Compact Living: How the broom drawer can save space and tame clutter

Broom drawers are the one space-saving solution that helps you clean up the clutter quite literally! Learn more about how you can store your brooms with ease.

Published on: Sep 12, 2025, 17:08:19 IST

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After ten years designing small homes and apartments in Bengaluru, I’ve realised something simple. A space only feels big when every item has a home. That’s where my compact living ideas come from. Over the years, I’ve found clever solutions that make storage easy and practical. The broom drawer is one of my favourites.

Broom drawers are the easiest way to organise your cleaning supplies at home! (AI generated)

By Neha Ravi Khandelwal

Neha Khandelwal
Content Lead, HT Travel | Travel & Lifestyle Journalist
With over 10 years of content writing experience, Neha Khandelwal is a lifestyle journalist and the Content Lead at HT Travel. She specialises in destinations, hotels, aviation, luggage, travel gear, and practical guides that help readers plan smarter and travel better. Her work combines first-hand experience, expert insights, and extensive research to create stories that are informative, useful, and easy to follow.

Career Journey & Experience
Neha began her writing career as a freelance journalist in 2010 before entering mainstream media with The Times of India in 2022. She later joined Hindustan Times, where she has written extensively across travel, lifestyle, home, and consumer trends. Her professional background extends beyond journalism. Before moving into digital media full-time, she spent nearly a decade in interior design, managing residential projects from concept to execution. She also trained in visual merchandising with Shoppers Stop and Pantaloons and worked with women-led startups across design and operations. These experiences continue to shape her storytelling, especially in how she evaluates hotels, design-led stays, hospitality spaces, and travel experiences.

A naturally curious learner, Neha has completed beginner certifications in pottery, scuba diving, baking, creative writing, and other creative pursuits. She has read more than 2,000 books, trained in Bharatanatyam for 8 years, and ghostwritten a book on Ladakh tourism.

Subject Expertise
Travel is at the heart of Neha's work. She covers destinations, hotels, airlines, luggage, packing strategies, travel accessories, and emerging travel trends through a mix of reporting, product testing, and conversations with industry experts. A frequent traveller herself, she approaches every trip with a journalist's curiosity and a planner's mindset, focusing on experiences that readers can realistically recreate. From choosing the right cabin bag to decoding hotel openings and destination trends, her writing prioritises practical advice over promotional claims. Her background in interior design also gives her a distinct perspective on architecture, hospitality design, boutique hotels, luxury stays, and thoughtfully designed spaces.

Education & Professional Background
Neha holds a Master's degree in Interior Design. Her early experience in interior design, visual merchandising, and design operations gives her a unique understanding of aesthetics, functionality, and user experience, adding depth to her coverage of hotels, resorts, and travel spaces.

Editorial Philosophy
"As an avid, research-driven traveller, my goal is simple. To answer the questions you actually have before booking a trip. I cut through the promotional noise with honest reporting and expert insights. Making travel planning seamless, smart, and reliable so you always know where to go next."

What is a broom drawer?

At its core, it’s simply a drawer designed for storing and cleaning tools. Instead of brooms, mops and dustpans piling up behind doors or leaning against walls, they sit tucked away in one slim compartment. The result is a floor that looks clear and a room that instantly feels more organised.

Where it works best

The kitchen is the most common spot. A narrow pull-out at the base of cabinets works surprisingly well, and four inches is often enough. Bathrooms and balconies are also good candidates, since mops and buckets are often stored there.

A vertical drawer in a passage cupboard can hold tools used across the home. Even a children’s room can benefit from a smaller version to keep dusters or cleaning brushes in one place. You can also switch this into a small 6-inch width broom cupboard on the side of the existing cupboard and storage units that open up. Multiple options that provide the same solution.

Benefits of a dedicated broom closet

Benefit	Why it helps
Saves space	Keeps cleaning tools out of sight
Tidier rooms	No more leaning sticks or doors that won’t shut
Easy reach	Hidden but accessible when you need them
Versatile use	Works in kitchens, bathrooms, balconies and storage units

Why it works

A broom drawer does more than store cleaning tools. It makes a home feel tidy in a way nothing else does. No more leaning sticks, no more doors that won’t shut. Every corner works harder and smarter.

Small homes are all about smart thinking. The broom closet is tiny but mighty. It keeps everything in its place, saves floor space and makes everyday life smoother. Once you have one, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

The lesson I’ve learned is straight. Small spaces can feel open and relaxed. Clever furniture and smart storage ideas make every corner work and still look stylish. The broom drawer is one of the many small changes you can bring to your home for a big impact.

Even the tiniest homes can feel organised, spacious and surprisingly enjoyable with a little creativity. And don’t forget to look at other overlooked corners for hidden storage solutions. Spaces under staircases, the tops of cabinets, or slim gaps between furniture can become mini storage spots. Small solutions often make the biggest difference.

(Compact Living is a series where design student and HT Lifestyle expert Neha Ravi Khandelwal guides you towards smarter, clutter-free homes. From space-saving hacks to clever organisation tips, this series helps you create calm, functional spaces no matter how small.)