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17 Small House Storage Hacks You Need!

I’m a big advocate of small house living and I think the benefits far outweigh the inconveniences that come along with it.  My family and I live in 1000 square feet even though our family is still growing. A big reason we’re able to make it work is because we purged our belongings ruthlessly and then got creative with organizing what was left.  I can’t say enough about getting organized, decluttering, and regaining control of your space and life!  These small house storage ideas are what work for us and I’m confident they can completely change your life too.

How to Organize a Small House with No Storage

First, let’s get this out of the way.  Spending a ton of money on storage and organization isn’t the solution. 

If you DO need organizing things for your home, check out these cheap options instead.

If you feel like your house is too small and the walls are closing in around you, let me give you some hope.

With the right amount of purging and organization, almost any home can work for any family.

There are people that live in RVs, happily, with 6 or more kids.

There is a whole tiny house movement going on and people live in small spaces ON PURPOSE.

Often downsizing from houses 4 or 5 times the size.

If those people can do it, we can absolutely do it!

Now let’s look at some small space organization solutions that can actually create storage space in a small house.

Purge

If you’re anything like me, this is the last thing you want to hear, but I’m going to say this anyway…

If you have a small space that you’re trying to make feel like a home, I can almost guarantee that you will benefit from getting rid of things you no longer use…even if it’s the last thing you want to do.

A couple of years ago, we purged our belongings and never looked back.

Honestly, I did it to make my husband stop complaining about all of the things we had in storage.

I was cranky as we started to sort things and completely resented any progress I made. 

Then, something happened.

Our counters were less cluttered, the living room looked relaxing instead of like a train wreck, and our bedroom started to feel a little more like a sanctuary and a little less like a hoarders paradise.

If you asked me about the things we got rid of back then, I honestly couldn’t list one. 

Seriously.

That stuff only served to keep me stuck in a holding pattern of stress and clutter. I’m thrilled to death to be done with all of it.

Rethink the things you feel a need to keep.  Are you only keeping these things because you think you might use them someday?  Or because you think you know someone who can use them that you’d like to give them to?

If you haven’t used the item in the last 6 months, give yourself permission to get rid of it – but do so immediately.  Don’t keep things for the “what if” moments that will probably never come.

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Declutter Remorse

One thing that I truly believe is that things have a way of finding us when we need them.  For example, if you get rid of an extra table that’s just taking up room in your garage because you want to use it when you move into a bigger house, allow yourself to get rid of it.  One day, when you have the space and the need for a table like that, it will find you.

I know how hippy dippy that sounds, but I can’t tell you how many times I wanted something and was able to find it extremely cheap at a yard sale.  Very rarely do you get rid of something that can’t be replaced.

After you’ve purged, it’s time to get creative with storage.  There are lots of ways to make storage space where there seems to be none.  Here are some things that work for my family:

Small Kitchen Storage Ideas

Our kitchen is actually pretty big in our house, but that just means it takes up a ton of unnecessary space in our 1000 square feet.

We have tons of cabinets, but they get used for extra storage for other parts of the house – plus they’re our only food storage.

Slim Shelving Units on Wheels

We’ve picked up one of these slim shelves that fits comfortably between our fridge and wall.  It’s made such a huge difference in our search for storage ideas for our small kitchen.

Doubling Cabinet Space

These awesome wire racks have doubled our cabinet space!  I’ve picked up some of these from the Dollar Tree, but they’re flimsier than the ones I’ve purchased on Amazon.

I can trust these ones to not shift and shatter my coffee mugs and saucers that I keep on them.

I also picked up a couple of these wire shelves that slide onto your shelf and add storage below it. This is perfect for coffee cabinets and for spice storage.

Small Bedroom Storage Ideas

One of the biggest issues in a small house is finding storage ideas for small bedrooms.

We need space to put our clothes, sentimental items, and tons of other things in bedrooms.  Bedrooms hold more of our stuff than any other room in the house.

These are some of the top small bedroom storage ideas that have quickly become life-savers in our home:

Use Bed Risers

A huge source of extra storage space for us is under the two beds we have in our house.  We put both of the beds on risers.  This is where we store extra diapers, out of season clothes, our picnic basket and blanket, extra blankets, and toys the kids have yet to grow into.

Bed risers like these literally give you storage out of thin air.  You don’t have to sacrifice anything to gain that space and you instantly get more storage without adding any clutter.

Vacuum Storage Bags

It’s no secret that we LOVE the Dollar Tree and find our storage solutions there whenever possible.  We have an addiction to their vacuum bags and use them to store all of our clothes, blankets, throw pillows, baby clothes, you name it.  If we think we can vacuum seal it, we try it.

If we want really sturdy, high-quality vacuum bags that will last, we pick them up on Amazon.

We’ve even started to use these ones that don’t require a vacuum when we travel!

This is how we organize all of our baby clothes and have created a rotating system to keep our kids’ clothes organized.

It’s also the perfect way to maximize under the bed storage.  We vacuum seal everything and are able to fit twice as much under there.  If you haven’t given these bags a try, what are you waiting for?!

Hanging Door Storage

You can put these hanging storage organizers on the back of any door in your bedroom.  We use them on the closet doors to minimize the cluttered appearance of the room.

You may not realize this, but you can actually cut these down and use them inside smaller cabinets. Under your kitchen sink is a great place to start!

Small Living Room Storage Ideas

Storage Ottomans

These things are probably the biggest storage hack we’ve found in our search for storage in a small home with kids!

Ours doubles as our coffee table with a simple tray we keep on top.

It doubles as extra seating space when we have company.

It acts as our toy box.

The serious perk of storage ottomans is that they’re so much cheaper than you’d think. Amazon has a huge selection for incredibly low prices.

Some are under $20. 

I seriously can’t say enough about our storage ottoman.  If you purchase nothing else when you’re stressed out and looking for small home storage space, pick up one (or more!) of these things!

Sleeves for DVDs and CDs

To make space in our living room for cords and other necessities, we bought paper sleeves like these to keep all of our DVDs in, and threw out the DVD cases.  This simple change was so cheap and freed up probably 60% more space.

We haven’t missed the cases and we can now easily fit all of our controllers and other electronics in the only two drawers in our TV stand.  This keeps them away from our toddler and gave us all the storage space we needed with some left over.

Small Bathroom Storage Ideas

This has been my biggest issue with our house.

We only have one bathroom and it’s TINY.

My best solution so far has been to put this storage unit in our overly-sized kitchen.  We had tons of wasted floor space, so adding this to the space made sense.

I keep all of our extra soaps and towels inside.

Minimize Bathroom Clutter

With such a tiny bathroom, we had to minimize our bathroom clutter.

One of the best ways we did this was to get rid of tons of our towels.  I either donated them or kept the rattier ones for rags.

Now, we have only two towels per person.  I keep one per person hanging on hooks just like these on the back of our bathroom door.

Hang Everything You Can

Since you can’t make extra floor space in your home without costly renovations, there’s nowhere to go but up.  Hang things and make use of space you might not think about, like the inside of your cabinet doors.  If you’re strapped for space, this area can be a great place to hang measuring cups and spoons, utensils, and even spices.

Your backsplash can be a great place for these extras too.  As long as you keep like items together and minimize what you store in visible places, you can use places like your backsplash or under your cabinets for storage without making your kitchen look cluttered.

3M hooks are practically the only way we fit in our house 🙂  These are our personal favorites:

Make use of all vertical space that you possibly can.  Incorporate hangers into your closets and hang things like mops and brooms in your storage closet and hats and jackets on the back of closet doors.  We keep a mail organizer hanging by our front door and use it for incoming and outgoing mail.  It’s been a huge lifesaver.

You’ll Also Need to ReadToy Organization Ideas

Get Rid of Duplicates

You might not realize how many things you’re holding onto that you don’t even pay attention to.  Do you have more than one stapler?  How many spatulas do you have?  Do you really need as many scissors, socks, shoes, sheets, etc. as you have in your home?

The kitchen is notorious for duplicate items.

Go through and get rid of that stuff!  Even pots and pans.  How many stock pots do you need?  I bet you don’t use all of those things at once, so purge them and move on.  Then you’ll have tons of free space for the items you actually use and love.

You’d be amazed at how much space you can free up just by getting rid of duplicate items.  This also simultaneously declutters your home.  Plus, those items can be sold or donated to someone else who can really use them.

Throw Away Unnecessary Packaging

Another great way to find storage space in the kitchen is to get rid of all of your boxed and packaged items.  In our house, we cut the instructions off of any boxed food and store the food itself in bins in our cabinets.  We do this for freezer items too.

We love frozen vegetarian prepared meals (it’s kind of our guilty pleasure), but the boxes take up too much space in the freezer.  We simply cut the instructions off of the boxes when we get home from the grocery store, throw away the rest of the box, and store the food in the freezer.  Then we keep all of the cooking instructions in a drawer.

It takes up so much less room!

Layer and Stack

Use layers to take advantage of the storage space you have.  We have very little storage space in our bathroom, so we store everything in plastic shoebox bins with lids that can be neatly stored.

We use plastic Sterilite drawers in our closets for small clothing items like socks, underwear, and bras to make the most of closet space and free up storage in our dresser.

Don’t Be Picky

If you’re really short on space like we are (we live in just 1000 square feet after all!) sometimes where you store things isn’t going to make perfect sense and that’s okay!  We have hardly any bathroom storage space, so our towels are stored in a second closet that’s in our kids’ room.  Is it perfect?  No, but it works for us!

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Where you are able to find storage might not make perfect sense for the item you’re trying to store, but if it works, it works.  Don’t beat yourself up for having to store stockpiled food under the bed, for example.

In our home, we live by the motto “a place for everything and everything in its place.”  Even if the place doesn’t make sense to most people, if it’s giving your items a home, it’s solving part of your storage problem.

Storage Hacks

The truth about storage hacks is that you have to work smarter not harder.

Like we already discussed, adding things like plastic storage is rarely going to be the answer to your storage woes.

Instead, think using vertical space, hanging on the back of closet, bedroom, and cupboard doors, and using the awkward space between furniture and appliances already in your home.

Embracing a more minimalist lifestyle is the ultimate storage hack, in my honest opinion.

If you own less stuff, you obviously have to STORE less stuff.

Less stuff equals less stress too, so win-win!

If you purge your home of everything you don’t use regularly and find a designated place for everything you decide to keep, your home will be more organized and your life will be simpler and less stressful.  Hanging things, stacking, and getting creative with your storage solutions will help you find storage space in your home where there seems to be none.

Do you have limited storage space?  How do you solve your storage problem?  What tips do you have for others in the same situation?  Let me know in the comments!

making more storage space

small house small house storage small house organization small house organizing hacks small home storage

Small house storage hacks - storage ideas for small kitchens, small bedrooms, and small bathrooms - even with kids!

 

Small house storage hacks - storage ideas for small kitchens, small bedrooms, and small bathrooms - even with kids!

Sarah

Tuesday 2nd of April 2019

Even better than saving the cuttings from food packaging. If you have a smart phone take a picture and store it in a drive file! Categorized, easily found and accessible, and takes no space! I do this with food boxes, catalogs, and books! If you only need one page why save it at all?

Desiree Dusseau

Saturday 15th of April 2017

I went from a large kitchen with a 4x6 pantry to a small kitchen with 3 base cabinets and 3 uppers! I have done the following: - hung a magnetic knife strip and ditched the knife block - used an old dresser to install my own sliding shelves on the base cabinets - put 3 canvas baskets on the fridge to store bread and "teen food" - hung an accordian coat rack to hold coffee cups - attached sheet metal to inside of cabinets and purchased magnetic hooks to hang pot holders, measuring spoons, and a key ring of common recipes - Reused empty Swiffer pad containers to store small kitchen gadgets in the drawers (plus the lid keeps them from getting yucky!)

Linda

Saturday 4th of February 2017

Hi we use a plastic "letter basket" they're magnetic on one side to store our instructions,recipes and coupons on the side of the fridge. Keeps them handy but off my very limited counterspace.

Jamie

Saturday 4th of February 2017

I love that tip!

22 Ways to Make 2017 Your Best Year Yet - Simple Living Mommy

Thursday 5th of January 2017

[…] 9 Ways to Make Storage Space Where There is None […]

Marcy

Wednesday 14th of September 2016

I use baskets and trunks to store things as well. They can double as night stands or end tables.

Jamie

Friday 16th of September 2016

That's a great idea, Marcy!

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