There are many ways to hide things in a smaller home, apartment, or dorm room to keep the space looking clean and serene. These items are useful and needed; they do not need to be stored out in the open for everyone to see. They can have a home that is easily accessible but hidden. This "hide things in a small home" post will give you some ideas.
To get rid of the clutter, first, visit this Awaken to the Clutter Post to help you see your clutter again in your home before you find creative ways to hide your stuff. If you are struggling with your clutter, check out my virtual organizing consultation services, and let's set up a time to meet and get you on your way to decluttering your space.
Reminder: if you don't use and adore the things in your home, you should get rid of them now before trying to hide them.
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Jump to:
- Key Takeaways
- Why hide the stuff in your home?
- 1. Use a Pressure Rod and Curtains
- 2. Decorative Fabric is stapled to Wood and mounted to create a curtain.
- Easy DIY Tips to Customize Vanity Drawer
- Vanity Organization Revisited
- 3. Solid Baskets to hide the items inside
- 4. Store Items in Large Zippered Bags
- 5. Solid False Fronts to Hide Stuff Behind
- 6. Cabinet Doors In Front of Bookshelves
- 7. Add wicker bins inside tall cabinets.
- How to Update a Wardrobe Cabinet for More Storage
- Transform an IKEA Wardrobe Cabinet DIY Project
- 8. Under the Bed Drawers or Bins
- Update a Small Bedroom for An Adult
- 15 Fantastic Teenager Bedroom Organization Ideas that Actually Work
- 9. Use the Space Between Your Refrigerator and the Cabinet or Wall
- 10. Maximize Space to Organize a Small Closet
- Small Closet Organization: How I Organized a Tiny Bedroom Closet for Under $50
- 11. Hide the chargers and cables
- How to Hide the Charger in the Bedroom DIY Project
- 16 Creative Ways to Hide Chargers in Small Spaces
- How to Organize Standing Desk Cables
- 12. Hide your hanging keys
- Hanging Wood Sign to Hide Key {DIY Project}
- 13. Maximize wall space with pegboards
- Creative Ways to Organize Tools in a Closet
- Easy Tool Closet Organization To Create More Storage Space
- 14. Use over-the-door organizers to maximize storage.
- How to Create an Organized Wrapping Paper Zone
- Crafty Over the Door Hanging Organizers to Maximize your Kitchen Space
- 15. Shoe Cabinets are great to keep Shoes Organized
- Before and After Shoe Organizers
- Organized Shoe Station for the Whole Family
- Unique Ways To Organize Shoes
- How to Organize Socks Once and For All {Sock Organization Options}
- Additional tips to hide things in a small home:
- FAQs About Hiding Clutter in a Small Home
Key Takeaways
- Clutter can negatively impact your well-being, causing hazards, distractions, and stress.
- Before hiding items, declutter and keep only what you love and use regularly.
- Creative solutions to hide things in a small home include using curtains, decorative fabric, baskets, and under-bed storage.
- Utilize vertical space with pegboards and keep closets organized to maximize every inch.
- Check hidden areas regularly to ensure you still need stored items and declutter as necessary.
Now that you decluttered but still have things out, you may be wondering why you need to hide some of this clutter in a small home.
Why hide the stuff in your home?
People often have clutter around the house without realizing that it can have a negative impact on them. See the list below of the ways clutter may be affecting you.
- It can be dangerous. Your stuff can create a hazard on the floor where you can trip and fall.
- The stuff can distract you. It can draw your attention away from what needs to be done without you even knowing it.
- Items left out are usually symbols of incomplete actions that will represent unconsciously or consciously how many things you need to do in your life. This will result in more stress and limit your ability to relax. Below is one of my favorite quotes (affiliate) to share with clients.
"Clutter represents indecisions. Make a decision and clear the clutter." - Sabrina M. Quairoli
These are just a few impacts that can take a toll on your life and home. Now, go and clear that unwanted clutter and actions.
Then, come back to this post and start hiding the wanted stuff. In this post, "clutter" refers to the items you use and want, but do not want to see on a daily basis. Below are some creative storage ideas for a small home that you can use to hide your used items.
1. Use a Pressure Rod and Curtains
Hang a pressure rod and hang a curtain in front of a set of shelves (affiliate). I used one blackout curtain to create two curtains to cover these shelves (affiliate). I cut them, measured the opening, created a place for the pressure rod, and finished off the bottom edge. It was a single straight seam on my sewing machine. That is it. It hides our board games and photo albums.
Updated 2026: We still use these on this cabinet, and they still work great.
2. Decorative Fabric is stapled to Wood and mounted to create a curtain.
I used a fabric, a piece of wood (2 x 2 inches), a staple gun, and 2-3 screws to hide stuff behind an open console table (affiliate). Staple the fabric to the piece of wood by overlapping the fabric to create a fuller look. Then, screw the wood into the bottom of the console vanity table. I used two café curtains here from a discount store.
Visit these vanity organization posts.
Easy DIY Tips to Customize Vanity Drawer
Recently, people were asking me about my do-it-yourself vanity. You see, I share this vanity with my teenage daughter. She has her side, and I have mine. Guess which side is mine?
Vanity Organization Revisited
If you haven't read my blog for a while, you may not know that I share a vanity with my daughter in our shared bathroom. It's a great place to sit and take care of morning activities and it saves space having only one vanity in the bathroom but with a shared space, comes compromise.
3. Solid Baskets to hide the items inside
Use baskets in closets, on the stairs going upstairs as a catch-all small items bin, and other areas to store small items you don't want to see. Visit our 12 ESSENTIAL CONTAINER TYPES to see the variety available. These wicker bins (affiliate) were repurposed in my cabinet for snacks. But they worked well in my bathroom narrow linen closet; check out how I used these bins in my bathroom linen closet.
4. Store Items in Large Zippered Bags
Use your largest bag to hold smaller bags. Or, buy a cheap (large (affiliate)) tote and store all the bags in it. Depending on how large (affiliate) the bag is, you can easily store 3 to 6 bags in the larger zipper bag.
5. Solid False Fronts to Hide Stuff Behind
Use fake book fronts (affiliate), fake pots (affiliate), and fake cans to store valuables. Here are some I found on Amazon (affiliate)(affiliate). You can set up your own by painting a box with a lid that looks like a book. Using a pretty pot with a fake plant inside, remove the faux plant to store valuables.
False Book Boxes Wooden Antique Books
Buy Now →
Fake Pot Diversion Safe with Key Lock
Buy Now →(affiliate)
6. Cabinet Doors In Front of Bookshelves
Get doors for your tall bookshelf (affiliate) cabinets. This is great for a teen girl's room since they have lots of small stuff. Add boxes (affiliate) with lids that fit inside to organize the items even further. We got this bookcase (affiliate) from Ikea, and they have doors that match it. It's a great way to organize a small bedroom (affiliate).
7. Add wicker bins inside tall cabinets.
Measuring and purchasing the right size shallow wicker bins (affiliate) for tall clothing cabinets work well for any bedroom (affiliate) when there is limited drawer space. I did this with my daughter's IKEA cabinet so she could fit more clothing in the cabinet. Check out the posts below for the details.
How to Update a Wardrobe Cabinet for More Storage
Years ago, I purchased and customized a unique wardrobe for my daughter's small room. I've written and shared my other DIY projects for this room. Feel free to check them out. This post will show you how to update a wardrobe cabinet for increased storage space.
Transform an IKEA Wardrobe Cabinet DIY Project
A few years back, I transformed the inside of my daughter's Ikea cabinet (visit it here). This year, I decided to modify the outside of the door and drawers on the side unit of her two-cabinet storage unit.
8. Under the Bed Drawers or Bins
If you have a bed frame, you can easily store items under the bed (affiliate) in zippered or lidded bins to keep them dust-free. These bins are easily accessible and ideal for storing infrequently used items.
Some bed frames (affiliate) have these drawers built into the bed frame itself, making it super easy to organize. IKEA has a large (affiliate) selection of these types of bed frames (affiliate). Feel free to check them out here.
We purchased a full-size platform bed frame for my child's room and ended up with 6 additional cubby spaces to organize small things like hair supplies, tissues, and shoes (affiliate). If it were away from the wall, there would be 9 cubbies to use to organize things. WOW. Great to utilize under-the-bed storage effectively. Check out my post below, where I share the DIY steps to add more storage to our smallest bedroom (affiliate).
Update a Small Bedroom for An Adult
We recently updated our daughter's bedroom as a junior in college. She had a small room, and it was hard to fit a larger bed without sacrificing the space that she desperately needed for her crafts.
15 Fantastic Teenager Bedroom Organization Ideas that Actually Work
A teenager's room can easily look like a tornado hit it, and as a parent, you're tired of the daily fight to clean and organize it. I understand.
9. Use the Space Between Your Refrigerator and the Cabinet or Wall
Some smaller homes have space between the refrigerator and the wall or cabinet. This is an ideal location for installing a pull-out narrow drawer. This area is great for bottles, liquids, sodas, spices (affiliate), herbs (affiliate) and so much more. Be sure to pick one htat is sturdy and can handle the weight of your things. Here is one example from Amazon (affiliate) (affiliate).
5-Tier Plastic Pantry Rolling Cart with Baskets for Narrow Spaces
Buy Now →(affiliate)
10. Maximize Space to Organize a Small Closet
To maximize a small closet, you need to use every inch of it effectively. From corner to corner, from top to bottom, the entire area needs to be well organized. We had one of these small closets, and an associate of mine came out and set it up for maximum usage. We then added hooks and a mirror to the door to utilize the inside of the door too. Check out my post below that talks about how I organized this small closet after I had my associate install shelving (affiliate).
Small Closet Organization: How I Organized a Tiny Bedroom Closet for Under $50
Struggling to fit everything into a small closet? You're not alone. Tiny closets are one of the most common organizing challenges I see - and after 25+ years as a professional organizer, I've learned a few tricks that make a big difference.
11. Hide the chargers and cables
Another set of items you can hide are chargers and cablees. I like hiding them inside decorative boxes (affiliate) near the front door or nightstand (affiliate). All I did was bore a hold in the back to run the cables and store the electrical strip in the box. Check out my posts where I created this cable organizer.
How to Hide the Charger in the Bedroom DIY Project
I'm not a fan of seeing chargers, especially in the bedroom. The charger lights are very bright, and I like a dark room for a restful night's sleep. In fact, for many years, I have hidden my chargers throughout my home. Today, I am going to show you one way you can also hide the
16 Creative Ways to Hide Chargers in Small Spaces
In my smaller home, I realize that several things need to be left out because there isn't enough storage space. Finding a creative way to hide chargers is essential in this size home.
How to Organize Standing Desk Cables
Standing desks have become very popular over the years. But the cables under the standing desk can be unruly. Today, I will share how to easily organize standing desk cables. How much does it cost to organize standing desk cables?
12. Hide your hanging keys
You can even hang your keys near this area too. I created a decorative shadow box and behind it is where we hang the extra keys. Check out the post below.
Hanging Wood Sign to Hide Key {DIY Project}
Hanging wood signs are all the rage these days. Customizing them is easy with a few supplies and a little creativity. You, too, can make these hanging signs special and useful in your home. This one allows for easily hiding things like keys, security keypads, eyesore things on your wall, etc. Basically, anything you want
13. Maximize wall space with pegboards
With a small closet for our tools (affiliate) and no garage (affiliate) to store these items, we decided to make a basement closet an area for our tools (affiliate). This area was only 6 feet wide by 10 feet long so it was tight, I mean really tight with all the shelving (affiliate) we put in it. We found that putting up pegboards and shelving (affiliate) high on the wall to hold the tools (affiliate) helped keep them organized. We were able to add garage (affiliate) bookshelves (affiliate) to support all the other items that needed a home too. Feel free to check out my posts below that talk about our tool closet.
Creative Ways to Organize Tools in a Closet
Update: It has been five years since we organized this closet and there were some updates in the last year that I wanted to share with you.
Easy Tool Closet Organization To Create More Storage Space
Over the years, our tool closet has transformed and expanded its usability to hold EVERYTHING we need to improve our home, complete home craft projects, and repair stuff. Today, I will share with you the next evolution of our tool closet organization.
14. Use over-the-door organizers to maximize storage.
I am a big fan of over-the-door (affiliate) organizers. They are designed to store a variety of things. These items can be stored in a kitchen, bathroom, closet, basically anywhere you need extra bins, and it has a door. Below are posts where I talked about over-the-door (affiliate) organizers.
How to Create an Organized Wrapping Paper Zone
I was looking for a place to store my wrapping paper in my home. While my house is not large, I wanted a place out of the way, like maybe behind a door in a basement closet. I
Crafty Over the Door Hanging Organizers to Maximize your Kitchen Space
An organized home is essential. It helps you control your stuff and doesn't allow your things to control you. However, you must be creative in smaller houses or apartments when organizing to maximize your spaces. I suggest that my clients use the backs of wooden entry doors to hang and store small items. It gives the
15. Shoe Cabinets are great to keep Shoes Organized
In a small home, freestanding or wall-mounted shoe cabinets work great for families. I particularly like the ones from Ikea. But there is a wide variety out there on Amazon (affiliate) and Wayfair. Check out how we organized our family shoes (affiliate) in our small garage (affiliate).
Before and After Shoe Organizers
A family of shoes all in one place can be pretty scary for the novice organizer. But I am here to show you that it's easy to set up a system if you do some planning first. Wow, lots of shoes, I can't believe it!
Organized Shoe Station for the Whole Family
Some time ago, I had reorganized my shoe station for my entire family. Here is the post. The organized shoe station for the whole family needed to include several different areas for everyone's most-used shoes.
Unique Ways To Organize Shoes
Shoes can easily take over the home. Let's do the math. Say there are four people living in a house.
How to Organize Socks Once and For All {Sock Organization Options}
A well-organized sock drawer can shave minutes off your morning routine, end the daily hunt for matching pairs, and stop you from buying socks you already own.
Additional tips to hide things in a small home:
There are several tips to help you find these hidden places and I listed some of my favorites below.
Make sure these are items you want to hide. If I hide these items, will I forget they are there? Some things need to be left out so that you remember to use them. One example is your daily vitamins. We like to keep our vitamins out to remember to take them.
Be sure to organize "behind the curtain," too. Add bins to use in the hidden area for similar small items. Labeling the different containers works great, so you can easily find the right bin.
Check the weight limit before hiding heavy items on a curtain rod or inside a fabric-fronted cabinet. A heavy-duty tension rod holds up better than a cheap one and won't sag or fall after a few months of daily use.
Add a small label (affiliate) or tag inside baskets and bins, even hidden ones. It saves you from digging through every basket when you're searching for one item, and makes it easier for other family members to put things back in the right spot.
If you're hiding items behind a false front or inside a decorative box, keep a simple list on your phone of what's stored where. This is especially helpful for seasonal items, gifts, or anything you won't see again for months; these fake book box safes look great on a shelf but are easy to forget entirely.
If the serving dishes and other platters (affiliate) are not often used, be sure to have them covered so they do not get dusty. Below is one I found on Amazon (affiliate).com (affiliate).
Plate Storage Containers 5-Piece Set Moving Boxes
Buy Now →(affiliate)
FAQs About Hiding Clutter in a Small Home
If you have questions, I put together some frequently asked questions below.
A tension rod and curtain are usually the cheapest fix - no tools, no installation, and you can reuse an old curtain or blackout panel you already own. Baskets are a close second if you want something sturdier than fabric.
Stick to one or two hiding methods per room instead of mixing curtains, baskets, and cabinet doors all in the same space.
Solid-color baskets or fabric in a shade close to your wall color help the "hidden" area blend in rather than stand out.
Only hide items you use but don't want to look at daily, not things you'll forget you own. Daily-use items like vitamins or mail should stay visible so they don't get lost behind a curtain or door.
Tension rods with curtains, freestanding baskets, and large zippered bags all require zero drilling, making them ideal for apartments or rentals.
A quick check every season works well, it's a natural time to confirm you still need what's stored there and to declutter anything you've forgotten about.
I hope these ideas help you and your tiny home. Remember, hiding your clutter will help your room feel spacious, less distracting, and more functional. Try it and see for yourself.
Please leave a comment below on how you hide things in your home. I would love to hear from you.
Below are other posts to keep your small home organized. Feel free to visit ours and other popular posts about organizing small homes and hiding the clutter.
4 Important Benefits of Living in a Small Home by Sabrina's Organizing
17 Clever Ways to Hide Clutter in your home by OneCrazyHouse
16 Creative Ways to Hide Chargers in Small Spaces by Sabrina's Organizing
Lucy Kelly says
Curtains on a tension rod are such a smart idea for this situation, Seana. You can change them out, wash them easily, reach behind and grab what you need - what's not to like?
Julie Stobbe says
I am really glad you started out with decluttering and then hiding. Lately, I have been telling clients to put a note on their phone to remind them where things are stored (hidden) like winter coats, gifts they have purchased. If they don't see the items they forget. I used the space between my filing cabinet and wall to store large envelopes, sheets of paper and posters. I also hide pictures behind the couch until I change out my pictures on the wall to make my place look new again.
Janet Schiesl says
It is always challenging to find homes for items that you don't use often and you have some great suggestions. I'm more challenged to help those clients that want everything out. If it's behind a curtain or cabinet door they won't remember they own it. I find that having clear homes for groups of items is helpful, so we name spaces - the cleaning cabinet, the key drawer - something like that.
Julie Bestry says
Your title was sneaky, of course, because you're not hiding clutter; you're hiding what looks like clutter because it's hard to keep it looking tidy out in the open! I'm afraid I don't have the handy skills to add the curtains or doors, but I am a big fan of corralling things in baskets and behind false fronts. Neato post!
Linda Samuels says
Your title is so enticing. But of course, you're really advocating to release true clutter and make space for things you want...but in a way that doesn't distract us. I love all of your solutions, from bins to curtains to those nifty 'slim' cabinets.
Seana Turner says
This is an interesting idea. By providing a visual barrier between items and their designated storage location, you offer a bit of calm and clarity to your space. I was just talking with a client last week about the curtain idea. The doors on the cabinet beneath her sink are broken, and she doesn't have the budget to have them replaced. We are thinking this might be a good interim solution, so thanks for sharing!
Sabrina Quairoli says
The curtain idea works out well because it can easily be washed when they get dusty and dirty.
Diane N Quintana says
I love your ideas for hiding things in plain sight. I completely agree that these things must be things you need and use because if they aren't they do not need to be stored at all.
siulo darba lietuvoje says
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!