Hacks on How to Increase Storage Space in A Small Studio Apartment
Hacks on How to Increase Storage Space in A Small Studio Apartment
A friend was telling me about the problem he and his wife had due to a lack of storage space in their small New York City studio apartment. They accumulated so much stuff, so they rented a modular storage unit to get it out of the apartment. However, within a few months they had filled up the apartment again and couldn’t afford to keep paying for the storage unit. Therefore, they started looking into different options for increasing the storage space within their tiny apartment. After looking on YouTube and doing a Hey Siri, Hey Alexa, and Hey Google search they came up with a few ideas.
- Under Bed storage
A bed can offer different options for increasing storage space.
You can add storage underneath by getting a frame with drawers or raising the frame off the ground and putting totes underneath. There are even bed frames where the headboard can have drawers. A nice touch is putting an ottoman or bench with a hinged lid in front of the bed as well, the only downside with that is it takes up more floor space. The trick is picking the one with the most options as you don’t always know what you will be storing. Chances are you are going to get a dresser and have a closet to put clothes in and if you use a good shelving strategy, you’ll have more than enough room for clothes and shoes.
Being able to put longer or taller bins out of sight and out of the way can be a very workable option. Raising the bed allows you to safely put taller bins underneath that can fit a wide variety of items. To create even more space you can vacuum seal some of the items to shrink them down and fit them inside. These options aren’t bad, but the one that offers the best of space and usability are bed risers. My friend said his are a life saver. They give you easy ways to get things out of sight and put whatever he needs under the bed. If you want a quality bed riser, Tech Team https://techteamproducts.com/ offers four 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 #740 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. You could also use their heavy duty 5 inch risers https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Team-Underneath-Adapters-Included/dp/B07VN6T1X1/ref=sr_1_3?crid=38JFJHXYRCEMS&keywords=tech+team+bed+risers&qid=1568996798&s=gateway&sprefix=tech+team+bed%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-3 as an even better option. They replace most standard metal bed frame feet and don’t require any tools for installation. Making it quick and easy to gain that much needed space. They also make a super strong 2 ½” riser their item #783 https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Team-Heavy-Duty-Protects-Adapters/dp/B07VNBH9WZ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tech+team+bed+risers&qid=1566239046&s=gateway&sr=8-1 and their #741 (link) adjustable bed foot.
- Furniture with storage built in
This was another easy answer that he started doing. Each time his wife wanted to get a new piece of furniture, he convinced her to get something with storage built in. Ottomans, cubes with slots for bins, a small desk with credenza, dressers that are a little bigger than what they had, and a 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 additional storage. A good idea is planning out your apartment and thinking ahead to the different pieces that will add storage space to your apartment without looking like clutter.
- Shelves, shelves and more shelves
It seems simple, but don’t underestimate what you can do with sturdy steel or plastic shelves to create more usable space off the floor. They started looking inside their closets and found that there were so many spots to put shelves up and he was able to turn their 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 and he turned them into cubbies to separate the different items and made them in different sizes so totes could be on some shelves and easily added enough space to make that one closet do the work of 3.
Another spot for shelves is that corner that isn’t used for much. It doesn’t take much to create nice pie slice shaped shelves and install them. The trick there is using them and not taking away from the rest of the room so there needs to be a bit more thought here.
What he did was install 2 shelves in the corner and the gap between them was just large enough for some nice looking bins to go underneath so it still looked good while holding a bunch of the stuff. The top shelf worked well for pictures and decorating without having to move everything around. Shelves create more space and can look clean while being functional.
