Apartment life has its advantages, but dealing with small spaces is often part of the package, making it difficult to find solutions that allow you to store and organize your belongings. This is especially true when you add the obstacles of lease agreements that prohibit permanent alterations to the building and the desire to not crowd your little bit of floor space. Enter these clever storage options.
These 10 rental storage options will be your saving grace when reorganizing your place.
Command Photo Ledge:
Every renter knows about the merits of Command strips, these little miracle adhesive strips are a match made in heaven for the renter needing decorating options. However, Command has truly stepped up their game with the photo ledge. Each ledge comes in white or black and can hold up to 5 pounds, all without damaging your walls. If you need a place to store your favorite small trinkets, display your prized photos or even your child’s go-to picture books, look no further.
High & Mighty Products:
These handy products do leave a small mark but advertise that the imprint is as small as a pin–a definite upgrade from giant nail holes that will make your property manager cringe. While it may be good to double-check that your rental agreement allows a product such as this one, with permission they can serve as an excellent option for the renter who would like to hang a bulky or heavy item. With products that boast a weight capacity of up to 125 pounds, they surpass even the heftiest command strip’s holding capabilities by leaps and bounds.
Digital Photo Frame:
At first glance this might seem like an odd inclusion on a storage list, but when you’re faced with the eternal renter problem of displaying your favorite photos (without damaging the walls or crowding your small space) a digital photo frame is an ideal solution. With the capacity to store dozens of your favorite photographs in succession, there’s no need to choose just a few to frame and squeeze on your wall.
Open Wire Shelving:
In keeping with a modern and industrial look, this shelving can serve as a practical solution to a lack of storage space within your kitchen. Keeping this shelf well-organized can mean you not only have an easy place to store your bulk food items and appliances, but you have a display that is similar to those in professional kitchens.
Rolling Cart:
Using a standard rolling cart or bar cart in your kitchen or dining space can provide that vital extra storage you may need, without taking up the real estate that an entire shelf would. Furthermore, this can provide the ideal solution for entertaining guests or larger baking projects. Simply roll your stored items away when not in use, and display it prominently when serving beverages to guests or utilizing baking accessories you don’t always need to access. This solution can be great for bathrooms and guest bedrooms as well, keep extra linens stacked on the cart’s shelves and roll them into your guest’s room when they visit.
Over-the-Door Racks:
Everyone has seen the over-the-door shoe racks, and while those are certainly convenient, they’re not the only options out there. Seek options that have metal shelves for extra storage that boasts a more streamlined look than it’s fabric counterpart, and don’t forget that cabinet doors are a great opportunity to place a smaller version of the hanging organizers.
Tension Rod Shower Caddy:
Let’s face it, the bathroom of your dreams and the bathroom of your current rental don’t always line up. If you need more space to store your shower and bath items, a tension rod shower caddy is a wonderful solution that provides damage-free shelving sturdy enough to hold your family-sized shampoo without falling down.
Lazy Susan:
These clever spinning shelves don’t get enough credit as storage solutions. They allow you to fully utilize the shelving that you do already have– which will mean that you have less cluttered and unusable items stuffed in the back of your cupboards. Don’t forget that the best storage solutions are ones that allow you to better use what you have.
Plastic Baskets:
In the same vein as the lazy susan, organizing all your items in easy-to-access plastic baskets may be the best thing you’ve done for your rental storage. Purchase small plastic baskets from your local dollar store and sort all your spices together, or place all your washcloths in the same basket together and watch how much easier it can be to use the back spaces in your cupboard without creating a mess every time you want to use a new item.
Pegboard:
If your landlord allows, a hanging pegboard can be the perfect way to hang dozens of items and only leave a few small nail holes. Hang a pegboard by your kitchen stove or refrigerator and suddenly you have an inexpensive pot rack that can hold all your oversized kitchen utensils and pans. This solution also works great in children’s rooms for large toys, or in work areas for tools or crafts.
Planning your storage options can feel constricting with the limited options for a renter who’s hoping to get their security deposit back, but a savvy renter knows there are plenty of attractive and lease abiding solutions.