Temporary dwelling, permanent love

April 20, 2010 7:38 AM

I am renting a room in shared house, which means that, as with many roomies/housemates, the bulk of my possessions have to live in one room. Please suggest blogs or tips for organising and making the place look nice!

Yes, I know the standard answer is Apartment Therapy, but a) most of it is geared towards people with a whole flat to play with, which isn't my current situation b) as a renter I can't paint, wallpaper or fix things to my walls. (The place I'm leaving wouldn't allow posters up with blu-tack, for example.) I'm moving to a bigger room after two years in a tiny tiny room, and I want to make it a nice space that makes me happy until I can move in with MrMippy like a real grown-up.

Variables:
- I'm in the UK, but I don't mind overseas blogs (I just can't always follow their recommendations)
- my room is furnished and I don't want to buy any new furniture or indeed anything much expensive for the moment - and if I decide to, I'd rather it was reasonably-priced long-lasting stuff rather than cheap but disposable.
- as well as my clothing, I have many books and craft supplies so they need to have a place to live. Most things I've read talk about how bedrooms are places for sleeping and shagging only - this can't apply to me for the time being.
- the word 'declutter' makes me want to kill kittens. I've gone from a 40sq.ft storage locker, bigger than the place I'm moving from, to an almost reasonable amount of stuff. I'm looking forward to the extra space meaning I can rationalise and organise more, but I feel I want to stop the shedding possessions element for a bit.

posted by mippy to home & garden (11 answers total)

I recently got some "Really Useful Box" products from Staples. They sell 9L boxes into which you can put smaller ones, and at the top you can put a special stationery tray. I put all of my stationery and craft products into that. I plan to get another box like it for putting all of my toiletries into.

It's very hard to organise all of my stuff in one room. I luckily have a huge wardrobe into which I put much more than clothes. One solution for me has been to keep the amount of stuff I own to a minimum, as I hate mess. Also, don't forget about the drawers under your bed. I lived months without even considering putting things into them.
posted by jpcooper at 7:43 AM on April 20, 2010

Go vertical. Seriously, with everything. Dorm students have improvised small spaces for a long time.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 8:03 AM on April 20, 2010

Make use of your vertical space: a couple of tall bookcases with neat rows of fashionable storage boxes will go a long way toward solving your organization/storage problems.
posted by aquafortis at 8:07 AM on April 20, 2010

You can obviously class it up a little, but the old classic college-dorm-bed-on-milkcrates thing exists for a reason. The amount of stuff you can store under a bed in that situation is impressive, with very little inconvenience to the surrounding space.
posted by cgg at 8:24 AM on April 20, 2010

Unclutterer is a fairly good blog. I read it when I am feeling organised.

I haven't read it in a while ;)
posted by TheOtherGuy at 8:38 AM on April 20, 2010

The single-greatest storage / retrieval system ever invented—particularly for places tight on space.

Nowadays, as things are moved to digital, you can find wonderful, beautiful old card catalogs literally being given away.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:43 AM on April 20, 2010

Much as I love those old library catalogue drawers, they do take up a bit of space themselves. Something to consider when I get my own place, though.
posted by mippy at 8:55 AM on April 20, 2010

These two blog posts caused me to have a clothes storage epiphany recently.

http://www.cardiganempire.com/2010/03/closet-organization-hangers.html
http://www.cardiganempire.com/2010/04/closet-organization-folding.html

I found some of the types of hangers mentioned on Ebay, 30 for £18. Every woman I need to buy a gift for from now on is getting a bunch of these, they are quite brilliant, whay arent all hangers that shape and material?
posted by Ness at 3:06 AM on April 21, 2010

Sorry, £13 not £18, search for 'non-slip hangers'.
posted by Ness at 3:07 AM on April 21, 2010

Are these sometimes sold as 'velvet hangers'? If so, I've seen some like them in TK Maxx in several colours, but about £10 for 10 which seems an awful lot for plastic hangers, and at the time I remembered having been told that wooden ones are absolutely the best to have. The small slim shape is very appealling, though - feel free to MeMail me if there's a particular brand or seller you use.
posted by mippy at 5:57 AM on April 21, 2010

Yes quite probably the very same thing. These are the ones I got (Ignore the today only thing, the price hasnt changed in a month).
posted by Ness at 7:10 AM on April 21, 2010