Living in a tiny house means you need to take advantage of every square inch for your tiny house storage needs. Having a solid plan for storage and organization in a small home is key. So today, I wanted to share some clever tiny house storage ideas for organizing your own home.
NAVIGATION
Storage Tips
Storage Ideas
Storage Hacks
Book Storage
ClosetsTips For Storage In A Tiny Home
Take it from me, having lived in 150 square feet for close to a decade, it 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.
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 6 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 a messy space 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, 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 storage was meticulously planned.
Tiny House Storage Ideas
Once you’ve figured out what you need to store in your tiny house, 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 where you’ll need it most.
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 the ladder to access your loft, stairs are nice but they take up a lot of space. Tiny house stairs with storage built in is a great way to maximize this square footage.
Tiny House Under Floor Storage
You can create a lot of extra storage space if you tap into unused space under your floor. In-floor storage systems can give you a great place to store tall or long items that wouldn’t otherwise be able to fit in a normal cabinet. Storing items like skis, fishing poles, snowboards, brooms, ironing boards, and other long items are perfect for these out of the way spaces that you don’t need all the time. You can access these with large hatches or have roll-out under floor storage drawers to get at things more easily.
Hidden Ceiling Storage Options For Tiny Houses
Making space 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 things out of the way. Here are some options for storage that can drop down.
Bench Seat Storage Ideas For Tiny Homes
Bench seats are a great place to pack a lot of storage into your tiny home and maximize space. Having 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.
Fold-Down Tables And Pull-Out Counters
In a small kitchen or work space, 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 desk are ideal for making the most of your space.
Shoe Storage And Clothes Closet For A Tiny House
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 need to tuck away.
Tiny House Storage Hacks
Here are some great ways to get just a little more storage out of your tiny house with simple tips and storage hacks.
Wall Storage 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 home is by using wall storage.
Get Custom Storage Solutions
There is a whole host of items on Etsy that can help you get organized with your everyday items. Keep your drawers tidy with custom-made drawer organizers, special holders, and dividers.
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 itself. French cleats are a great way to securely mount storage on your wall and keep your floor space clear.
Have A Landing Pad
A landing pad is a space right inside your door to keep 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.
Use Storage Walls Or Storage Partitions In Your Tiny Home
A storage wall can be great to add additional space to keep things while becoming a partition between spaces or an accent piece in its own right. Consider how you can use storage to define the spaces in your tiny home.
Add Storage Up High
Take advantage of vertical space to maximize your storage. Make yours closets tall, add open shelves up high, and put shelves or cabinets in places you have extra space like above doors, below stairs, and more.
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.
Double Up On Beds With Tiny House Bunk Beds
Bunk beds for kids in a tiny house is another way to get more sleeping space. Using a ladder to access the top bunk will take up less space but might not be as convenient, where as steps are much easier, but take up a lot more space. If you go with steps, be sure to utilize the space underneath for additional storage.
Hide Your TV
I did this in my tiny 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.
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 means it’s there when you need it, but otherwise it tucks away to free up space.
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 have book storage in their tiny home. Whether it’s a simple bookcase, built in bookshelves, or a whole reading nook or library, people want a place for their books in a tiny house.
Tiny House Closet Ideas
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.
Tiny House Elevator Beds And Murphy Beds
One idea that is constantly being thrown around is elevator beds that 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.
Other Tiny House Storage Ideas
If you’re looking for more storage ideas to build into your tiny home, here are a few to help maximize your space.
Your Turn!
- What storage ideas are you going to put in your tiny house?
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!