How to Take Advantage of Organization When Space is Scarce

There will always be trade-offs when looking for a new home. What is perfect about one place may be the weak point of the next, but the good thing is that some weaknesses can be fixed.

During my apartment hunt, I was excited about one complex in particular, but what was keeping me from immediately signing the lease and making it my new home was the storage. I didn’t have a ton of stuff to move at this point, but I still wanted to have a place to put on my wet coat in the winter!

The promising thing is that small spaces have solutions. I wouldn’t be able to put the sleek appliances or hardwood floors into a different apartment, but I could find storage solutions to make the apartment I truly wanted feel more spacious.

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Why should I organize my small space? 

There’s no telling how much you may accumulate between now and your next move. Having an organizational system in place allows you to make sure that everything you own has a place and purpose.

Not to mention, when spring cleaning comes around, you’ll be able to easily tell how much you should part with based on the storage system you have in place. There’s nothing like cleaning and knowing that there won’t be clutter everywhere when you’re finished.

Small space organization can be broken down into two categories: furniture and storage solutions. There will be some things you may buy to help organize the already available space like cabinets, pantries, and closets, and then there are items you’ll purchase to create new storage space.

What are options for maximizing storage in a small space?

Storage furniture

Storage furniture is anything that doubles as a piece of furniture you were already planning to buy (bed, couch, etc.) and a storage unit. Think ottoman. Minimalistic and tiny living is something that’s becoming more and more prominent which means it can be easy to find furniture that fits this need.

IKEA has great multi-purpose furniture that can help you create extra space in your home. For couches, a favorite of mine is the Jattebo couch. While it isn’t the most cost-effective couch on the market, each couch cushion lifts to reveal extra storage. It’s the perfect place to house blankets, board games, books, ANYTHING.

There are also beds with drawers on the base to double as dressers. You’ll add some storage by having a place to put all your seasonal clothing or even the things you’ll need and use every day.

TV stands and ottomans are more traditionally used for additional storage so there’s not anything novel about using these. BUT you should consider how much storage these pieces will provide if you’re worried about your small space.

Storage solutions

The second half of making the most of a smaller space is to use storage solutions. This can include drawer storage, dividers, or even under-sink storage. Using these items can help you make the most of the cabinets you already have in the unit.

Before buying and setting up drawer storage, I recommend outlining where all of your belongings will be placed. Use sticky notes to show where you’ll place things in each category if needed. For example, in the kitchen, I would decide the most practical place to put flatware, pots, pans, appliances, food, cleaning supplies, etc. It then becomes much more simple to search for and purchase storage solutions.

Kitchen —

how many storage solutions and types you’ll need will be very dependent on the space you have and how your things fit in the space. For someone who has many pots and pans and door cabinets (vs. drawers) this storage solution may work for you…

Eliminating the visual of store packaging from cupboards and pantries has been increasingly popular over the years. If this is also your style, you can opt for plastic or glass food containers to hold pasta, cereal, baking ingredients, etc.

These can also reduce wasted space caused by excess packaging.

Bathroom —

bathrooms can store a multitude of things ranging from basic hygiene (body soap, deodorant, toothpaste, cleansers) to beauty products like makeup. You’ll want to make sure that your belongings are categorized and stored in a way that makes sense to you and allows you to quickly find things.

I suggest using acrylic drawer inserts to help separate your things and allow you to group things that you wouldn’t want to get mixed in a single drawer…think cotton balls and toothbrushes.

Bedroom —

I’ve personally struggled with keeping my dresser organized. After a week or two I find that the clothing is a jumbled mess and it’s difficult to find anything except for the same 5 pairs of leggings.

Drawer separators are a storage tool that can help you store similar items next to one another without having everything mesh together and create chaos. This still requires keeping individual sections tidy, but it’s much easier than having to refresh the dresser once a month simply to get the drawers to close.

For larger spaces like a closet, consider a larger storage solution like the IKEA pax system or something similar. The closet system that came in my small apartment wouldn’t have been big enough to even fit 1/4 of my clothing (and I don’t have much).

Needless to say, the closet was the part of the storage I was most concerned about. If you have the dimensions of your closet, you can build a pax using the pax planner tool on the IKEA website and then build a closet custom to your needs. Easy!

If you don’t want to build a whole system, you can always use hanger hooks to maximize the number of hanging clothing items you can fit in a small place.

Regardless of how small a space may seem, there is always a way to bring more storage in if you consider the right solutions. Focusing on organization and storage systems as well as furniture options can help you fit all your belongings into a small space.

Some things can’t be fixed overnight with a home, but I promise figuring out unique ways to store all your things is not one of those things!