5 Storage Tips For Condo Owners | The Christensen Real Estate Group

Whether you’re moving in, moving out, or simply overflowing with things at the moment, it can be a challenge finding enough space to store all of your stuff in a condo unit — especially in big cities like Toronto.

While downtown condos offer a ton of amazing features and amenities, space is rarely one of them. Even if your condo has a generous footprint, it’s easy to feel cramped in a smaller space when you don’t have access to sufficient storage space.

However, although square footage comes at a premium for most of Toronto’s condo owners, that doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions out there that can help you reduce your condo clutter and live a more relaxed and stress-free lifestyle.

To help you along with your small space storage journey, here are five of our favourite space-saving tips specifically for condo owners.

1. Buy Space-Appropriate Furniture

While this might sound like a pretty simplistic ‘tip,’ you’d be surprised how many condos we need to completely style and stage before listing because the owners’ furniture is much too large.

Not only does large, clunky furniture significantly affect traffic flow and look out of place in smaller spaces like condos, but it also means there’s far less square footage to either store possessions or include additional storage solutions like cabinets or consoles.

If you’re based in a big city like Toronto, you’ll be sure to find a wide variety of furniture and decor stores that’ll cater specifically to your smaller space needs. Shops like Structube, West Elm, and CB2 all have extensive selections of “Small Space” furniture, all of which you’ll find makes a noticeable difference to the form and function of condo layouts.

Or, if you’re in need of some more bespoke assistance, we can connect you with any number of designers and interior decorators that we regularly work with who can help you re-think and transform your condo’s floorplan and storage solutions.

Staging is one of real estate’s most influential services when it comes to making a home look its absolute best before being listed. Need more convincing? Read our blog post “Should You Stage Your Home Before Selling?” to see if staging is right for you.

2. Prioritize Multi-Functional Pieces

When living in a small space, one of the best ways to maximize your space is to fill it with design items that are multi-functional. In order to properly be able to live in a home, you need to have a few essential items — like a bed, a table, some chairs, for example — but if you can find items that serve multiple purposes at once, you can eliminate the need to have all of those essentials be separate pieces.

Piggy-backing off of our last point about furniture, pieces with dual purposes (or better yet, triple or more functions) are amazing space savers for smaller homes like condos. We love how ottomans that can function as seats, side tables, or offer hidden storage chambers within them work exceptionally well in tighter spaces.

Similarly, storage beds that offer generous stow-away space underneath the mattress via drawers or hinge systems are also a great example of multi-purpose design pieces. We’ve even seen coffee tables that can transform into full-on dining room tables too — and often also offer smaller storage areas underneath, perfect for remote controls, magazines, or even cutlery and tableware.

Wherever you can, look to see where your furniture and decor items can serve multiple purposes instead of just one. As soon as you’re able to make the contents of your condo more functional, you’ll find your entire space feels a lot less crowded.

Are you planning on moving into a condo in the near future? Whether you’re moving in with your family or just yourself, there are a few key aspects of condo living you should know about before making your move.

3. Constantly Declutter

If you find yourself frequently scratching your head about where you’re going to store away all of your various possessions, it’s probably not solely because your condo isn’t large enough to hold them all. While this isn’t necessarily a storage tip, per se, constantly taking an audit of all of your personal belongings is something that will solve a lot of your storage issues.

Just like a good spring cleaning session, you should regularly (at least a few times a year) take stock of your stuff and decide whether or not you really want to keep it. One of the worst culprits when it comes to condos looking smaller than they actually are is when they’re full of clutter.

Although you might initially feel like you don’t have much on display, make a conscious effort to truly ask yourself if everything you have out within eyesight is completely necessary. Do you really need to showcase your entire collection of extra virgin olive oils across your kitchen counter? Is your magazine stack starting to look more like a magazine mountain? Have you forgotten what colour your bathroom sink is underneath all of those extra products?

If you’re struggling to find space for everything, then maybe your ‘everything’ is just too much to start off with. Nothing feels better than a clean, crisp, decluttered home. See what the power of minimalism can do for you before you start to blame your storage spaces.

Not sure what you want to do with your current condo unit? Use these helpful blog posts to help you formulate the plan that works best for your lifestyle:

4. Rent A Storage Locker

One of the most obvious storage solutions on this list is to simply rent out a storage locker to keep your extra possessions in while you’re not using them.

For many condo owners, your building will have most probably provided you with a modestly-sized storage locker to keep less-used items out of the way in your unit. However, most of these storage lockers are on the small side, to say the least, which means that any larger items you want to hold on to but just don’t seem to work in your condo need to find a different temporary home.

That’s where rentable storage solutions come in handy. Whether all you need is a locker or a whole crate, there are a plethora of options in a city like Toronto for you to explore. As you might expect, the bigger the storage container you need, the further away from the downtown core it’s likely to be, which means it won’t be as easily accessed as you might prefer.

The bright side is, if you don’t want to get rid of something large, you can simply pay a fee to keep it elsewhere. Just because you’re living in a small space now doesn’t mean you can’t keep treasured possessions — they just might need somewhere else to live for the time being.

Are you tired of living the cramped condo life? Or, are you ready to finally downsize into a smaller space? Either way, you’ll probably need to sell your current home first. Read all about how we can help you prepare for the next stage of homeownership here:

5. Lean On Friends And Family

If you happen to be either moving into a new condo or listing your current condo on the market, chances are you’re going to have a lot of moving boxes or possessions that need putting away. One instant method of shifting your extra stuff in the short term is to ask a generous friend or family member if they’d be able to hold onto it for you.

Fair warning: there’s a good chance most of your friends and family will refuse if you ask them to look after your things for an extended period of time. However, if you’re able to give them a specific timeframe — especially if it’s solely while your condo is being sold — it’s always an option worth exploring.

Nobody ever said moving was easy, but we’re saying that it doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Read up on Your Guide To Moving Costs here to see what’s strictly necessary to spend on.