Living in small space

[zumbamama]

I have a family of 5 in a 3 bedroom, one bath, tiny house, with small windows. Living so close to the city makes space rather limited, at least for me it does. Anyway, I need tips on ways to maximize space or maximize the appearance of space? Vertical furniture could probably store more, but low furniture would "air" the room more. I would like to mirror some walls top to bottom to bounce the light around more and get super-efficient storage systems for closets, underbed storage, toy storage systems, bunk beds, anything to declutter and organize. Recommendations, all you interior design moms?

[Anonymous]

We're a family of 4 living in a 2 bedroom, 988 sq foot apartment. Honey, I'm living in a small space. Our living room and kitchen are meshed together in one open room. Most days I feel like the walls are closing in so I try to spend as little time as possible here. This year we hope we can afford to move out. Did I mention we have one bathtub for 4 people?

[Anonymous]

Furniture with more than one function. An ottoman that has storage, a window seat, that provides storage, mirrors, lighting, and low amounts of clutter.

[Anonymous]

Paint to make certain walls recede, others "pop." Lamps in a light colored corner are, in my experience, better than mirrors for reflecting light.

[Anonymous]

My DH purchased those vacuum bags where you stuff your sweaters, blankets, comforters, or other bulky things in a special bag and then use your vacuum to suck the air out and the bag shrinks! It is a huge space saver for us.

[Anonymous]

What a great question! I look forward to reading more suggestions and experiences with small space living.

We will be having our first this summer, which will make us three people and one large dog in a pretty small one bedroom. De-cluttering has been the biggest space save for us: clothes that haven't been worn in over a year? Gone. We went through a pretty significant purge of a our book collection even though it was quite painful. We only have one set of dishes, instead of a "nice" set and a casual set which saves a ton of room in the kitchen. We focus a lot more on function of furniture than on aesthetics (I second the suggestion to use ottomans or trunks that can serve as coffee tables plus storage). We also have a couple of huge five shelf stainless steel industrial looking shelving units from Target. Not the prettiest things ever, but you can configure the shelves to different heights to suit your needs and they are really heavy duty and strong for holding lots of stuff. Also, lots of different storage containers and lots of hooks for things helps keep stuff up off the floor and in its proper place. Finally, we plan on really limiting the amount of baby "stuff" we accumulate, which I think is one big pro of the small space, it forces us to be really thoughtful about our acquisitions.

[Anonymous]

One more thought since you mentioned de-cluttering. We have a small place too - on baby, a dog, and me and DH. Our de-clutter rule is: if we haven't worn it or used in in a year and it is under $50 then sell, trash it, recycle it, or give it away. Of course there are exceptions, but that tends to work for us.

[Anonymous]

There is a great show on HGTV called "Small Space, Big Style" that I love to watch. Some of the solutions are very custom/high-end, but others give great easy ideas. There is definitely one common thread though - there is NO clutter anywhere.

For some people (like my DH) it is very difficult to be honest with oneself about what you no longer need/use. When we force ourselves to declutter, here is what I do: put the potential give away/throw away items in a box or bag and put it out of sight (back of closet, attic, etc.). I tell DH that I will keep the items for 3 more months and if he hasn't wanted/needed them in that time, he's never going to and I'm giving them away. This works pretty well.

[Anonymous]

I feel like I've found my people! I thought I was the only one crazy enough to have kids in a tiny space. Seriously though, I second the functional furniture idea. We have a storage ottoman, a trunk for a coffee table, hope chests at the foot of the bed, etc. And we use the vaccuum storage bags (beware though, they come unvaccuumed over time). I also go around with a big lawn and leaf trash bag EVERY Saturday morning and get rid of anything (newspapers, shipping boxes, etc) that has accumulated during the week. I still have days I want to scream, but make it though for the most part. Good luck!

[zumbamama]

me too, pp!...I thought I was one of the few without a big house. Does anyone else room two kids together, even if they are boy and girl? I have my 2 youngest, DS and DD, in the same room until the teenager goes to college in a few years. I so need to get rid of tons of stuff...but never seem to get around to it. I definitely need to make time to do some pre-spring cleaning!

[SurelyYouNest]

Awesome thread.

http://interiordec.about.com/od/articlesonbasics/a/smallroomtricks.htm

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/20_tips_for_liv.php

We had these things called shoji screens put into our master bedroom. If you can afford it/own your place I highly recommend putting some in front of shelving. That way you can have major storage but don't have to look at it.

Also second the decluttering/resisting purchases commentary. I started doing a 30-day wait on any purchase (I keep a list and if we still want it in 30 days we consider it) and it's been eye opening.

Pass on kids' clothing to other families, we are huge hand me downers. We have for the most part gotten everything back in time for kid 2. Who needs brand new kidstuff anyways? And it frees up your storage.

[Anonymous]

IKEA also has these screens that one can hang from the ceiling to section off areas. I really love IKEA for space-saving ideas (even if you don't end up buying their stuff - at least flip through the catalog, surf online, etc). I bought a bunch of kitchen stuff from IKEA (which is the area we have the worst storage problems) and got great wall-mounted things that have really held up well. We also got a few garment racks from IKEA and hung lowered curtains from the ceiling to create a dressing area (this was before they sold those cool screens).
For our dd's room - we bought a bed that sits higher up and have all of her toys under there in bins (blocks, puzzles, etc) We can fit 6 bins underneath. She also has a tall dresser and 2 tall bookshelves.

We clean out as much as we can, pass clothes down/donate after 1 year of not being in use, etc...We also keep decorations and the like to a minimum, which is easy when you don't have a huge house to decorate!

Love this thread!