Looking for tiny home storage solutions? This article explores 16 of the most creative and efficient storage ideas for maximizing space in a tiny house, from ceiling cavities to multi-functional furniture.
Living in a tiny house can be challenging at times. Even if you’re a minimalist, stuff is still needed. Storage and tiny house design become incredibly important. This article will look back at some favorite and most ingenious storage solutions.
Utilizing Cavities for Storage
When designing a tiny house, it’s important to utilize each and every possible inch of space. Great examples exist of people who have done this cleverly by utilizing cavities within the ceiling, the floor, and the walls.
In Sacramento, California, Chelina has found loads of extra storage space by utilizing a cavity within the ceiling. Storage space has been built into this kitchen. There are drop-down cabinets and roll-out storage. The cavities are well-used because normally the space under the loft is just completely wasted.
Storage is built in along the floor. That was a way to camouflage the wheel well. One wheel well is under the couch, and the other one is built into these storage spaces down here. It looks like one big long step, and it leads into the bedrooms as well.
Ceiling Storage Solutions
In a traveling tiny house in France, Yoona and Yonatan have used additional ceiling storage ideas for all of their entertainment and gaming needs. They love watching movies and playing with Playstation. So, they had to think about a place to play and work. This is the place they use the most in the house.
Split levels are great for creating different zones in the house. They can also be used for creating extra storage. This can be seen in Tricia and Soul’s tiny home in San Diego.
The shift of levels between the living room and the kitchen is a great design. The wheel walls come up about a foot high. All the space that they could was wanted. There is a his-and-hers closet that pulls out. Each closet bay is about 7 feet by 3 feet, so they made great open drawers for clothing.
Split-Level Designs for Storage
In Wellington, Kym and James have used split-level design in their shipping container home to create entertaining space and even store their bed.
Underneath, there is a step which also doubles as a trunk. On the sides, there are two long side tracks. Each one pulls out and is felt on the bottom, so the felt slides on the smooth floor. There’s heaps of storage ideas for clothes. The good thing about these is that they open up, and there are cushions the whole way up. You can flip over as many of those as needed.
When these drawers were made, there was a space at the back of the cavity. A little door was tracked, not knowing what it would be used for. Eventually, this table was made to fit the space. It comes out from there, and there’s a fold-down table that is coffee table height and dining table height. It also gets wider. The bed is attached to the front rack. It pulls out and there are lockable casters. When not in use, you don’t really have to make it in the morning. It just rolls away.
Raised Floors and Drawer Trains
The raised floor area in Jeremy and Casey’s Oklahoma tiny house has a special drawer trained to fully capitalize on all of the space. The kitchen was raised because a multi-use counter space was wanted. It was desired to be a bar and also a counter. They have a lot of outdoor gear, so storage was put underneath all of this. You can pull it out, unlatch it, and get the next one. It goes all the way this whole length. So much storage has been built in so that you can still have all the stuff.
Clever Wall Shelf Systems
Keeping the storage open and changeable, architect Doug in Wanaka has designed a super clever wall shelf system. This is the living room, and there is a work desk which can be changed to a daybed just by adjusting a number of boxes. The bookshelf holds the other end, and there is a dining room table. In the living room, some people call it a magazine shelf, but it actually allows moving shoulders around. As well as the dining room table, things can be put all over if more open shelves are needed. It gives more places for shelves if they are needed.
In Melbourne, Mill’s tiny house has a really interesting wool storage system which has been cleverly built in behind a big lift mechanism. A bed that went up and down was wanted. It was desired that it went away during the day. So, there is a lift bed that has a channel that goes up through the wall and then just sits up on the ceiling during the day. At night it comes down. With the cabinetry everything is all soft touch. There is craft work, clothing, DVDs, and extra storage for pantry. This has storage all underneath it as well. There is more hidden storage in this space than there was in one of the rooms in the house.
Floor Cavity Storage
Taking inspiration from boat design, Garima and Nirvana in Australia have utilized a floor cavity to build in loads of extra storage. This was the boat building inspiration. There is storage all the way along. Everyday use items are up high, and big pots for catering are also kept there. Under the floor there are spare jars, a first-aid kit, a few spare pots and potatoes and onions.
Small Kitchen Storage Ideas
Designing a small kitchen can be especially challenging. Even in the most minimalist of kitchens, pots, pans, dishes, cooking utensils, and appliances are needed. All of these things have to have a home. Here are some of the best small space kitchen storage ideas.
Sometimes storage ideas can also add loads of character and even fun to a house. In Ashes tiny home in Fayetteville, there is a custom made pot rack. You crank it and it lowers and raises the pot rack. It utilizes that space because otherwise it would just be completely open and all just go to waste. There is a lot of cupboard space in this kitchen. The one thing that maybe wasn’t accounted for so much in the design is maybe closet space. There are clothes in the kitchen. If you’ve got extra space, use it.
In Queensland, Leah’s tiny house on wheels uses extra storage space in her kitchen to even fit a laundry. There is so much storage in this house. This space has everything that a normal kitchen would have, just a little bit more compressed. This has a dishwasher and a washing machine. It’s actually a kitchen and laundry. This is the main pantry. It falls out and then it can be part of the kitchen. There are drawers in the kicker’s which provides more storage.
Multifunctional Furniture
In small space design, multifunctional furniture is often talked about. One of the simplest ways of making something multifunctional is to build storage into it. This can especially be seen with beds and couches.
Over in Sydney, Marnie and Dan have used a bed lift mechanism to create a play area for their daughter. There is really cool storage underneath. Initially when they first moved in, it was actually used as storage. The girls needs have changed, so their elder daughter needed somewhere that she could play. It has been made into a really cool play space. Not everything has been purpose-built for the kids, but they’ve really tried to make the spaces work for them.
Amy and Rich have raised their bed considerably in their shipping container home in Melbourne. This has created an amazing amount of extra storage space. The bed was picked up off the ground so there could be storage. Within those dimensions that really does just give you a tremendous amount of volume underneath it to turn into storage. These drawers are full depth for the whole depth with the queen mattress so there is generous storage.
Over in British Columbia, Lance’s underbed storage space in his shipping container home even has a built in bed warmer. This bedroom was designed with maximum storage as possible. There are three pullout drawers that fully pull out all the way. They’re about five feet long each, so there is plenty of closed storage. The platform of the bed is designed with holes in it and a space for a heater inside one of the drawers. In the winter, the heater can be turned on and it heats up the mattress.
Storage Stairs
If you’re designing a tiny house with a sleeping loft, then you need a way to access that loft. One of the best ways of doing that is to build in stairs. Stairs give you fast simple easy access to the loft and an opportunity to build an incredible amount of storage into your tiny house.
Molly and Ken’s tiny house in Texas has storage stairs which even fits their wardrobe. These stairs have storage in the first three steps. In the last five steps there are closets where more clothes are stored.
Pet-Friendly Storage
Oliver and Sara’s tiny house has some super clever built-in storage space for their dog. The dog owns this space. She has a little kennel and a full drawer to herself. The washer/dryer combo is tucked under there as well as the fridge. There is an extra drawer on top there for things like laundry detergent and extra toilet paper. The stairs are utilized for basically all of the appliance storage and some extra storage for things like pets.
If you’re looking for an extra compact storage design which saves space in the home that still provides lots of storage, Jesse’s tiny home in Melbourne is a great example of how this can be achieved. Having the stairs packed in in a little neat corner with drawers makes sense because stairs along the side of the house takes up a lot of usable space.
If you don’t have room for any stairs at all, the letter bookshelf idea in Tomas tiny house in France is a really great idea. There is great space for putting things and the library is really important in a tiny house. Because you don’t have a lot of things, you want to see things that mean something to you.
Bathroom Storage Solutions
Some tiny house bathrooms are kept incredibly simple while others see it as an opportunity to build even more storage space into their home. Here are some great examples of that.
Colin and Megan’s tiny bathroom really shows off Colin’s experience as a cabinet maker. There is lots of storage built in. Starting here there is a little push cupboard that stores a lot of rolls.
Bathrooms often have lots of unused space and items which aren’t always in use. CJ and Amy’s traveling tiny house in New Zealand has a pull-out toilet to create lots of extra room. The composting toilet slides out and slides back in. The space over the top of the toilet now is usable for storage.
The same goes for showers such as this amazing design in Curry’s tiny house in Portland. This little Basin fits right above the toilet. There is a shower. One of the things that was discerned while doing research is the showers a really unused space as far as square footage. There is a full-size water that sits over the shower for the majority of the day and then it is rolled out of the way when the shower is needed.
Clothes Storage
Going way back to an old favorite, Justin and Yola’s Castle truck has an amazing rotating wardrobe. This is one of the favorite parts. There is automatic lighting and extra storage as well.
For a luxury option, Lisa and Matt’s stunning modern tiny house in Sydney has a super classy his-and-hers wardrobe. There is lots of hanging storage and a bunch of drawers which open up. That really does give both quite a lot of closet storage. It means they’ve got one each and they’re not fighting over hanging space.
One of the coolest compact clothes storage ideas is in Chris and Mary Ella’s tiny house in Auckland which has an epic crawl in closet with built-in laundry chute. It is jokingly called a crawl in closet because it’s not quite a walk-in closet, but it’s still really quite spacious. There is hanging clothes storage and a washing chute.
It’s wonderful to look back at these past tours and see all of the really clever ways that people have built storage into their tiny homes. It makes one incredibly excited for the future and all of those small space storage ideas that we’ve yet to discover.
