Don’t we just love clever shortcuts, quick fixes and simple remedies that help us make the most of our homes? These 10 ideas may not make your life much easier, but they will definitely make your place better-organized and more beautiful.

1. Cable wall art

You hate to see cables all around the house? Well, a curse of tangled cords is the price we pay for the blessing of life-improving electronics … a kind of an inescapable dependence until wireless energy transmission becomes widespread. For now, we can do two things: hide whatever can be hidden and camouflage what has to stay in sight. An example? Creative pins that give a funny twist to a room and make you think the cable’s there to serve as decoration rather than just carry electricity.  If you can get rid of something, try to find ways to tap into its potential and make the best of what you’re doomed for.

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2. Wall storage bins

Never underestimate the power of first impressions. Just as inappropriate clothing can rule you out at a job interview, your entryway pretty much sets the tone for how your guests will feel about you as a host. Shoes piling next to the front door are never a good welcoming message, and this is often the case when there are a lot of people at home and everybody needs to have at least 2 pairs easily accessible. If you can’t afford nice shoe cabinets or you can’t pack more furniture into a narrow hallway, take old crates, paint them in beautiful pastel hues and then attach them to the wall. It’s cheap, functional and adds a lot of charm.

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3. Hidden laundry center

Washers, driers, laundry baskets and detergents are not particularly attractive sights, a full-size laundry room to keep all this out of sight is rarely an option in an apartment. If the space for washing appliances is limited, the best design solution is to hide them behind a set of doors. Front-loading washers and dryers fit neatly into closet-sized areas or any space carved out of the kitchen or bathroom. Accordion doors can be added, leaving plenty of room to install shelves for storage. Alternatively,  the closet-turned-laundry area can be hidden behind a curtain suspended from a shower rod – a nice way to add pattern or color to a room.

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4. Mail organizer

We all know how quickly a home can get messy with daily incoming papers. Banish piles of mail and coupons  on your kitchen counter or in the entryway with a pretty filing center mounted on the wall or placed on a chest by the front door. This cute wooden organizer found at Etsy has plenty of room to hang you keys and coats, a chalk board to jot down appointment dates or welcoming messages, a place to drop letters right as you walk in the door and a simple vase to store pens or put a little bouquet of flowers. Both functional and beautiful!

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5. Shoe box charging station

How many times have you looked for all those charging cables for your Blackberry, iPad, camera and other devices … or cursed the world trying to untangle them? What would you say about a stylish DIY charging station that solves this problem? With simple means and little effort, an ordinary shoe box can be turned into a neat tech organizer to store all of those unsightly cables in one place. Just take an old shoe box, wrap it in colorful fabric, cut out eyelet holes along the long sides and attach metal grommets. Recharging your portable electronics will never cause any frustration again.

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6. Creative bike storage

Parking the bike indoors when you live in a small downtown apartment can be a real challenge. Bikes are large, oddly shaped, they do not fold and always get in the way, not to mention that they disturb your home décor when they’re left resting against a wall. Fortunately, there are some clever storage solutions that can turn your bike precisely into a decorative accent. Theirs is a growing tendency to incorporate bikes into gallery walls, for example to hang them inside large picture frames among photographs and paintings. Wall mounted bike racks that double as shelves are a great idea too. Storing your bike on an empty wall is not only a practical space saving solution, but it also adds a unique edge to your home decor.

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7. Crafts armoire

Not everyone can enjoy the luxury of having a full-size room to devote to crafting supplies, and all of you crafters know how much space wrapping paper, threads, beads, ribbons, fabrics and glue guns can take. It’s not a secret either that keeping all your supplies out in the open is the best recipe for clutter and having them tucked in a dozen places around the house is hugely impractical. A great solution to contain your crafts in one place and still have a functional living space that doesn’t look messy is to corral them in an armoire. Vintage armoires are fairly inexpensive and interesting enough to have in your main living space, so you end up with a beautiful piece of furniture and your crafts supplies perfectly accessible whenever free time calls for a happy DIY session.

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8. Make-up magnet board

Unless you have a vanity with ample drawers, chances are your make-up products are tossed haphazardly in a wicker basket that sits on your bathroom counter. Not pretty, and definitely not practical. One thing is that it’s hard to grab what you need without wasting time, and as you’re digging through the items to find what you want, eye shadows and other pressed products can crumble. A magnetic board wrapped in beautiful fabric or a sheet of metal tucked into a picture frame is a stylish solution to this problem. With a display like that, your morning make-up routine will be so much easier and more artistic.

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9. Toy car display

Toy cars are evil. And it’s not because kids fight over them. It’s because you step on them with a bare foot all the time! Your little ones tend to leave toys all around the house, so how about giving them a reason to want to put their Matchboxes and Hot Wheels back in place? A few simple magnet knife holders attached to walls will keep the toy car collections on display and your kids are bound to find this system great fun. If the cars don’t hold (they are mostly plastic today), try sticking pieces of magnet tape to the bottom of each toy.

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10. Sink skirts

Sinks with exposed plumbing are a real eyesore, but fortunately, there’s an ingenious  way to turn them into something both attractive and practical. It’s enough to add a pretty skirt that breathes new life into a room and can be easily accomplished even if you have no idea how to sew. Velcro will do the hardest job – you just need to attach the tapes to the sink and the fabric of your choice. Best of all, a skirted sink can provide you with additional storage for space for towels or cleaning essentials – there’s never enough of storage space in the kitchen and bathroom!

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