Five Organization Tips For Apartment Living

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

I am a big fan of all things organization. I was one of those kids who looked forward to school supply shopping and am one of those adults who spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect planner. Living in an apartment, and especially sharing an apartment with another person who has a lot of stuff, keeping things in order has become very important.

Over the past year, I've stumbled upon a handful of organization tips and tricks that I'm so happy about. They're good for any living situation really, but I find them particularly helpful for an apartment due to having less space (and let's be honest, probably money).

The Target clearance section is your friend

I'm talking about that two-aisle section at the front of the store that you probably walk right by every time without a second glance, but let me tell you, you are missing out. You can find so many great, useful things for less than five dollars.

My most recent clearance find was these cute little metal pails for a dollar each. I'm using two of them to hold makeup products. Did you know that a plastic cup labeled as a makeup brush holder can sell for more than $10? Even though it's essentially just a cup? I could buy ten pineapple pails for the same price.

Utilize wall space

If you have limited space, where using drawers or shelving units is a challenge, utilizing the wall space instead is a great solve. My favorite organizer that we have is this wire basket which we use daily. I originally bought it for the bathroom at my old apartment because there was no counter space and no medicine cabinet. Now, even though our bathroom has both, we still use it since it's super handy.

In the baskets, we store a lot of random items that we use regularly. They're easy to access but aren't cluttering the counter. The hooks are great to hang a hand towel or even a hand mirror, through the hole in the handle. Honestly, I've considered buying a second one to set up elsewhere in the apartment.

Keep your drawers tidy

Drawers can get real messy real quick. Moving the visible mess that's on top of your dresser into a drawer where no one can see it, including yourself, is so much easier than actually cleaning. Also, I don't know about you but I think drawers for socks/bras/underwear are the worst. They're the most difficult to organize even though it seems like they'd be easy.

A few months ago, I bought a couple expandable drawer dividers, similar to these except mine are white plastic and cost less. Each divider has a spring inside, allowing you to adjust the size and ensuring it won't move or fall once in place, since it will be pushing into the the sides of the drawer. Simple but very helpful.

Use items for more than what they were intended for

Before you throw something away, think about whether it can be repurposed for anything else. For instance, I'm currently using a flatware tray to organize my accessories in my bedroom dresser junk drawer. We originally bought it for our kitchen, obviously, but it didn't fit properly and I'm too lazy to return things. Now it's in a drawer holding my nail polishes, hair bands, bobby pins, watches, and other miscellaneous things I couldn't find another spot for.

Another item we've repurposed is my old microwave cart. We didn't need it in the kitchen but didn't want it to go to waste. Now it's in our front closet, holding a toolbox, shoes, and a few bottles of various cleaning supplies. It's a small closet and the cart helps us use the vertical space to store more.

Organize even the little things

And I mean everything. Including pot lids. This is not a thing that I thought needed organizing but now that I'm there, I'll never go back. When storing pots, you either have to keep the lid with each one and end up taking up more space since they can't stack, or you stack them and end up with scattered lids sliding around, making it impossible to find the right one when you need it.

 I bought this at Target when looking for something else completely. It is so helpful. With the lids out of the way, we can stack our pots more neatly on top of/inside of each other. And I am officially too enthusiastic about pots.

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