A narrow shoe cabinet can make a small entryway much easier to live with, but “narrow” is a surprisingly unhelpful description when you’re shopping online. Some shoe cabinets marketed for small spaces still stick more than 9 inches into the walkway. Others are less than 7 inches deep but sacrifice room for bulky sneakers and…
Wall sconces can make a room feel warmer, more finished and much better lit. The problem when you rent is that traditional sconces usually assume you can run electrical wiring through the wall. Rechargeable wall sconces offer a much easier workaround. They give you wall-mounted lighting without hardwiring, and many include useful features such as…
Finding a makeup vanity for a small space isn’t just about choosing the narrowest table you can find. A vanity can look tiny online and still stick too far into a bedroom walkway, offer nowhere to put your makeup, or leave you dealing with a stool that takes up almost as much floor space as…
Smart-home technology can get a little strange when you live in a small apartment. You don’t have endless rooms to automate. You probably don’t need six smart speakers, a complicated network of sensors or an app-controlled version of every appliance you own. And you definitely don’t need another collection of gadgets taking up the limited…
Living in a rental can make smart-home upgrades feel more complicated than they need to be. You may want lights that turn on automatically when you walk into a room, blinds that adjust themselves during the day, better control over your air conditioner or a smarter front-door lock. Then you remember one small problem: You…
When you live in a small apartment, there is a simple rule that applies to almost everything you bring through the door: It needs to earn its space. That applies to furniture, storage bins, kitchen appliances and smart-home gadgets. A smart device might look useful when you’re shopping online. But once it arrives, it still…
You don’t need hundreds of dollars, a complicated hub or a house full of gadgets to make a small apartment feel a lot smarter. In fact, if you’re renting or simply don’t have much space, starting small is probably the better approach. A smart home should make your apartment easier to live in. It should…
Smart sensors can make a small apartment safer, more comfortable and easier to manage without filling it with gadgets. You might want to know when an accessible window opens, have a light come on when you walk into a dark hallway, get an alert if water appears under the kitchen sink, or keep an eye…
There is a particular kind of bedtime annoyance that happens when you have already made it into bed. The lamp is still on. Or the curtains are still open. Maybe you forgot to turn off the little light by the dresser. Or perhaps your favorite bedtime sound isn’t playing yet. And now you’re faced with…