10 Uppity Storage Ideas for Pocket-Sized Pads
When you're short on floor space, sometimes the only way is up
Janet Dunn
26 February 2016
Houzz Australia Contributor. Former NZ House&Garden writer and stylist, and avid interior design enthusiast. Ex-restaurateur and caterer, with a Professional Certificate in Gastronomy, University of Adelaide.
Houzz Australia Contributor. Former NZ House&Garden writer and stylist, and avid... More
A small footprint can mean big storage issues. With limited floor space, it pays to look up to your ‘air space’. By thinking vertically, you’ll find a whole world of handy opportunities for stowing items off the floor, saving it for essential furniture and traffic movement. Investigate these upwardly mobile ideas that buy room in tight spaces.
1. Reach the upper echelons
In an ideal world, there would be no out-of-reach cabinetry. But there’s an awful lot of wasted space up there, so don’t dismiss it. During the course of a week, a day or even months, many items stay untouched, so keep seldom used items up top. When needed, a stepladder or basketball player comes in handy. Store the rest at a human height.
TIP: Leave top level of compartments open for easy access and visibility, and label compartments to save fruitless climbs.
In an ideal world, there would be no out-of-reach cabinetry. But there’s an awful lot of wasted space up there, so don’t dismiss it. During the course of a week, a day or even months, many items stay untouched, so keep seldom used items up top. When needed, a stepladder or basketball player comes in handy. Store the rest at a human height.
TIP: Leave top level of compartments open for easy access and visibility, and label compartments to save fruitless climbs.
2. Get your hooks in
The hook is the saviour of the spatially-challenged – didn’t someone say “you can’t be too thin or have too many hooks”? Embrace the hook all over the house – hallway, kitchen, bathroom, laundry, playroom, bedroom, living areas – to add heaps of handy storage. This entrance swaps a space-hogging cupboard or shelving unit with lots of hooks, a big basket and a couple of neat chairs for removing shoes.
TIP: With multiple levels of hooks, stagger them to keep items clear of each other.
The hook is the saviour of the spatially-challenged – didn’t someone say “you can’t be too thin or have too many hooks”? Embrace the hook all over the house – hallway, kitchen, bathroom, laundry, playroom, bedroom, living areas – to add heaps of handy storage. This entrance swaps a space-hogging cupboard or shelving unit with lots of hooks, a big basket and a couple of neat chairs for removing shoes.
TIP: With multiple levels of hooks, stagger them to keep items clear of each other.
Don’t forget about the underside of shelves for a bit of hook action. This wee kitchen has utilised the top and bottom of a shelf across the window to hang pots and pans and to keep items off benches. Note that very practical lid rack.
More clever hanging storage ideas
More clever hanging storage ideas
It’s popular nowadays to store cups in drawers. A tiny kitchen is a good reason to bring back the ‘cup hook’ so essential to the kitchens of mid-last century. They are normally attached under cupboard units, but your pretty cups and mugs can be displayed anywhere you can fit hooks, leaving a drawer free for other storage.
3. Stay on the straight and narrow
The merest sliver of a wall stands tall with narrow built-in shelves and cavities for books and wine. An in-wall storage rack like this provides some insulation for your precious vintages, makes an interesting entrance to the kitchen, and creates a pausing spot for browsing cookbooks and choosing a bottle to open with dinner.
The merest sliver of a wall stands tall with narrow built-in shelves and cavities for books and wine. An in-wall storage rack like this provides some insulation for your precious vintages, makes an interesting entrance to the kitchen, and creates a pausing spot for browsing cookbooks and choosing a bottle to open with dinner.
If you’re crying out for storage, investigate the area around doorways. Narrow shelves either side of a doorway would hold flat items like trays, bread boards and platters in convenient reach and make a neat frame if continued across the top.
TIP: Store items you only use occasionally up high, or those decorative treasures you love to display.
TIP: Store items you only use occasionally up high, or those decorative treasures you love to display.
With limited space for a bar, recessed shelves just a standing bottle deep utilise the end of the kitchen bench for pouring and mixing drinks – smart use of space. A decorative metal grille makes a cocktail hour feature.
4. Get behind
The back of the door is an underused parcel of real estate. In a child’s bedroom or nursery, toys can be tucked conveniently away in bags or baskets ready to be unhooked at playtime. It’s a good place to keep a ready-packed baby’s or child’s travel bag to grab and go when you’re in a hurry. This is a nifty idea for crafting if you share the room with other activities. In the bathroom, a capacious bag or basket holds hand towels, cleaning stuff and larger bath items.
TIP: Make sure there is enough clearance behind the door – a rubber stopper may be necessary.
The back of the door is an underused parcel of real estate. In a child’s bedroom or nursery, toys can be tucked conveniently away in bags or baskets ready to be unhooked at playtime. It’s a good place to keep a ready-packed baby’s or child’s travel bag to grab and go when you’re in a hurry. This is a nifty idea for crafting if you share the room with other activities. In the bathroom, a capacious bag or basket holds hand towels, cleaning stuff and larger bath items.
TIP: Make sure there is enough clearance behind the door – a rubber stopper may be necessary.
Most laundries have doors to minimise noise transference to the rest of the house. Instead of wrestling an uncooperative ironing board into a narrow niche, hang it on a pair of brackets behind the door.
TIP: Hollow-core doors hold light objects, but for heavier loads, use an expanding toggle-style plastic or metal anchor. Another trick is to glue (with a proper construction adhesive) or screw battens to the door, paint to match and attach your brackets or hooks to this.
TIP: Hollow-core doors hold light objects, but for heavier loads, use an expanding toggle-style plastic or metal anchor. Another trick is to glue (with a proper construction adhesive) or screw battens to the door, paint to match and attach your brackets or hooks to this.
A budget-wise answer to keeping children’s books off the floor is an over-the-door plastic hanger. They’re not the most attractive of items, but tucked onto the back of a closet door, they do the trick when floor space is tight. The transparent compartments make it easy to see titles and are also brilliant for storing shoes.
5. Hit the high spots with shelves
Open shelves starting beneath the ceiling double as storage and a way to send the eye upwards and give the illusion of a larger room. Paint high shelves the same colour as walls or use toughened glass or perspex if you want to minimise them. For more impact, paint in a contrasting colour or use timber that matches other timber in the room.
TIP: An average height person on an average height chair or step ladder can reach a high shelf in an average height (2.7m) room.
Open shelves starting beneath the ceiling double as storage and a way to send the eye upwards and give the illusion of a larger room. Paint high shelves the same colour as walls or use toughened glass or perspex if you want to minimise them. For more impact, paint in a contrasting colour or use timber that matches other timber in the room.
TIP: An average height person on an average height chair or step ladder can reach a high shelf in an average height (2.7m) room.
Wall boxes are a great idea for renters. They can be attached to walls with minimum damage and are easily removable and portable when you relocate. Choose a lightweight timber and don’t overload them.
TIP: Check out ways to hang them that don’t damage walls too much, ask your landlord if it’s ok, and offer to make the walls good when you leave.
TIP: Check out ways to hang them that don’t damage walls too much, ask your landlord if it’s ok, and offer to make the walls good when you leave.
6. Hang ‘em high
Bulky wardrobes crowd small bedrooms. Little people’s clothes are … little, and also light so a rail suspended from the ceiling should hold a goodly chunk of their clothes. Undies, socks and bottoms can go in drawers, and tops on the rails. It’s colourful and cute, too.
Bulky wardrobes crowd small bedrooms. Little people’s clothes are … little, and also light so a rail suspended from the ceiling should hold a goodly chunk of their clothes. Undies, socks and bottoms can go in drawers, and tops on the rails. It’s colourful and cute, too.
If you’ve managed to carve out space for a small guest room, chances are the bed and bedside tables have first claim on floorspace, leaving not much for hanging. Short-term guests don’t need much, so a rack of wall hooks should take the place of a floor-standing wardrobe and reduce that squeezy feeling.
How to squeeze a guest space into any room
How to squeeze a guest space into any room
Canny wardrobe mechanisms like this pull-down bar ensure that high space is used to the max. These clever mechanisms can multiply hanging space so you don’t need to crowd lower racks.
7. Give your books air
Bookworms face the inevitability of their book collection reaching critical mass. Short of culling – something bookworms hate to do – save space taken up by bulky bookshelves and float them. This clever curve leaves room for a small desk and handy storage tubs and holds the same number of tomes as a substantial floor-standing cabinet.
Bookworms face the inevitability of their book collection reaching critical mass. Short of culling – something bookworms hate to do – save space taken up by bulky bookshelves and float them. This clever curve leaves room for a small desk and handy storage tubs and holds the same number of tomes as a substantial floor-standing cabinet.
8. Me and my caddy
A small, cheap and often overlooked means of freeing up floor space is the caddy. Not only does it score you more floor space for bigger items, but you can keep benches clear of fruit bowls, herb pots, cloths and utensils. Bench ends are a perfect spot for these catch-all containers.
TIP: Caddy potatoes and onions – they don’t need refrigeration and a caddy keeps air circulating.
A small, cheap and often overlooked means of freeing up floor space is the caddy. Not only does it score you more floor space for bigger items, but you can keep benches clear of fruit bowls, herb pots, cloths and utensils. Bench ends are a perfect spot for these catch-all containers.
TIP: Caddy potatoes and onions – they don’t need refrigeration and a caddy keeps air circulating.
Hang several caddies around pint-sized bathrooms on towel and shower rails, bathtubs and wall hooks. They are easy to move to where you want to use products and you could get by with just a tiny cabinet, or even none at all.
TIP: Renting or sharing a house with just one bathroom? Keep your personal toiletries in a caddy in your bedroom and transport it to the bathroom when it’s your turn. No more “who finished my shampoo?”!
TIP: Renting or sharing a house with just one bathroom? Keep your personal toiletries in a caddy in your bedroom and transport it to the bathroom when it’s your turn. No more “who finished my shampoo?”!
9. Grow a high garden
Vertical gardens are a growing trend. Get with it in a tiny backyard or small balcony. Even a postage stamp outdoor space is a chance to try out your green fingers for edible and decorative plants. Use fences, hangers or wooden frames to get your garden off the ground and double your growing area. Herbs, vegies and flowers will enjoy the rarified atmosphere above the crawling bugs and are at a perfect picking height.
14 ways to take your plants off the ground
Vertical gardens are a growing trend. Get with it in a tiny backyard or small balcony. Even a postage stamp outdoor space is a chance to try out your green fingers for edible and decorative plants. Use fences, hangers or wooden frames to get your garden off the ground and double your growing area. Herbs, vegies and flowers will enjoy the rarified atmosphere above the crawling bugs and are at a perfect picking height.
14 ways to take your plants off the ground
10. Put your pet in a penthouse
Want a pet but don’t have the room? Consider the goldfish – quiet, cheap to feed, attractive and a good listener. It can also teach us a lot about patience and serenity. Such a treasure should enjoy a wall-mounted pleasure dome like this instead of taking up valuable surface area.
10 pampered pets and their one-of-a-kind homes
TELL US
Share your best tiny-space tips with us in the Comments section.
MORE
Small Space Display Tricks Packed With Personality
Must-Have Furniture Pieces for Small Spaces
Space Savers: The Beauty of Built-In Furniture
How to Grow Edibles on Your Balcony
Want a pet but don’t have the room? Consider the goldfish – quiet, cheap to feed, attractive and a good listener. It can also teach us a lot about patience and serenity. Such a treasure should enjoy a wall-mounted pleasure dome like this instead of taking up valuable surface area.
10 pampered pets and their one-of-a-kind homes
TELL US
Share your best tiny-space tips with us in the Comments section.
MORE
Small Space Display Tricks Packed With Personality
Must-Have Furniture Pieces for Small Spaces
Space Savers: The Beauty of Built-In Furniture
How to Grow Edibles on Your Balcony
Related Stories
Most Popular
Renovation Insight: How to Choose & Work With a Cabinet Maker
Custom joinery allows you to tailor a space to suit your needs – here's how to choose the right firm for the job
Full Story
Quizzes
What’s Your Home Storage Style?
Discover which storage-style tribe you belong to and get clutter under control at home with this quick quiz
Full Story
Kitchens
22 Kitchen Storage Details You'll Wish You Had
Our coffee-break escape offers you five minutes' worth of images to inspire and delight. Jump right in...
Full Story
Most Popular
Sorting and Storage: The Keys to a Happy, Organised Home
By Liz Durnan
With a crazy pace of life, it's not surprising our homes get out of hand. Here are some ways to reclaim control
Full Story
Wardrobes
An Insider's Guide to Walk-In Wardrobe Measurements
Take a look at essential wardrobe measurements, along with some considerations to guarantee your 'robe is well designed
Full Story
Most Popular
So You Want a Joinery Feature Wall? Here's What You Need to Know
Got your heart set on a statement joinery wall for your living area? Three design experts reveal how to get it right
Full Story
Most Popular
An Expert Reveals What You Need to Know About Custom Cabinetry
Thinking of splashing out on made-to-measure joinery? An expert reveals how to get the best bang for your buck
Full Story
Organising
6 Emotional Challenges You May Face When Tackling Clutter
Decluttering and culling can bring up a lot of unexpected emotions. Learn what to expect and how to get through it
Full Story
Kids Rooms
18 Kids’ Bedrooms With Cool Built-In Storage
Our coffee-break escape offers you five minutes' worth of images to inspire and delight. Jump right in...
Full Story
Decluttering
14 Inspirational Storage Ideas From Best of Houzz Design Winners
We need storage space in every room, but can it be both practical and attractive? Winning pros show you how it's done
Full Story
If you look for the smart wall shelving units then visit our shop with massive range of wall storage solutions.. http://funique.co.uk
How abut this storage unit ? Available in different sizes and colours! #scandinavain #design , made in Sweden
http://funique.co.uk/living-room-furniture/shelving-units/big-oak-shelves.html