A few months ago we sold our house, moved to a new city and into an apartment.

We got rid of an insane amount of stuff including furniture, holiday decor, clothing, yard tools, and much more.

The dilemma we ran into was this: We only signed a 9-month lease because we’re planning to buy a house within a year. Well, we didn’t want to get rid of certain things because while we wouldn’t need them in a tiny apartment, we would want them in our next house. Our apartment can feel a bit cramped because of this problem.

We didn’t want to pay for a storage unit and we didn’t have anyone who could store a decent amount of our stuff for us, so we got rid of as much as we possibly could. We will have to repurchase some things when we get a house, but we saved the items most important to us and that we will need right away for new house.

Apartment Bedroom Closet Tour

Anyway, today I’m showing you our apartment closet. This closet holds almost all of our storage items along with our clothing. It’s never going to be on the cover a magazine for looking pretty, but it is organized and functional. Real life, y’all.

I always like to snoop other people’s homes to see how they’ve used their space, so I’m inviting you into my closet.

If you lack storage space like I do right now, maybe you’ll see an idea that could work for you.

I’m sorry the pictures aren’t great quality. It’s not a bright area and we haven’t seen the sun here in weeks, so it was hard to get decent lighting for photos.

Our nicer clothes are hanging up and our comfy clothes are on the shelf in the middle. We need to get to our clothes more often than anything else, so that’s what is easiest to access.

Before we moved I bought a package of slim hangers that are velvety so nothing can slide off. I’m loving them! I’d like to get one more pack at some point so that all of our hanging clothes can be on them.

Here’s a map of what else is in our bedroom closet:

I’ve used plastic drawers for years and they’re just so darn handy. Right now they’re holding our small seasonal decorations and our tools. Before we had a dresser, I stored our socks and underwear in these.

I have a few shallow tubs that fit all of my fabric stacked in the top of the closet.

I wanted to point out my little fire escape ladder. I grew up in a ranch house. When we moved into our first house, a 2-story, it freaked me to have our bedroom on the second floor. I bought a fire escape ladder which, of course, I hope we never have to use but it makes me feel much safer.

We live in West Michigan, so we have a solid amount of winter clothing. Extra hats, scarfs, and gloves are in the black milk crate.

My favorite decor items are my trays. I have different decorative trays that I put on our dining table for each season/holiday. I like them because they’re pretty and make a big impact while still being simple and uncluttered-looking. I use a shoe organizer in the top of the closet to store my trays. They’re oddly shaped and fragile, so this keeps them safe.

Over on the right side of the closet, We have our storage tubs stacked. Here’s a better view:

And a close-up:

Austin and I each have a tub of keepsakes from our childhoods.

I have two tubs that contain my Grandma’s china (it’s completely gorgeous). We don’t have anywhere else to store it right now. I’m hoping our new home will have the space for me to unpack it so that we can actually use it!

The other tubs contain spare kitchen items that we don’t have room for. Plus, you can see our suitcase and spare backpack.

The left side of the closet has more stored:

The clothing wrapped in plastic is Austin’s suit and my dress from our wedding. My sewing machine is in front because I use it fairly often and like it to be easily accessed.

Back behind everything else are our Christmas decorations.

The big box is our Christmas tree. The green tub and the two smaller boxes on top of it contain our Christmas lights, ornaments, stockings…

I purged a ton of Christmas stuff before we moved. When we pulled it all out to decorate last Christmas, I was really happy with what we had left. It was all of our favorite and most meaningful things.

The blue crate has a bunch of picture frames wrapped up in it. Since we know we wont be staying at this apartment for long, we decided not to hang all of our photos and artwork.

So that’s the grand tour!

What do you think? It’s not very pretty, but considering it’s almost all of our storage, I think we’re doing pretty well!

It feels quite cramped right now, but I think we when get a house again our house will feel a bit empty 🙂

⇒ Are you lacking storage space in your home? What are some of your organizational solutions?