Apartment living for college students comes with many benefits, but an abundance of storage space usually isn’t one of them. What can you do? If you’ve lived in a dorm room you probably already know a few tricks for saving space. Here are a few more for apartment living:
Furniture: Your furniture can do double duty for you, making apartment living much more pleasant. Purchase trunks to hold winter clothes, blankets, or other bulky items and use these as coffee tables or benches at the end of your bed. A low bookshelf behind your sofa adds storage and extra counter space. Ottomans are one of the most flexible pieces of furniture for apartment living and can be used as tables, footstools, extra seating, and for storage. When choosing a bed, add risers to create space for containers underneath or choose a loft style bed that can sit above your desk.
Wall Space: Take full advantage of your wall space with shelves and bookcases. Place shelves high on walls and above doorways. Bookshelves can go under windows and along hallway walls. You can even buy shelving units specifically designed for corners, which make great display areas in apartment living rooms. If you have large items like musical instruments or sports equipment, wall mounting them can save closet space.
Closets and Cabinets: To get the most out of your apartment living spaces, take full advantage of these. In closets, add extra shelves or hanging rods. Stack storage bins containing out of season clothes on the floor. You can even purchase hangers that stack to hold multiple outfits, an invention that is perfect for apartment living. In kitchen cabinets and under sinks add extra shelves too. Hang shoe racks inside closet doors and small organizing racks or rods on the inside of cabinet doors.
Keep It Clean: Apartment living is better when you keep your space cleaned up! Don’t leave shoes tossed around the floor, clothes strewn on the furniture, and mail piled on the kitchen table of your apartment. Living in a clean space is not only more pleasant, it also helps make your space appear larger.
Most of these solutions for improving apartment living are inexpensive and easy to implement. Even so, you may not be able to create enough space in your apartment. Living in small spaces is like that sometimes. You can always use ApartmentSearch.com to find Austin apartments, Dallas apartments, Phoenix apartments, or Seattle apartments, if you need to make a move to a new apartment that better fits your lifestyle and all of your belongings.