Apartments can be wonderful places to call home. That said, they can be pesky in that there isn't a lot of space to work with.
After you get everything in, you might find that your dreams of a stylish apartment are drowned out by the cluttered reality of a small place. The answer to that problem is apartment organization, though, and we're here to help you through it.
We'll take a look at some ideas on how you can manage the space in your apartment and free up a little room without getting rid of too much.
1. Minimize Bulky Furniture
It might be comforting to have the massive dresser from your childhood bedroom, but it may not be the right fit for your new apartment.
In many cases, we don't need the size of furniture that we have. Unless you're planning on hosting a lot and need seating, you can try and size down a lot of the furnishings you have in the apartment.
Try to measure things out before you go to the store so you know precisely what will fit where and what you want to do with the place. This will give you a lot more space for storage and open up the rooms a little bit.
2. Clean Regularly
The smaller the place, the shorter the time it takes to get it messy. We're all prone to creating the same amount of mess, but that mess looks a lot cleaner when it's spread out in a large home.
So, when you're dealing with limited space in an apartment, you can take it upon yourself to clean up a little more often than you normally would. Some of the ideas below will give you more inspiration on methods of minimizing that clutter.
That said, it's a good idea to do a quick walk around the apartment before you go to bed and make sure that nothing's too out of place.
3. Hanging Storage
Optimize your closet space with hanging storage units. Even if you have the tiniest closet in the world, you can triple the amount of storage space you have when you use the walls.
You can even spread that storage out onto your bedroom walls if you're so inclined. There are plenty of options for hanging racks, verticle dressers, and more that you can work with.
4. Create Multipurpose Rooms
Rethink your rooms to accommodate all of the things you need to use your apartment for. You might need an office, a bedroom, living room, dining room, and workshop.
If you play your cards right, you can create a room that serves as all of these things with a few simple tweaks. You might store your dining room fold-up table in the closet and swap it with your desk when you want to serve dinner.
Maybe you get a multipurpose workstation that can serve as a desk and a host for all of your hobby materials. When you're not working, you might place the television on top of that desk to serve as a stand.
Get creative, and you'll start to see a lot more opportunities within the place.
5. Move Things to Meet Your Needs
You don't have to place a piece of furniture and leave it there for your entire lease.
Consider arranging your apartment in such a way that you can move things around as you need to. To work off of our section above, you could place the television in a closet when you're not using it.
Then, when it's time to watch a movie, you grab the television and set it up on your stand. The same can go for kitchen tables, hutches, and more. It never hurts to have some wheels on big furniture for these purposes.
It might seem a little quirky, but you're not going to have company most of the time. You don't have to keep appearances up while you're alone, so there's no harm in creating a system with a few moving parts.
6. Find Storage in Unlikely Places
If you think outside the box a little bit, you'll find that there are a lot of places to put things. People don't normally place boxes above their fridge or kitchen cabinets, for example.
That said, you can store things there. Further, you can cover up the boxes in a number of ways so that people won't even see that you're using the space as storage. After all, how often do you look on top of someone's fridge or above their cabinets?
7. Part With Some Things
Organizing an apartment well means getting rid of clutter. That means you might have to say goodbye to some of the things you don't need.
This can be the hardest thing to do. That said, if you don't use something and it doesn't have sentimental value, why do you have it? It's going to contribute to your anxiety and take up space with almost no purpose.
So, find some boxes, fill them up, and take them to a secondhand store. Getting rid of junk can be hard, but it sure feels good.
8. Find or Create Furniture with Storage
A lot of furniture opens up to hold storage. Couches, footrests, bed frames, and more can all accommodate some things.
If your furniture doesn't hold storage, you can always do a little DIY work and make it hold something or another. If you're not too attached to the purity of the furniture, take some cushions off and create some space underneath.
Odds are that it will remain as comfortable as it always was, and you'll have some more space to work with.
9. Hold Yourself Accountable
One of the most effective apartment organization tips you can consider is the idea of creating habits. Holding true to your organizational habits is hard, but you'll get there.
A few months into the lease, you might find yourself doing things and cleaning up without even thinking. It's the little things that will clutter your apartment. Picking up after yourself, doing your dishes, having spots for all of your things, and doing your laundry on time will keep it clean.
Need More Apartment Organization Ideas?
It's tough to get ahold of your habits and keep your living space clean. Apartment organization is an art, and we're here to help you perfect it.
Explore our site for more ideas on cleaning, maintaining, decorating, and finding apartments.