Many people believe that scattered clothes, a cluttered kitchen countertop and an untidy bed provoke chaos in an apartment. In fact, the main enemy of order are small objects that quickly grow over every surface in the house, be it a cabinet in the hallway or a coffee table in the living room. Novate.ru tells how to find a place for every little thing.
Tip 1: Avoid Risk Areas
"Little things from pockets" are very insidious, so they need to be dealt with in radical ways. Which ones exactly? Just don't create a favorable environment for them. Remember that every horizontal surface on which, in theory, car keys, small change from a wallet, and other things can linger, must be functionally justified.
When the apartment has open parts of cabinets, hinged shelves, shelves, hands unconsciously stretch to fill them with something so that there is no feeling of emptiness. However, if you succumb to this desire, the house will constantly be a mess, since it is very difficult to keep clean on such surfaces. There is simply not enough time to dust off and arrange your favorite little things in a row. The best option is to create as many closed storage systems as possible or equip a built-in dressing room so that there is never visual noise in the apartment.
So that cabinets and drawers do not clutter up the space and make the apartment smaller, they should be correctly placed, masked and decorated. For example, cabinets matched to the wall tone or with mirrored facades will solve the storage problem, without overloading the interior, making it lighter.
If you cannot completely eliminate risk zones in the form of horizontal surfaces, use the following trick: place them above eye level or in poorly lit places so that they do not attract undue attention.
Tip 2: take care of the presence of secret boxes
Built-in storage systems do their job much better than a dozen cabinets, shelves and nightstands that visually clutter up an already small space. In this matter, one should take an example from the Japanese: their apartments look extremely laconic and minimalistic, but the first impression is deceiving - there are many niches with secret shelves for storing things needed in everyday life.
If you understand that closed cabinets are too crushing and look bulky, order furniture with facades made of mirror or frosted translucent glass. Another option is to decorate secret boxes with posters or paintings so that they don't get an eyesore.
Tip 3: dual-use furniture to help
Instead of a built-in storage system, you can use furniture "with pockets". Drawers on the side of the bed or under the mattress, niches in the podium and other similar solutions are usually remembered when it is necessary to place large items. However, there is also a suitable place for small items. For example, the upper part of the consoles is usually equipped with a drawer - there you can put the keys to the apartment and the car, headphones that are necessary only on the road, a wallet and other things that are usually lying on a pedestal in the corridor.
If there is no room for a console, plan a shelf for this purpose in the built-in closet in the hallway. In standard furniture sets, it is often labeled as “a shelf for storing jewelry,” but who is stopping you from putting, for example, a neckerchief there? A coffee table with internal compartments for storing things will not be superfluous. And no mess on horizontal surfaces.
On a note: It will be much easier if you train yourself to always put things away. No matter how effective and thoughtful the storage systems in your apartment are, they will be of no use if you are not careful.
Tip 3: structure
In fact, "fighting" with the little things implies adherence to only one rule: everything must be structured. Develop a convenient system for sorting small items into boxes, folders, boxes, baskets. If you competently approach their selection, they can even become a highlight of the interior. Please note that boxes and baskets are commonly used for storing toys, bathroom cosmetics, bath towels, various bubbles and tubes, and kitchen gadgets. Folders are suitable for documents, boxes - for small things that are difficult to find at the bottom of the same basket.
When it comes to the kitchen, you should take note of the idea of storage in jars with lids screwed to the bottom of the shelf. This solution saves a lot of space and reduces the time spent looking for the right product or spice.
Tip 4: complement your existing interior
If the issue of storing small things has become very acute, but repairs are not expected in the near future, you will have to proceed from the capabilities of the apartment and the existing interior. For example, you can supplement horizontal surfaces, on which small objects are constantly accumulating, with functional details that, in a good situation, can become an excellent decor. Boxes will look great on shelves, and original wide-necked vases or trays will look great on tables. Yes, it is possible and necessary to use items for other purposes.
Agree, when there is a charger, a TV remote control, a notebook pen on the coffee table - it looks untidy. But if the same items are carefully folded into a basket or box without a lid, matched to the style of the interior, the visual picture will immediately change for the better. By the way, trays and low baskets are suitable not only for storing receipts or small items - they fit perfectly into the interior of the kitchen. Place salt shakers, pepper shakers, a bottle of vegetable oil, a container of cutlery, or the contents of a minibar on them. It will look much more beautiful and neat than a dozen separate things.
Tip 5: specializing storage
Buying a large box and putting all the things that make you feel a mess is a tempting idea, but unpromising, especially when it comes to small items. It will be much more efficient to provide different places for storing several types of things. Let there be a separate box for chargers, a separate folder for documents, a separate basket for cosmetics. Each item must have a permanent residence. In this case, you will know exactly where what lies, and you will save a lot of time that you usually spend on searches.
Tip 6: plan
Before you go to the store for all kinds of storage accessories, it is worth going through the items that you plan to put there. Otherwise, it will turn out that there is a box, but there are no options for its contents. Or you need to put towels in the basket, but you are not guessing with its size. Therefore, first determine the number and size of the required shelves, baskets, boxes, boxes, and only then go shopping so that you do not have to throw away the accessories that you have chosen with such difficulty.
And try to avoid 9 storage errors that keep you from finding anything in small apartments