3 Quick and Easy Ways to Create More Storage Space in Your Apartment
3 Quick and Easy Ways to Create More Storage Space in Your Apartment
A friend of mine was telling me a story of the trouble he and his wife have been having with storage within their one bedroom apartment.
Since moving in, they’ve just accumulated so much stuff and ran out of space for it. So much stuff that they got 200 square foot storage unit to get the less used stuff out of the apartment…
That didn’t last long. He said that within a few months they had filled the apartment up again and don’t know what to do. They couldn’t afford to keep paying for the storage unit and had to find another solution.
They started looking up different ways of increasing the storage space within their apartment and here are the 3 simple tricks they used to save a bunch of space.
- Shelves, shelves and more shelves
It seems simple, but don’t underestimate what you can do with shelves to create more usable space off the floor.
My friend started looking inside their closets and around the apartment and found that there were so many spots to put shelves up.
The one bedroom apartment had a couple closets in it. While it is nice to hang up clothes, he turned his closets into more storage space than you can imagine. It turned into a wall of shelves from a foot off of the floor up to 7 feet. Turned them into cubbies to separate the different items and made them in different sizes so bins could be on some shelves, and some just large enough for shoes.
Easily added enough space to make that closet do the work of 3 others.
Another spot for shelves is that corner that isn’t used for much. It doesn’t take much to create 3 nice L shaped shelves and install them.
The trick there is using them and not taking away from the rest of the room. There needs to be a bit more thought here.
What he did was install 2 shelves in the corner. The gap between them was just large enough for some nice looking baskets to go underneath so it still looked good while holding a bunch of the stuff. The top shelf was for pictures and decorating without having to move everything around.
Those are just two spots he put shelves in, but you get the picture. Shelves create more space and can look clean while being functional.
- Furniture with storage built in
This was another easy answer that he started doing. Each time his wife wanted to get something new, he convinced her to get something with storage built in.
Ottomans, nice cubes with 4-9 slots for bins, small desk with credenza, dressers that are a little bigger than what they had, TV stand with additional storage. All of that adds up.
The trick here is to plan ahead. You don’t want to go out and have to replace everything you have to just get new items just for the storage.
When you initially are planning out your apartment, think ahead to the different pieces that will add space to your apartment like the ones he got.
Every little piece adds up.
- Bed storage
A bed offers a few different wants to increase storage.
You can add storage underneath by getting a frame with drawers or raising the frame off the ground and putting bins underneath. There are even bed frames where the headboard can have drawers that come out the side. A nice touch is putting an ottoman in front of the bed as well. The downside with that is it takes up more floor space… but it does look nice.
The trick here is picking the one with the most options as you don’t always know what you will be storing down there. Chances are you are going to get a dresser and have a closet to put clothes in. And if you use the shelving strategy that my friend did, you’ll have more than enough space for clothes with those two.
Being able to put longer or taller bins out of sight and out of the way can be a very versatile option for you. Raising the bed up allows you to safely put taller bins underneath that can fit a wide variety of items inside and not have to worry about them. To create even more space if needed, vacuum seal some of the items to shrink them down and fit them inside.
The other options aren’t bad, but the one that offers the best of space and usability are the bed risers. My friend said his are a life saver. Easy ways to get things out of sight and put whatever he needs in.
If you want a quality bed riser, Tech Team https://techteamproducts.com/ offers one of the best. https://www.amazon.com/TECH-TEAM-Reinforced-Standard-Installation/dp/B07D4358F2/ref=sr_1_80?ie=UTF8&qid=1539524785&sr=8-80&keywords=tech+team.
The Tech Team bed risers raise your bed up by 4 inches and stop the bed from moving. This allows you to store whatever you need underneath and not have to worry about crushing it or the bed sliding and damaging anything.
They replace most standard bed frame feet and don’t require any tools for installation. Making it quick and easy to gain that much needed space.
