Ep. 05: Storage in Small Spaces

I checked out Small Space Style by Whitney Leigh Morris of The Tiny Canal Cottage from the library. There are a lot of great tips, a number of which we’re already using.

Here’s the floor plan I drew of our 550-square-foot apartment. Definitely not to scale, but you get the idea.

We swapped out our shoe rack in the entryway for this under-bench storage solution with these Target doormats. The coir absorbs rain and snow so it doesn’t get on the floor but isn’t eroded by road salt like a metal boot tray would be.

Remodelista: The Organized Home was also full of great storage solutions, though it’s not small-space specific. Check it out if you’re interested in the over-sink storage we were talking about, Shaker pegs, or S-hooks.

We have these IKEA baskets in almost every room of the apartment. They’re really handy to keep smaller stuff within reach but out of the way. They don’t seem to be for sale anymore, but here’s something similar.

Our bottle opener was a flea market find and a good example of replacing something cheap and broken with something unique and well-made, something we should be doing way more of.

The way we positioned the furniture in the living room around the rug, with the chair facing in toward the coffee table, visually separates that area from the office on the other side of the room, even though they’re technically in the same space. Also, yes, it’s technically both Thanksgiving and Christmas in here right now.

After we ditched our awful printer, this side table from Home Goods could take its rightful place as a plant stand.

Though we don’t actually need a printer at home, we do scan a lot. This scanning wand is way easier to store under the bookshelf, out of sight.

Keeping the bathroom counter clear of everything but hand soap and toothbrushes creates visual space in an otherwise crowded room.

We’d be interested to see how LED lights like this serve to light up areas that aren’t near an outlet.

Shavonda Gardener just did a bathroom remodel using between-the-studs storage similar to what we were talking about. We’d be interested to see what a full-length version with a door looks like.