Small Australian Apartment Storage Idea #1: The one that actually works.

Just because you live in a small space does not mean that it has to be lived in chaos. Good home storage ideas home and garden experts recommend for Australians can create a calm, orderly environment for even the tightest floor plan — whether you're in Sydney terrace conversion or Melbourne studio pleaser or an apartment-dwelling Brisbaner. The below 10 ideas are realistic, where possible tenant-friendly and create the way that Australians really live.

a bright and clean small Australian apartment living area with sources of storage in view — floating shelves, a storage ottoman as well as an entryway which is neatly organised

1. Go Vertical — Your Walls Are Wasted Storage

neutral modern small apartment living room with floor-to-ceiling floating shelves styled with books plants and baskets

If you are not a very small apartment storage plans most focus on the ground floor, that is definitely the incorrect place to check out. You live on floor space — you store in walls A set of floating shelves from waist height to the ceiling gets you twice or three times as much functional storage, without taking up a single millimetre-plan metre of floor space.

Books and decorative objects fill vertical shelving in a living room, while baskets hiding less photo-friendly items (charging cables, spare batteries and stationery) cosy up beside designers' wares. A bedroom: replaces bulky bedside tables with tall shelf units beside the bed, which provide far more capacity. In the kitchen, open shelving position higher up above the benchtop are filled with items that you use every day but without carrying through visual weight like overhead cabinetry can.

For renters unable to install fixed shelves, freestanding ladder shelves and tall bookcases in the same position create a similar height-friendly effect without damaging walls. Or prop them against the wall and secure with furniture straps if obliged.

2. Pick-Muted Furniture That Has 2 Tasks

Living room with tufted storage ottoman serving as coffee table and seat, lid slightly open to show interior

There is only so much space in a small apartment, thus every piece of furniture must justify its presence. Coffee table - a remote sits on top of -- and a magazine. The storage ottoman stores away blankets, board games, extra linen and a remote and a magazine — it can also be additional seats. If you're not deliberate about your furniture selections, you'll end up with bland pieces that take up space — NOT bad surrogates for the problem solvelling power of good design!

How occupancy in the world: one of the most high-value overpriced combines is storage beds for apartments. The area under a bed is considerable, and one with built-in drawers or even a pop up platform turns the space into an overflow closet, exercise equipment lockup or specialist seasonal item home that's going to otherwise be cluttering up inside that cupboard.

Search for future-proof dining benches that double as smart, internal storage options; side tables with drawers rather than open bases the new lounge focal point or arm-chairs on leg-lockers instead of coffee-tables. In small rooms, closed storage usually looks tidier than open because you have full control of what is visible on display.

3. Newbie Hack — Own The Entry Way (No Matter How Tiny)

an entryway of a compact apartment with wall hooks, an almost slim console table and small mirror hung above it on the wall as well as some basket for shoes under

The entrance is the tone of your whole flat. A simple two-metre strip between the front door and living area can be set-up to manage bags, shoes, keys, mail and outerwear — if you plan for it intentionally. A narrow console table with a drawer for keys and mail. Bags and coats hang from wall hooks above it. Shoes go on a low basket or shoe rack underneath.

Where the entry opens directly to living space with no physical separation, a small freestanding coat rack paired with an ottoman or storage bench creates an implied structure of passing through an entrance without walls (or room) designated for such. It sort of grounds the visual too, which makes for a more thoughtful-feeling apartment overall.

One big mistake entryways often make in small apartments is treating it as a forgotten space. Shoes and bags creep up toward the door, but without a home they tend to bleed into every other corner of the space.

4. Use the Back of Every Door

The other was a set of matchsticks with an over-door organiser on the inside of a bathroom door, for toiletries, hair dryer and small accessories.

One of the most neglected surfaces on this whole site from all apartment organization tips ever — and one of the smartest is inside door. These can hold pantry items in the kitchen, toiletries and hair tools in the bathroom, shoes (yes) or stationery and cleaning supplies in a laundry cupboard.

They need no drilling, do not leave permanent marks and can be easily removed and repositioned. They also pose one of the best storage upgrades on a pound-for-pound basis for renters. A great addition to a wardrobe is an over-door rack on the inside of a door with racks that can be chosen according to different needs, and this directly increases the usefulness of your storage space by more than one shelf.

5. Rearranging the Kitchen so You Get Your Bench Space Back

small apartment kitchen organisation with drawer dividers, vertical pan storage and canister sets

Benchtops are the most hotly contested real estate in a small kitchen. In other words, aiming to get rid of everything in the bench that doesn't want a new home there -- and create functional storage solutions elsewhere so they remain out or habit not just after a tidy up.

Utensil drawers should be functional not a jumble of tools — dividers can make them that way. In the pantry, stackable containers eradicate wasted vertical space — which occurs with packaging of uneven heights. A knife block takes up as much precious bench space and a magnetic knife strip on your splashback or wall liberates benches while keeping knives easily accessible. Pull-out elements in cupboards bring things that are kept at the back of a cabinet within reach, meaning you'll use what you've got instead of going out and buying more.

The Pickle Is Suspended Inside a Refrigerator is Also Your Sides and Topped the Fridge

However, in the small kitchens, side and top of a fridge can often be neglected and ignored. Magnetic hooks on the side of your oven can hold mittens and tea towels. The top of the fridge, accommodates a bread bin, some kind-of fruit basket or even little used appliances that otherwise cluttered up the bench.

6. Build a Functional Wardrobe System

In a room, bespoke open wardrobe equipped with hanging dividers shelf organisers and drawer unit.

Built-in wardrobes are standard in Australian apartments but rarely ever maximised. Usually they have a single pole and one shelf above it — wasting almost two-thirds of the height. Adding a second hanging rail for shorter clothes including shirts and jackets will straight away boost the hanging capacity of your closet.

Shelf dividers prevent stacked items from spilling in on each other. Units that sit directly on the wardrobe floor offer drawer-style folded storage, without sacrificing valuable bedroom real estate. Wall hangers offer pockets for shoes, accessories or folded items. They also need little if any permanent adjustment, which is great because they are storage systems you’ll be able to remove when your rental ends.

7. Think in Zones, Not Rooms

This image shows again the small apartment with open-plan living and dining area, but it defines the zones by using a bookshelf divider and also uses similar colours throughout 

Open-plan apartments are a specific torment: when there is no separate area for anything、 storage tends to wander. By defining zones — sleeping, working, living, dining - each area has its own identity and it therefore becomes easier to logically assign storage space. A bookshelf that also serves as a partial room divider between the living and sleeping zones physically separates the two, while keeping in sight a surface for storage.

Each zone should only include storage (e.g. collections, repositories) relevant to activities located there. Servicing supplies remain in the work zone. Kitchen and dining things stay within the kitchen area & dining region. If some kind of items have a logical home in relation to where they are used, it is more likely that whoever you do return them there (Feel free also to put the other way around — log stay up wherever they will be possibly needed so as not leave passively wandering).

8. Generally, you should decant and label everything that you can.

tags and clear canisters with a label maker all filled with dry food (for example pasta rice oats), sit on pantry shelf

Of all the kitchen and bathroom apartment organisation tips, this one is among the most useful: decanting dry goods into uniform containers. Containers of the same size stack and organize more effectively than those with awkwardly shaped packaging. They help you see what is running low without searching. Labels remove the guesswork entirely.

In boudoirs, similarly the bathroom — dispensing similar shampoo, conditioner and body wash into matching dispensers appears to make a small shelf occupy much more space simply because it takes out visual noise. The eye perceives the uniformity not as a chaos but rather quietude.

9. Use Under-Sink Space Properly

bathroom under sink cabinet baskets spray bottles cleaning products tension rod

Kitchen and bathroom cabinets constructed directly under the sink are almost always poorly used. The plumbing occupies the middle, leaving two sections on either side that can actually be used to store stuff — but most people just treat the whole cabinet as unhelpful and put things in willy-nilly. Pull-out baskets or multi-tier shelf inserts that fit around-to the plumbing turns some of these into high-capacity storage for cleaning supplies, hair care items and spare rolls.

In order to make more room on the floor of the cabinet, I hung a tension rod horizontally inside it so that spray bottles can hang freely from it. One side has a tiny turntable that turns the things at back to single spin

10. Quality Storage That Lasts

Quality assorted storage boxes, baskets and organisers @styled to suggest some thought was given when sourcing the items

So-called inexpensive storage often leads to many more problems than it solves. Flimsy baskets lose their shape. Poorly made drawer organisers crack. Slim shelf plates droop under load. When space is at a premium, and all of your pieces are working overtime even in the larger home where there's room for slack.

Investing upfront in versatile, well made storage pays off over time and achieves a more polished result. Real-world Australian apartment use is exactly what the OZ Home Online home storage collection brings together, a mix of organisers, place holders boxes and baskets that fit these pieces into practical applications in your living space — with everything made well to last.

A small home shouldn't feel cramped. With a dose of inspiration, and mall home storage ideas Australia can live in an apartment, docile spaciousness resulting from just the right creative use of space. Shop the complete home collection at OZ Home Online and find storage ideas for your loungeroom, kitchen, bedroom to set every corner of apartment into a space that suits you.