Living in a small apartment is great because it usually means easier maintenance and lower rent. However, no matter how cozy it is, every home requires optimization to make the most of its potential. Finding a suitable layout for each room and decluttering are the two main steps when maximizing the space in your home. Still, when downsizing after a move, it’s easy to forget that you’ll have much less space at your disposal. In such cases, you can make your relocation less stressful by choosing one of two options: either rent a storage unit or get resourceful with utilizing every inch of your home. To help you with it, we’ve come up with 7 creative storage ideas for small apartments.
Double-duty furniture
The key to successful optimization is to minimize the amount of furniture in your home to essentials only. But that doesn’t mean you’ll have to sacrifice the comfort you’re used to – quite the opposite. Nowadays, many pieces of furniture have more than one function, giving you the space you need while satisfying functional demands. Some of them, like a pull-out sofa, drop-leaf table, or a folding workspace, will create more room in your apartment. In addition, there are other examples like ottomans and coffee tables with storage space, a bed with built-in drawers, and a resting chair with shelves that will get things out of your way. They come in different tasteful designs, adaptable to every interior style. Even though these pieces don’t have a big storage capacity, they can hide small items that create clutter.
Introduce helpful add-ons to your storage space
There are a lot of innovative accessories that could help you in more ways than you can imagine. Usually, their purpose is to better organize the inside of the cabinets. Cabinets come in specific sizes, but often only half of the space is utilized. Investing in upright plate holders, cabinet basket racks, door knife racks, under cabinet wine racks, and many others will prove to be a game-changer in small homes.
Using vertical surfaces and room corners
There are plenty of creative storage ideas for small apartments that will make your life easier. One of the best ones is utilizing the vertical surfaces of your home. Mainly, you can achieve this by adding shelves to different parts of the house. Still, it’s essential to maintain some kind of balance between functionality and aesthetics. Investing in such practical elements can also add value to the place, which will be a good return investment if you decide to sell. When choosing the right vertical solutions, pay attention to the way you install them and the weight they can support.
Vertical sliding organizers are also a great way of utilizing unusable surfaces. They can be bought or custom-made for your needs, and they perfectly fit in the kitchen and bathroom, in between appliances. Most homeowners use them for storing cleaning and laundry supplies, freeing cabinets for other items.
Pegboards
Another way of utilizing vertical space is by installing pegboards in some areas of the apartment. For example, they could store your pots, pans, cups, etc., in the kitchen. If installed properly, they can hold significant weight, allowing you to free a lot of space in your home. Pegboards can be used practically anywhere; you just need to get creative with the ways of “presenting” your stored items.
Try open shelves instead of cabinets
Cabinets and wardrobes fit into most home designs. However, we can never use the full available space inside them. To make them optimal, you’d need a lot of improvement, custom-made shelves, and creative ideas. Still, if you opt for open shelves instead of cabinets, you can control the space and thus use more of it. The only downside of these elements is the visibility of stored items. In such cases, you can either minimize the number of your possessions or use baskets or boxes to hide them. Naturally, you will need a good organizing system since the items are not in plain sight.
Floating furniture
The main goal of decluttering and optimizing your home space is easier maintenance and access to things. Small apartments have a lot of things by default, and even though, in theory, limited surfaces are maintained faster, that’s often not the case. Having to lift everything from the floor and get to hard-to-reach surfaces can be daunting. Thus, when deciding on the furniture and storage space, opt for floating pieces. They will make wiping the floors much easier.
Floor cabinets
Downsizing can be pretty stressful if you’re renting the place. Still, there are many practical tips to make things easier when moving into a smaller home. If you own your home and are free to make home improvements, you won’t ever have to worry about storage space again. You can create additional room by making raised storage floors. This hidden storage can be achieved in many ways, from using the space under the bed to re-purposing the space under and inside the stairs.
Conclusion
A lack of storage space is one of the main difficulties homeowners face when downsizing. Thus, it’s essential to figure out how to best organize and apply creative storage ideas for small apartments. Some of these tips require more investment than others. However, the comfort and commodity they’ll provide have no price. And even though custom-made built-in elements are a lifesaver, you can solve many issues by simply rearranging your home.