Having enough room for all of your stuff in your apartment with enough space left over for you can be a battle. Sure, it's easy to put everything in a box and put that box in your closet, but you want to use your stuff without having to root to the bottom of a bin, or back of a storage closet. Start by going room to room and organize and put stuff away while finding ways of keeping it easy to access. I'm not talking about cupboards, cabinets or simply stacking things. You can get creative with your storage, turn it into a project to do on a weekend which will leave you not only cleaner but your storage could also be a visual piece.
Having lived in apartments for 6+ years, from my tiny first suite after university to my current suite at Mainstreet, I've learned how to keep things hidden, organized but still easily accessible. I'm going to share my secrets (if they are that) with you.
Kitchen – on top of cupboards
This is heavily under-utilized space and a great spot to keep large items. Colanders, big Tupperware, cereal boxes that are just a tiny bit too big for your cupboards, tins of coffee, they can all fit up top and free up counter space.
Kitchen & bathroom
Inside of cupboard doors, all this requires is a J-hook or a 3M adhesive hook that you can easily pick up at your local hardware store. You can screw or stick these into the inside of your cupboard doors under the sink to hold things like cleaning products, cloths, brushes etc. Even in your above counter ones, they can hold things like whisks, spatulas, measuring cups, tongs or anything else that's hangable. If things aren't hangable like plastic wrap, soap, tin foil, extra hand towels zip-lock bags or extra shampoo, don't worry! Those 3M strips can also hang magazine holders and are perfect for those items either up high or down low cupboards.
Your fridge
Get those spices and other common counter clutter up and out of the way. With some simple hot glue, magnets and pencil holder organizers you can stick more stuff to your fridge than just magnets or that Christmas card from 4 years ago you totally keep meaning to take down. Find out how to make your own on the cheap.
If these magnets, hooks or any type of semi-permanent storage isn't your thing, don't worry I've got you covered there too. Suction cups and hair ties, that might sound like an odd combination but it totally works, you can stick stuff to your fridge, inside of your shower or tiles in your bathroom. Just stick a suction cup to your wall, wrap the hair tie around your desired thing to hang and boom! Instant wall storage.
My favourite piece of storage in my own apartment. I did this last weekend for around $35! I'm a cyclist in Calgary and a mountain biker too. Bikes take up a lot of room and you're limited on where you can put them. In my bedroom? Nope. Living room? That's where my couch goes. Out on the balcony maybe? However, -30 weather can seriously damage bike components. I decided to get vertical and wall mount my bike. All it took was some drywall anchors, a stud finder (the MUST HAVE for this storage solution), some long screws, a wall mount I bought from Canadian Tire and a drill to make holes for the drywall anchors. It was a simple process that goes like this.
- Find studs and mark with a pencil on the wall
- Drill hole ¼ inch deeper than the length of the anchor
- Insert anchor into drilled holes
- Place bike mount over anchors
- Mount bike holder, inserting screws through the anchors and into stud in the wall
- Slowly place bike on mount
It took me all of 30 minutes to do and adds, what I think is, a cool unique piece of storage that allows me to store my bikes in my suite with little to no space taken up. Here is the finished product in my personal suite. Good luck on your storage war, you can do it, the first step is starting.
Mainstreet Equity Corp. is a publicly traded (TSX: MEQ) residential real estate company in Canada. Mainstreet currently owns and operates properties in Surrey, BC; New Westminster, BC; Abbotsford, BC; Calgary, AB; Cochrane, AB; Lethbridge, AB; Edmonton, AB; Fort Saskatchewan, AB; and Saskatoon, SK.Mainstreet provides affordable, renovated apartment suites to Canadians, and is committed to creating real value without diluting shareholder interests.