The short answer
The top of a wardrobe is the best apartment storage for a tree bag, because a tree bag is long and thin and so is that space. Under the bed only works for a small tree, and only in a rigid box — the constraint is about seven inches of clearance, and no tree bag is that flat.
The four spaces an apartment actually has
Apartment storage locations and what each one will take| Location | Typical usable size | What fits | Format |
|---|
| Top of a wardrobe or closet | 60-72 in long, 20-24 in deep | Up to a 9 ft tree's sections | Fabric bag |
| Under a bed | 7 in high, 60-70 in long | A 4 to 5 ft tree's sections | Rigid shallow box |
| Behind or under a sofa | 6-8 in high, 60-80 in long | A 5 to 6 ft tree | Rigid shallow box |
| Closet corner, vertical | 20-24 in square footprint | A tree stood on end | Bag, stood upright |
The top of the wardrobe, properly
Most wardrobes and built-in closets have 12 to 24 inches of dead air above the hanging rail, running the full width of the unit. That is frequently five or six feet long. A tree bag is 50 to 65 inches long and 15 inches wide. The shapes match almost exactly, and almost nobody uses that space for anything but suitcases.
Measure the width of the closet opening as well as the interior, because a 60-inch bag has to go in through a 30-inch door at an angle. A bag is forgiving here in a way a rigid box is not: you can bend a soft bag through a doorway.
Under the bed, and the seven inches
Under-bed clearance is usually six to eight inches on a standard frame, and the storage products built for it reflect that: the Sterilite 66 qt Ultra publishes 7 inches outside and 6 7/8 inches inside.
That box is 37 3/8 inches long inside, which takes a 4 or 5 ft tree's sections comfortably. It will not take a 7.5 ft tree's 34 to 40 inch sections without a fight, and it will not take a 9 ft tree's at all. The limitation is length, not height — the branches lie flat fine.
This is the same seven inches that wrap rolls want, which is worth knowing before you commit it. See under-bed holiday storage for what else is competing for it.
Standing it in a corner
A flat tree bag can be stood on end in a closet corner. It occupies a footprint about 15 by 30 inches and 60 inches of height, which many closets have going spare in the corner behind the clothes.
The only caution is that a bag stood upright puts the entire weight of the tree on the bottom seam, which is not what the seam was designed for. If you do this, choose a bag that publishes a load capacity — the Zober publishes 50 lb — rather than one that publishes nothing.
The answer we would rather give you
Buy a smaller tree. Not what a site funded by storage-product commission is supposed to say, but it is frequently correct: a 6 ft tree stores in a 40-inch bag that fits on top of almost any wardrobe, and a 9 ft tree does not fit anywhere in a small apartment without you giving something else up.
If the tree is already bought and it is large, the honest fallback is to split the storage: the longest section slid behind a wardrobe or along the top of a door frame, the rest in a much smaller bag. It is inelegant and it works, and it costs less than rearranging a room.
What not to do
Do not store it on a balcony in a fabric bag — that is outdoor storage in an indoor container. Do not store it in a communal hallway or a shared basement locker without checking your lease. And do not leave it in the bag it came in, because a printed cardboard carton is the one container that reliably collapses after two seasons, which is how most people arrive at this page in the first place.