Okay...so we all live in an apartment atleast once in our lives. Some people live in them forever. So, why is it that apartment complexes and apartment buildings can't all have great storage solutions? Anybody who knows me, knows that I'm creative and that can make a giant mess that drives my husband absolutely crazy! But, I also love organization! It's an oxymoron, I know. These are some ways that I have found work best for organizing our clutter and they may work for you as well. I wish that I would have thought to take "Before" pictures but unfortunately, that kind of stuff always seems to slip my mind, but I will try to be better.
This is my INSANELY SMALL closet!
We have SO many clothes & believe it or not, we recently got rid of a bunch.
(1) These shelves from Wal-Mart used to be on both sides of the closet holding shoes and t-shirts. (2) I got these industrial hooks from Lowe's for us to have our hats on. {There are 2 of them} (3) My side recently got replaced with these Shoe Boxes from Ikea. It's great because my shoes no longer get all dusty. We're working at doing the same to Trey's sides.
I LOVE SCARVES!
I got the idea to use clear shoe organizers from a post that Love Maegan did a while back. It was a great way to organize all of my scarves. I bought this clear shoe organizer from TARGET for only $7.99. As you can see, there are also some scarves hanging in the closet on this Ikea Multi-Use Hanger.
(1) Only these four pockets are filled with anything of Trey's. (2) The rest are ALL MINE!
All of my scarves, including the ones on the Ikea hanger in the closet used to hang on this ONE HOOK. I'm surprised it wasn't too heavy and fall out of the wall.
Hello, Bathroom!
My counter top used to be covered in makeup and jewelry in those little drawers (you know the ones, they're little 3 drawer sets). I am so happy that I decided to hang this on the inside of our bathroom door. It holds all of my make-up and hair brushes and even serves as a place to put extra stuff that would otherwise just be stuffed somewhere.
(1) This is a simple jewelry organizer that I got at Ross for $5 and it holds my bobby pins, pony tails, clips, etc. (2) I got these clear tubs at Ikea for really cheap to help organize this tiny linen closet. {Before I got them, our stuff constantly fell over because of the crappy racks that make us the shelves.} (3) I told you that I like scarves. These $2 baskets hold hair scarves and travel soaps {Yes, I'm a freak who takes soaps from hotels.} (4) I got a linen lined basket to put our extra rolls of toilet paper in so that it doesn't get stuff all over it. Plus, there's no more torn open plastic toilet paper bags to deal with.
Our Pantry!
So, before we added all of this stuff there were only TWO shelves! They aren't very deep either. We had to use one of cabinets to store our canned foods. All of the wire baskets are from Wal-Mart and much cheaper than if you were to go to The Container Store. They are all secured with ZIP TIES and they hold all kinds of stuff! We've never had one fall or anything in the 2 1/2 years since they were hung.
These IKEA carts fit AWESOMELY on both sides of our pantry and were only $12.99 each.
These are also from Wal-Mart and make a huge difference!
Trey's FAVORITE part of the kitchen!
I can't wait to have a house so that we can have deep drawers to put this stuff in! But, until then these racks from Wal-Mart work amazingly.
We just used small hooks to hang our smaller pots.
Ahh...Tupperware...Is there really a good way to organize it?
This shelf is from The Container Store and I love them so much that I have four of them scattered all over our place! It's an amazing way to hold all of your tupperware lids!
Laundry Room!
These Hanging Baskets are from Ikea and hold all of our reusable shopping bags and kitchen towels and rags. They helped to free up one of our tiny drawers that was STUFFED with the towels and rags.
I have the same thing in our extra bathroom holding towels and rags for that bathroom.
So, we've made it work for the last 3 1/2 years and I think that if we have to live here longer, we'll be able to make it work with all of these "alterations" that we've made.
