My Tiny Bedroom Is Under 100 Square Feet—These 5 Storage Hacks Make It Feel So Much More Functional

0My bedroom after settling inCredit: Natalia Gonzalez Blanco SerranoFinding an apartment in NYC is a grueling obstacle course; you have to dodge the scams, summit the financial mountain, find your way through the maze of paperwork, and sprint to make it to the application before all the other competitors.

And, of course, this is without mentioning the self-placed obstacles—some may know them as “non-negotiables.” When my roommate and I were looking for our current apartment, I had very few of these: a less than 45-minute commute to work, decent proximity (20 minutes walking) to a green space, and a bedroom big enough for a queen bed. Within my financial constraints, of course.

Well, it turns out finding that queen bed bedroom was the greatest obstacle of all. We knew my roommate was going to take the primary bedroom—she makes more money and would accordingly take on a proportional amount of the rent. But every place we looked at didn’t have a large enough second bedroom, or had other glaring problems we couldn’t ignore.

Eventually, we toured the place we’re living in today. It was perfect in almost every way. The second bedroom would even fit my queen bed! And… that’s about all.

The whole room is 8 feet by 11.5 feet (which I’m generously rounding up to 100 square feet), and the bed takes up almost all of the floor space. So I’ve had to learn some tricks to keep everything I own in such a small space, or contained in the common areas. Here’s how I pull it off.

I cannot emphasize how important it is to utilize under-bed storage when you’re working with a small bedroom. I have six bins and two bags of items hiding under there; I’m always making jokes that the only monster under my bed is my latent hoarding habit.

Under there on the side most easily accessible, I keep my linens and towels, exercise clothes and sports gear, and hoodies and sweatshirts. On the other side are lesser-used sweatshirts, my spare duvet, and spare toiletries—things I don’t need as frequently.

In between those two rows of bins I keep the duffel bags I use least frequently for travel. Sometimes I’ll put things in there that I think I should get rid of but don’t want to yet; the next time I come upon them I can usually concede that it’s not being used and needs to go.

I’ll be the first to admit it—I definitely have more books than I need. But whatever. Since I do have so many (and intend to keep a majority of them for many years) I had to figure out a way to keep them all in my bedroom without turning the entire room into a library.

This is where a vertical bookshelf really came in handy. It was actually a gift from my mom (thank you, Mom!), and has proven even more handy as I moved it to the corner of my room. In addition to stacking the books on the actual shelf, I’ve also been able to stack them between the shelf and the wall.

Additionally, there is a shelf above the hanging bar in my closet. This is where I keep spare pillows and blankets for guests, as well as tote bags, hats, and laundry accessories.

In addition to keeping the room from feeling so small, replacing the closet doors with curtains allowed me to fit a dresser inside. This, plus my bedside table with two large drawers, helps keep things from piling up on surfaces or the floor.

Clothes, obviously, go inside the dresser, but almost anything qualifies for bedside table storage—I just have to want to keep it. The trick is that the next time I go to put something inside, I have to decide if the thing I put in there last is actually worth keeping or not. Birthday card from my parents? Stays. Playbill from a musical I hated? Get out of there.

In addition to the drawer space, both of these pieces provide tabletop storage. I try not to keep things on the bedside table as it quickly amounts to visual clutter, but the dresser top is a great place for keeping a bin of miscellaneous items like jewelry and glasses.

This might be the strangest hack of all, but hanging things over the door has helped a lot. I’m a bathrobe lover and keep my various robes back there, as well as whatever bath and face towel I’m currently using. (I really hate keeping them in the bathroom.)

Of course, there’s not always room for everything. My closet is quite small, so I have to swap out my clothes seasonally. Whatever clothes I’m not using go in a bin in the entryway closet.

The entryway closet also houses my suitcases (nested inside one another for optimal use of space), commonly used outdoor gear like my park blanket, hammock, volleyball, and frisbee, and mine and my roommate’s coats and shoes.

All of my crafting supplies—thread and canvas, paints, sketchbooks, pens, beads, and more—live in the hallway closet combined with my roommate’s in the crafting drawers. Our medicines are housed there, too.

Natalia Gonzalez Blanco Serrano is a young renter taking New York City by storm. They’re constantly updating, upgrading, and upcycling on a budget to make the best home for their kitty Lowli and roommate and long-time friend Andreea. And luckily for everyone in the apartment, they really, really love to clean.