A home should be comfortable and spacious enough to allow you to move freely and live without feeling cramped. Unfortunately, as a homeowner, you probably understand best how things can quickly change with time. Whether it’s new additions to the family or starting to work from home, it seems like you can never have enough room.
Whether you live in a small city like Milford or a larger one like Chicago, needing more room is a common problem. Most people mistakenly believe buying a bigger home is the only solution to having more space. But besides being incredibly expensive, moving homes can be tiresome, stressful, and time-consuming. Luckily, there are plenty of other tips and tricks you can implement to help maximize the space you have available.
Although small homes may seem more challenging to create space, they make it easier to reorganize or rearrange your belongings. And while this may sound like an impossible chore, it’s a lot simpler. Just follow these six tips to maximize the space in your home and put it to more practical use.
- Get rid of clutter
A lack of space primarily stems from the items cluttered around the house. There’s a good chance you hold onto most of your belongings because you think you might use them one day. But if you haven’t used something in the past year, you will likely not use it in the next few years either. So it’s time to declutter stuff.
To start decluttering, list the items you can get rid of and prioritize these by their usefulness. Consider donating them to charitable organizations or shelters instead of hoarding them. You can also store things like winter clothes or old furniture by renting some of the best-priced rental storage spaces. For example, residents in Kent and Sussex counties in Delaware can look up ‘storage units Milford DE‘ on the internet to locate nearby options. Repeat the same for any county or city you live in to make your life easier.
When you get rid of junk, you’d be surprised to see how much more space instantly frees up. Make a habit of decluttering your home every few months to keep it from getting messier each time.
- Redesign your living room
Limited spaces compel people to think outside the box and redesign their homes smartly. Resourcefulness can prove beneficial and quickly maximize space regardless of your home’s square footage.
The first thing you can do is furnish your living room using coffee tables with exposed legs or chairs without arms. This furniture makes the space more open and creates a feeling of liveliness. Additionally, you can include ottomans or sofas with built-in storage spaces to clear more room around the living area. You can also mount your TV screen onto the wall instead of building a huge entertainment center that wastes the floor space.
Living rooms take a large portion of the house and are one of those areas that never seem to have enough space. Instead of purchasing a home with a more extensive living area, spend wisely on space-friendly pieces to décor the room with.
- Use space under the stairs
Although the space beneath the staircase is an ideal spot for a storage area, it often gets neglected by homeowners. Building drawers or cabinets allows you to easily stash coats, shoes, throws, or extra laundry in these nooks. You can hire an interior designer or a woodwork expert for proper detailing to give your home a good look and make the storage area conspicuous.
Depending on the space, you can also turn this area into a covert laundry room. Since small homes rarely have a separate laundry room, this can be the perfect place to keep your washer and dryer. With these appliances out of sight, you can use other areas in the house more comfortably.
- Use foldable tables
Dining tables are an essential piece of a home. They make the perfect spot for families to have their meals together, for a morning coffee, or even to get some work done. Even in cramped and slimmest of spaces, you can install tables that don’t take a lot of room and remain functional. Interior designers today are ingenious in using little space for bigger purposes. Tables that can easily fold flat against the wall or slide within a slot in the wall are becoming increasingly popular. These designs can make an otherwise cramped kitchen look more spacious and make navigating the room easier.
If you don’t like the idea of a fold-up table, you can install a wooden ledge on the wall instead. Using a few hefty L-shaped brackets and a slender piece of wood, you can easily have a make-shift table that’s both practical and elegant.
- Build shelves
Shelves are excellent for keeping your belongings organized and avoiding any unnecessary spaces. Besides using inexpensive materials, it provides the perfect spot to store your everyday knickknacks. The critical aspect is the size of the frame and its location that determines how cleverly you can free up the space in your home. For instance, building a shallow shelf and mounting it behind your bathroom or laundry wall can be incredibly resourceful. Use these racks to store laundry detergents, towels, brushes, iron, or whatever item you want to access quickly.
If your pantry doesn’t have enough room for shelves, consider mounting up wire shelves. Besides allowing you to store your items easily, they also facilitate quick access and simplify keeping inventory.
- Play with colors and light
Creating spaces doesn’t always have to be a physical doing. Sometimes, all you need to do is fool the eye and make it look like you have enough space. And with the proper color techniques, mirror placement, and lighting, you can precisely do that.
It’s a well-known fact lighter hues make your walls more reflective. As a result, your room can feel open and airy, even if the size remains the same. According to experts, soft tones like greens, off-white, and blues are most effective in achieving this. They also make the room feel more inviting and can make your home cozier and more comfortable.
When it comes to light, sunlight is the best source to open any interior space and make it look roomier. So, in areas where you have windows, allow the maximum amount of natural light to flow through them. Oversized windows give the most pleasing results, so invest in installing them if you can.
Conclusion
A small-size home is no excuse for lack of space. Since moving to a bigger home is not practical, developing creative ways to free up space is the better way to go. Whether it’s by keeping your rarely-used belongings in a storage unit, rearranging furniture, or manipulating the room light—there’s no limit to what you can do.
