Organizing your apartment involves determining your storage needs. With so many storage solutions available, you should be able to find a few options that suit your lifestyle. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Use the hidden space. The space beneath a bed can be used efficiently with under the bed boxes. These are available in clear plastic so you can see what's in them at a glance. You can store off-season clothing, small sports equipment or extra linens in these boxes. A twin bed should be able to fit at least two of these boxes. Some sizes will allow for six underneath a king sized bed.
2. Buy the heavy plastic bags that you hook up to your vacuum cleaner to really reduce the size of stored items. Pillows, winter clothes, extra quilts and blankets fit inside and become flat and easy to store. These can be stored in storage units or sheds because everything inside will stay nice and clean. Put them in plastic bags to keep the outside of the bags clean. When you open these bags, your things spring to their original size and shape.
3. Look for storage under the living room furniture as well. If your couch and chairs have skirts that go to the floor you can store flat items underneath them easily. Get boxes with lids from an office supply store. Store magazines, file folders, journals and other items in the boxes. Slide the boxes underneath the couch. They are easy to retrieve and remain out of sight. Small toys like children's books and blocks can fit neatly inside the boxes as well.
4. Purchase small plastic bins or use shoe boxes in your kitchen cabinets. You can organize all of your small items like puddings, drink mixes, instant grits, cocoa and popcorn in these containers.
5. Take advantage of the space on the back of your doors. Use over the door shelving in the laundry room and the kitchen to free up cabinet and counter space. These racks can hold all of your cleaning supplies, canned goods and boxed goods. You can also use those clear plastic hanging shoe racks that have pockets for each shoe on doors and even walls. These are perfect for office supplies, school supplies, doll and action figure collections, CDs, DVDs, art supplies and just about anything else small enough to get in the pockets. These racks not only get things out of the way by utilizing unused space, but they keep everything neat and handy as well.
6. Buy closet shelving to fit between the two sides of your closet. You can put a floor to ceiling shelf unit in any closet that has rods on both sides. You can put in shelves or cubbyholes, which are great for taking the place of a big bulky dresser. T-shirts, pajamas, extra shoes and sweaters--anything that can be folded neatly and still worn--will be perfect there. In children's closets, use the floor space to put in deep shelves for toys and shoes.
7. Maximize space in the kitchen. Add cup hooks to cabinets to free up space. Put small towel bars inside the bottom cabinets for towels and pot holders and anything that can hang on an S hook. Use zipper bags on hooks to hold sponges, soap pads, rags and rubber gloves.
8. Buy stand alone shelves for cabinets in the kitchen and under the sinks. These small shelves are available at any department store. They sit on the shelf and make it possible to stack items like plates and saucers. By using up that dead space in the top of the shelves, you can save a lot of space without giving up accessibility.
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