The first thing is that it is comfortable to live in a small apartment. And then there are the days when you purchase a rice cooker, two additional pillows, perhaps a standing fan in summer and all of a sudden your living room looks like an overcrowded convenience store aisle. The Brilliant Storage trick which actually works is infinitely banal. Take all the non-daily items out of your apartment.
The change is done in an inconspicuous manner.
Many individuals attempt their solutions to the issue by purchasing additional shelves, piling plastic containers taller, or trying the so-called minimalist apartment hacks on the Internet. The rest have about two weeks of work. Then the mess gradually comes back as if it was paying rent.
Not hide it better. Remove it.
Instead of using mini storage units as a last resort, people are beginning to consider it an extension of their homes. Seasonal clothes, old papers, recreational articles, travelling clothes, baby things - everything that occupies precious apartment space and is scarcely utilized at all.
The moment these things are gone, the apartment is different.
I remember one time when I helped a friend to rearrange his studio apartment when he rented a small storage room in his area. we did not buy new furniture. Didn’t repaint walls. Did not kick up a fuss. We have been moving out boxes that he had not opened during a year. Suddenly there was sufficient space to move around with ease without having to walk sideways like a crab.
The mental impact is strangely potent as well.
Clutter is generating background stress which individuals ultimately start to ignore. Drawers are no longer able to close properly. Closets turn aggressive. One of the chargers lost in one way or another kills an entire evening. Small apartments exaggerate each small inconvenience due to lack of a place to store mess.
Self storage brings about a separation between active and passive storage space. Such difference is more important than some might think.
In big cities, where apartments are costly, it is not uncommon that renting a relatively larger apartment can be considerably more costly than renting a small storage space. When comparing monthly prices of math, it becomes quite apparent. It is more appropriate to pay a few square feet of a place somewhere than to furnish an apartment to store winter blankets and used suitcases.
People who reverse seasons. In summer months heavy jackets are lost. Seasons exchange the fans and portable heaters. I have known one family that even stores the toys of children in a cycle as it appears that children can only use half their toys at a given time.
Well, they were not mistaken.
The 24/7 access also modifies the practicality of storage. Individuals are able to pick things up after work, on weekends, or just by chance at night before traveling. That plasticity gets rid of the annoying feeling of not being able to access certain properties they own in some location.
Security matters too. Surveillance, access control, and climate controlled units have been installed in most of the storage units to store electronics or important paperwork. It is probably more prudent than that, as it is humid in apartments in summer.
Small apartments do not necessarily require organization. They are simply more at times just in need of less stuff inside of them.