@MMOWTSTM,
You can place the axis labels inside each bar/column by setting labelPlacement property of axisX to inside as shown in the code snippet below:
inside
axisX: { labelPlacement: "inside" }
Please take a look at this gallery page for an example on the same.
— Tony Antony Team CanvasJS
Jake,
You can prevent the chart to reserve space for the hidden axes by setting negative values to the axis margin as shown in this code snippet below,
axisY:{ title: "", tickLength: 0, lineThickness:0, margin:-4, labelFormatter: function(e) { return ""; }
If the solution suggested doesn’t fulfill your requirement, kindly create a JSFiddle with your use case so that we can understand your scenario better and help you out with an appropriate solution.