Create Storage Space in an Apartment

By: Sanya Kaushik

Apartments have become quite popular in the recent past. You don’t have to bother about lawn weeds; you don’t have to fight with your neighbors about boundary issues; you don’t have to take care of electricity, water or general maintenance. Sure, apartments are definitely better in terms of practicality and convenience.

But, like all terrestrial objects, apartments are accompanied by their fair share of problems, the biggest and most annoying of which is probably storage space, or rather the lack thereof. As most apartment-dwellers will tell you, finding a place for all the odds and ends (that every household invariably has) is the biggest setback of living in a flat. 

So what do you do if there isn’t space to put everything away? Easy, you make space. Here are a few useful ideas on how to make extra storage space in an apartment:

IN THE KITCHEN:

• If there aren’t a lot of people living in the apartment, you could make do with a small fridge instead of a full-sized one. 

• Place hooks and hangers above the fridge or shelf to hang pots and pans that you don’t need regularly. 

• Use a slightly cracked or unusable mug or cup to hold spoons, forks and knives; this leaves the drawers empty for plates and other crockery. 

• If you have a high ceiling, you could build a shelf and hang your wine glasses and pans off of it. 

• Get a rolling shelf for all your condiments, spices and other cooking ingredients. This way, you can always move the shelf somewhere else temporarily so that you get more space in the kitchen.  

IN THE LIVING ROOM:

• If possible, get a couch that has a storing compartment at the bottom; all your spare bed sheets, pillow covers and rugs can go in here. 

• Center tables and side tables with drawers can create a lot of space. 

• Build modish shelves around the TV/ entertainment unit; this will cover up a blank wall and give you space to place your books and other items. 

• Place your furniture strategically so that small nooks are created where you can store something. 

IN THE BEDROOM:

• Build floating shelves for all your books and other objects. 

• Hang your heavy jackets off the back of the main door in order to save closet space. 

• If possible, get a bed that has an empty bottom. This can create a lot of space for heavy winter clothes, spare sheets and pillow covers, shoes, extra crockery etc. 

• Put all the stuff that you don’t need in suitcases; places these suitcases on top of the closet to save space.

• You could also build overhead compartments in order to save floor/wall space; this will make the room feel less cluttered and more open. 

By using these simple tips, you could create a lot of storage space within the apartment without making it look disorderly, chaotic and congested.