After living in this too-small apartment with John and all of his/our (but mostly his) stuff for over a year now, I decided that I could write an article titled “Big Storage in Small Spaces” for Good Housekeeping or a similar magazine. It would be a winner.
Check it out…
Our Bedroom Closet
This is a walk-in closet, but it contains all of our clothes (for every season—winter, fall/spring, and summer), some of our shoes, most of my purses/accessories, all of our linens (towels, sheets, blankets, etc…), as well as some of John’s sporting gear.
Our Kitchen -- Entryway
We have a coat rack that holds most of our coats for the season (the rest are in the tiny front closet that could never hold all of the coats at once), as well as this shoebox thing that I rotate our shoes in and out of depending on the season (the off-season shoes are in a box in the top of the bedroom closet). That rack thing above the shoe shelf is for our keys so that we always know where they are! The wicker basket has stuff I usually grab on my way out—garage door openers, sunglasses, iPod, etc…
Our Kitchen – Other
This is probably my least favorite part of the entire apartment, but even if it is an eyesore, I do think it is pretty useful given space constraints. We don’t have enough cupboard or pantry space to hold this stuff (plastic bags, trash bags, disposable cups, etc…), so this cart triples as a toaster-oven stand, shelf, and towel rack. Above it there you can see the dish drainer full of dishes, so the towel is really convenient there. Much to my dismay, our kitchen had no other place to hang a towel so I am thankful for this improvision!
Laundry
We are incredibly thankful to have laundry in our apartment! It is housed inside a closet, which is totally awesome because the top shelf holds all of our laundry and stain-removal products, and the little rack is the perfect place to use clothespins to hang small items to dry. Best part is that I can shut the doors and the mess is gone! John installed that other hanging basket for smaller products; it also has hooks on it to hang more stuff.
Front Bathroom
This set of shelves is a lifesaver too. It holds fingertip towels, washcloths, extra bathmats, and guest towels. Super, super convenient, and good because there wasn’t enough space in my makeshift bedroom linen closet for these items! The only downfall: imagine for a moment me singlehandedly trying to drag this contraption out of the bathroom when our toilet overflowed. Yeah. That’s not so convenient.
Office
All right, so the only cool thing about the office is the bulletin board hanging above the supply desk. But this is nice because we can tack up invitations, important mail, reminders, etc… so that we always know where to find this stuff!
This one still needs work…
This is the closet in our office room… mostly it holds our big cleaning supplies like brooms, mops, vacuum cleaner, ironing stuff, etc…, as well as some school supplies for me, some camping gear for us, John’s music gear, spare computer parts, and indoor tools. I am still figuring out how to make the most of this space because everything in here is big and bulky, but this is the start. Also, it is supposed to be another walk-in closet, but as you can see, that hasn’t happened for us yet.
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So maybe I am a freak for being excited about these things, but I am proud of myself for finding some stuff about this apartment that I like. I am happy that I have found creative ways to deal with lack of storage space. I think perhaps I became good at this after sharing a shoebox-sized room with my little sister growing up. I can stash a lot of stuff in a small space. If you ever want help in your own home, give me a call ;-).
Maybe if this whole becoming a psychologist thing doesn’t work out, I will go into business organizing people’s homes instead.