NAVIGATION
Storage Hacks
Stairs With Storage
Seating Storage
Book Storage
Closet StorageMoving into a tiny home forces you to sit down and really reevaluate everything you own. After all, if there’s one thing a tiny house doesn’t have a lot of, it’s space.
Cleaning and decluttering can only go so far, and, as it turns out, tiny house storage is a bit more complicated than just buying a few bins and boxes and throwing up some shelves. It’s about changing your mindset and seeing the storage potential of often overlooked spaces.
Is that door just a door? Or is it the key to keeping your shoes off the floor and out of the way? Every square inch counts in a tiny home, so here are some of my favorite space-saving tiny house storage hacks.
Hi, I’m Ryan
Living in a tiny house is a balancing act. Sure, in theory you can throw away all your stuff and live with just the bare essentials. But what’s life without a few creature comforts? That’s where balance comes in. There are plenty of ways to live both minimally and comfortably.
19 Tiny House Storage Hacks That Will Maximize Your Space
Once you’ve figured out what you need, it’s time to get some storage ideas for your tiny home. Think about what you need to store, where you’ll want it located, and how often you’ll need to access it. A rule of thumb is to keep items you use the most accessible and near the place you’ll need them most.
1. Build Tiny House Stairs With Storage
The stairs in your tiny house are an obvious place to pack a lot of storage into. If you’re forgoing a ladder to access your loft, stairs are a nice alternative, but they take up a lot of space. Tiny house stairs with storage built in is a great way to maximize this square footage.
2. Tap Into Tiny House Under-Floor Storage
You can create a lot of extra storage space if you tap into the unused area under your floor. In-floor tiny house storage systems can give you a great place to store tall items that wouldn’t otherwise fit in a normal cabinet. Items like skis, fishing poles, snowboards, brooms, ironing boards, and other long objects are perfect stored in these out-of-the-way spaces because you don’t need them all the time. You can access these with large hatches or install roll-out under-floor storage drawers to get at things more easily.
3. Take Advantage Of Hidden Ceiling Storage
Making room in your ceiling between the rafters is a great way to use space that is often untapped. I did this by building in some shelving for my dishes that let me tuck them out of the way
4. Look For Bench Seat Storage
Bench seats are a great place to pack a lot of storage into your tiny home and maximize space. A kitchen table with a built-in bench seat that opens up for storage is good for things that you don’t use that often but still need to keep around. This is also a great place to store longer items like brooms, skis, snowboards, mops, fishing poles, etc.
5. Buy Fold-Down Tables And Pull-Out Counters
In a small kitchen or workspace, you might need some extra surface area in a pinch. For this, consider a kitchen table that folds flat or a desk that tucks away when not in use. Fold-down tables and desks are ideal for making the most of your space.
6. Get Creative With Your Shoe Storage
One thing that I forgot about when I built my tiny house was where I should put my shoes when I take them off. I don’t have many shoes in my minimalist wardrobe, but I do have a few pairs that I’d prefer to keep out of sight when I’m not using them. Over-the-door shoe racks help keep my shoes easy to reach and out of the way.
7. Use Wall Storage To Get Items Off Your Surfaces
I always say that everything in your house needs a place, and everything should be in its place. If you find things cluttering up your surfaces, like counters and tables, it’s most likely because it doesn’t have a proper home. One way to give it a discreet home is by using wall storage.
8. Get Custom Tiny Home Storage Solutions
There is a whole host of items on Etsy that can help you organize your everyday items. Keep your tiny house drawers tidy with custom-made organizers, special holders, and dividers.
9. Get Things Off The Floor With French Cleats
You can make it easier to clean your tiny house when things aren’t sitting on the floor. French cleats are a great way to securely mount storage on your wall and keep your floor space clear.
10. Make A Tiny Home Landing Pad
A landing pad is a space right inside your door for keeping important items like your keys, wallets, mail, and jackets. This is a great way to manage often misplaced items because most of us don’t have a designated spot to drop these things.
11. Use Storage Walls Or Storage Partitions In Your Tiny Home
A storage wall can be a great multipurpose storage solution. It will add additional space to keep your things tidy while becoming a partition between areas or an accent piece in its own right. Consider how you can use tiny house storage hacks to define the spaces in your tiny home.
12. Add Storage Up High
Take advantage of vertical space to maximize your tiny house storage. Make yours closets tall, add open shelves up high, and put shelves or cabinets in places you have extra space, like above doors or below stairs.
13. Free Up Space with Pocket Doors
With a little bit of planning ahead, you can save a lot of space by having pocket doors instead of traditional swinging doors. A pocket door will typically fit right inside normal 2×4 framing, but you have to make sure there aren’t any pipes, wires, or other things that will get in the way of the door cavity.
14. Double Up On Beds With Tiny House Bunk Beds
Bunk beds for kids in a tiny house is another way to get more sleeping and storage space in a tiny house. Using a ladder to access the top bunk will take up less room but might not be as convenient, whereas steps are much easier, but take up a lot more space. If you go with steps, be sure to choose tiny house stairs with storage so you can utilize the space underneath.
15. Hide Your TV
I used this tiny house storage solution in my home because I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies. I think it also signals something to the people who live in a tiny house, because a TV can too easily become the focal point of the room. I always try to have a TV option that is available to use when needed but hidden when not in use. Projectors or drop-down flat panels are a great option for this. I’ve even seen barn doors that slide to hide the TV when not in use.
16. Have A Pull-Out Sink In Your Tiny Home
The plumbing on this might be tricky for your drain, but a sink is something you definitely need in your space, even if only for a few minutes at a time. Having your sink in a drawer is an ingenious storage solution for a tiny house. It’s there when you need it, but otherwise it tucks away to free up space.
17. Create Tiny House Bookshelves And Reading Nooks
If there is one thing I know about tiny house folks, it’s that they are book lovers — people are always looking for ways to add book storage in their tiny home. Whether it’s a simple bookcase, built in bookshelves, or a whole reading nook or library, there are many ways to store your books in a tiny house.
18. Rethink Your Tiny House Closet
Depending on your style, you might have a big closet. I personally wear a minimalist uniform and left the corporate world, so I no longer have to store work clothes. Building a clothes closet into your tiny house that suits you is important to making your tiny home practical for day-to-day living.
19. Opt For Tiny House Elevator Beds And Murphy Beds
When it comes to tiny house storage furniture, one idea that is constantly being thrown around is elevator beds because they lift up into the ceiling when not in use. Murphy beds are another popular and practical tiny house bed option when you don’t have a lot of space.
My Top Tips For Storage In A Tiny Home
Take it from me, having lived in 150 square feet for close to a decade, tiny house storage isn’t just a matter of clever ideas — you need to shift your way of thinking too. Spaces like this are just too small to not have a plan, and if you don’t seriously adjust your relationship with your possessions, it’s not going to work.
So, before I wrap up this list of tiny house storage solutions, I want to take a minute to touch on the kind of mindset changes you’ll need make in order to embrace a more minimalistic lifestyle.
Come To Terms With Your Possessions and Buying Habits
In a consumerist world, it can seem like it’s normal to buy things, but over 80% of everything we buy will never be used after six months. Even today, I catch myself buying things I don’t really need. A really helpful exercise was doing a no-spend challenge, which I was crazy enough to do for a whole year. You might consider trying for a month to start.
Stop Things From Coming Into Your Home
Before you organize, you need to declutter, and before you declutter, you need to stop buying new stuff. It’s really simple: If you get your tiny home nice and tidy but keep bringing new things in, you’ll never be organized.
Declutter Before You Organize
Many people’s response to storage in a tiny house is to try to better organize the things they have; this is common and also the wrong approach. You want to first reduce the number of items you have, then organize what is left. Too often organizing makes a lot of clutter tidy, but doesn’t deal with the fact we have too much stuff to begin with.
Design Your Tiny House Storage To Suit Your Stuff
It can be hard to conceive of this, but you want to figure out exactly what you’re going to have in your tiny house, down to the very last fork. When I built my own tiny home, I actually staged all of the possessions I was taking with me into my tiny home in a spare bedroom. This allowed me to define what I needed to store in my tiny house, then build my storage around those needs.
When I built my kitchen, I custom built my cabinets around the can sizes of the food I buy. When I built my clothes closet, I built the drawers around the dimension of how I liked to fold my shirts. All of my tiny house storage solutions were meticulously planned.Â
Other Tiny House Storage Ideas
If you’re looking for more storage ideas for tiny houses, here are a few to help maximize your space.
Your Turn!
- What’s your favorite space-saving tiny house storage hack?
- Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, or living room: What’s the hardest room to keep organized?
Very impressed! Ideas I had not seen before. Would love pattern and instructions for blue fold away bunk beds.
They are awesome!
This is the most helpful article I’ve seen when it comes to mindfully designing a tiny house! Just what I’ve been searching for for a very long time. Thank you! Thank you!