Life Changing/Space Saving Tips for Modern Apartment Living

Welcome to REDHEADCANDECORATE.COM’S “Life Changing/Space Saving Tips for Modern Apartment Living”. If you’re thinking about moving to, or currently live in an apartment (or any small home), and you desire clever/practical ideas to help create a home that is extremely enjoyable to live in, you’ve come to the right place. I take our home very seriously 😊, and now that we’ve downsized, I currently spend my days researching/testing/reviewing products/ideas for our apartment. Experimenting and creating are two of my innate passions, and in turn I must say our apartment has grown into a lovely place to work, play, & rest. Now that you’re here either by chance, or by being a current SUBSCRIBER, you can benefit from my findings no matter what size your home.

When Rick and I SOLD OUR HOME LAST SEPTEMBER TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE MARKET I honestly didn’t know what to expect moving into an apartment. Our house was around 3000 square feet, so when I say we down sized, we really did PURGE AND REORGANIZE 30+ years worth of belongings from our family of four (7 if you include the kitties). Taking this risk has been very good for our family, and in the process I’ve learned so much about myself, what I truly desire, and how much we were both craving easier living.

Before I get started I’m excited to share with you that I was recently invited to contribute to our current apartment community newsletter by the leasing manager. So, it brings me great joy to be able to not only help my current readers, but to inspire those that live literally in our back yard (Hi there, neighbors!). HERE’S A TIP: to help get the most out of this post I have highlighted all of the products I recommend. When highlighted products are clicked it will lead you directly to them.

Space Saving Shelving, Updated Light Fixtures, and Perfect Size Stools for Your Apartment

Now that our grown kiddos have moved out (they live in the same community as we do 😊) we don’t have as much “stuff”, but that’s not to say we don’t still have things, especially me as the “decorator”. So, after we moved in, and I narrowed it down as to what was going to stay in our apartment, or go in storage, I discovered this SPACE SAVING FLOOR TO CEILING WALL SHELF that fits perfectly in our new dining space. The shelf below utilizes the 9 foot ceilings in our apartment, therefore giving me the space I need to display a few of my favorite things. The shelf impressed us so much so, that both our daughter and son ordered one. The single unit comes in different sizes, colors, and it’s simple to assemble. Wouldn’t it look great with two of them side by side on a big wall? This shelf would also look great on either side of a television console, or in the bedroom like our kiddos chose to do.

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In the photo above you may also notice how I easily updated our old wood family table with COMFORTABLE MODERN CHAIRS. These chairs are so incredibly cozy (I’m sitting in one right now) and they make me feel 20 years younger 😆 with the modern MidCentury look. I also think the charcoal fabric chairs pair well with the new modern style light fixtures we chose. Hey, if your apartment management allows you to temporarily switch out the light fixtures while you rent out the space, here are 2 affordable options that are not crazy heavy, or difficult to install if you know an electrician:

MODERN CHANDELIER (more photos)

BLACK RATTAN PENDANT LIGHT FIXTURE (more photos)

When it came time to find stools for under our kitchen bar area, I took a risk with these PERFECT SIZED APARTMENT STOOLS. I love these guys because we like to swing one of them around to the end, and have our breakfast together there. After we are done with breakfast, I swing it back around to the front. Both my husband and I have bad backs, so we also enjoy stretching them out on these while sitting with our feet on the foot bars. The extra seats are also fantastic for entertaining, and even our kitty likes to hang out up there and watch me cook.

Laundry Room Space Saving Tips

We are really lucky to have a fairly large sized laundry room adjacent to our kitchen. It almost feels like the laundry room is an extension of the kitchen, so I decided to utilize the corner space in there with this TALL CORNER SHELF that I use for our small appliances. I actually love how close our laundry room is to the kitchen because I go back and forth here all day long with all the cooking I love to do. I told my husband he married Betty Crocker the other day 😆. All kidding aside, if you’re interested in my Italian/Polish home cooking recipes, you can find those HERE.

If you haven’t tried NATURAL LAUNDRY DETERGENT SHEETS yet, I hope you will soon. Not only do these tiny sheets work very well, but they don’t hurt my arm when I pick them up 😆. I’m tired of lugging around the big jugs of laundry detergent. These Earth friendly, natural detergent sheets come in a small box, and after I discard the box I put them on a wooden tiered tray I found at HomeGoods. The tray has become my catch-all in he laundry room on top of the dryer, and beats having to reach up to the shelf above, or running around looking for scissors. Oh, and the old fashioned CLOTHES PINS double for hanging clothes to dry or chip clips 👍.

Before we head over into our master bedroom, I want to show you my little secret hiding spot for a nice tall stepping stool I use to reach our top kitchen shelves. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m fairly short at 5’4″ so a stepping stool is a must with tall cabinets. This baby folds up flat, so I store it behind our laundry room door. If you have pets that BROOM & DUST PAN SET is excellent because it separates the hair from the bristles for you 😊.

Life Changing/Space Saving Tips for Modern Apartment Master Bedroom

One of the things I really worried about when moving into the apartment was if we would hear too much noise, especially when trying to sleep. Fortunately, we really lucked out with very quiet neighbors 🙌🏻. However, everyone has different schedules, so sometimes noise can still be an issue (even in a house). Let me tell you that this space saving slim fan below is a miracle. I turn this sleek fan on the “sleep mode” with the remote control every night, and it helps us sleep, stay asleep, and also keeps us cool. I noticed the one I purchased isn’t available at this time, but I located a similar fan with good reviews right here: SLIM TOWER FAN WITH REMOTE.

As a back up for noisy days 😉, I also have this cute SOUND MACHINE below that lights up in different colors, or stays dark if desired. The “white noise” is my favorite setting, but the ocean wave setting is also soothing. There are several options for this noise machine including soft music, and it also comes equipped with a timer. We actually used this sound machine at our house, too.

Life Changing/Space Saving Tips for Your Kitchen

If you FOLLOW ALONG HERE AT REDHEADCANDECORATE.COM you know that I cook up a storm for my handsome husband almost every night. I recently shared an artisan loaf of bread that I baked and folks are going nuts over it on my FACEBOOK PAGE. The recipe is surprisingly easy so I will be sharing it soon. Until then I have to tell you about these STRONG MAGNETIC SHELVES our daughter found for the side of our refrigerator. I put my spices on them for easy access and wrote all about them in detail a few weeks ago right here: MY NEW FAVORITE KITCHEN GADGETS FOR ORGANIZING A SMALL KITCHEN. You’ll also find the neat towel rack, and the convenient drying rack in that article, too.

TIP: KEEP SCROLLING FOR MORE AMAZING KITCHEN ORGANIZATION IDEAS FOR DRAWERS AND CABINETS

There’s still a few more life changing kitchen gadgets I must tell you about, so I hope you have time. Before we moved out of the house our “knife drawer” was stuffed full and a complete disaster 😖. After I gave away, donated, trashed all the knives we no longer use, I decided to look into a knife organizer like you see in high end homes. I always thought it would be complicated to put in our drawer, but it was as simple as just making sure it would fit. This KNIFE DRAWER ORGANIZER is a dream come true. I wish I would have done this 👇🏻 years ago.

Believe it or not I only have 2 main upper cabinets to work with besides our pantry in our apartment (YOU CAN SEE THE CABINETS IN THIS POST), so I really need to utilize every inch of space. As you can see in the photo below, I’m pretty good at that 😆. All joking aside, I found a very SIMILAR CUPBOARD PLATE ORGANIZER for you if you want to try stacking your plates like I do. I find that using one of these 👆🏻 stackers really helps my wrists out when I go to reach for a big plate on the bottom.

And…under our cabinets we installed these new MOTION SENSOR MAGNETIC RECHARGEABLE UNDER CABINET LIGHTS! I love how they light up our coffee & tea bar like a stage 😊. They are easy to install, and easy to remove when it’s time to vacate. Bravo bravo!

Okay, so we’re almost to the end 😉, but I couldn’t say good bye without telling you first how to clean your stainless steel appliances the easy way. This natural STAINLESS STEEL CLEANER I decided to test works on the older type of stainless steel-the kind that leaves fingerprints and marks very easily (this does not work on our stainless steel fridge because it’s the newer fingerprint-less sort).

You can clearly see below how effective this STAINLESS STEEL CLEANER is. Just spray it on your appliance, wipe with a couple paper towels, then buff with the dry side of the paper towels. It happens instantly, and the Lavender scent is amazing. Our kiddos were laughing at me because when I visited them a few days ago I buffed their appliances 😆.

One Last Life Changing/Space Saving Apartment Tip for Your Guests or for You

It’s almost like I hit the apartment living lottery when I found these POWERFUL MAGNETIC HOOKS. After we were in the apartment for a couple days, I realized our main door was metal. This got my wheels turning, and I found heavy duty magnetic hooks to play with. Now I hang my stuff here (sorry Rick 😆) and I use one of the hooks for my wreath on the other side of the door. Cute, huh?

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