Strategies to Hide Unsightly Items in Every Room in Your Apartment

Life in an apartment comes with its fair share of advantages — but an abundance of space is not often one of them. That’s why it’s easy to feel like your apartment is cluttered with eyesores. From crowded kitchen counters to visible cleaning supplies and cables, each space in your small apartment could probably use a sweep for unsightly items. 

With just a few hacks and easy additions to your storage, decor, and more, you can keep your home looking tidy and stylish while elevating your unit’s overall organization. 

Your apartment’s living room is the place where you often want to relax and find peace, but it’s also home to a number of electronic cables and boxes that plug into other boxes or outlets. You might also have gaming consoles and accessories that detract from your home decor and get in the way of your interior design visions.

Manage your cords: You can find budget- and renter-friendly cable covers to hide dark TV cords against your painted walls, use adhesive clips to keep your cords hidden behind your furniture, and even place your rugs strategically as to lay them on top of cords. If you have access to your apartment’s wall paint, you can purchase cord covers that can be painted the same color as the wall (for mounted TV’s, for example).

Use storage ottomans: A storage element that can enhance the look of your space instead of detracting from it is an ottoman. They come in a variety of upholstery materials, from leather to rattan to suede, and can even make a great statement piece. But ottomans are not just  footstools; they also make great storage solutions for video game accessories and charging cords.

Curate boxes and baskets: For smaller practical items or things like magazines, documents, or other “ugly stuff” that may end up in a cluttered junk drawer, you can have fun with storage boxes and baskets. Use your interior design preferences to search for storage solutions that match your taste — do you like modern touches like wire or leather, or do you prefer eclectic secondhand pieces reclaimed for your vintage look? Place decorative but functional boxes like these in plain sight on bookshelves to declutter your living space.

The kitchen is home to countless items that don’t exactly harmonize with decor elements you’ve picked out for the space. You likely have appliances and pantry items out in the open, but with a few additions, you can double your counter space and improve the look of the room.

Maximize cabinet space: If you hone in on your kitchen cabinet organization, cleaning out old items and making use of baskets and bins to save space, chances are you’ll come up with a few extra units of space for a countertop appliance or two, like blenders or food processors. If you’re not satisfied with the improvement, look into buying a cabinet shelf or two that you can use to maximize more of your cabinet’s volume without having to messily stack items on top of one another. 

Get creative with doors: With cabinet doors, pantry doors, and standard doors, there’s plenty of opportunity to “hide” items with over-the-door storage solutions. If you don’t like displaying spices on racks or in baskets, try an over-the-door spice rack to hang inside a cabinet. You can also find larger hanging organizers for cleaning supplies and pantry items and over-the-door dowel attachments for storing garbage bags and paper towels.

Get a “garage” for your appliances. Whether it’s a large vintage chest, a portable kitchen island, or a new cabinet from Facebook Marketplace, one of the best and most fun ways to spice up kitchen decor is with a designated spot for all your countertop appliances. If you have space (even in another room), hiding your choppers, mixers, blenders, and other gadgets in a designated storage chest can streamline your kitchen’s storage scheme and even introduce a new design focal point to your space.

While the kitchen has a relatively designated spot for chemicals and cleaning products (under the sink), bathrooms are tricker; with all of our linens, soaps, shampoos, and conditioners, and stocked items like toilet paper and feminine products, we can’t count on having excess storage for those equally important cleaning products (and it’s not safe to remove labels containing important information). Seemingly without options, we let these products take over our aesthetics. With these home organization hacks, you can take back some control.

Get familiar with vertical storage: As in the kitchen, you can start using the backs of cabinet doors for your extra storage makeover. If you install a magnetic strip or use bar magnets in these spots, you can easily store tweezers, nail clippers, razor blades, and any other metal items. If you want to store things like brushes, medications, or even hot tools, the back of the cabinet door is an oft-overlooked space that could save your apartment bathroom lots of messy cords and countertop chaos. 

Target any open space. In a small space, like the bathroom, you can find creative ways to turn any free wall or floor into a productive use of space to store unsightly items. If you don’t have much cabinetry to work with, you can install over-the-toilet storage (racks, wall-mount cabinets, and hanging baskets), add floor storage cabinets — especially tall, shallow ones that don’t take up much surface area — and hang tasteful wall-mounted floating shelves to stock toilet paper and display on-theme linens.