Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Space Saving Tips For Apartment Living

By Jeff Stanberry

Living in an apartment brings a whole new meaning to the old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. Space is limited at best and if youre living with others, it can be downright scarce. Heres a few space saving tips for apartment living.

Use only as much appliance as you need. If youre single, a small refrigerator and freezer combination will be all the cold space you need. The same holds true for a washer and dryer. Get a stackable unit in a small size that will accommodate your clothing. Taking up much-needed apartment space with an oversized washer and dryer set that is seldom filled is only a waste of both money and space.

Have the space under your bed do double duty. It can keep you off the ground but also serve as a great storage space for shoes, sweats, or anything small enough to fit. Large, flat plastic storage boxes are ideal for under-the-bed storage.

Install floor-to-ceiling shelving. This will get a lot of your loose stuff up off the floor where youll always be tripping over it. Utilizing the vertical space in your apartment as well as the horizontal space is a great way to get rid of the cluttered appearance.

If your phone wont fit on a shelf, hang it on the wall. Its the same principle. Go up the wall instead of out into the room. Substitute climbing plants like philodendrons that require only a small pot and a place to tie them up along the shelving and avoid plants that need big pots and a lot of floor space.

Store as much of your personal property off site as possible. A storage unit under lock and key can be a real answer to the need for more space. Put items that you dont need on a daily basis or that you wont need during the current weather conditions into one of these usually dry, secure compartments.

Allow for a small closet to be the junk collector. A tidy closet is just the out-of-sight place to store anything and everything that is otherwise out in the open where you dont want it. Make sure the door stays shut to keep what is out of sight, out of mind.

Expand where you can. If your apartment has a patio, use it, weather permitting. Some furniture does fine outside during summer weather and may even be okay if its covered with a large plastic tarp or fitted furniture cover when the weather isnt so nice.

If you can afford to buy food in smaller containers, do it. A small box of Cheerios takes up a lot less cupboard room than the family size box. - 15252

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