How to organize storage of things in an apartment. Storage systems - choosing the right solution for order in the apartment. How to organize storage in the bathroom
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Daily household comfort largely depends on how well the storage of things is organized in the apartment. When every item has its own place, it's easy to find it and then put it back in its place without creating clutter. The Village asked designer Galina Tishutina how to think through home storage to free up more space for living.
The main thing you need to know about storage, - the output should be spacious and comfortable. After all, the best space for living is one that has a lot of air and empty surfaces. But in small apartments this is a difficult task, which also conflicts with our traditional ability to complicate everything, as well as with our passion for shopping and hoarding. However, the world has become technologically advanced: a wide window sill can become a home office, Wi-Fi allows you to work even in bed, there are fewer wires, stationary units are almost a thing of the past, gadgets are rapidly decreasing in size, and all volumes of the encyclopedia fit on a flash drive. All this helps to gain additional living space.
Sorting
Before you start optimizing everything, you should divide things into necessary and unnecessary. First, you should get rid of things that have not been used for a long time. Each of us has some kind of toaster, which was last turned on a couple of years ago, while it was tightly located on the windowsill in the kitchen. It’s better to throw away such things, sell them through Avito, or give them to someone who will use them. This way, only the necessary items will remain - we will plan storage space for them.
The necessary things will also have to be sorted. There is, for example, a hot and cold rotation system. The hot rotation includes those things that should be at hand every day. These are clothes, shoes and household gadgets - from a vacuum cleaner to an ironing board. To correctly calculate the dimensions of your wardrobe, measure the linear meters of the bar for long items (outerwear, dresses), and separately calculate the meters of the bar for short items (shirts, blouses, jackets). Also determine the volume of shelves for other clothes and boxes of shoes.
Cold rotation items include suitcases, boxes, Christmas tree decorations and other seasonal items. You can put your home library in the same category if you don’t access it every day, and household items that are dear to your heart - everything that can be put away.
Hidden storage
A well-organized apartment can be compared to a car, the interior of which has a lot of air and space, while the space under the hood is packed to capacity. We also need to get as much space as possible in living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, and use office spaces - that is, the hallway, corridor and closets - to the maximum.
Instead of installing several wardrobes in living rooms, it is better to fence off a small wardrobe somewhere in the hallway. A wardrobe, even a small one, is the best thing that can happen to a small apartment. It effectively uses space right up to the ceiling, like the hood of a car, where every millimeter is used. A wardrobe is a bulky piece of furniture that stands in a room and takes up a lot of space.
Open storage
It is best to minimize the number of things laid out on surfaces. Firstly, they create a feeling of disorder, and secondly, they complicate the cleaning process, because they need to be dusted off. Open storage is only permissible in the kitchen and bathroom, that is, where there are items that are simply inconvenient to put away in cabinets several times a day.
Kitchen storage
To see if your kitchen storage is well organized, do a Sunday shopping test. Let's imagine that you are bringing home a supply of groceries and household chemicals for the next week or even several. If you can't organize everything into cabinets so that you can still access every package, then it's time to change something.
Small kitchens usually want to be kept as spacious as possible, so as not to further reduce the space with an abundance of items. In this case, a good solution would be a cabinet located on the path from the front door to the kitchen, in which you can store products that do not require refrigeration - water, groceries, sauces. This will allow you to shop less often and not turn your kitchen into a warehouse.
For storage inside kitchen cabinets, you should get identical containers and pour everything you can into them - from tea to cereals. The fact is that factory packaging of different shapes and sizes is difficult to ergonomically place inside the cabinet. As a result, a lot of space is wasted, and food from unsealed boxes often spills. Label each container and use the same ones for each type of food. This storage system increases the level of order and greatly speeds up the food preparation process.
Bathroom storage
The approach to organizing storage in the bathroom is very similar to the kitchen. It is necessary to allocate hot rotation items and think about storage for cold items. Leave only those tubes and items that you use regularly on open surfaces. The rest can be put in the closet. It is worth considering hanging a wide shelf directly above the door. It is invisible, and it is also convenient to store a supply of washing powder and toilet paper.
Storage in rooms
Beds with a lifting mechanism and a storage system inside are often much inferior in terms of convenience to ordinary beds with legs, under which drawers on wheels from IKEA are placed. And besides, such beds are much cheaper.
If we talk about the nursery, it seems to me that the child should maintain order in his toys on his own. Therefore, all boxes should be placed at an accessible height. In this case, the little person will have the freedom to choose for himself what to put and where.
Good Habits
A convenient storage system is not only cabinets and shelves, but also a certain set of good habits. Train yourself to audit things a couple of times a year in order to get rid of junk in a timely manner and free up space. Keep track of the overall balance: if after a vacation or successful shopping you brought a couple of bags of things into the apartment, then the other pair of bags should leave it in the foreseeable future.
Photos: cover – WorldWide /shutterstock.com 1 – horiyan /shutterstock.com, 2 – Richman21 /shutterstock.com, 3 – Photographee.eu /shutterstock.com
The main rule for the entire apartment is not to forget about such rarely used places as corners, the space under the ceiling and above the door, as well as places under the bed and under kitchen cabinets. How to store things in a small apartment? Use multi-functional folding furniture and things like banquettes, ottomans, lift-up beds, furniture and storage units on wheels. Wherever possible, store items vertically so they take up less space.
Ideas for small apartments: kitchen
This is where soft hanging sections come in handy, which can be found in abundance in stores and can even be sewn yourself. For example, this one is for a small tabletop dishwasher. 
Look how much you can fit on just one refrigerator wall!
If there is a small space between the refrigerator and the wall (15 cm is enough), you can build a pull-out rack by screwing furniture wheels to the narrow shelves and attaching a handle to one side.
You can also install a cabinet under the kitchen sink. Hang two rods on lightweight curtain brackets, available at hardware stores, to hold extra trash bags and, if needed, extra paper towels.
Paper holders made of metal mesh are a convenient replacement for large vegetable baskets.
Another option is to store vegetables in hanging laundry bags, which can be placed anywhere convenient by simply hanging them on a hook.
If you have very little table space in your kitchen, don’t forget that there are options for folding tables. And the most compact ones are those that are attached to the wall. They do not take up space on the floor either unfolded or folded.
When there is little space, you need to use any suitable surface. Is there a free wall of the cabinet? Great! Screw a light rail onto it, buy some S-shaped hooks and store your kitchen utensils.
And, of course, a small kitchen cannot do without a magnetic strip. And you can place not only knives on it, but also any other metal kitchen utensils. The meaning is very simple - there will be more free space on the countertop.
Always try to buy items that are more compact and also ones that can be folded. For example, such a folding grater is just a godsend for a miniature kitchen.
And another great example. Is the cupboard too narrow to fit everything? Screw a few hooks to the shelf and you will have another row of dishes for mugs.
Ideas for a bathroom in a small apartment
Remember multifunctional furniture? It is needed in almost any bathroom. An upside-down bar stool, for example, turns into a cosmetics shelf and heated towel rail. 
Each room has free space above the door. It must be used for shelves (open or closed). But don't forget that open shelves should look neat, and if they are filled with too many things, it will feel cluttered. To hide such clutter, place several closed boxes on the shelves and store everything in them. Little advice: When you buy towels for the bathroom, you don’t need to choose all the colors that you like. Stop at a certain range and one or two colors and always stick to them. This will make the room look tidier.
And again we use hooks and rails. Photo on the left: With one hook on the wall you can build an entire hanging shelving unit. We use several IKEA buckets held together with clothesline. A great place for makeup brushes, combs, curling irons or curlers. Photo on the right: no place for towels? Attach them to the bathroom door. Moreover, you can use not only the upper part of the door leaf, but also the lower part!
Small bedroom ideas
What if the room is so small that there is only room for a bed? We take the idea from the kitchen and place a hanging table next to the bed. We get: a shelf for things you need at hand, a desktop for your computer and a coffee table for breakfast in bed! 
Instead of a bedside table for which there was no room, you can use hanging sections, securing them to the base of the mattress with adhesive tape.
How often do people face the problem of cluttering free space in their home? At the same time, everyone understands that to create comfort you need to put things “on shelves” and it’s good if there is a suitable place for this. In this case, nothing is scattered, does not interfere, and is located immediately as soon as the need arises. Find out how to properly and stylishly organize the storage of things in your home by carefully reading our article.
Storing things: how to combine beauty and convenience
Use Mailbox in order to place receipts on it, for example, or simply hang up keys.
Various small things - stationery, household items - can be conveniently stored in stylish or cups.
Found on AliExpress / Desktop Storage
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It is rational to place things that you rarely use in specially equipped rooms in the attic.
An original idea for storing sewing accessories is that it is advisable to always sort them by use groups and store them separately, for example, in special suitable containers. This way you can always find them quickly and nothing will get confused or lost.
Equip pull-out shelves with many separate sections of different sizes - for example, for technical devices and mobile phones, and accessories for them. Such mobile equipment will be especially useful if there is a small child in the house, because such a box can be equipped with a key.
Shoe box– a very useful thing for seasonal storage. Remember how often we think about where to put winter shoes in the summer, and at the same time, so that they are stored in a normal position.
DIY shoe storage systems
Found on AliExpress / Shoe and Linen Storage
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Animal lovers are often faced with the problem of where to put feed supply for a pet. A very practical tip is that pull-out shelves under furniture can serve as excellent storage. A great idea for storage is to equip such shelves in.
Kitchen utensils can be stored not only in table drawers; for this, you can choose a more original way - for example, in glass containers of a suitable size.
If equipped cabinet door a special attachment with many pockets - there you can store various household items that you always need at hand. This idea is perfect for...
Use all the space for useful storage - for example, space under.
Ideas for storage on top have long been invented, but under a shelf, or hanging, if possible, is a novelty in the functional use of all planes.
Remember that they not only protect you, but are also a source of maximum comfortable storage of various things at a convenient height and without cluttering the corners.
Found on AliExpress / Wall Storage Designs
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Everything has its place. Use the maximum breakdown into useful compartments for specific groups of things.
Egg packaging – can also serve as a secondary storage unit. It consists of environmentally friendly cellulose material and has many useful cells.
Garden stairs - why not a row of hangers for various things? A very unusual and interesting idea for a bathroom.
Supplies for artistic work - drawing, drawing, modeling, etc. can be stored in separate drawers and hidden under the bed.
A staircase in a multi-storey building is a necessary thing. It can also function as an unobtrusive cabinet with plenty of shelves and drawers.
For a place of originality in the interior of a room, it is suitable as a container for storing individual appliances. baby bucket.
Found on AliExpress / Bathroom Storage
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If you are a pedant and a maximalist of order, have separate ones for all your accessories. shelves with their descriptions.
Magnetic surfaces serve as an excellent basis for storing metal vessels and products. An irreplaceable idea for the kitchen!
Storage systems in the kitchen: video
Excellent decorative solutions for storing things are metal jars and boxes from under the sweets. In a romantic interior or in a children's room, such storage ideas will become additional decorative elements.
Corrugated packaging or wooden container, stylized as antique, can also serve as both a place to store things and a stylish accessory.
Useful tips
When everything is stored in its place, it is much easier to find it.
If you know how to store compactly things , then you can save a lot of space, and this is especially important for small apartments.
When there are a lot of things at home and they all need to be organized, it’s worth thinking about how and where best to store these things.
Here you will learn a few secrets that will help you organize your things better.
How to store things
1. Use a regular plate rack to store all your clutches, wallets and handbags.
2. Use an empty container, such as a wet wipe container, to store small bags.
This container can be decorated if desired.
To do this you will need:
Glue (fabric or hot glue).
Measure and cut the required piece of fabric, adding about 2 cm of extra space. You can cut two pieces of the same size and sew them together - this will make your fabric decoration more dense.
Where can you store things
3. Remote controls for TV, tape recorder, air conditioner, as well as joysticks can be stored in one place. You can not just put them in a drawer, but attach Velcro to each remote control, and attach them to the wall of the cabinet where you glued the second part of the Velcro.
You can use regular Velcro and double-sided tape, or use self-adhesive Velcro.
4. Tweezers, tweezers and other small tools can be stored in a cabinet, and to prevent them from falling out or getting lost, glue small magnets into the cabinet to which small metal tools can be attached. This way they will always be visible.
What's the best way to store things?
5. All your Christmas decorations can be neatly stored in one place.
To do this, you will need a basket with pins on which to hang decorations.
In this example, such a basket is made with your own hands using wooden sticks and a drill, which is used to make holes of the required diameter to insert pins into them.
If you use not very thick pins or thick wire, then the holes can be made with a screwdriver.
How to store things at home
6. The shoe organizer can be hung in the pantry, for example, to store various things in it that you always want to have at hand.
If you screw shelves to the inside of a wooden door, you can store various cleaning products in them.
You can also screw several double hooks into the pantry to hang various tools.
Storing things in the apartment
7. Rings from an old bathroom screen can be attached to a hanger and used to store all your baseball caps, scarves and T-shirts.
8. To make it more convenient at your desk, you can use LEGO parts. Some of them are attached to the table with double-sided tape, while others are already attached to them.
9. If you don't already have a place to dry your clothes, use a ladder or stepladder.
In this example, a small ladder was hung from the ceiling, but you can simply lean it against the wall or buy a stepladder on the steps of which you can hang clothes.
How to store clothes
10. Conveniently store jeans and handbags.
Many people do not want to get rid of old jeans and even sometimes wear them. Over time, these things accumulate and you can get your jeans mixed up.
To store your jeans conveniently, you will need hangers, regular elastic bands and paper or cardboard.
Just hang each pair on a hanger, cut out a small tag from cardboard or paper and write on it the characteristics of each pair or where you usually wear these jeans. After this, make holes in the tags and use an elastic band to attach them to the hangers.
To know where to find the handbag you need (if you have a lot of them), you can resort to a little trick - make your own handbag catalog.
Buy a plastic basket and put all your bags in it. You can organize handbags of different colors and styles into several small baskets.
But first, take a photo of each handbag and put the printed photos in an album. This way you will know in advance which handbag you want to take with you and where it is stored.
The same can be done with shoes - take a photo of each pair and stick the photo to the box with the shoes so that you know which box contains which shoes.
Where to store a lot of things
11. Use regular baskets to store books.
12. Cutting boards and grates can be stored in the basket.
13. If you sew loops to the play mat and thread ribbon and rope through them, you can instantly stack all the toys that are on it.
We store small things
14. We store all the hairpins in one place.
You will need:
Small plastic box (like the one from tic-tac)
Acrylic paint (optional).
You can store all the hairpins in a small box, but if you want to decorate your box, you can use acrylic paint for this. In this example, the lid was also painted, but for this you need to use spray paint, and such paint should only be used outdoors or in a well-ventilated area with safety glasses and a mask (this paint is poisonous).
Where else to store various things
15. Slippers, flip flops and ballet flats can be stored neatly in regular magazine holders.
16. If you not only want to neatly store all your decorations, but also want these decorations to look beautiful in the interior, you can use photo frames or picture frames.
To do this, you need to attach small nails or hooks to the frames and pull strong threads on which the decorations are hung.
Some decorations can be hung on hooks that are pre-attached to the frame itself.
How can you store many things?
17. Bedding and other items can be placed in several baskets and label each basket so that you know what exactly is stored in it.
18. Using hooks, you can attach additional baskets to the shelves to accommodate more things and save a lot of space.
19. Various tools, such as a curling iron, hair dryer, comb and others, can be stored in a regular magazine holder.
How to store shoes
20. Additional shelves for shoes.
21. To save more space, you can attach a hook to the bathroom door on which you can hang a laundry bag.
Everyone knows that the biggest enemy of a large number of things in the apartment is clutter, which distracts, irritates and sometimes makes you depressed. Add to this the inability to quickly find what you are looking for, for example, car keys or a pair of socks, and a spoiled mood for the whole day is guaranteed. Whether it’s neatly laid out or hung household items that don’t get lost and are always at hand. If you consider yourself to be an organized and pedantic person, then this publication on the Dream House website will tell you what unusual ideas there are for storing things in an apartment or house.
The imagination of people who come up with various hooks, shelves and boxes for all sorts of little things sometimes causes admiration. We invite you, without delay, to plunge into the fascinating world of order and organization.
Storage ideas for bulky items
We have already considered options, so in this article we will briefly describe where you can save out-of-season items, such as scooters, sleds, skis and, of course, bicycles - for adults and children. Of course, all these large items can be hung somewhere under the ceiling on guy ropes or on the wall, so they will take up little living space.
Another option will appeal to those housewives who cannot come to terms with the presence of a “pedal friend” in the apartment - ask your husband to hang it outside the window. To do this, you need to fix two fittings in the wall, curved in the form of a hook, and hang a bicycle on them. A similar device can be used to hang a sled outside a window or balcony.
And if there is a tree next to your house, then a tension cable from the balcony to the tree will solve the problem of storing large items in the apartment. Several bicycles, sleds and scooters can be hung on the cable at the same time, and such a structure will be controlled using rollers, one of which is fixed to the tree, and the other to.
The next method will be useful to everyone who watches their figure and values their health - to implement it, the bicycle is placed on a special stand, as a result of which the vehicle turns into an exercise bike. Yes, this idea cannot be classified as compact storage of things, but the health benefits are obvious, and there is no need to buy a home exercise machine separately.
Tacx bike stations - a bike trainer
If it is not possible to purchase such a bicycle stand, then you can make a stand for the rear wheel yourself at minimal cost. The principle is clear in the next photo.
Methods for storing small laundry
Small items of underwear tend to get lost and create clutter in the closet. It seems like they put things in order on the shelf, but a few days later the socks are already scattered, and all the tights are in puffs. To organize your underwear, you can use cardboard or textile “boxes” with many small sections. It is still fashionable today to call them organizers. As a rule, they are small in height and can easily fit on a shelf in a closet or in.
And one of the needlewomen came up with the idea of making a laundry organizer similar to a honeycomb - the partitions in it are made of cardboard, and the container is small in size. This is a great option for storing socks and other underwear.
To prevent bras from losing their shape, manufacturers offer special boxes with indentations for the cups of women's clothing items.
Ideas for storing shoes in an apartment
To keep shoes and boots in order, there are also interesting storage ideas for them. One of them uses the same idea with honeycombs, and the design itself is quite compact and convenient. To bring it to life, you will need a plastic sewer pipe, which needs to be cut into equal sections and glued together. The advantage of such a device for shoes is that its dimensions and shape can be varied as you wish, placing the “honeycombs” vertically or horizontally.
Sandals, flip-flops and ballet flats can be stored in a textile organizer on the wall, and high-heeled shoes can be stored on the railing in. And if you lay narrow wicker baskets with their sides on top of each other and fasten them together, you will get a kind of “multi-story” shelf for shoes.
Jewelry storage ideas
Women are divided into two categories: those who love to wear jewelry, and those who do not accept this type of jewelry. And for the former, it’s a real problem to find the right beads or fish earrings out of a box where chaos reigns. Is it possible to organize your jewelry? Certainly! The simplest, but no less functional idea for storing jewelry is to hang the beads on a hanging shelf with hooks. This way they definitely won’t get confused and you’ll quickly find the right copy.
You can also make a shallow cabinet with separate sections. And true connoisseurs of jewelry will certainly hang all their wealth on a large stand located nearby - many hooks of different sizes will allow you to store here not only necklaces, but also earrings and bracelets.
And if suddenly you have an unnecessary frame from or from a mirror in your household, then by stretching several rows of lace ribbon inside, you can organize storage for earrings in the frame. Even versatile door handles mounted on a wooden stand turn into a functional item for storing jewelry.
Where to keep vegetables and fruits
A few ideas for storing vegetables in the kitchen will help keep them not only visible, but also in order. The best option is to make a box with pull-out shelves, where each section will be reserved for a separate vegetable, for example, potatoes will be stored in the bottom drawer, onions in the middle, and garlic in the top. In such conditions, it is better to build such a box into a closet.
A functional option for storing fruits and vegetables brought from the dacha are baskets placed under the kitchen sofa (two or three will definitely fit there). In this way, both space saving and... The main thing is to decorate the baskets themselves beautifully, for example, paint them with bright paint or apply a design using a stencil.
To store onions and garlic, you can sew narrow bags with holes on both sides and hang them on the wall. You need to pour vegetables through one hole and take them out from the other side. And so that they do not get enough sleep ahead of time, the ends of such a bag are equipped with a convenient drawstring.
How to store various small items for needlework
Any needlewoman knows better than anyone else how important it is to keep all your supplies in order. All pins, needles and clasps are small in size, so they are easy to lose. In addition, skeins of thread and spools of ribbon tend to unwind and intertwine with each other. It is better for them to have separate boxes with many divided sections, but even in this situation they also unwind.
Here's an interesting idea for storing spools of thread - keep them in transparent jars, making a beautiful lid from multi-colored fabric. And in order to prevent the bobbins with ribbons and lace from unwinding, they are placed in a pyramid on top of each other, and covered on top with a cap made from a cut-off plastic bottle.
In general, there are a lot of ideas for storing accessories, in particular, spools of thread. For example, a tree hanger will accommodate a lot of spools on its pegs, besides, you can arrange them according to colors, and this will become a worthy decoration for a needlewoman.
There are also special stands for reels, similar to the one shown below.
And entire stands, specially equipped for convenient storage of accessories, will become simply an indispensable thing in the seamstress’s corner.
It is better to sew pockets for the tools, where scissors, knives, rulers and pencils will be placed separately in each section. Small items such as buttons, snaps and various fasteners can be conveniently stored in transparent jars, not just on the table, but in a more original way - in a suspended state. To do this, you need to glue or screw a metal lid on the bottom of the shelf, and simply screw the jar onto it. Thus, all handicrafts will not only be visible, but also kept in order.