I forgot to mention that I'm in the military and have quite a bit of required work equipment myself. The two of us, due to our professions, are a storage nightmare.

Some people have more things associated with their lifestyle than others. One bedroom condos demand some minimalism and if minimalism really isn't possible, I think you may need to bite the bullet and get a bigger place. Sorry!

My husband also has a lot of guitars, acoustic, needs humidity. I stashed as many in cases under the bed that would fit. You can get hooks at any music store to hang them on the wall out of the case, but then you need to store the cases somewhere.

Realistically, how many can they play at once? Maybe he would be willing to part with a few?

Merry Christmas!

I agree you need a bigger place. You need a spare bedroom for storage. I believe guitars are very sensitive to humidity,dust,etc, so they will need a room of their own.

Not that it will be easy, but these are the steps I'd follow, for both of you:

1) Go through every single thing (music stuff and military stuff). Sort out the absolute necessities, the I'd like to keep it if we have room things and the things that can easily go. No duplicates, unless it's something that needs replacing regularly, i.e. it makes sense to keep extra guitar strings around, but it makes much less sense to have three electric bass guitars that all pretty much sound alike. Sell/donate/toss whatever you can.

2) Then sort everything, like with like. All the guitars together. All the cables together. All the amps together. All the military stuff sorted the same way. Look at the amount of space each category takes up. See how much room you are devoting to all this stuff. Yes, it is your livelihood, for both of you. But I think you need to both take a good, long look at it all, so that you can determine if it is possible to live in a small one bedroom condo and continue to keep all of it.

3) Do another round of decision-making and see if there is anything else that can be let go. At the same time, look at all your other possessions, clothing, furniture, pots and pans, books, computers, etc., to see what can be discarded. By getting rid of other stuff, you make more room for the important things, the music and military gear.

4) Figure out a workable storage solution. In your case, it most likely should be one that you can pack up and move, if you are in the military. Ikea has a lot of good systems. I think the Pax wardrobe system, which can be customized with shelves and drawers would be a good bet. Yes, it will cost money. But if these things that you are storing are necessary to your careers, you should treat them with respect and store them properly. And imagine life when you can open a door and see neatly labeled shelves and drawers and just reach in and pull out exactly what you need, without having to move duffle bags and stub your toes on an amp and have fifteen tangled audio cables fall on your head. The Pax system has the advantage that you can close the doors and not have to look at all the stuff when you aren't using it.

Explore other options, like hanging guitars on the walls or building a rack for some of the amps so that they can stack (and then use the sides of the rack to store more cables and such), or stacking, labeled bins for your military things.

Think upwards for storage. If you get a shelving unit, get the tallest one you can, to make the most use of vertical space. Install a shelf running all the way around the room, a foot or so below the ceiling. You can store all sort of things in boxes or baskets up there.

If your boyfriend is in a band, is there anyone else in the band with more storage space who could store some of the stuff?

You could also maximize the existing storage space in the condo to give you more room. For example, if you have a decent sized bedroom closet, you could have a closet system custom made to suit your needs and then get rid of your dressers, freeing up floor space for more music equipment. Or re-do the kitchen storage to accommodate both food/utensil/kitchen equipment storage and storage for music or military gear. Depends on how much money is available for this sort of thing and how long you plan to live there.

A more expensive option is off-site storage. There are climate-controlled self-storage units. You would have to weigh the extra cost with the increased cost of a two-bedroom unit to see which is the better deal.

The first thing that came to my mind was getting a 2 bedroom apartment and devoting one to storage.

But until then, I would find an unused wall or section of wall and build shelves all the way to the ceiling. Make sure the shelves adjust and can be added to, so there is no wasted space between the shelves. I like the Closet Maid fast track system. It's not pretty, but it is highly functional.

Ah, I can sympathize.

My DH plays for fun and in a recreational band. He has 6 guitars and 3 amps. They all do different things. He will not be getting rid of anything, and I don't imagine your BF will either.

So you need to keep things dust free, accessible, and organized. Here is how we have done this.

Hopefully you can arrange your room with the sofa floating away from the wall a bit. Leave space behind the sofa that is about 5 feet deep. If the side view is visible, then get an end table that is larger than usual to distract the eye. Or go with a plant.

Get a minimalist sofa table with very skinny legs, and put that behind the sofa. Now you can have that surface for display (lamps, pictures) so it looks like the sofa is meant to be where it its.

Under the sofa table you can fit the amps, cable storage, pedals, and microphone gear. If you BF doesn't have a heavy duty gear bag, that was a great thing my DH got. It is like a very large tool bag. Rectangular, with reinforced sides, and a heavy duty shoulder strap. In it go all the mics, 9 V battery, tuner, and tools and strings. Cables are good in extra large ziplocks (no need to seal), or those reusable bags from various stores, or tied with velcro cable fasteners. Don't want the plastic bags from the stores, as they are too noisy in case they are setting up/packing up when another band is performing. Whatever is used,you will need to make sure there is enough room for the cable to wind up without stressing it.

Then the guitars can stay in their cases so they stay clean and don't get dusty, and you can fit them in the space between the amps and the wall.

Hope this is helpful.

Don't forget risers for extra room under the bed. Generally they are about 4- 6", but below is a link to some that are 10".

Here is a link that might be useful: 10

My sympathies - I used to date a banjo player :) I know someone who hits the stage with a couple dozen stringed things and plays them ALL during the course of the performance.

MUSIC STUFF:
CABLES:
1 - Identify and label the cables. Length, type of connector, use. To prevent kinking and tangling, fold them in half, then half and repeat until you have a manageable length. Use the velcro cable wraps sold in computer stores to hold the bundles secure.

2 - If a cable MUST be used with a certain piece of equipment, store them together.

3 - Toss the cables in LABELED boxes according to length or connector type and put them in one spot.

(take advantage of this to make an inventory, test them and repair or toss the bad ones, get rid of the ones that have no current use)

AMPS:
Identify and label each one (helps when you have friends getting things out for a gig - give them a pull list and they can actually find uit). Make an inventory and take a photos of the stuff for insurance.

Store on wall shelves or under bed - depends on size.

Can you put planks on the big amps and use them as end tables?

OTHER:
Identify, inventory and label. Store in labeled boxes you can stack on shelves.

************
Military gear ... same routine, except store things used together in the same box or bag. Have a "cold weather" bag with cold weather gear, a "OMG there's shooting" bag, etc. The objective is grab one or more bags and go.

My SO can grab 3 bags plus skis and poles and be ready for a 3-day ski patrol duty - the "hotel bag" has things needed at the hotel like the boot dryer, the "clothing" bag stores what he puts on in the hotel (thermal undies and such), and the "gear" bag has the boots, outerwear, thermal stuff for extreme cold, and the patrol first aid stuff.

Graywings had my thought:

"The first thing that came to my mind was getting a 2 bedroom apartment and devoting one to storage.
But until then, I would find an unused wall or section of wall and build shelves all the way to the ceiling. Make sure the shelves adjust and can be added to, so there is no wasted space between the shelves. I like the Closet Maid fast track system. It's not pretty, but it is highly functional."

My vote would actually be to try to fill a wall with cabinets (try Ikea) so you can close the doors. You'll need them deep enough andto hold the guitar cases (a few will need to be tall enough as well.

If you went with the Closet Maid or Elfa or other type of open shelving system, I'd want to hang curtains or window shades in front so you can "calm" the room by pulling them over the stuff.

As for cables:
Don't put all the cables in one place. My vote is to put each cable permanently WITH the item it goes with. Get some way to bundle them neatly.
I keep the plastic-coated wire ties that come w/ kids' toys; I twist them first around the cord itself, so the twist tie can't get lost; then i bundle the wire and twist the tie around the wire.

Ooh, I love the idea of the sofa table.

If you can put holes in your wall, you could put shelf brackets at the ends of the area, and set a shelf on top to be the sofa table. Then it's easy to remove the shelf and take stuff out. Or, the absence of legs on each end means you could slide stuff in from the ends.