Maximize Your Space: 17 Small Bedroom Storage Ideas

After kitting out a small bedroom with the essential furniture pieces, you might not have much room left for storage. If you're tired of battling your way around a tiny bedroom but don't have the time or budget for a full renovation, there are plenty of quick tricks to help you make the most of every square inch of space you've got. In this guide, we'll take you through 17 small bedroom storage ideas, so you can still make room in your sleep space for what you’ve got without making things feel too crowded.

1. Kick Things Off with a Serious De-Clutter Session

Whether you're the only person who uses your bedroom or you share it with a partner, the first step to creating a clean and serene small bedroom is with a good old-fashioned clearout.

Nothing makes a small bedroom feel smaller quite like lots of clutter, especially when surfaces are taken over by one-off items like clothing accessories, grooming products, books and knick-knacks. Living in a small space is all the motivation you need to get all Marie Kondo and edit your stuff down to the essentials.

The upside? With fewer items left to store at the end, you’ll be able to use the limited space in your bedroom much more effectively. (Plus, the less clutter there is, the less chaotic you'll feel, and the easier it will be to nod off at night!)

2. Get Strategic with Your Furniture Shopping

If you’re at an early stage, the key is choosing bedroom furniture pieces that offer as much storage potential as possible.

Something as simple as a narrow, tall shelving unit, for example, can hold as many as two shorter bookshelves and will take up a whole lot less floor space to boot. Think beds with built-in storage, bedside tables with shelves, and drawers or a wardrobe with plenty of built-in storage.

3. Make the Most of Under-the-Bed Storage Space

How often do you think about the space under your bed? Aside from the occasional, long-overdue, dust-bunny clearout, probably not that often, right? But this underappreciated spot can be a handy place for adding storage.

Shallow plastic boxes with casters can easily slide under and with some handy vacuum-pack storage bags inside, can hold a ton of off-season clothing, shoes and other bulky items.

4. Use the Wall Space Above Your Bed

Think you don’t have room for a bookshelf? Installing shelving high up on your wall to store books, art or accessories is a smart way to use the often forgotten wall space above your bed and add visual height to the room.

Run shelving across the length of the wall for maximum impact, or stack a few floating shelves for maximum storage.

5. Boost the Storage Capacity of Your Closet with this Behind-the-Door Hack

If your small bedroom has limited closet space, it can be hard to keep it organised. So, rather than relying solely on the shelving inside, try using the inside of the door as an extra space-saver.

Self-adhesive hooks are a life-saver for adding storage space inside your closet doors. You can even use them to hang small baskets to keep smaller items corralled together.

6. Add in Some Drawer Dividers

Instead of fumbling around in your chest of drawers to find things, sort similar items into separate containers for more streamlined, easy-to-access bedroom drawer storage.

7. Add an Over-the-Door Organiser

With some strategically-placed hooks (or a simple fabric pocket hanging storage) the area behind your bedroom door can be used to hang dressing gowns and your laundry hamper so that every space in your room can be utilized.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Make Use of Awkward Spaces

That small corner or teeny alcove that you still haven’t figured out a use for?

Now’s the time to throw a corner shelving unit over there – as this will provide ample storage for shoes, jewellery and books without taking up too much floor space.

9. Repurpose a Narrow Bookshelf as Shoe Storage

One for the shoe-a-holics! Another clever hack for a space without any built-in storage. This is a great way to store your overflowing shoe collection without having to drill into your walls for shelving.

10. Look for Flexible Storage Solutions

A trolley on wheels makes for perfect space-challenged bedroom storage, especially for beauty products and hair-styling tools. Plus, you can move it around the room so it won't feel like a bulky, permanent piece of storage furniture.

11. Skip the Traditional Bedside Table

Lacking space beside your bed? Why not forgo the usual nightstand and mount a small cube or shelf on the wall instead? The addition of a stylish wall sconce can help keep the tabletop surface free for books, glasses, and more.

(Oh and if you’re going to use valuable floor space for a bedside table, it makes sense to choose one with extra storage and shelves.)

12. Use S-Hooks to Hang Your Clothes

If you have very little closet space to work with, try using some s-hooks as these aren’t anywhere near as bulky as regular clothes hangers.

13. Corral Any Clutter with Bins and Baskets

Bins and baskets are endlessly useful – you can use them for storing spare blankets and bedding, magazines and all those extra bits and bobs we all seem to collect. And just remember, just because your bedroom is small doesn't mean your storage can’t be pretty!

At Woodie’s, we’ve got seriously stylish small bedroom storage accessories for all the odds and ends that are floating around your bedroom.

Shop decorative storage >>

14. Take Advantage of Empty Closet Space

The space near the ceiling or on the bottom of your closet, for example, are good spots to stash any off-season items. Just remember to use clear bins or label them so you can quickly identify what's inside.

15. Or Substitute Closet Space Entirely

Closets and chests of drawers aren't the only way to effectively store clothing items. So if you don’t have enough space for storage furniture, you can simply create your own open closet system by outfitting a portion of your bedroom wall with a variety of hooks and open shelving and wardrobe rails.

Similarly, you can even install wardrobe rails in the dead space beneath the shelves for hanging clothes or just tuck a slimline clothing rail underneath. Use baskets on the shelves to sort belongings like socks, underwear and accessories. If space is an issue, getting as much furniture as possible up off the floor gives the illusion of a bigger room. In addition, you can place handy clothing rails in your room to hang your clothes off.

16. Add a Hanging Organiser to the Side of Your Bed

By adding a hanging organiser to the side of your bed, you can have a place to store all those miscellaneous items like your remote control or that latest magazine you’ve been reading. This way, they won’t end up strewn on the ground.

17. Try a Storage Bench at the Bottom of Your Bed

Not all items are pretty enough to be stored in clear view. To maintain a cleaner look, hidden storage like a bench at the bottom of your bed can keep things like spare bedding, humidifiers and room fans (anything unsightly that you’re not using on a daily basis) out of sight but still accessible. Some benches even come with handy compartments!

There you have it – hopefully, these savvy bedroom storage ideas will help you add space and stay organised. Your small bedroom is about to feel a whole lot bigger!

Ready to maximise the space in your bedroom? Shop for your next DIY storage project in our Homewares and Furniture section!