If you just moved into your first apartment and chose a hip, 
downtown location with limited square-footage, you probably know the struggle of having more stuff than fits your tiny new apartment.
While stacking cardboard boxes atop your closet or sliding them under your bed might (sort of) do the trick, there’s prettier, niftier and classier ways to organize the overflow of stuff: hidden storage. We can’t tell you how to build a Batcave in your 600-square-foot apartment to hide your valuables from prying eyes and sticky fingers, but we have gathered up a few neat hidden storage ideas for you:
-The bathroom can be made tidier by neatly tucking away all those beauty products that line your bath tub and sink. Create a sleek, oversized medicine cabinet: install a frame, add some narrow shelves and hinge your mirror. You can do this whether you have a small over-the-sink mirror or a full-length one.
-If your bathroom also doubles as a laundry room, you can easily create extra storage by lifting your washer/dryer off the floor with a simple frame and adding a few laundry baskets or some pretty, waterproof storage containers underneath. Use these to store laundry, detergent and other cleaning supplies
-While hiding important documents or rare jewelry in faux books is a murder mystery cliché, a new twist on the idea can actually prove very practical in saving space and hiding valuables. Pick up some old books from your local thrift store, remove the pages, glue the spines and two covers together so it looks like you have a tight stack of books. Use this to hide your perfume collection from your roommate’s nosy friend or, if you use old cookbooks, you can actually conceal some smaller kitchen appliances, like a toaster or blender.
-We all know how easily earrings, necklaces and all other jewelry get tangled up. An easy way to avoid that is by hanging them on a corkboard. However, you might not want to keep grandma’s heirloom pearl earrings or the necklace mom got you for graduation in sight of any who pass through your home, especially if you entertain often. An easy hack for this is to simply attach a picture the size of your corkboard with a few hinges to makeyour own personal safe. Of course, this or any other hidden storage area idea shouldn’t be your only line of defense against would-be burglars. If the worst does happen, and you are burglarized, having renter’s insurance will help cover the cost of your valuables.
Image courtesy of Mariana Esquivel Ortube via Pinterest
