He who has the most toys wins is an oft-quoted remark regarding the end of someone’s life. For most homeowners, however, the size and sheer quantity of their collection of books, electronics, furniture, clothes and the like can mean an immense amount of clutter and disorganization that greets them every time they walk through the front door.
Just because you and your family have acquired a lot of things doesn’t mean you need to purchase a larger condo. People often don’t recognize they have places for storage within their existing space.
Here’s how to find more storage within your condo:
To Part With or Keep
Go room by room and take a good look at all the items within it. Organize your belongings into four piles: Everyday must haves, items for long-term storage, things to donate and things to trash. Then put the long-term storage items into plastic tubs, give away the donation pile, throw away the items you need to and put the day-to-day necessities back where you had them. Now that you’ve cleared a major portion of your belongings, it’s time to set about storing and organizing what’s left.
Living Room and Home Office
It’s possible to hide storage in plain sight in one of your condo’s largest rooms. Furniture stores sell ottomans with hinged tops opening on interior compartments for magazines and books. You could also use a chest as a coffee table, or mount shelves, cabinets and bookcases that come in a variety of styles that will complement your personal taste and provide you with more room. In your home office, file cabinets and shelves can deal with office clutter, and hinged window seats might also help you find more space.
Bedroom
Storage chests at the end of bed can hold extra linens or quilts, and a growing furnishing trend is beds with built-in drawers underneath. Don’t forget about the back of your bedroom doors either, which could hold organization cubbies for shoes or other accessories. You could maximize your closet space by adding a double bar to hang clothes, and putting a shelf above the upper bar. Investing in a closet organizer could provide you with more vertically positioned drawers where you can place smaller clothing items and accessories.
Kitchen and Mudroom
Most space inside kitchen cabinets is wasted. People might fill them only halfway, as the backs of cabinets can be dark and difficult to reach. However, if you have drawers that are able to be pulled out, the back of the cabinet becomes just as accessible as the front. In your mudroom, hang a mail key holder on the wall so that mail doesn’t clutter up other areas of your condo and you don’t waste precious time searching high and low for your keys. Also make sure there are hooks on the wall and cabinet space to hang or store coats, shoes and accessories, so those items also don’t clutter up other areas of your condo.
This are great tips that all condo owners shuld consider. Hey, you know what, your right about the kitchen cabinets, my mom would usually leave the back open or put on the things that are used only for super special occassions. But when that occassion occur we need to pull out the things in front to get those at the back and to prevent them from breaking.
I actually had a hard time fixing all things in my own condo in my first week in the unit. But as time goes by I fixed it just the way I like. Thanks also for this post that I learned something from it.