Mission Impossible: The Apartment Storage Shortage

There’s no yard work, getting locked out isn’t a huge deal and plumbing repairs don’t come with a price tag.

But apartment living isn’t without its shortcomings -- particularly when it comes to space.

The bevy of closets and ample room for a large dresser or desk that are part of a house’s floor plan are absent in an apartment. But it is possible to neatly store your stuff without tripping over it or shoving messy piles into a hallway closet. Professional organizers offer some ideas that will help you deal with apartment storage shortage.

Make a Landing Space

Many big-city apartments lack a foyer or spacious entryway that allows you a nook to hang your coat, leave your keys, or drop the magazines and bills you just picked up from the mailbox as soon as you come home. Often, this results in piles of random items left on the floor, on the kitchen counter or any spot that happens to be nearby.

Tackling this common problem is a good first step toward de-cluttering and locating additional storage in a small space, says Janine Sarna-Jones, member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and founder of New York-based Organize Me.

“Most often, what people struggle with is finding a landing place, where to put things when they come home and where to grab them when they leave,” said Sarna-Jones. “Have a place close to the door where you can drop your bag, keys or the mail you got downstairs.”

If you have a closet nearby, the inside of that closet door is an untapped resource. A variety of hanging organizers can easily turn that door into vertical storage that can house sunblock and beach toys for the kids during the summer and mittens, hats and scarves in the winter, Sarna-Jones suggests.

Affixing hooks near the front door gives everyone a spot to neatly hang coats and jackets and saves precious closet space. Have a lower row for the kids and a higher one for adults. Sarna-Jones also likes designating a shoe zone where footwear can be left and accessed easily. If you don’t like your shoes on display, purchase bins or small cabinetry.

Add a shelf that can hold the mail you just picked up and place letters that need to be mailed the next time you go out. Use a small hook for your keys, scarf, “and all of those grab-and-go items,” said Sarna-Jones.

Easy Storage Ideas

Solving the apartment storage shortage dilemma doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Moxie Girl Household Assistants founder Amanda Thomas offers these quick and easy ideas to help find space and clear clutter.

Get rid of stuff: Go through your things and toss anything that doesn’t look familiar or you can’t remember using. “An average person could stand to get rid of half of their possessions and not really see a difference in their life.”

Look up: There is usually a good amount of unused space at the top of closets and cabinets or overhead areas in the garage. If there is a shelf, use it. If not, consider adding one.

Sneaky storage: Seek out ottomans and benches with built-in storage. Many styles are done so well, no one will know that magazine pile or record collection is hiding inside. Under the bed is also a good source of storage space.

Homebound: Resist the temptation to toss receipts, catalogs or spare batteries in random spots around the apartment. Every item you own should have a place where it can be found when needed and returned when not in use. “If it doesn’t have a home and you can’t find one for it, chances are you don’t really need it.”

Think Outside the Box

A kitchen isn’t just for pots and pans. In New York, for example, some apartment dwellers who can’t remember the last time they turned on their oven use the kitchen to store clothes that don’t fit in their bedroom closet.

“It’s about creating a home that’s appropriate for something. You don’t have to use a space as the architect intended,” Sarna-Jones said.

Looking at furnishings beyond the typical function they were meant to perform also helps. Penny Gimbel, NAPO member and Scottsdale-based designer and organizer for Classy Closets, gets double duty from filing cabinets by using them as end tables or nightstands.

“Just put a nice cloth or fabric over them. Two-door file cabinets are perfect for this,” she said.

Sarna-Jones stores bottled water and other items that she uses often in a bookshelf she placed in a hall closet. She puts portable shelves typically used to maximize kitchen cabinet storage in closets and stores office supplies on them.

“You don’t have to file in a filing cabinet," she said. "You can use a magazine rack to file things. You don’t have to be straightforward."

Space-Maximizing Tools

Just like the closet near your front door, put the other doors in your apartment to work with hanging organizers.

Use over-the-door shoe organizers behind your bedroom door to store accessories or intimates, or store cleaning supplies behind a door near the washer and dryer, says Amanda Thomas, founder of Moxie Girl Household Assistants, an organizing and cleaning company in Phoenix.

Use other storage organizers to make the most of closets, cabinets and empty spaces throughout your apartment. Hanging closet shelves are handy for storing socks, underwear and sleepwear.

“Often, bedrooms in apartments don’t have enough room for a dresser, so this will give you space in the closet for those small items,” Thomas said.

In the kitchen, Thomas suggests small rolling carts for extra storage. If you chose one with a wire frame, purchase small metal hooks that allow you to hang your pots and pans off the sides.

For the bathroom, use baskets to hold toiletries, makeup and other necessities and store them in a wall cabinet or the cabinet under the sink.

“Pull out your ‘daily stuff’ basket when it’s time to get ready. All other stuff can be stored in themed baskets, too: evening makeup, evening hair, special occasion hair tools,” Thomas said.

Make up for a nonexistent linen closet with large under-the-bed storage boxes that can easily roll out when you need to change out your sheets or towels, Thomas advises.

What Not to Do

There are countless options when it comes to handy tools that promise to be the answer to every storage crisis, no matter how small or tricky the space.

But getting sucked in by colorful crates, interlocking plastic cubes and cute-but-rustic straw baskets without determining what that cornucopia of organizers would need to hold is a common trap that can be more of a hassle than a help, especially if nothing fits.

“People say, ‘If I buy that basket, it will organize me.’ I say, ‘No, it won’t,’” said Sarna-Jones. “That stuff doesn’t make them organized, but what does is going through their things and figuring out what they need.”

Gimbel recommends separating the items to be stored into piles and then looking for the storage device that they will fit in before making purchases.

Stocking up on storage boxes long before you are ready to start storing things in them is a misstep that results in additional clutter, Thomas says. Not measuring prior to buying storage bins is another error.

“Nothing is worse than having jam-packed boxes that don’t fit into your storage space,” she said.

Often, the clutter can get so overwhelming that it discourages even the most energetic of intentions to clean, sort and organize. Sarna-Jones suggests parceling out the job in 15-minute increments using a kitchen timer instead of forcing yourself to finish the job.

“Just do it for 15 minutes. If you want to keep going, keep going,” she said.

And of course, there are some who just can’t get used to seeing an empty living room corner or a cleared kitchen table once the organizing is done and everything has been stored away. Resist the urge to fill a vacancy.

“Some people ask, ‘What do I put there?’ I say, ‘How about nothing?’” said Sarna-Jones. “Keep only what you need accessible.”