People in city condos: how do you do it, if at all?

[bintayn]

Judging by the ease with which I find any deal in downtown Chicago, I'm guessing that stockpiling doesn't go over well with city dwellers. We don't have much room either. We are 5 people in a small condo (2 adults, two kids and an infant). If there's a deal, how much do you "buy"? So far, I've gotten two of each item. Any more than that would just take up way too much room. Thoughts? Ideas?

[Mothernature]

I do not think people are buying downtown because they do not want to pay the 10.25% sales tax. They go to Lake, Kendall, or McHenry where the taxes are cheaper (yes, I am a Chicago native).

We live just outside of Boston in a 800 sq foot unit with three people. We've dedicate one room for our soda, non-soda, and food stockpile. I live in the land of doubles and tear pad galore ; non-cola drinks are free (or $.20 per bottle). We bring home 50-80 bottles in one trip. We have a large closet next to the bathroom where we store our HBA.

Do you have room under beds? Under tables? purchase plastic storage containers and throw it under the hiding places.

I would be concerned about this because the unemployment rate is expect to hit 10% over the summer there.

[Dhunny318]

I don't know if where we are counts as "downtown" but it is across from the college, so there are many small apartments at mid-range price. Our mid-range in NJ is different than other parts of the country, but it can be expensive.

We have 3 people(one toddler), and a kitty, in a 1 and a "half" bedroom apartment.

To be able to stockpile, we took advantage of our extra closets. My "closet" that houses my shoes, also houses the cat's stockpile of litter, a few tupperwares(including the shoe size ones for my shoes) and a shelf full of our essential books.

I consolidated our pots and pans(kept the new ones we got for our wedding and got rid of our "college" pots and pans) and that freed up space in the regular cupboards for any pantry overage.

We gave up our linen closet. the linens for each room is now located in the room where it belongs. Makes sense. All towels are now located in our bedroom closet. The linen closet is where all of our HBA stockpile lives. I also put my canned gravy stockpile in there, along with our vacuum cleaner. We have lots and I used dollar store stackable blocks to store smaller items. I'm always surprised at how much we are able to put in there.

Baby boy's pull ups and wipes are located right in his room now. We got a little storage thing with shelves and all of his crafts, play dough and such are on there, along with his baby items.

My gift stockpile is in a tupperware stacked on top of another. I pinned a table cloth around the two to shape it like a mini-bar and placed a glass cutting board on top. Instant bar for company and it actually looks really nice!

When we feel like there really is too much stockpiled, we give some away. Plain and simple. The sales cycles run every 2 to 3 months, so I keep enough to last us double that amount, and give the rest away. I know I'll get it back.

Living in a small space isn't an excuse to not stockpile. High rent isn't either. You just have to be a bit more inventive than those that have 3 bedroom houses with big attics, basements and garages.

[htlgrl]

There are 5 of us in an apartment that is about 700-800 square feet. TINY!

Every door has an over the door shoe organizer on it, and I have 2 over the door purse holders, one on my closet door and one on the back door. I keep my pharmacy stockpile in tote bags hung from the top hooks, separated by type and person.

Diapers and cases of soup get hidden under the sofa- no kidding! Seriously, best idea I've ever had!

I store non-food items in sturdy milkcrates in the corner, very small footprint to hold a LOT of stuff.

I use undershelf bins to hold the coffee, tea bags, snacks (taken out of the box!), popcorn, light stuff.

[CoveredinGrace]

I'm not sure I count, since ours is 1130 sq ft and there's only two of us and a kitty-plus we have a spare bedroom and spare walk-in closet and spare bathroom and a pantry built-in and a garage and an outdoor storage closet, (okay after reading my own sentence I know I don't qualify-even if they do call them 'condos', here), but I do know how to work in small spaces.

The whole idea of working with small spaces is to store UP not OUT. Anything you can store up off the floor or you can stack, you do. And use absolutely every nook and cranny (under beds, behind toilets, over the door organizers, stackable crates or boxes, etc.) possible. Try to get creative and figure out ways to store stuff up the walls. Also, buy those little metal shelf thingys that give you a "shelf" above other stuff in your larger cabinets (like under the sink) so that you can stack two products in one space, essentially. Get these for your cabinet with your plates, too, if you can, b/c everything you consolidate means more cabinet space somewhere else that you can stuff full. Soda goes really well under the bed, too-it's a nice climate controlled area to store it. If you can swing it, consider using space bags to store blankets and bulky winter items when not in use, freeing up more space in your closets and drawers and shelves. If you have larger items you need store (like full size shampoos and such) you can also hang an extra shower caddy off of doors, walls, etc. to make more room.

Look through your drawers and cabinets everywhere and try to purge what you don't need or haven't used recently. If you haven't used it in six months to a year and it's not a seasonal item (like Christmas stuff), then consider pitching it, freecycling it, sending it Goodwill, giving it to a friend/neighbor, or selling it. If you sell it, you may have more money to purchase storage solutions.

Also, if you can get big buckets, those stack well up a wall, too. I like clear bins or crates better, but in a pinch, you can get the buckets for free at your local bakery (usually). Shortening comes in them.

Store stuff in your computer desk if you have drawers, above, beside, or behind laundry areas if you have one, behind furniture if you have a space there, etc. Even though I have enough room for my stockpile, I was just thinking yesterday that I have this little area behind my corner-shaped breakfast table that would fit the 20 oz. bottles of sodas that I have (and I have TONS of these), and it would be totally out-of-sight to guests.

An oft-ignored area to declutter is your holiday/Christmas stuff. After a few years, we usually have more boxes than are really necessary to store everything needed for the holidays and some good organization could reduce the footprint of storing that stuff, making room for storage of more stockpiles.

Those are the things that come to mind at first, I hope that helps!

[coupondink]

there are lots of folks on this board who hardcore couponing (which means hardcore stockpiling) who don't have mansions. I am lucky enough to have 1200sq ft condo. I store stockpile absolutely everywhere. I am careful not to invade personal space, and I hide it well to avoid comments from the peanut gallery friends. Here are my "hiding places":
-over the door racks in every closet
-2 linen closets repurposed. I mean how many towels can you possible have to need a whole closet? I think I have a lot of towels and sheets, and only need one shelf.
-Under every sink
-the top shelf of every closet - very unused space in most homes- use milk crates to build up more shelves!
-under every bed in under the bed containers
-garage hasn't had a car in it in years
-in sterlite containers in the corner of the spare bedroom- stacked to the ceiling! LOL
- above the cabinet above the laundry machine
- under the stairs
- in the unused space in closets on the floor under the hanging clothes, in boxes
- behind doors

Look around again, it can be done

[Virusfdu]

We have 960 sw ft right now, down from 1180 (although not all usable). We have rubbermaid bins for HBA, Racks for soda and large banana boxes for food in boxes (cereal, fruit snacks, crackers, poptarts). Not enough room under the bed (plus the puppy likes to hide under there) but that would be a great space with under the bed storage bins. Liquor boxes in the closet up til right below the clothes hanging.

We normally have enywhere from 3-6months stored up this way. Drives me nuts sometimes but others its a blessing. We cleared out about half to donate to fire victims and my sister and still had plenty.

[hcwhcw]

Not enough room under the bed (plus the puppy likes to hide under there) but that would be a great space with under the bed storage bins.

The bed could be put on risers, and then there'd be enough room for under-the-bed storage bins. BB&B and other companies sell bed risers.

[terrortoys]

I live in a house with stockpile room, but we have a bed that we put water bed drawers under so each side has 3 pull out drawers and a "crawl space" in the middle.. instead of clothes I put stockpile items in the drawers and bins in the space in the middle..
Milk crates are a saving grace as well as the rubermade tubs.. those go good in the closet stacked.

Best of luck..

[DamianMom]

I've been looking for space saving ideas for my stockpile so this is a great thread. Great inspiration. I don't have as big of a stockpile as some, but still have plenty that I need to organize and want don't want to have all over the place. Storage places for me. I have storage bins on top of the fridge, and I stack some on top of that. In the laundry room, I have cabinent, and I hope to put up more shelves there and shelves in the bathroom. (shelving is a great way to store up! lol) I have a small cupboard pantry I fit whatever I can into it. And a wire hanging rack behind the door in the bathroom for extra storage. I also use the cabinent under the sink, and under the counter where we have a little bar at, but no stools. So I use under that bar counter to store stuff including my boxes of coupons. lol I think you have to get creative to find spaces, but I also want to it look organized and know where to find things. There's no point to my stockpiling if I don't know what I have, or let alone where it is! LOL Some packs of drinks are stacked up against a wall. In sight, but not in the way. I am anxious to hear some other creative ideas for stockpile storage! Thanks for the ideas!