put things away

I thought I’d try and do a bit of explication on some things my lady and I have found useful after living in relativity small apartments. Yeah, out of character, but I’m trying to write more (again) and this is going to help me.

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Rethink your drawers.

Yeah, might be strange to see your things out on display but when you have two (or one) drawers in your entire kitchen, it’s easy to fill them. We’ve found that putting our silverware in these IKEA buckets has freed us from the clutches of drawerdom. Spoons, forks, table knifes, and ‘useful junk’ all are easily accessible and available to anyone visiting and make their ‘home’ obvious. We also got a hanging basket that fits the same pole system that holds our most used cooking items: olive oil, salt, pepper, and “angry rooster sauce.” Our current apartment’s kitchen is so small we’ve even placed our measuring cups on the end. Similar ideas: put up hooks and place all those kitchen utilities with handles on the wall, as a functional type art piece; find hanging paper towel holders and put plastic wrap type of items on an open wall.

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Use all hidden surfaces

Buy sticky hooks, a lot of them. We try and utilize as much surface space as we can, but living in a small apartment can be limiting. Rethink how you use the back of your door (key hooks), what sort of things go on your fridge (magnetic basket), where your broom goes, how you hang your scarves, etc. Your place doesn’t have to look like an example room The Container Store – just be inventive of how space is used.

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Hide messes in things

People think there is some kind of magic in making a tiny apartment look larger – just keep the place neat. I guess that is what all of these pointers are really about. Use containers to hide all your junk. These look a bit messy inside, but if all the crap in them were strewn out on the shelves it would look awful, busy, and very sloppy. Put all of your medicine in a latch-able plastic container – makes them easier to find when you are sick and keeps things tidy and handy. It also empties out your medicine cabinet to hold useful things like deodorant, the current shaver, make up (not mine), etc.

I think the take away here is just don’t stick crap anywhere – put it somewhere.