"small" is relative

So, Ben and I now have a place to live after we get married! Yeah! Ben will be moving in next week and we are already trying to think logically about where to place things. It is a two bedroom/one bath apartment with a large living room/dining room area and a fair-sized kitchen with washer/dryer hookups. The problem: storage. There is only one closet in the master bedroom and even that it fairly small. (And as Ben likes to remind me, it is made for someone like me -a very short person- because of the placement of the doorknob, which is about at his kneecaps!) The kitchen is lacking in storage space if you think about the fact that if all of our dishes & other such things go in the cabinets, there won't be any space for pantry items and the same is true if we do it the other way around. Since I love looking at magazines, I thought, "Hey, I'm sure that there is something out there for living in small spaces!" Lo and behold, I found something! It was then that I realized that "small" is a relative term. Most of the "small" rooms would take up the majority of our apartment. When did that become small?!? I guess I've always known that small is relative, but I've always looked at it in the other direction. I look at these rooms and say, "Well, the second bedroom doesn't have a closet, but at least it's larger than the length of a bed. I didn't have that in the second half of my junior year!" or "At least I don't have to walk across the hall in a house full of girls to get to my dresser and closet like I did the first half of my junior year!" (Rest in peace, Music House...)

So, now I'm on the hunt for creative storage. My friend, Patty, just told me that I need to look at it as a European would. So, now I think that I need to set out to find some sort of "European Apartment Living" magazine or book. Anyone know of any? Our other plan of action is to head to Ikea on Saturday. We were headed there with my mom already to buy decorations for our reception, but this gives us just one more reason to scour the store! Number 1 on the list is a wardrobe to put in the second bedroom. Number 2 is some sort of cabinet for either dishes or to act as a pantry. Number 3 is a filing system for the second bedroom/office. We've got some work to do!

I'll try to get some pictures up of the apartment and of what we are looking at as far as storage goes. Thank goodness there are only 20 minutes left of the workday today and tomorrow is Friday!