9 Things to Thrift to MAXIMIZE SPACE in a Small Apartment | Repurposed Decor Ideas

Oh baby, if you live in a small space but you want big style, then here is everything you should thrift. Alrighty you guys, lately a lot of you have been sliding into my inbox with questions, wondering how to maximize space in a small studio, an apartment, a small home, whatever tiny space you're living in. And not only do I understand that, having lived in studio apartments for many years, I am a thrift queen who knows how to maximize and repurpose and reuse everything at the thrift store. So today we're going to look at everything I would thrift if I was moving into a small apartment so that I could maximize space, increase cuteness, and make my life that much better. Okay let's go. Okay so obviously in any small space you need storage and ideally vertical storage is going to be your best friend. I have talked about this before but I am a huge lover of tiny shelves because they actually provide so much more storage and they kind of free up space in ways you wouldn't expect. And there are so many options for tiny shelves at the thrift store. For example, I just found this. Whatever this is. Little tiny rack maybe for spices. This could even go on the ground, be a little plant riser. It's so tiny. What I love about these two is that they're always really lightweight. Oftentimes spice racks are great for this. Even look at this little handheld tray. Nope. Put it on the wall. Hang it like this. Hang your olive oil right in reaching distance in your kitchen. Here's another example. This is actually a tray with dividers in it but if you hang it this way or this way you can put skincare, makeup brushes, tuck that in your bathroom, your kitchen, your bedroom, next to your nightstand. Hold on I know there's more examples. Look you can even repurpose. Look this is like a sign with a little tin thing but if you knock out the back just that you could add some other little shelves. I've done this before. I turned a jewelry case into a little mini apothecary to put in my tiny little closet office. I can link that episode below to see how I added those shelves in but there are so many ways to do that and again they can be so little but they can be so impactful and of course you can decorate them however you want. Also last thing I'll say I love those types of shelves because they're really light and I know people are intimidated about like screwing heavy things into the wall but with a little um like picture frame brackets those can usually just be hung on with nails. Very simple, very easy but again very impactful. Do it. Where's my eyeline? Okay I'm losing it. Let's go. Now while we're talking storage we need functional storage and also in a small space a lot of times that storage is kind of going to be in your face so if you can make it cuter in any smart creative way it's good to do that and one of my favorite places to look for cute storage is in the kitchen section because there are so many little containers that are really cute, super cute patterns and that can really easily camouflage stuff. For example if you have a vanity table put your makeup brushes in some really cute little vintage glassware. Very cute, very decorative but also very functional and another reason I really love kitchenware is because a lot of times you can find cute little like matching sets. For example look at all these little china bowls with covers. They are different sizes you can see different variations, different patterns and these can work for anything like look put little cotton balls in this on your bathroom counter. You can corral the million lip balms you have in this little guy on your little nightstand. I think the lidded storage is really ideal for this just because it looks a little more visually clean and intentional but there are really so many options especially if you find any cool vintage glassware or something like that. I also find that little sets of cute little cups, juice glasses, whatever are really great for this. Imagine storing all your little art supplies, your little pencils, your scissors, whatever on your desk. This cute little iridescent trio also helps you have extra cups if you have friends over that want to drink out of pencil flavored water. Anyway and on that note of using kitchen things in non-kitchen ways another one of my favorite things to thrift is cool trays. These are great because again these can corral anything. If you just put this on your dresser with your little perfumes and stuff it looks a little more nice and neat. If you put it on your coffee table to corral your remotes that looks cool and in a small space trays are great because they can double duty if you need to keep them for storage in your bathroom or if you need to serve something on them. So keep an eye out for cute decorative trays of honestly all sizes. Even something as tiny as this little guy which is like six inches is still really cute to put like a little candle or hold bracelets or something like that. So yeah trays, trays, trays, trays, trays, trays, trays, trays, trays, trays, trays. You guys get it. Okay sometimes in small apartments we have a challenge of covering eyesores and a really common eyesore is office furniture such as something like this right like let's say you are often staring at this boring little office chair and you wish it would be cuter because it's like right in your face. Here is a great hack that comes from my viewer Malia if you're watching. What's up girl? I love this hack. Go and get a little faux fur jacket or something like that, something really cute, some texture pattern that you like and then you can literally then just drape it over whether or not you plan to ever wear it. It's basically like a free seat cover without having to sew or anything like that. It's also great if you see something really cute that is not in your size. I'm going to show an example here of how Malia did that in her own house with a vintage fur coat. I think it is so brilliant. It's one of the best hacks I've ever seen so thank you to Malia and you guys should use that hack too. And while we're talking about hiding really ugly things, I've mentioned this one before but the bathroom can be a big culprit of ugly things out in your eyeline. So one of my favorite things is to take a toilet brush and hide it in a cute vase whatever that looks like for you. Okay another type of storage you should absolutely look out for is anything that has two or more tiers vertically. For example this little fruit basket which does not have to be a fruit basket that can store gloves and hats in your closet. In fact you can even hang that from your ceiling in an easily reachable way. Here is like a little magazine rack you can do the same thing or you could even store cutting boards in these vertically on a door in your kitchen. Shower racks can also be a great thing to look out for in different ways. Again you could like use these in your closet to hang scarves off of. You could pop them on the back of the door to hang towels like whatever. But again anything that is up and high and double triple quadruple tiered filing cabinets can be great for this either hanging or even inside shelves. You could fold towels on these. You could store plates. You could store books like vertically up you know what I mean? But again anything that's up and off and away is better to give you more counter or floor room. Okay continuing our talk about vertical storage. One great thing to think about is that if it can hang it can probably hook. Here's what I mean. This is usually best with wooden items but for example this is actually a bookshelf a little bookend but I would actually hang this on the wall and probably add a little cup hook here and make that like my key storage or you can even string like a little renter friendly plug-in sconce through that and have that as like a cool holder. If you have a piece like this that is really solid wood you can just get little cup hooks at the hardware store. They're super cheap like under five bucks. You can screw them in and yeah it can just be a cute little fun way to add some decor and some storage wherever you want. Or similarly here is a little caddy that is meant to like sit on a counter but you could actually just like hang that on the wall, screw some little cup hooks below, hang a mug, hang your keys, make it a little like mail drop station. I would also keep an eye out for any sort of wood box and I'm going to talk about two types. Number one, anything like this that has an open top because then you can put it on its side and put stuff on top of it and right here any wood box that has a little pull-out wood drawer. This and this are great to stack things on. For example, if I had a small kitchen I would stack my cookbooks on top of that and then I would put like you know little scissors or whatever I needed under there. Anything that's going to help you maximize storage vertically is great but especially things like this that have risers that way you could put like two teacups here and then your cookbooks on top. Something like that right? But again think up, up, up, up, up and away. Okay this one is for my really budget girls. One of the best ways to maximize storage in a small space is to use under bed storage. However, actually buying those containers of under bed storage can be kind of pricey but if you just go and you get some really large older luggage. This is $3.99 and literally who cares if the zipper works or not you're just storing like bedding or something under it. Sometimes you can get massive pieces like my body for scale. This is massive but you know if you just need to throw something under a bed or a sofa and you need some easy storage for things like that just grab these. The scale does not show that you could fit my whole body in here. Don't but it's so big for six bucks. Now continuing our chat about things that can hang on the wall. It doesn't always have to be the traditional kind of organizer stuff you think of. I am a big fan of hanging purses on the wall. Not necessarily just for display although you can do that but actually as kind of functional little like file holders. For example this is a really cool like leather bag. I would hang that right by my door as a mail drop station because could you see a more beautiful kind of like file folder place to put your mail other than this like beautiful leather detailed. I think this works well with like flatter pieces or something that's woven if you have a little bit more of a boho colorful vibe. All right folks that was today's episode. If you guys end up using any of these tips or hacks in your home please let me know. You know I love to creep in your homes. If you like videos like this I will link my thrifting playlist below. I do a lot of these style of videos and I'm happy to say I did pick up something at the thrift store that I will be using in a future episode but you will have to stay tuned to see what that is. So until next time I wish you very good thrift luck and all the good things. Okay bye.