Right now, I am sitting on my bed and staring at my bedroom. It’s SMALL. Like, ludicrously small.
When I first moved into this flat two years ago, my mum eyeballed my room and said: “Well love, you’ll learn to live like auni or you’ll go insane.” Mum was not wrong. Tiny bedrooms have their advantages. You never need wander far to get from your bed to your wardrobe.
But they also have downsides. Namely, that everything needs to earn its place because you simply do not have space for everything.
This is NOT me getting fetishy about decorating for aesthetics.
This is me trying to figure out “where the hell do I put my winter jumpers?? ?”. Trust me, I’ve bought enough storage solutions to wallpaper my room. Speaking of storage solutions: let me share with you what DOES work… and what I actually use every day without wanting to cry.
These bad boys. Nestling happily underneath my bed are my little wheeled storage boxes from IKEA (the SAMLA ones, to be exact). They were about £30 for four boxes and they’re see-through so you can SEE what you own without digging around like an archeologist.
I keep out-of-season clothing in there, as well as spare bedding, and anything else that’s useful to have but not enough to warrant immediate closet real estate. The wheels are genius, I can pull them out from under the bed without bending from my waist or moving the bed itself. Granted, they aren’t the prettiest boxes in the world.
But nobody’s going to see them anyway, right?? Am I right? ? Floating shelves above my bed.
Three shelves in total – big enough for holding books I’m currently reading (or pretending to read) and small baskets for oddments like phone chargers and lip balm. James says it looks like a headboard but I wasn’t going for that. Oh well.
Warning: these took me AGES to put up and by the time I’d finished I didn’t speak to the drill for a good month. BUT they have survived over a year in my flat so… yay me?? ? Finally, at the foot of my bed I have this ottoman.
It cost about £120 from my local furniture shop but it was money well spent. It holds spare pillows and blankets/throws (do I have a cushion problem?? ), but is also handy as somewhere to sit when friends come over. It’s the perfect height for me to perch on when I’m pulling on shoes too.
Clever storage solutions that serve DOUBLE purposes are the best! I’ve stuck a bamboo tray with dividers on my bedside table. Err… tables, I say table but it’s actually a small chest with drawers.
Anyway: I picked up this tray for about a fiver from a car boot sale ages ago. It stores jewellery, loose change, keys – basically all those little bits and bobs that seem to roam around your bedroom like pets whenever you forget to put them away properly. I use the drawers underneath for storing books/notebooks/etc., as well as what I like to call my “bedtime nonsense” (vitamins, hand cream etc. ).
I have hooks on the back of my door. Five hooks, in a row. They hold my dressing gown, work clothes for the next day, and bags.
If anything, looks messy until you get used to sticking everything ‘in its place’. Trust me. The inside of my wardrobe door is also now on candid duty.
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I bought one of those shower over-door organisers you can buy from most homeware shops. But instead of shoes, I use it for scarves, belts, tights, gloves – pretty much anything else I own that isn’t clothes or shoes but needs hanging up. Inside my wardrobe I keep suitcases, and vacuum storage bags with winter coats in.
WINCESS STORAGE BAGS WORK. Sort of. I definitely learned this the hard way when I over-filled one too many times and ended up with jumpers exploding out at 2am.
Definitely not like someone breaking in… Above my desk (which is teeny tiny and tucked away in the corner), I have hung a pegboard. This cost about £15 from B&Q and I painted it white to match the walls so it doesn’t scream ‘industrial-chic pegboard!!’. I hang small baskets from it, which contain pens, cables, postcards, etc.
Basically anything I can’t fit onto my desk without it looking like a bomb-site.. Below my desk is home to a small filing box. Simple.
Inexpensive. Necessary. Somewhere to store bills/warranties/document that needs filing instead of “that pile on the floor.” I use the top of my chest of drawers as a dumping station.
Specifically for things that need to go somewhere else in my flat. Library books/to-return, stuff to give back to friends/etc. Helps keep clutter out of the bedroom itself!
Ok, what didn’t work?! Clip-on closet organisers with a million shelves and compartments. It looks great on the website but when it comes down to actually hanging up/taking down your clothes it’s a nightmare.
And everything sagged. Don’t do it. DON’T BUY THOSE CANVAS STORAGE CUBES THAT THEY SELL TO GO UNDER YOUR BED.
If you’re reading this and thinking “but becca, won’t they slide under the bed? ?” NOPE THEY WILL NOT. Trust me. Bedside caddies that clip between your mattress and bed frame are also a nightmare.
Mine fell apart in the first week I owned it as everything fell out every time I moved in my sleep. The number one thing I learned from living in a small bedroom?? If it’s more than one or two steps to PUT something away, I won’t do it.
There’s just no point in bedtime-storage-solutions if you never use them day-to-day simply because they’re a faff to use.
Slide. Lift.
Hang. Done. It still isn’t what anyone would call a “nice” bedroom, but at least everything has a home now and I know where everything is without having to dig around for hours.
On busy mornings, that’s better than Pinterest perfection any day. It took me a while to get here, trying all the things that didn’t work and slowly learning what did. But now?
I wouldn’t change a single thing about my tiny room. If it means I never have to re-buy every single storage solution known to man when I move house again?? Say no more.
