at left, while broad elephant-ear-type foliage extends several feet into the open space. Large upright plants line the opposite wall, and smaller pots continue toward the doors.
The wheeled caddies under heavier containers are one detail worth copying. Large plants become harder to reposition once brought inside, especially when a ceramic pot, soil and mature root system add considerable weight. Casters allow the entire container to move without repeatedly lifting it.
Shelves Solve Part of the Floor-Space Problem
This angle reveals how the collection already uses vertical space. A narrow tiered metal stand holds several pots against the wall, while a long table near the open side creates two levels for smaller plants. Hanging baskets add another level overhead.
That system becomes more important indoors, where dozens of individual plant stands would consume too much floor. Small pots can move onto one tall rack, medium plants can occupy tables or consoles, and the largest containers can keep the limited floor positions they require.
Hanging Plants Need Somewhere to Go Too
Several baskets hang from hooks fixed along the porch beam, including trailing plants whose stems extend well below their pots. Other plants occupy a tall stand beside the sliding door, a long table, the floor and raised blocks.
Those hanging baskets create a separate fall problem because bringing them inside doesn’t automatically provide somewhere to put them. Keeping them suspended requires secure indoor hooks or another support system, while setting all of them on tables would take away surfaces that could hold smaller pots.
Large Tropical Foliage Takes Up Space Beyond the Pot
The porch swing provides a useful reference for the size of the plants around it. Broad elephant-ear-type leaves extend above and behind the swing, a rubber plant rises near the center, and numerous upright tropicals fill the wall behind them.
Pot diameter is therefore only part of the space calculation. A plant in a 12-inch container can have leaves extending several feet across, so the biggest specimens need to be assigned indoor positions before shelves and tables are filled with smaller plants.
Benches Can Hold an Entire Group of Smaller Pots
Wood benches provide another level for the collection, supporting everything from compact pots to the large blue glazed container. Monstera-type foliage, upright tropicals, and smaller plants share the surface, while larger specimens remain on the floor.
Indoors, the same setup could help Grace fit more plants into limited space. One long bench or sturdy console can hold several smaller containers along a wall instead of spreading them across the floor, reserving those floor positions for the plants too large or heavy to raise.
Doorways Put a Limit on How Much Can Fit
The entry grouping includes a snake plant, palm, ZZ plant and a collection of smaller succulents and foliage plants. Two red surfaces provide raised storage on either side of the door, while the tallest containers sit toward the brick wall.
This arrangement works outside because the plants can spread toward the open edges. Indoors, the same group needs enough clearance for the door to open and for people to pass without brushing large leaves or knocking smaller pots from their stands.
Large Pots Become Their Own Moving Project
Two substantial blue glazed pots dominate this section, with a palm in one and a ZZ plant in the other. Smaller containers occupy the red bench and blocks farther along the wall.
Containers like these are different from the small pots that can be carried inside one at a time. Their weight and width need to be considered before the move, along with whether they can pass through the intended doorway and where they can remain for the colder months without needing constant repositioning.
Summer Space Let the Collection Keep Expanding
The collection doesn’t end at the porch. Another covered structure in the yard has container plants arranged around its posts, with hanging pots overhead and large tropical foliage growing beside the house.
Summer gave the collection room to spread across benches, hanging hooks, plant stands, the porch floor, and even a separate covered area in the yard. Fall removes that extra space at once, while many of the plants return indoors larger than when they came out.
Smaller pots can be grouped on shelves, hanging plants can use overhead space, and wheeled caddies can help with the heaviest containers. Finding room for the plants is one problem. Finding enough light for all of them once they are inside may be the harder one.
But with a collection this size, one question remains: where do you put this many plants for the entire cold season?
Image credits go to Grace E Allen.