Creating more room for storage in small spaces

No one can negate the fact that it can be a real struggle to have nowhere to store your things. With that, we start to put things on every available flat surface creating clutter that not only creates visual disarray, but also disharmony that eventually gets you stressed, disorganised and ultimately late. Regardless of where you stay; bachelor pad, apartment, condo, you name it, Nalumu Carolyn Mukasa of Carol’s interior concepts and Adrian Namgosha of McFaj Concepts give you perfect solutions for storage in your small space.

Open storage
One of the ways to deal with this is open storage. The concept may sound strange but it is workable.
However, to avoid visual clutter, you will need to cover your open closets with a curtain. You could opt for one with eye-catching details or one that is plain.
Nonetheless, having a colour scheme for the curtains will help in accentuating them and making them turn into a plesant feature in the room.
For kitchens with limited cabinets yet having space above the cabinets, you will want to use that space for storage.
However, the issue comes in the fact that regardless of how much you organise it, chances of it looking cluttered are high. To enjoy harmony with your open storage, mount a curtain rod on the ceiling for a curtain so that you can have a cute above-the-cabinet storage solution.

Night stand
In small bedrooms, having nightstands and bedside tables may be a luxury you cannot afford. Therefore, in place of these, a shelf would be a great idea. For example, one in the corner of the room will only take up a few inches of space yet afford you great storage space in form of multiple shelves.

Floating furniture
Another storage idea is floating furniture, which will not only allow you to store things underneath the furniture but also help to open up the space visually. In the case of a floating cabinet, you not only have storage above it, but also beneath.
Using space underneath your staircase is another way to work around storage space in small rooms. For example, you can convert that space into a closet, a shoe rack or both, depending on the amount of space available as well, as how much you need stored underneath.

Space behind of the door
In a small laundry room, you could make use of the wall and the space behind the door for storage space.
For example, the wall above your washer and dryer could hold cabinets for washing detergents while the door could have hooks for brushes, aprons and the like.
For someone whose bedroom is small yet has no closet space or if it is limited, you can create generous storage space behind the bed using clothing racks and wall mounted shelves.
You can cover these with a curtain mounted with a curtain rod from the ceailing. Apart from achieving that much needed storage space, the curtain will create an illusion of a walk-in closet.

Customised furniture
The beauty of such furniture is that you get to take home something that suits your tastes. In the instance of need for storage space, looking at the sitting room, custom made chairs can carry drawers underneath them. In the case of the bedroom, you can make a bed with drawers underneath.

Mixing cabinet types
Different cabinet types can store different things, however, when you mix them more so in heavy-traffic areas such as washrooms, you will store more in a tight spot. For example, on a door with an opening of 30cm from the doorframe to the wall yet opening outside, one could add storage space of hirizontal and vertical cabinets around the frame.

Mind the shutters
Cabinet doors that swing are a liability in small spaces as they consume space yet it is already limited. With that, one may get rid of the doors more so for commonly used items like glasses, plates. Another option is to invest in doors that slide into one another.

Use the wall
While we have discussed mixed cabinets, we can delve into it again for items such as jewelry that are difficult to store even when one has no space issues.
In the case of limited space, create a frame on your bedroom wall with cork accessorised with pins to hang your bracelets, and necklaces.