Back-to-school season means chaos… Well, unless you’ve got the right storage tools. These stylish and affordable finds keep your study space neat and inspiring. And each piece is under $50!
If you’ve always dreamed of an aesthetic labeled life, you’ll fall in love with this pocket-sized Bluetooth label maker. From notebooks to chargers to snack boxes, this sleek pink printer keeps everything tagged. So it’ll be a lot easier spotting your items.
Keep everyone on track with this visual pocket chart. It’s ideal for homeschooling setups and toddler routines. You can even use it for your personal daily breakdown. The bright (and reusable) cards make learning fun.
Turn your corner into a design statement with this geometric black bookcase. Its slim silhouette is perfect for displaying textbooks, decor, planners, etc. We love how this piece keeps your study space elevated instead of cluttered.
Add playful vibes to any study space with this ruler-inspired table runner. It’s an easy and affordable decor upgrade, and will help you kick off the school year with color.
A fresh desk encourages productivity. This compact modern desk with extra shelving gives your laptop, stationary, and storage bins a chic home. (And, yes, it’s under $50!).
I live in a really small home. It’s a small two-bedroom flat and with two tween daughters, we really have to make the most of every square inch. It’s not easy at all and it is getting more difficult with every year that passes as the kids accumulate more stuff. Progress upgrading our flat has been snail-slow because my husband and I have been busy building multiple businesses. But we have learnt a lot along the way. Because most British homes tend to be on the smaller side we need a lot of creativity when it comes to small home ideas. So today, I want to share some advice to help you make impactful upgrades to your small home.
Declutter Your Small Home
When thinking about the upgrades you want to make to your small home that can make the biggest impact and help your home feel more spacious, the best place to start is with a really thorough declutter. Nothing else you do will make much of a difference if you are still trying to cram too much stuff into your small home. It’s time to get ruthless. Get rid of everything you haven’t used in a while and are unlikely to use again. Sell belongings, take the rest to the charity shop and anything that needs binning can go to the local recycling centre. If you find you have a lot of stuff to get rid of, consider hiring a skip to save yourself a lot of hassle. One drop-off, one pick-up, and you’re done. I am dreaming of doing this at the moment. I would love to have a thorough clearout and only hang on to the essentials and things that bring me joy every day!
Maximise Every Inch of Space in Your Small Home
Once you’ve pared everything right back it’s time to look at spacial planning. The layout of your small home will have a huge impact on how spacious it feels. It is totally possible to live in a tiny home that doesn’t feel tiny at all. I had this realisation when my husband and I spent the weekend in a small private spa in North Devon. It was roughly the size of two containers and yet it felt pretty expansive. This was primarily down to the layout, but also the many ways that the owners had used biophilic design in the property. So if your home feels like a collection of tiny, separate boxes, it might be time to rethink the layout.
Old houses love their walls. They divide, they frame, and they hide staircases in weird places. But sometimes, all they do is make life harder. Removing just one wall can open up a space in ways you didn’t expect—turning a kitchen and dining room into a social hub or making a dark hallway disappear into something airy and useful.
Not keen on full demolition? Even switching a traditional door for a pocket version can make a difference and improve the flow in your home by creating more room to move and fewer obstacles.
One thing we have learnt over the years is that it pays to invest in multi-functional furniture. When you live in a small home, everything that you bring in has to work super hard for you to earn its place. Some of the best storage solutions don’t even look like storage. An ottoman bed that lifts to reveal under-bed storage works wonders in our bedroom for storing away bed linen and extra towels as well as spare bags and backpacks. We also have a coffee table in the living room with storage inside for extra blankets and cushions. When it comes to choosing furniture for a small home, multi-functional pieces are well worth the investment.
Use Natural Light to Open up the Space
The internal window in the home office allows natural light to move through this North London terraced house by Cairn Architects | Photography by Peter Landers and Anna Stathaki
One way to make a small home feel larger is to make the most of the natural light that you have available. A dark room shrinks. A bright one expands. Light is magic like that. So make sure that windows are unobstructed. Don’t place furniture that will block natural light from entering the room. Choose window treatments that let the maximum amount of light in during daylight hours and make sure you hang curtains outside of the window frame so that they don’t block out any light when open.
Mirrors can help to bounce natural light around your small home. Place them opposite a window, and all that natural light will be reflected back into the room. They also create the illusion of having another window in the room making it feel double aspect and much more expansive.
Another trick is to switch out solid doors for glass-paned doors and adding in internal windows that let light move throughout your small home uninterrupted. This can allow natural light to illuminate darker, narrower spaces that need brightening.
If your home lacks natural light like mine does, consider how to effectively use artificial light. Layer your lighting by choosing a mixture of overhead lighting, table lamps, wall sconces and LED lighting under shelving and cabinets. This will help your home feel more flexible as you choose the right kind of lighting for a given moment.
Storage is more important than ever in a small home and there are some clever ways to maximise your storage solutions. Having your belongings out on display will only make your small home feel smaller due to the visual clutter. Instead, meticulously curate what you want to have out on show and store everything else away neatly and out of sight.
If you have open shelving units, consider adding small storage boxes so everything is out of sight and streamlined. If you have awkward alcoves, consider creating built-in storage cupboards with doors that keep your belongings out of sight.
If your small floor plan doesn’t leave much room for added storage cabinets, consider using the vertical potential of the walls. The space up near the ceiling is wasted space and can easily be maximised. For example, if you don’t have space for a floor-standing bookcase, install a book shelf about a foot below the ceiling that extends around the room. This keeps your books out of the line of sight but still accessible and makes the most of that unused space.
Create Depth with Colour and Texture in a Small Home
It is very tempting in a small home to stick with white or other very light colours when you decorate. Wisdom tells us that lighter colours reflect light and darker colours absorb it. Whilst this may be true, no amount of white paint is going to make a particularly small home feel as spacious as you’d like. Instead embrace cosier darker colours and give your home some personality.
Texture can bring your home to life and will make a big impact as it will not only make your small home feel cosier but it will also add layers of visual interest and tactility that will tantilise the senses.
If you are lucky enough to have outdoor space make sure you are maximising its potential. Vertical gardens can turn a bare wall into a lush green feature. A foldaway bistro table and chairs mean you can eat outside, even if it’s just a morning coffee. And if your garden connects to your home, matching indoor and outdoor flooring can blur the boundary, making everything feel bigger. Whether you have a large garden like we do, a small courtyard, a narrow balcony or a tiny strip of grass, there is always a way to upgrade it to benefit your small home.
No matter the size of your small home, there are affordable upgrades you can make that can help you to maximise it’s potential, make it feel more spacious and organised. Remember, the best small homes don’t try to pretend they’re bigger. They just use every inch brilliantly.
If you have any tips to add, please share in the comments.
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
When it comes to corners in your home, you can deal with them in one of two ways: Put them to use or cover them up. If every corner can contribute to your space, whether as a storage spot, a display area for plants or decor, or a cozy place to add lighting, that’s great! However, that’s not always possible. Maybe you just don’t have the right furniture pieces to fit there, or maybe your partner bought a bike that folds in half, and although they’ve used it once in four years, they won’t sell it. So it occupies a corner of your living room under a blanket, because covering it up makes it look better, right?
The best way to avoid having unused or underutilized corners is to set them up with storage or shelving units that work for your space. This versatile Amazon find fits in any sized living room, bedroom, or home office, and it’s an especially smart solution for small spaces. Plus, it looks way more chic than its $70-price point would let on.
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This corner table has three tiers that meet all kinds of storage needs: two open tabletops on the top and bottom and one small nook with a metal wire gate to keep it covered. Depending on where you place the table, it can act as a nightstand in the bedroom, an end table in the living room, or a place to hold odds and ends so they’re out of the way but still organized. One Amazon shopper confirmed the metal frame is sturdy and that the whole thing is easy to assemble. “I was in desperate need of a corner shelf for my guest bathroom,” they wrote. “I was able to [build] it all by myself within 30 minutes.”
You can choose different finishes to achieve a simple wooden look, a rustic farmhouse vibe, or even modern glam with faux white marble tiling. Some options also include minor design changes, such as replacing the single flap door on the middle shelf with two larger double doors, but the table is functionally consistent across almost every style. The only one that’s significantly different is the Modern Brown color, which replaces the covered middle shelf with an open shelf and would be a great fit in bathrooms and laundry rooms.
If you’re looking for something that offers a wide variety of storage choices, the original layout with the covered middle shelf is an ideal pick. The bottom shelf stores books, plants, decor, and anything you don’t use on a regular basis, while the top shelf can be a place to rest beverages, hold lamps, and display framed photos. The middle shelf is your go-to spot for safely keeping things that have a way of getting lost around the home; that means: memento boxes, extra drink coasters, remote controls that don’t get used every day, and anything else that could easily get knocked off a table.
For the same $70 price, you can opt for a model with large double doors covering two levels of shelves. This is a nice choice for showing off knick knacks and an even better choice for turning your corner into a minibar. The two lower shelves are tall enough to hold wine, beer, and short cocktail glasses, while the open top shelf is where your liquor bottles sit proudly on display. Grab one of these multifunctional tables and help your corners work harder for you. You’d be surprised how much they can do!
Sarah writes about all things shopping for Apartment Therapy, The Kitchn, and Cubby helping you find the best deals and the best products for you and your home. A Brooklyn-born Jersey Girl, she loves a good playlist, a good bagel, and her family (but not necessarily in that order).
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Shopping for storage furniture requires at least a little bit of clairvoyance. Your goal is to buy something today that will fit inside your current living space and hold your current belongings, but also have room for stuff you might buy later. And, ideally, this magical storage equipment will work in your next home(s). That’s a lot to ask for one piece of furniture.
However, there is a way to resolve this conundrum that doesn’t require a crystal ball. The answer is modular storage units. On their own each unit acts as a standalone container, but placed together they become a sizable storage area for holding seasonal clothing, extra bedding, and any other stowables — plus, you can always get more over time and move them around to adjust to your needs. One of the most impressive modular storage pieces we’ve come across recently are these cute collapsible bins. Their clear sides let you see what’s inside and they have doors that let you access them without removing the lid. Genius!
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These bins come together quickly by snapping the sides and top into place, and inconspicuous wheels on the bottom come in handy when you need to relocate them. (Pro tip: Set up one under your home office desk to slide it out like a rolling cabinet.) If you want to create vertical storage space, they stack on top of each other and lock into place by fitting their wheels into tiny grooves. The lids lift up if you want to access the contents from the top, but a set of doors on the front is far more convenient — and lets you grab stuff from bins all the way on the bottom.
Choose between five colors in two different sizes (19-gallon and 8.4-gallon), so whether you plan to use these in your living room or bedroom, or want to fit one into a closet or other small area, you can grab bins that are just right. Because they’re stackable, they make great stand-ins for things like nightstands, entertainment consoles, and console tables with room to keep personal items on top. You can basically think of them as mini cabinets: Wherever you need to keep items accessible without leaving them out in the open, these bins will do the job. They’re also durable enough to store heavy stuff in your laundry room or garages, but cute enough to corral toys in a kid’s bedroom or keep a college dorm room tidy.
Besides the most notable features, there are a few functional details that help these storage solutions stand out above their counterparts. Deep side handles let you lift each bin comfortably and flat door handles contribute to the overall compact profile, which you can really appreciate when you fold them down. Finally, the ridge-shaped pattern on the transparent panels adds a bit of chicness that makes an entirely plastic product look remarkably elevated.
If you want to make sure the storage pieces you get today can adapt to your needs in a couple of years, these collapsible and stackable bins are a great choice. Stash them away for long-term storage or stack them into modular cabinets that keep everyday items clean and organized. And when you outgrow them, grab another and seamlessly expand your collection.
