The Best Gear for Small Apartments in 2023

Jan 13, 2024

Small homes are fragile ecosystems. Throw in some clutter, and a small space becomes chaotic, cramped, and generally unpleasant. But when everything’s in harmony and organized, even the tiniest space can feel expansive and refreshingly minimalist.

Drawing on hundreds of hours of research, testing, and our own lived experiences, we’ve put together a list of essentials to help you make the most of every inch of your small space.

To find pragmatic solutions that work for tiny-home owners, as well as for renters who can’t rebuild their spaces, we spoke with small-space experts, including Graham Hill of LifeEdited, Erin Boyle of Reading My Tea Leaves (we love her Life in a Tiny Apartment series), Erin Doland of Unclutterer, and professional home organizer Laura Cattano.

Our experts helped us define the following five principles for living in small spaces:

Every square foot counts in a small home. Though you might not have a foyer, you probably do have some kind of entry hall, wall, or nook that you can use for storing coats and shoes and maybe even a bike or two. A shoe rack, a wall-mounted coat rack, and a storage bench all allow you to store a lot of stuff while using minimal floor space. For options beyond what you see here, take a look at our guides to organizing your small entryway, our favorite hooks, and great coat racks.

The Mollie Hook’s small frame fits as much gear as racks two or three times the size, and this hook can squeeze functionality out of spots that would otherwise go unused.

Short of buying a large coat rack, the easiest way to double or triple the storage space in your entryway is with the compact Mollie Hook from Schoolhouse. With six hooks on a 7-by-6½-inch frame, it holds nearly as much as bigger coat racks we tried, but it can still fit on small walls or in otherwise unusable nooks. Its 4-inch depth also means it won’t interfere in a narrow hallway. We like the modern look of the wood-and-metal Mollie more than that of any hook or coat rack we’ve considered. Plus, it has rounded knobs that will prevent things from falling off, but they aren’t so big that they make it difficult to remove items quickly. Available in four different knob colors and two finishes, with matching hardware, this hook is a great way to functionally spruce up a cramped space.

This rack can be mounted on a wall or behind a door, and it’s one of only a couple we found with tri-hooks, which maximize storage space and can reduce wear and tear on clothing and gear.

The 27-inch Liberty Flared Tri-Hook Rack is a workhorse that could fit with many styles. It can be mounted to a wall or on the back of a standard-size door, and it supports up to 35 pounds. Its three-point hooks maximize storage space and can minimize wear and tear on clothing and gear (hanging bulky or heavy items over multiple hooks can spread out their weight). The Liberty is available with a white backing board and either satin nickel or white hooks, and though its aesthetic isn’t exactly groundbreaking, this rack is classic enough that it can adapt to nearly any decor. It comes with screws, but no additional hardware for drywall. For this, we suggest ⅛-by-3-inch toggle bolts. If you’re looking for something slightly more modern, check out our guide to coat racks.

The solid yet compact three-hook KES is available in several finishes and is easy to install, and it comes with mounting hardware for wood or drywall.

If you don’t have room for a full coat rack or simply don’t need that many hooks, we recommend the KES Solid Metal Swivel Hook. It consists of a single mount with three swiveling hooks that can fold flat against the wall when not in use. Compared with the other two swivel hooks we tested, the KES hook moved smoothly—it wasn’t too loose or too tight. It installs easily and has a hidden mounting plate, so you won’t see any fasteners once it’s up on the wall. It’s also one of the few models that come with all the necessary mounting hardware. We tested the KES up to 25 pounds, which is more than enough to hold standard items like coats, hats, and laptop bags. It’s available in several finishes and costs less than $20. It’s inexpensive enough that you could get two or three, depending on your needs.

This rack succeeds where most fail: It’s wobble-free and assembles in minutes. It holds more shoes, of a wider variety, than many freestanding racks we tested, and it seems like it will last a long time.

The Seville Classics 3-Tier Resin Slat Utility Shoe Rack is slim and easy to assemble and configure multiple units to suit any space. And it’s more stable than any other shoe rack we tried in 30 hours of research and testing for our guide to shoe racks. Its unique fold-open frame was something we couldn’t find elsewhere, and it made this rack the easiest to put together. The Seville comes with three resin slat shelves. Multiple units easily stack vertically or connect horizontally to create added space. At 12 inches deep and 27 inches wide, the Seville is large enough to accommodate up to a men’s size 12 shoe, but not so deep that it would impose on a narrow hallway or small entry area. The space between shelves easily fits most shoes, and the open top shelf is ideal for larger boots or tall heels.

Simple to set up and take down, this graceful yet sturdy two-bike stand can easily be adjusted to fit any type of bike.

Minimal, inexpensive, and effective, the Delta Cycle Michelangelo Two-Bike Gravity Stand provides vertical storage, which is the most compact way to keep bikes in a small space. The Michelangelo is even slim enough to store bikes in a narrow hallway. From start to finish, this bike stand can be assembled in as little as 20 minutes—a handful of metal rods clip together, and it attaches to the wall with only one screw. The Michelangelo has movable arms that adjust to fit any size bike (or to bring your frame closer toward the wall) and extra hooks for accessories (although we’ve had issues with those staying in place). Its maximum load is an ample 80 pounds. If you’d prefer a different style or one that would allow you to use space behind a door or in a corner, check out our guide to bike racks for apartments.

This foldable bench assembles in seconds and offers ample interior storage for a fraction of the price of any other storage bench we considered.

The Seville Classics Foldable Storage Bench Ottoman is a cheap way to add extra storage space. With great ratings on Amazon, it looks surprisingly nice for the price. And it holds more stuff than other storage benches we considered, such as the pricier George Oliver Valerio Upholstered Storage Bench (although that one is slightly more stylish). The Seville Classics bench arrives flat in the mail (no need for a furniture delivery service) and is a breeze to assemble thanks to its basic fold-out design. Rated to hold 500 pounds (when evenly distributed), it felt very stable under the weight of one person in our tests, and the interior easily held our testers’ two yoga mats, three throw pillows, and chunky wool blanket. Plus, with a width of 31.5 inches, it should fit in an entryway or at the end of a bed, providing storage as well as somewhere to sit.

Many small apartments have only one room to handle both living and dining. As a result, you have to be efficient in how you allocate space. Every piece of furniture needs to perform its task well, and it’s even better if it can do two things. Similarly, the more stuff you can get off the floor and onto the walls, the more spacious the room will feel.

The Sonos One sounds great on its own and is an affordable entry point to the Sonos system. Plus it may be the best-sounding voice-activated speaker around.

Sonos speakers are designed to fill your whole house with sound—allowing you to play different music and podcasts in each room—but they’re great for small spaces, too. Unlike a Bluetooth or an AirPlay speaker, a Sonos speaker doesn’t depend on your phone as an audio source. So you can choose what to play and then move around freely, take calls, watch videos, or whatever, with no disruption to the music that’s playing. We’ve tested every system worth trying, and Sonos remains the best. It supports more streaming services and has a more streamlined search than anything else, and every speaker the company offers sounds amazing. The Sonos One is an affordable entry point to the system: It may be small, but it’s loud enough to fill almost any room in a small apartment with great sound, and it’s even Alexa-enabled.

The BenQ HT2050A has the best contrast ratio in its class and more realistic color than the competition, and it’s brighter than some projectors that cost a lot more.

A projector turns even the smallest room into a home theater and eliminates the need to have a big TV. Although you can spend several thousand dollars on a top-notch projector, those are designed for permanent home-theater setups and can be quite large and difficult to hide. A cheaper model will be just as bright (if not brighter) and easier to store when not in use. After testing the latest sub-$1,000 projectors, we think you’ll love looking at the picture produced by the BenQ HT2050A. It uses an RGBRGB color wheel that produces richer, more vibrant colors than many budget DLP projectors. This 1080p projector is also much easier to set up than other sub-$1,000 projectors we tried, thanks to a flexible lens with both zoom and vertical shift; this gives you more flexibility in where you can put the projector while still providing a perfectly aligned image.

This air mattress is supportive and tall, and there’s excellent customer support if anything goes wrong.

Entertaining overnight guests in a small home can be challenging. Your best bet is a temporary bed that you can pack away when it’s not in use. After looking at 21 affordable options, including a camping pad and a futon, we determined that the twin-size SoundAsleep Air Mattress (also in queen) is the best air mattress for most people. It comes with an integrated pump to automatically inflate the mattress to optimum firmness or deflate it completely for storage. The SoundAsleep’s flocked top sits 19 inches above the floor, making it easier to get in and out of than thinner air mattresses we tried. It also comes with a one-year warranty (important, because all air mattresses are susceptible to leaks).

If you’re hesitant to invest in an item that may eventually fail, consider the Texsport Deluxe Folding Camp Cot, which several members of our staff have used and recommend. This cot is more appropriate for sleepers who prefer very firm support, but our staffers report that it's also sturdy, comfortable, and pleasantly raised up off the floor.

BenchMade Modern makes the highest-quality sofas we tried and puts customization within reach of the average person. It can quickly manufacture sofas to a customer’s size and fabric specifications, typically within a month.

The BenchMade Modern Skinny Fat Sofa was one of the most comfortable, well-constructed, and customizable sofas we tested while writing our guide to the best online sofas. It’s a little more expensive than other models we tried, but we think the quality and the quick turnaround time to complete an order (less than a month, compared with eight to 12 weeks for some other brands) are worth the cost. Made in the United States from alder hardwood, the BenchMade has a stronger frame and more meticulous construction than most others we tried, and its clean lines and contemporary design should look great in a variety of homes. We also love this sofa’s wide range of available fabrics: There are nearly 100 different colors and textures to choose from. BenchMade Modern stocks this model in eight ready-made sizes, and it also offers you the option of customizing the sofa’s length (which is especially useful for tiny spaces or if you want something to fit exactly in a particular spot). The company has excellent customer support and reliable delivery, so even if you don’t like this particular style, we think you’ll be happy with another model from this brand.

Counter and cabinet space is usually at a premium in a small kitchen. We’ve found that the best solutions involve smartly organizing shelves, utilizing wall space, and selecting smaller versions of appliances whenever possible. You can find even more space-saving solutions in our guide to making the most out of a small kitchen.

You can adjust this expandable shelf riser to fit the size of most cabinets and capitalize on vertical space.

The Seville Classics Expandable Kitchen Counter and Cabinet Shelf is the best we’ve found for a range of cabinet sizes. In our testing, this heavyweight iron riser was very sturdy, and because it expands from 15¾ to 30 inches wide, it uses the entire width of a cabinet, creating no dead space (a problem with most risers). At 5 inches tall, it allowed us to slide nine dinner plates below the shelf.

If you have tall cabinets with few shelves and want to maximize vertical space, we recommend Organized Living’s double risers. These heavy-gauge steel risers are very sturdy, and we found them to be leagues ahead of identical-looking ones we tested from The Container Store. For storing large dishes, we’d go with the rectangular rack, which accommodated a 19-piece dish set with room to spare. The square version wasn’t big enough for large dinner plates, but it would work particularly well for spices or squat bowls.

These sturdy metal pegboards are a great way to make use of unused wall space. They’re easy to install, and they securely hold pots, pans, and utensils.

A quick tour through Pinterest shows countless Julia Child–inspired kitchen pegboards hung with pots, pans, and utensils. Unfortunately, old-school masonite pegboards are prone to sagging and deteriorating over time. That’s why we like the durable, 20-gauge steel Wall Control Metal Pegboard with pre-drilled holes for hanging and a flange around each edge. According to the company, when it’s properly installed, a single 16-by-32-inch panel should hold up to 200 pounds.

The addition of vertical slots (to the standard holes) sets these boards apart. Wall Control’s matching hooks (in a variety of sizes holding 5 to 10 pounds each) lock into the board and don’t fall out as easily as round hooks (although you can use those, too). The metal holes also won’t droop or rip when hardware falls out. We found the 1⅞-inch hooks and 2⅞-inch hooks to be the most useful for hanging pots, pans, and utensils.

The downside to the Wall Control boards is that they aren’t as customizable as masonite boards, which can be cut to size (say, if you want to fill an entire wall). But we like that they come in 10 colors. You could add magnetic spice jars to these, or hang a few panels in a closet to make a compact station for storing tools, ironing boards, or other housekeeping equipment in one spot.

Counter space is at a premium in a small kitchen, and a small but mighty dish rack that holds a full load of dishes makes cleanup more efficient and less of a pain.

If you have fewer than 14 square inches of counter space, get the Chef’n Dish Garden, which can handle all of the dishes in a two-person household. None of the other compact racks we considered held dishes or drained nearly as well as the Chef’n. It works in the sink or on the counter, and its steeply angled base ensures good drainage. Though the Chef’n’s circular shape might seem like a waste of space, it holds more than other compact racks because the design includes cup holders around its circumference. This rack holds items upright with tall plastic prongs, allowing dishes to be placed in any direction.

The Chef’n comes with two utensil holders that can be placed anywhere on the rack, adding to its flexibility. And the drain spout flips up to close, so you can move the rack around without worrying that water will leak. The textured exterior prevents glasses from suctioning themselves to the plastic, a problem we found with lesser plastic racks we tested for our guide to dish racks. The main complaint among 440-some Amazon reviewers (who awarded it, on average, 4.7 stars) was that the rack was small—which is pretty much what a tiny space calls for.

If you don’t have a sink that can accommodate a dish-draining tray, get two of these absorbent pads—and you can hang one to dry while you use the other.

As an alternative to a small dish-draining tray, try these microfiber dish-drying mats. Wirecutter’s Christine Cyr Clisset keeps two of these on hand (rotating them between uses), and folds them in half, since she has only 9½ inches of drying space between the sink and the wall. These would pair well with our compact drying rack, if you’re concerned about cups dripping around the edges. Christine has also found that the mats work well as a drop cloth under a baby’s high chair and, in a pinch, as a compact bath mat.

This small Simplehuman trash can sits securely on a cabinet door and frees up space in a snug kitchen.

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The 2.6-gallon Simplehuman In-Cabinet Trash Can hangs inside a cabinet door, so it’s great for kitchens where there’s little space for a full-size can. Because this trash can is only about 8 inches wide, you should still have plenty of room to store cleaning supplies and other items under the sink. It’s smaller than a full-size can (which are usually 8 gallons or larger), so you may have to empty it frequently, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering how smells can permeate small spaces.

The Simplehuman was the only cabinet can we found with a lid—something that’s essential for reducing odor and keeping pests away. You can also hang it on the front of a cabinet during food prep, or remove the hook and mount the can directly to the cabinet. You can read more about why we like it in our full review of kitchen trash cans.

This rolling cart has two shelves that provide ample storage space, and its surface is wide enough to fit a large cutting board.

A rolling cart or island is a simple way to increase counter and storage space in a small kitchen. The IKEA Bekväm Kitchen Cart was the sturdiest cart we tried and the easiest to assemble. Its two wheels allow the cart to move around your kitchen, giving you extra prep space or surface area where you need it. Two shelves provide you with extra storage space for appliances or mixing bowls. At a compact 19⅝ by 22⅞ inches, the Bekväm is the perfect size to slot in next to a standard, 24-inch-deep counter (although at 33½ inches high, it’s slightly shorter than standard counter height, so it may not line up seamlessly). The Bekväm’s untreated-wood construction isn’t ideal—it stains easily and can be difficult to clean—but you could seal the top surface yourself to prevent damage. For additional guidance on small-kitchen storage ideas check out our guide.

This handy rack is one of the best we found for making the most out of underutilized fridge surface space. It holds a lot of different kinds of items, and its strong magnets don’t budge.

The Yamazaki Magnetic Kitchen Organization Rack creatively takes advantage of unused space on your fridge’s front or sides while adding extra storage. If you don’t have room to accommodate a pegboard, this piece would be a useful alternative. It includes a small shelf with six hooks for hanging dish towels, pot holders, or kitchen tools; a mid-tier rod for a roll of paper towels; and an upper shelf designed to hold heavy bottles of oil or vinegar. The paper-towel rod lacks a stopper, though, which could lead to the roll sliding off. The magnets are surprisingly strong, and even when the rack was fully loaded, it didn’t slip (but it does come with screws if you’d rather mount it to the wall). The simple, white design is unobtrusive and will blend right in with a white fridge.

Many small apartments and houses don’t have adequate closet space, but you can still keep your clothes organized and clean with some creative solutions. Compact furnishings help you make the most out of a cramped space, and smart accessories create extra storage in unused places. If you’re looking for more organizing ideas, check out our closet guide, or see additional unique storage solutions in our small-bedroom guide.

This durable and easy-to-use rack is ideal for holding coats, towels, and bathrobes, and it takes advantage of otherwise unused space on the back of the door.

After looking at dozens of models and testing two, we’ve found that the Spectrum Duchess Over the Door 5-Hook Rack is the best around. It’s solidly built, and the oval nubs at the ends of the hooks are smooth enough that they shouldn’t damage delicate fabrics, unlike the blunt, mushroom-like ends on another Spectrum rack we tried. The Duchess rack measures 19⅜ inches wide and 12¼ inches high, with a 1¾-inches-wide hanging bracket that should fit over most interior doors.

In our testing, the rack hung easily on a 1½-inch-thick door. There was a quarter-inch overhang in the bracket, so the rack wiggled a little, but not enough to prove annoying. The bracket didn’t scrape the door paint, although we did find one user comment that said the bracket made it hard to shut the door—but this could be an issue with any over-the-door rack. The Spectrum Duchess should be able to hold heavy bags and bulky jackets without bending or breaking.

This affordable bed was the only one we found with a spring-loaded platform that lifts up the mattress to provide lots of storage inside when you don’t have enough clearance for pull-out drawers.

The IKEA Malm is an affordable storage bed that is easy to use in a tiny bedroom or cramped corner. Instead of drawers, it has a spring-assisted lift that elevates the mattress, revealing hidden storage inside. Unlike beds with drawers, the Malm doesn’t require any clearance around the sides, which is especially useful when square footage is at a premium. The Malm provides as much—or possibly slightly more—storage as beds with drawers we considered. It’s also got a relatively small footprint for a queen-size bed, at 83½ inches long by 66⅛ inches wide. For all its functionality, though, the Malm probably won’t replace a dresser, since its interior isn’t as easily accessible as those of beds with drawers. If you want to invest in a pricey but sophisticated storage bed, we also like the Blu Dot Modu-licious queen bed. It’s at least three times the price of the Malm, but it’s a worthy investment if you know you’ll be living in a small apartment for the foreseeable future. For more small-bedroom ideas and other sleep suggestions, check out our guide to small bedrooms.

Chic and affordable, our favorite wall-mounted cubby will hold your bedside necessities without using any floor space.

The Umbra Bijou Floating Shelf Cubby is an awesome little multipurpose piece of furniture. Though it’s not explicitly a nightstand, the Bijou offers an attractive way to store bedside essentials without taking up floor space. The 16-by-8-inch surface has ample room for books, an alarm clock, and any other small items you may need at night. The Bijou looks like it should cost far more than it does, with a clean, sophisticated design that should complement many styles. It comes fully assembled, with an iron-sheet cubby and a ¾-inch melamine top. When mounted to the wall (with the included anchors), it feels sturdy and can hold up to 10 pounds.

The spring-loaded tension rod that comes in this kit was easier to install than any other style we tried, and it comes with a luxe-looking, heavyweight curtain, available in 16 colors and patterns.

May be out of stock

May be out of stock

Stylish curtain-style room dividers are few and far between, but Room Dividers Now offers a variety of sizes and styles, and they’re of excellent quality. The quickest-to-install divider we found was the Room Dividers Now Tension Rod Room Divider Kit, which contains a spring-loaded tension rod and curtain. It was easier to assemble than others we tried (the tension rod mounts just like a shower rod), and it comes with a satiny, heavyweight polyester curtain that looks luxe. The curtains are available in 16 colors and patterns and five sizes (ranging from 2 to 12 feet wide). You might also consider the hardware-free End2End Room Divider Kit, which we tested and liked, or its other, more permanent options that require mounting.

One of the main benefits of a small space is that there’s less to clean and maintain. On the flip side, even the slightest mess is highly visible. Having the right tools makes dealing with messes, laundry day, and home improvement projects that much easier.

This rack provides lots of drying space, mounts on the wall, and folds into itself for compact storage.

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If you don’t have space to store a compact folding rack, a wall-mounted option can fit most of a small load of laundry. We like the Polder Wall-Mount 24-Inch Accordion Drying Rack, which takes up almost no space when folded but gives you 12¼ feet of drying space when expanded. If you get clever with your drying configurations and use some hangers on the sides, you can fit a full load of wet laundry on it. There’s a 22-pound weight limit, but we were able to load it past that without it showing signs of distress. The Polder also comes with all the hardware you need to install it, including drywall anchors.

We like the Polder’s plastic-over-steel design more than all-steel designs, such as that of the Aero-W, because it’s much more affordable—the Polder costs about a third of the price. If you have a larger household and could use the extra line space and weight capacity, an all-metal version is worth looking into.

These clips are essential for air drying delicates or hand-washed items, without having to set up a full drying rack.

For delicates and smaller items, we like the Ipow Laundry Clips. Available in a 12-pack, they fit over a shower rod and are ideal for hanging delicates and baby clothes, or for stringing towels or jeans between a pair. They’re more versatile than clips mounted together on a single hanger—they can accommodate even larger items like sheets or towels. We found the Ipow clips easier to use and even more convenient than our former pick, the Whitmor Clip and Drip Add-On Hangers.

These bags are quick to compress, and they reduced more volume than others we tested.

Vacuum bags can compress bulky jackets and bedding to a fraction of their size. After researching 18 and testing three, we decided that the SpaceSaver Vacuum Storage Bags are the best available. They shrank better than the rest, did so faster, and held their seal longer. The jumbo bags we tested (30 by 40 inches) could comfortably hold a queen-size comforter or a few pillows. When filled with fluffy bedding, pillows, and clothes, the SpaceSaver bags compressed by just over 60 percent, which was more than others we tried, but not quite living up to the advertised 75 to 80 percent compression. Wirecutter senior staff writer Jackie Reeve used these bags for a cross-country move, and though they worked relatively well, some of the bags lost their seal. She recommends storing your compressed bags in a plastic bin; almost all vacuum bags will eventually lose their seal, and this can help items stay compressed longer.

For everyday use inside the house, these tightly latching, clear containers are the most versatile we’ve found for storing clothes and other gear. They’re also available at multiple stores.

The Iris Weathertight Totes are the best way to store seasonal clothes, winter gear, camping stuff, or whatever else might need to get tucked away in a closet. They’re available in more sizes (12) than any other bins we’ve tested, and they come in options shallow enough to fit under a bed, if that’s what you need. They seal tightly with a foam gasket in the lid and four to six latches around the edge (most bins include two). The Iris bins’ straight sides also make them easier to fill than those with sloped walls. You can buy these totes in lots of different stores, too.

This well-designed step stool can safely hold up to 225 pounds. It looks great if you need to store it in plain sight, and it comes at a better price than other ladders.

The Xtend + Climb SL2Hlight step ladder combines function, safety, and style better than any other one we found. With a slimmer size than our normal top-pick step stool, the SL2Hlight is small enough to fit in most closets, but it looks good enough that you could store it in the open if need be.

The SL2Hlight can safely hold up to 225 pounds, and the top step is 20 inches high. It opens and closes easily and has a safety bar, which is handy for carrying it around or bracing yourself while on the top step. In testing, we found that it has a solid feel with no loose or wobbly parts—unlike another stool we tried, the Hailo Mini Comfort, which lacked a safety bar and had slightly wobbly treads. The SL2Hlight also has nonslip rubber feet. For storage, it folds down to a thin 2 inches thick—perfect for hanging on the back of a door or sliding between the fridge and the wall. If you’re looking for something more utilitarian, we recommend the Gorilla 2-Step Aluminum Step Stool Ladder.

This nimble, high-tech model is light, powerful, and easy to maneuver. But it doesn’t stand up on its own, and its dustbin is small.

In a small apartment, there’s less floor area to vacuum. So you can use a cordless vacuum without having to worry about battery life. The Dyson V12 Detect Slim has as much cleaning power as a great plug-in vac. Cordless vacs are also a wonderful fit for small apartments because they don’t get hung up on corners, as plug-in vacuums can, and they take up less storage space. The V12 Detect comes with multiple brushes and attachments, and it runs for 45 minutes on a single charge—longer than most cordless vacuums we’ve tested. Also, it weighs just over 5 pounds, so it’s easy to maneuver around tight spaces, and it converts into a hand vac. The wall-mountable charging dock lets you take advantage of vertical storage. This vac is expensive, but it’s built to thrive in a small space.

The i4 EVO is better than competitors at getting pet hair out of rugs, and its nimble nav system helps it consistently and thoroughly clean large spaces. Like any iRobot Roomba model, it should be durable.

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If you have furry pets or live in a bigger city with air pollution, the iRobot Roomba i4 EVO is essential for maintenance: It works constantly in the background to reduce day-to-day dust and pet hair. It’s relatively unobtrusive and has a durable, repairable design, so it will last for years (in the right hands). An apartment is the ideal place to use a robot vacuum because single-story layouts and small areas are easy to navigate. But even so, some robot vacs we tested needed constant monitoring to keep them on track. The iRobot Roomba vacs have fewer issues with getting stuck or quitting cleaning mid-session. So you’ll spend less time untangling and monitoring the vac and more time enjoying a clean home.

The Anvil packs all of the essentials in a small package at a great price, making it the best choice for common home repairs and upgrades.

We like the Anvil Homeowner’s Tool Set, which has everything you need for minor home repairs and fits in a compact box that you can tuck away in a closet. In our review of toolkits, we found that the Anvil set provided the necessary items without any useless filler inflating the tool count—and the price—which was a common flaw we saw in competitors’ kits. Beyond a hammer, tape measure, utility knife, screwdriver, and hex wrenches—as well as adequate versions of other tools we consider essential—the Anvil kit also had one of the best adjustable wrenches we found in any kit.

This manual screwdriver combines smooth ratcheting action with excellent bit storage and a uniquely comfortable handle to make it the most well-rounded, capable tool of its kind.

Since the screwdriver is the most-often-used tool in a kit, we recommend upgrading to the Megapro 13-in-1 Ratcheting Driver 211R2C36RD or the rebranded (but otherwise identical) Channellock 131-CB 13-in-1 Ratcheting Screwdriver, both of which we reviewed in our best screwdriver guide. We also think anyone would benefit from the über-tiny Stanley PowerLock 33-115 Pocket Tape Measure. It’s a mini version of our pick for the best tape measure, and its diminutive size makes it a great kitchen-drawer tool. It can measure up to 10 feet, and the blade is coated in a durable Mylar polymer that withstands wear and tear. It’s also small enough to fit in a pocket, so it’s a good grab-and-go item for when you’re shopping for furniture.

Your bathroom may be a sanctuary. Or you may be able to touch both walls at the same time and have nowhere to put your toilet paper. But the two don’t necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. (See our guide to small bathrooms.)

Over-the-toilet racks get a bad rap, but this one should keep you happy with its attractive appearance, durable construction, and sliding doors that won’t invade your airspace.

If your bathroom has limited storage space and you don’t want to mount cabinets or shelving, a set of shelves that stands over the toilet can be a useful—if imperfect—solution. For our full guide to small-bathroom ideas, we researched (but didn’t test) 20 over-the-toilet rack models and found the Bamboo Over the Toilet Space Saver unit to be the best choice for durability and hiding clutter. It was one of the sturdiest units we considered, according to reviewers, and its sliding doors are a plus for compact areas, since they don’t require additional space to open. We’ve been recommending this rack for several years under the brand name Rebrilliant, but recently found it’s now simply called “Bamboo.” Reviewers confirm that this unit is fairly easy to assemble, but some have noticed the bamboo splintering or cracking during assembly. For added stability, we recommend anchoring it to the wall.

At a width of 27.6 inches, this rack will fit around an average-size toilet with a few inches of clearance on either side. Make sure there is half an inch of clearance between where the unit will stand and the toilet tank (and remember that if your walls have baseboards, it won’t stand flush against the wall).

This is the best-constructed organizer we’ve found. It doesn’t tip over (like other sets do), and you can screw the frame into the bottom of your vanity if you want added stability.

With promo code STUDENT, store pickup

One of the best ways to optimize storage in a small bathroom is to take full advantage of the space under your sink. The Container Store’s Silver 2-Drawer Mesh Organizer can tame even the messiest of cabinets. It’s the best we tried because of its tall-but-narrow construction, which fits around pipes; this makes good use of the vertical space that’s hard to use due to the plumbing below your sink. This organizer was also more durable overall than others we tested. The drawers require no assembly, and they fit taller items better than the competition. And this one comes with four eyelet holes in the bottom, so you can screw it into the bottom of your vanity if you’re worried about it toppling over from the excess weight of many bottles.

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