Tiny apartment and organization struggles anyone? This post is for anyone who wants to know how to make the most of their space, no matter if you have lots of space to work with or want the biggest bang for your space buck. As I’ve mentioned before, we live in a tiny apartment, that’s three of us now, and we need to make everything go the extra mile. Our kitchen only has two counters; half is taken up by the dish rack, the other half needed for utility. My favorite organization strategy that I’ve applied is to build our own shelves. We are able to hang pots off the bottom of the shelf and to put bigger items out of the way on top of the shelf. It really is a must if we want to remain clutter free and there is this extra sense of pride in having made the shelving ourselves.
I used to think we can’t build shelves. Who are we? But we live in an apartment, we rent the space is not our own. I figured we can build shelves and therefore make it match anything we want. Give ourselves creative freedom. It was to have this feeling that I can do home improvement even if it isn’t my home and when my time to leave comes I can take my creativity with me. It was fun to customize the idea. I picked all the details from the brackets that hold the weight- for our hallways I picked beautiful curvy white metallic ones (to be decorative as well as useful) to the shelf color. Soon you realize, why not? I can build whatever I want, and if I chose to do that I have the freedom to make it however I want and that is powerful. Sometimes we don’t realize how much power we have. I’ve learned over and over there is nothing stopping us and we can do anything we set out mind to. Just try.
Our kitchen shelf isn’t the best looking shelf, but it’s our own. Surprisingly still cost a pretty penny to do it ourselves, so it is not always the more economical alternative; however, in the end you can’t put a price on the customizing. It looks like how I imaged it would and it saves room by providing storage using my favorite strategy- building upward. We picked a natural wood aesthetic with white for the kitchen and added hooks at the bottom for pots and pans. By adding hooks we get the sense that we are really getting the most out of our creation.
Below I’m sharing pictures of our homemade shelving and storage, which we can take down whenever we want and bring with us where ever we go. For the color we chose white to look clean and not pop out too much against the wall.
As you can see by looking at the hallway, it is a narrow dark small corridor. My strategy is, why not make the dingy small hallway work for us? Towels take up a lot of space in the small closet and they don’t all fit, so this shelf made use of this hallway which is conveniently located in front of the bathroom. Perfect!
Details such as the support that you can choose yourself if you make your shelving.
Making our home a little more useful and a little bit of our own brings me a joy that I decided I have the power to bring myself. When you rent and don’t own your own home, it’s easy to say it’s not mine I don’t have to do anything. Deep down you dream of your own home and space. I don’t accepting sulking. I do accept dreaming because it helps us reach for our goals, but meanwhile I will make things happen. Remember you have the power to change your space and to make yourself happy. One day at time building towards something you want.
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