In their Logan Square Rehab, Emily and Craig used an invisible shelf to move books off the bedside table and onto the wall, freeing up space on the table surface. We think it's a smart and creative way to organize the often-cluttered area next to the bed. Click below for more ideas...
Take drawer organizers outside of their natural habitat and use the dividers to sort reading glasses, the watch you take off at night before you go to bed, and other odds and ends.
An old idea: use small bowls or teacups to sort jewelry. Image via Martha Stewart Living.
If you keep a lot of magazines next to the bed, store them in a magazine holder and clean out the old issues as the holder fills up.
Use a drinking glass to hold pencils, and use hooks on the wall to hang last night's or the next morning's clothing. Image via Ferm Living.
In Melissa and Matt's Design Lab, a dress form near the bed catches jewelry and clothes, keeping the small table clear.
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I have 2 of the Umbra "invisible" book shelves at my bedside now, one "large book" size and one "magazine" size, and I completely love and adore them. They are easily the best thing ever for controlling my bedside clutter. I will probably add a 3rd and a 4th, I just want to amass some usage experience to decide on the size. They are particularly useful since my bedside table is in fact a bachelor's chest dresser that, due to odd angles, is not the easiest reach from the bedside, with a "dead space" between that perfectly fits a trash can and the invisible shelves. They are sturdy and hold plenty of stuff just fine. It's a great product. The best thing is, when they get stacked too high and stuff slides off (as it did last night) it's an automatic signal to cull the periodicals!
view rdml's profile
totally off-topic, but that flannery o'connor book is one of my faves.
view selena's profile
rdml, is the "large book" size of the Umbra shelf too big for things like mass market paperbacks? I'm worried that if I pick up a small one that it'll be too small for my larger books, and if I pick up a big one, the small books won't, in some way "fit".
It's kind of a dopy question, but I'm not 100% sure how the thing works - if it's some kind of clamshell thing which clamps the jacket of the lowermost book, I was thinking the struts on the Large shelf will be somehow too big to secure a smaller book snugly.
Sorry if that's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question!
view Jaze's profile
Can anyone tell me where the table lamp in the top picture is from?
view magnum's profile
I got mine at Target many years ago (2001?).
view Ecker's profile
i would love most of these ideas - but my bedside table is right under a window as the only place for our bed is between two windows. it seemed nice at first but it drastically reduces the amount of possibilities you can have. plus, the closet is on the other side of my small bedside table so there's even less room. we have an odd bedroom. the door into it is on a corner. hard to decorate well.
view elizabeth in AL's profile
One can also buy a "clip" which will hold any book you like. That way you won't have the obtrusive "SELF SHELF". I can't direct you to a USA-source for this, but I'm sure there are...
http://www.bestthings.nl/product/Woonkamer-17/Zwevende-boekenplank-1683/
Petra
view Petra from Europe's profile
If you really wanted to hide your stuff and you have a bedside table sans drawers, you could make a hollow book. http://tinyurl.com/qply7
view meganificent's profile