Whether you live in a tiny apartment or just have too much stuff, there's likely a lot of space you aren't using, like your walls, your ceilings, or the nooks and crannies in your furniture. Here's how to use it most efficiently.


10. Hang Your Bike on the Wall


If you're in an apartment, you probably don't have a lot of great places to store your bike outside, and it can take up a lot of floor space just sitting around. We've covered quite a few ways to cheaply mount that bike to your wall, whether it's using tension cables, IKEA storage poles (which can be carpet-friendly if necessary), or just a few 2x4s.

9. Use Your Ceiling for Storage


If you've already exhausted the storage nooks under your bed, the ceiling is ripe with unused space. With just a few wood boards and some elbow grease, you can bolt some storage containers to the ceiling of your garage. If you're garage-less but have some rafters at your disposal, you can hide your storage bins in between them and the ceiling (or even convert them into bookshelves).


8. Float Your Shelves for More Floor Space


If floor space is at a premium, you can maximize it by moving those bookshelves up onto the wall, freeing up the floor for storing other things (and making it easier to clean). Of course, the higher you float it, the more space you have left in the room, so you can float it high and use a library-style ladder to reach it, too.


7. Fold Your Clothes Efficiently for More Drawer and Suitcase Space


Whether you're trying to pack light for a trip or just fit as many clothes into your dresser as you can, proper folding technique is key. For packing a suitcase, you're best off rolling your clothes, stuffing your folds, or using the bundled packing method for a space-efficient, wrinkle-free suitcase. Suit wearers will want to brush up on folding and packing a suit coat the right way, too. At home, make sure you know how to fold a dress shirt effectively to save closet space, and fill your drawers from front to back instead of top to bottom for easy access.


6. Hide Your Pet Necessities in Modified Furniture


Most animals are pretty small, but it seems like their stuff takes up as much space as yours. If you've got litterboxes all over the house, try hiding them inside an easy-entry cabinet, under the sink, or even under the landing strip by your door. And, if your cat needs more space to move around but you've maxed out your floor space, this bookcase-turned-cat-tree should make him/her pretty happy.


5. Consolidate Your Space with Multi-Purpose Furniture


There are only so many desks and tables we can fit into one room, so if your apartment's feeling cluttered, why not make some convertible furniture? With a bit of work, you can build a coffee table that converts into a dining room table, put your whiteboard on your coffee table or desk, or even a folding table that doubles as a picture frame.


4. Use Your Vertical Space with a Wall Garden


Gardening is a great hobby to have, but it requires quite a bit of space—something few of us have to spare in our apartments. Save your floors, shelves, porches, and balconies by building a vertical wall garden with gutters, a shoe organizer, a simple wooden trellis, or a more complicated (but authentic) wall frame. If you really want to use your vertical space, you can grow a large green curtain that'll also cut down on cooling costs.


3. Use Every Inch of Your Shelves


Shelves are a great way to store your stuff, but if you find even your shelves are cluttered, there are other ways to maximize your usable space. With the magic of magnets, you can store things on the underside of your shelves or on the wall behind them. You can also save a lot of shelf space by using collapsible items in your kitchen.


2. Build Your Home Theater Into Your House


We're pretty big home theater geeks here at Lifehacker, but no one wants all that hardware cluttering up their living room. To get it out of sight, try building a home theater PC into your entertainment center, hide your accessories behind your TV screen, or mount it on the back of your entertainment center with pegboard.


1. Get Your Computer Peripherals Off Your Desk


Of course, us computer geeks have spent many man-hours accumulating PC hardware and accessories, and our desk space suffers as a result. Get your peripherals off your desk by storing them in your monitor stand, hanging them on your wall with magnets, or building a small shelf on the back of your monitor. You can also get your home network gear up on the wall with some pegboard, as well as save some floor space by hanging your PC tower on the wall.


Got any clever space-saving tips of your own? How are you taking advantage of all the space in your house or apartment? Share with us in the comments.