Clean Sweep: Woman’s ’so easy’ $70 Bunnings storage hack

A woman has shared her genius storage solution that won’t damage your property, fits any space and is a bargain. Need we say more?

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It’s a situation all long-term renters will be familiar with. How do you maximise your storage when you move into a new place without breaking the bank or damaging the walls?

Jessica Holsman knows this feeling all too well having moved into a two-bedroom apartment with her husband five weeks ago.

“When we walked in it wasn’t exactly what we would have liked, but we saw the potential,” she told news.com.au.

“The space itself is great but the carpets are brown as brown can get, the lighting was really dull and yellow. It didn’t feel that spacious, it didn’t feel that warm and cosy.”

But the Melbourne-based influencer and author who has more than 40,000 followers on her @studywithjess Instagram account, was determined not to let tired carpet and bad lighting ruin her home.

The 29-year-old spent $222 transforming her rental into a liveable space with a few storage tricks, sharing the makeover – which was a collaboration with Bunnings – with her followers.

Jessica Holsman is an author and influencer. Picture: Instagram/@studywithjess

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‘REALLY AFFORDABLE’ WARDROBE STORAGE TRICK

Rather than buying a chest of drawers or wooden shelves, Jess opted for a series of hanging shelves which she says has been a serious gamechanger.

She bought two six-shelf hanging organisers for $9 each, a nine shelf one for $12.98, a three-tier shoe rack for $25.75 and two wire storage baskets for $6.30 each – meaning her clothes storage cost $69.33 total.

“I love the hanging storage for a couple of reasons. One, it’s really affordable, they’re really cheap,” Jess said. “Two, they can fit into any wardrobe which is fantastic, and three, there is basically no assembly to do, you just open them out of the box and hang them up.”

Rather than buying a chest of drawers Jess purchased $70 worth of hanging organisers. Picture: Instagram/@studywithjess

She said the hanging organisers keep her clothes tidy and aired. Picture: Instagram/@studywithjess

Jess said the solution was not only cheap and “so easy” to do, but it also kept clothes tidy and smelling fresh.

“Having the hanging drawers like that in a wardrobe it means there is always that fresh air going through so your clothes don’t really have that stale sort of smell,” she said.

“Also with drawers sometimes it’s hard to see everything that is in there – you might have a tendency to just throw everything in, in the one go, whereas with a hanging wardrobe you kind of have to keep it nice and folded.”

With no space for a big coffee table Jess created one that would slide under her couch for storage. Picture: Instagram/@studywithjess

DIY YOUR COFFEE TABLE

When Jess and her husband moved into their new apartment they were hit with a roadblock in their living room – the space wasn’t big enough to fit the coffee table they had in their previous place.

Determined not to lose out on the storage their previous coffee table had given them, Jess scoured Pinterest for a solution.

She bought a 45cm x 90cm piece of wood for $9 and attached $4.80 swivel wheels from Bunnings.

She made it using a piece of wood from Bunnings that she painted white and put wheels on the bottom. Picture: Instagram/@studywithjess

“I just took the measurements from my couch and found a plank that would slide underneath really nicely and then painted it white,” Jess said.

“That was my little DIY solution if you have lots of magazines and books, if you need somewhere to store your tissue box or remote controls for the aircon unit, the TV. You can just have it all there and it’s discreet so you don’t even know it’s there.”

OTHER TIPS FOR RENTERS

Don’t invest money into anything you can’t take with you: “First off, when you’re renting you don’t want to invest a lot of money into a property that’s not yours and anything you do purchase you do want to be able to take with you,” Jess said. “So really simply don’t redo the carpet even if it is toilet brown, get some great rugs and take them with you. If I’m looking at doing up the garden I wouldn’t be planting plants directly into the soil, I’d be using pots.”

No natural light? No problem: “I need to feel like I’m in a bright, open, airy space,” Jess said. “I went to Bunnings and I bought maybe six boxes of cold daylight light bulbs and changed out all the globes. It was an immediate shift in the environment of our home – that was something I would definitely recommend.”

Use adhesive hooks to keep things tidy: Hooks that don’t leave holes or marks on walls can be used for more than just hanging art — use them for keeping anything you need on hand in a tidy but easy-to-see spot. “I have a growing collection of adhesive command hooks of all different sizes,” Jess said. “That just reduces the clutter and it’s really easy to do, it won’t bother the landlord – if they don’t like adhesive hooks you can just take them off when you’re having an inspection.”

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