Creative storage solution for apartments in New York City
As everyone knows, apartments in New York City are tight on space and high on price…just a sacrifice to live in possibly the world’s most exciting metropolitan Mecca. Thousands of individuals and families a year pack up house and home and head to the Big Apple for nothing less than fruitful opportunities and larger-than-life adventures. And when they come, they ‘literally’ pick up the house and home!
A typical middle-aged couple moving to New York City from somewhere else in the US (a normal place!) has easily accumulated 10-20 years of ‘stuff’. Stuff from living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, bathrooms, closets, attics, basements, garages, patios…stuff from anywhere and everywhere. Coming from living areas of 1,200 – 3,500 square feet, space is not an issue. Sentimentality isn’t either. Not so in New York City! Our middle-aged couple has two options: quadruple their income or shed a few tears by getting rid of a few things.
Aside from being astronomically more expensive, a typical New York City apartment is 50% smaller in living space than the average American home, say, 750 square feet vs. 1,500 square feet. In Manhattan the difference is 60-70%. Not to mention the lack of a common place for homeowners… a garage! It’s not uncommon for our middle-aged couple to move 2,000 square feet of household supplies into an 800-square-foot apartment. You are right, that is not possible! Which leads to the practical ideas, options, solutions and tips for which this is the first of many more articles.
For this particular article, I want to focus on what I think is the best storage solution for smaller, less bulky items. The main factors considered here are convenience, simplicity, and cost.
Mobile Cabinets
The mobile closet concept was originated by a creative entrepreneur who was born and raised in small apartments in New York City. Seeing the challenges of living in small spaces, he thought of and designed an innovative way to maximize space inside closets, under beds, and in apartment spaces.
A typical mobile closet is the size of a standard apartment closet (6′ x 4′ x 28″) and is literally delivered to your doorstep on wheels. Prior to delivery, you have the option to request a specific interior design of the closet depending on what you want to store, for example, closet rods, shelves or a combination of both After delivery, it will take 24-48 hours to fill the closet with things such as seasonal clothing, holiday items, sports equipment , collections, storage bins, or just smaller things that are easily stored together. When you’re done, lock it with the padlock provided, call the company, and take the locker to a secure storage facility…usually in New Jersey Because real estate is so much cheaper, you want it back, the company usually delivers it within 24 hours.
The cost is usually around $60.00 a month and in most cases includes… Initial closet delivery to your home – Unit rental – Facility space rental – Two or three house returns per year – Free lock and insurance up to $2,000.
Many New Yorkers will testify that mobile closets have helped them free up valuable space in their apartments while eliminating the hassle of doing it all themselves, i.e. driving to and from self-storage facilities, going up and down steps, renting trucks, finding hand construction site or disturbing Uncle Bob on his day off. After all, many in New York don’t even have cars or driver’s licenses. At such low cost and with the added convenience, mobile closets are proving to be one of the most desirable solutions for optimizing small spaces in New York City apartments.