Clever Hidden Storage Ideas for Small Homes and Units
Clever hidden storage for small homes and units
A small home is rarely short of space, it is short of places to put things, and those are not the same problem. Once you start looking up high and underneath rather than along the walls, a unit turns out to have a surprising amount of room hiding in it.
Overhead, the space nobody uses
The band of wall above a doorway, above a wardrobe, and above the kitchen cupboards is dead space in most houses. A shelf up there takes the things you reach for twice a year, the picnic set, the spare bedding, the camping gear. Fix it into studs or into proper hollow wall anchors, because a high shelf that lets go has a long way to fall.
Under the bed, done properly
Plastic tubs work, but pull-out boxes on castors work far better, because you actually open them. If you are handy, a platform bed with drawers in the base turns the whole footprint of the bed into storage and costs you nothing in floor area.
The back of every door you own
Pantry door, bathroom cupboard, wardrobe door. Hooks, a slim rack or a pocket organiser on the back of a door holds cleaning gear, belts, scarves and all the cords that currently live in a drawer nobody can shut.
Furniture that does two jobs
An ottoman with a hollow base swallows cushions, board games and the toy explosion that happens ten minutes before visitors arrive. A bench by the front door does the same for shoes. If it is going to sit in a small room, it may as well be holding something.
A fold-down bench or desk
Where there is no room for a permanent desk, a hinged top fixed to the wall folds flat when you are done. The whole thing lives or dies on the wall fixing, so treat it like a shelf carrying weight rather than a picture, and fix it into studs.
Three habits that make it stick
- Think vertical. Walls are not just for paint, and a rack takes almost no floor.
- Label it. Storage you cannot see into becomes a place things go to disappear.
- Build for how you actually live, not how you would like to. Watch where the clutter lands for a week and put the storage there.
Shop related products
- Supercraft Level Set of 2. For getting a run of shelving straight first go.
- Supercraft Torpedo Level. Small enough to sit on a single bracket.
- Combination Square with Level, 300mm. Marks square off an edge for a fold-down top.
- Sutton Phillips PH2 Screwdriver Bits, 50mm 2 pack. The bit most flat-pack and bracket screws want.
More in fasteners and fixings and hardware. Hollow wall anchors, spring toggles and hooks are on the shelf in a range of sizes, so bring the bracket in and we will match a fixing to it.
Read next
- How to organise a new home so it stays organised
- How to Patch Up That Hole in the Wall from Moving Furniture
Every corner counts when there are not many of them.
Cheers,
Candeece
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