Living in a tiny home or one that doesn’t make good use of the available space can be a trying experience—especially when you’re living in quarters that make it hard to store food in your kitchen, clothes in your closet, and other essential items. But if you’re creative and make good use of your local hardware store, you can overcome the problem and maximize your space for good.
When you’re living in tight quarters, or just want to make the best use of the free space you have available, it’s time to learn to maximize.
My first apartment in college was less than 600 square feet being shared by 4 girls. Being at college meant that I didn’t have a lot of stuff, but what stuff I did have didn’t seem to want to fit in with the other 3 girls I had to live with and their stuff, especially since it all had to fit into two tiny, shared bedrooms.
So, unlike most people I know, I learned very early on in my adult life how to maximize the space in my living quarters.
Using bed lifts, I made a space for under-bed drawers and I was able to use the space behind those drawers to store items like extra blankets, suitcases, etc.
I also made great use of stackable utility shelves to create extra shelving at the end of my bed and in my personal closet.
But the real problem area for us girls was the kitchen. We had very limited kitchen space with a large table taking up most of our available space.
The kitchen cabinets had been very poorly designed, providing little space to store anything and most of the usable shelving was out of our reach—the kitchen cabinets had been built into the wall, all the way up to the ceiling and we couldn’t reach them without a ladder. Being in college and living in a dorm apartment, we didn’t exactly have access to or a place to store a ladder.
But I solved that problem too.
When you’re in college the one thing you eat a lot of is Raman Noodles and other virtually indestructible foods. The other thing you do a lot of in college is buy things you need at case lot sales, where you can get twice to three times as much for your money. But where do you store all of that?
You simply put the “out of reach” cabinets to good use.
Make a list of all of the things you would typically keep in a pantry (this is especially helpful for people who don’t have a pantry but do have high cabinets or cabinets that hang above the over-sized American style refrigerator) and store a bulk amount of those items in the unused cabinet space. This saves what would normally be wasted kitchen space and works as a new kind of cupboard storage solution, not to mention, you’ll be reducing your “last minute trip to the store for aluminum foil and canned peaches” situations.
Today, I’m fortunate enough to live in a much larger home than the tiny apartment I started out in. When it was just me, I had no trouble making great use of the available space in my home. But I’ve added a couple of occupants since then and being organized and space-conscious gets harder every day.
The kitchen, like always, is the hardest place to keep organized. Our pantry and kitchen storage originally had only six shelves, but I have since added 4 more shelves to provide for the extra paper plates, paper cups, canned foods, etc. that seem to magically appear once you have a family.
And kitchen space issues happen in every home.
What if you have a beautiful kitchen, but it’s small, you have no pantry, very little cupboard space and nowhere to store the extra food you’re buying for your growing family?
You could buy a storage cabinet that will crowd your kitchen past maximum capacity, or you could put it in another room on the other side of the house. But what good would that do?
My mother recently decided that she wanted a pantry in her house because her kitchen cabinets just don’t cut it anymore. She has very little kitchen space and her kitchen ideas for space and storage never seem to work out just right.
But using my brain, I was able to come up with some kitchen ideas that provided cupboard storage solutions and a pantry for her.
In certain types of homes, there is a large closet in the kitchen that is meant for a garbage can and storage for mops and brooms, etc. But if you have a garbage can with a lid, and especially if you have a carpeted kitchen (and even if you don’t), these tall wastes of space can be used to create a small pantry.
All you have to do is buy the materials (wood, nails/wall brackets) to create shelving , decide how deep and how tall you want your shelving to be and voila! You have an instant set of 3 to 6 shelves in your storage closet that can now be used for a pantry. And the best part is, you can still leave room for your garbage can, your mops and brooms, etc. So, unlike many other kitchen ideas for storage, you can gain space without losing any.
Kitchen space is a difficult thing to come by, especially as home builders spend most of your home space building large living and dining rooms. But if you are willing to be creative and give up a Saturday, you can come up with great kitchen ideas that solve the woes you face with your ceiling-high, too-small or above the american style refrigerator kitchen cabinets and you’ll find that a cupboard storage solution is easier to come up with than you thought.
Tags: american style refrigerator | cupboard storage solution | cupboard storage solution | kitchen cabinets | kitchen space | kitchen ideas | kitchen ideas