My house is too small and i hate it!

[Anonymous]

OP I feel your pain.


Nothing can make up for a house size if that’s what’s bothering you.

We just re-did our bathroom and it’s really nice with a double sink and has a rain shower.... but it’s still small. I would have rather put the money towards a down payment.

[Anonymous]

We did an attic conversion (master suite) and finished the basement (playroom for kids). Gave us an extra 1k feet of usable space.

[Anonymous]

Buy a large rubbermaid shed from Home Depot and put it in yard, put two up if necessary.

[Anonymous]

OP, become a minimalist. Do a "swedish death purge" - https://www.treehugger.com/cleaning-organizing/swedish-death-cleaning-new-decluttering-trend.html

Think about it - People are working like donkeys in the never ending corporate rat race to make more money just to pay for huge mortgages for larger homes so that they can provide shelter to their clutter and stuff that they don't need. Spend quality time with family, travel more, invest in worthwhile things like education, enviornment, health and a nest egg. Don't waste money to buy more house for things that you do not need.

[Anonymous]

We're a family of 5 with a 1900 square foot primary house and 750 square foot beach house.
We're the happiest when we're at the beach house. Why? Well first, of course it's the beach. A block from the ocean.
But more importantly, there is no clutter. We have one set of sheets per bed. 8 towels. 8 plates. 8 cups. Nothing extraneous.

Our 1900 square foot primary house has started to feel small and I'm trying to emulate our beach house. We spent the early
fall purging everything. For example, in the kitchen I pared things down to one set of nice dishes, one set of matching glasses. Got rid of tremendous amounts of other stuff.
In the rest house of the house I got rid of tons of toys, books, shoes, clothing, throw pillows, picture frames, nicnacs, etc. etc. The house feels so much bigger and I'm SO much
happier.

[Anonymous]

How about some perspective?
I'm 6'6" MY house is 800 sq. ft. 2 bed, 1 bath, has low ceilings, no closet space, no counter space in the kitchen, I can't stand-up to do laundry or go up and down the stairs, my wife is a bit of a hoarder and refuses to move. This is MY "..for worse"

[Anonymous]

Haven't read everyone's responses, but here's what we've done for a family of 5 in a 1300 sq ft townhouse.

- Only keep furniture that is good quality and serves a purpose with bonus points for double purpose.

- Don't keep cheap things that you use once or twice a year (like Christmas wrapping paper, left over goodie bags, etc).

- Be ruthless in pruning old toys (still working on this one, especially old 'inventions' aka random stuff taped together).

- Incorporate storage everywhere (under bed storage for extra sheets or off season clothes, maximize efficiency in closets, etc)

- No one knows what is behind closed doors aka you can store anything anywhere (e.g. my kids' art supplies are in a credenza in the dining room).

- No kitchen uni-taskers (i.e. no Panini press, garlic press, cocktail-specific glassware, etc).

- Bunkbeds for the boys (who share a room) including space for under bed storage.

- Go vertical. We use lots of shelves for books and toys in bins.

- Buy storage bins AFTER you've already pruned and know what it is you need to store.


Things that we did that cost money but added space or functionality:

- Kitchen renovation. We're in the process of doing this now. Even with keeping the same footprint, we are able to add a lot of storage by utilizing the corners, tall uppers, and even adding a lower cabinet by moving the dishwasher over a couple of inches and taking a cabinet all the way to the end of the wall.

- Added on a back deck off the dining room / kitchen. We use this space all the time for grilling, al fresco dining, wading pool for the kids in the summer, fort building, potting station, and storage of recycling bins.

- Designed a shelf layout and hired a handyman to install custom shelves in the boys' room closet. It's a weird shape and is partly raised because it's over the stairwell, so an out of the box solution won't work. With custom shelves, there is plenty of room for their Legos, etc.

- Haven't done this yet, but the next project is to get a highly efficient closet installed in DD's room and get rid of her dresser. For now the extra space will be play area but in the future she'll be able to fit a small desk in that corner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haven't read everyone's responses, but here's what we've done for a family of 5 in a 1300 sq ft townhouse.

- Only keep furniture that is good quality and serves a purpose with bonus points for double purpose.

- Don't keep cheap things that you use once or twice a year (like Christmas wrapping paper, left over goodie bags, etc).

- Be ruthless in pruning old toys (still working on this one, especially old 'inventions' aka random stuff taped together).

- Incorporate storage everywhere (under bed storage for extra sheets or off season clothes, maximize efficiency in closets, etc)

- No one knows what is behind closed doors aka you can store anything anywhere (e.g. my kids' art supplies are in a credenza in the dining room).

- No kitchen uni-taskers (i.e. no Panini press, garlic press, cocktail-specific glassware, etc).

- Bunkbeds for the boys (who share a room) including space for under bed storage.

- Go vertical. We use lots of shelves for books and toys in bins.

- Buy storage bins AFTER you've already pruned and know what it is you need to store.


Things that we did that cost money but added space or functionality:

- Kitchen renovation. We're in the process of doing this now. Even with keeping the same footprint, we are able to add a lot of storage by utilizing the corners, tall uppers, and even adding a lower cabinet by moving the dishwasher over a couple of inches and taking a cabinet all the way to the end of the wall.

- Added on a back deck off the dining room / kitchen. We use this space all the time for grilling, al fresco dining, wading pool for the kids in the summer, fort building, potting station, and storage of recycling bins.

- Designed a shelf layout and hired a handyman to install custom shelves in the boys' room closet. It's a weird shape and is partly raised because it's over the stairwell, so an out of the box solution won't work. With custom shelves, there is plenty of room for their Legos, etc.

- Haven't done this yet, but the next project is to get a highly efficient closet installed in DD's room and get rid of her dresser. For now the extra space will be play area but in the future she'll be able to fit a small desk in that corner.

I wanted to add, whenever I get fed up with my kids' cluttering up the living room, I look at my mortgage statement. At this point you'd have to pay me to take out a 30 year mortgage. We're going to be paid off in a few years and that feels GOOD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A properly sized sectional with a storage ottoman gives you a lot of seating in a relatively small space, and is easier to clean around than many more legs.

Mostly closed storage. Find a wall to line with BILLY bookshelves from IKEA or cabinets with doors. You leave one section open, decorate it sparely and you will have a TON of crap storage that appears clean and open.

Investigate the attic space. Often it's not usable as living space, but you can put some plywood up there and store seasonal stuff and bulk toilet paper and so on.

Make sure you're using the tops of the closets. Elfa is great but expensive, but there are cheaper options, too. I find it's helpful to mock up permanent storage with sturdy cardboard boxes and broomsticks and live with it a bit before springing for the expensive refit.

Declutter, declutter, declutter, DECLUTTER.

Be careful with this. If it's not designated as allowing storage and you put things up there it can cause you not to be covered by insurance if there's a fire.

[Anonymous]

You need to get rid of stuff.

[Anonymous]

We just bought a 1304 sf townhouse, so I understand how you feel.

Some thoughts:
First and most important, is get the right size furniture. Too many people living in small spaces want things like overstuffed chairs/sofas or put a big screen TV on a TV stand. Start by getting smaller furniture. You can do this in stages, one piece here, one piece there. But you want love seats and not couches. You want ones with smaller footprints and do not overhang. All of the overstuff seats make a space feel much more cramped and smaller, even when they don't encrouch on walk spaces, and often due to placing, overstuffed furniture just squeezes the walking space in a room so that you have to sidle past certain furniture or squeeze past them. Taller narrower refrigerators often free up floor space or make a walkway feel larger.

Make use of vertical height instead of horizontal space. Look for bookcases or cabinets that go up to your ceiling. Even if you need a stepstool or ottoman to get up to the higher spaces, you can use that for less used things like seasonal items or storage. Hang your large TV on the wall and get rid of the TV stand. Make sure that your kitchen cabinets to all the way to the ceiling. The space is much more usable and attractive when you put things inside cabinets instead of stacking on top of cabinets. I know one person who changed her side-by-side washer/dryer for a stack washer, then got two European narrower/taller refrigerators. One she put in the laundry room and one went into the kitchen. The laundry room felt about the same, but the kitchen felt much bigger since the fridge took up so much less space. And it was next to the archway that passed into the dining room, so you really felt the additional space.

Get furniture that comes with built-in storage. Replace your dining room chairs on the side adjoining the living room with a banquette style bench that has storage under the seats. Then the extra dining room decorations, place settings, cushions, etc can be stored in the dining room. Something like this takes up much less space and when you push the chairs in on the open side, the living room gets bigger.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/07/ca/1d/07ca1df13c8a201d98eb548516626cdd.jpg
There are lots of ottomans that have storage space inside. Make one a toy storage for small kids. Make another one for all of the manuals, remotes, cables, etc that go with the TV but just get stored most of the time. Free up other storage space by hiding away things inside furniture.

Alternatively, adding separation between the dining room and living room with floating shelves or pass through shelving so that they don't feel like they take up a lot of space or close off the rooms, something like this:
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/images/products/elvarli-section-shelving-unit-white__0590746_PE674130_S4.JPG

You can rescreen your porch DIY for as little as $250. This one will replace the screens for an 8x10 space:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/EZ-Screen-Room-8-ft-x-10-ft-White-Aluminum-Frame-Screen-Room-Kit-with-Fiberglass-Screen-EZSR810CRW/202565124

If you want to change out the screens for storm window type products, the cost will range from about $600-1500 depending on how fancy the screens are, the size of the space and how complex the replacement panels and shape is.

[Anonymous]

This was posted in 2012.

[Anonymous]

Why any you update your shitty back porch? I mean putting a hot tub on it will make it even more trashy but at least you should clean it and replace the broken screens.

[Anonymous]

Old and creaky 1200 sq ft house for a family of 4 here.

It's DIFFICULT, and sometimes I feel let-down.
However it's cute, we bought for the perfect location, and since it's so small and open-spaced, light comes in from all sides - so seasonal affective disorder here!

Specific challenge: open space and lots of windows makes for minimal wall space to put storage like bookcases, wardrobes and dressers (no closets to speak of). Plus the rooms are so small they cannot accommodate modern furniture - I go to estate sale or Ikea.

So I'm slowly replacing our old stuff with Ikea furniture that goes up really high to use as much wall as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think Parisian apartment, not suburban McMansion. And remember that a smaller house means there is less to clean.

Keep the scale of the furniture appropriate to the scale of your house. As tempting as that huge sectional is, don't get it. A smaller sofa and some chairs will fit better. Furniture that is "lighter" will help, too. Skip the skirts on the sofa and chairs; being able to see the legs will add more visual light and space.

Quality over quantity. This goes for clothing, shoes, toys, kitchen tools and gadgets, etc.

Elfa. You can get a lot more usable storage out of a standard closet if you install Elfa. If you have a garage, get industrial-type shelving units and store as much as you can out there. Depending on the ceiling height, you might be able to do shelving across, too, or hang bicycles, etc.

Can you add more shelves to your kitchen cabinets? If they aren't fixed shelves, but adjustable, you can add more. Measure them and go to Home Depot or Lowes for new ones. Made a big difference in our "pantry" and other cabinets, and not terribly expensive.

Don't shop at Costco, unless you are splitting the goods with another family (or several). Who has the storage space for those quantities?

People say this, but in reality a small space means cleaning the same areas more often.

Underbed storage boxes. LOVE these!

Simplify other things. I've started keeping just one or two rolls of gender-neutral wrapping papers. Easier to swap out the ribbons for different looks for different occasions. Glossy white wrapping paper is really pretty, IMHO.