messmallo
New Member
Joined: August 2008
Posts: 39
|
Post by messmallo on Sept 23, 2008 11:16:17 GMT -5
:-/I live in what I consider a small house, 920 square feet. It is 2 stories with a LR, small kitchen, DR and 3 bedrooms(one is very small like 9X8). There is a basement and one car garage. The basement is full of stuff, the garage is emptied to hold 1 car. We had to have a shed built in back yard to hold contents of garage. Every room is full beyond full. Each bedroom has one small closet. I am beginning to tackle one room at a time, but it is a slow process. Any tips accepted.
I am curious if anyone else has a small house and how you deal with storage. If you have a bigger home, how do you deal with storage?
|
|
|
|
Post by ghettofabulous on Sept 23, 2008 11:27:49 GMT -5
Hi Malamellow,
I have a 640 square foot cabin, 2 small rooms and a bathroom upstairs, 1 room is my bedroom, the other room is kind of "officey."
Downstairs is one room, with kitchen along one side. I have not ONE single closet in my entire home. EEK! Makes storage a disaster.
I have a back porch and deck. I have another cabin packed with crap.
What I have tried to do is make everything multi functional. For example, the coffee table is a trunk that I put throw blankets in for sofa, chair, etc.
Obviously, if my system worked, I wouldn't be here, so I have had to throw tons and tons and tons of stuff out, get rid of everything I cannot easily store.
Living in a small home is a big challenge storage wise, particularly if you have kids, which I do not. But, in order for my place to be tidy, it would be like living on a boat, where every single thing has it's place. That's my goal!
GhettoFabulous
|
|
hollymaid
New Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 99
|
Post by hollymaid on Sept 23, 2008 11:42:27 GMT -5
I live in a small place to.. I have 3 bedrooms. kitchen living room and bathroom. It is a challenge to say the least. All our rooms are muilty purpose witch also does not work for us. the laundry equipment is in the bathroom. mount laundry piles up in the tub until someone needs to shower and then it piles onto the floor. gets destroyed. It is a big pain to move it around but it has no home.
I think we just have to much stuff! I am working on reducing the crap. I really have no storage space. I think we just have to have the stuff we are using now and toss the rest. Hard to do. I have a shed but you can not put anything in there that you do not want mice to run over.
One thing out of place and the house looks messy! I have kids I find this a real challenge
|
|
|
|
Post by DJ on Sept 23, 2008 12:12:43 GMT -5
i live in an 850 square foot home with my mancreature. there are two bedrooms. i would like a larger space but i don't consider it small and it's likely we won't be able to live somewhere larger space for quite some time.
my sense of "small" and "large" homes is based on comparing it to home sizes not just in the US mainland but hawaii and asia.
i have started looking at how people in asian countries organize their homes. it has been very helpful.
i joke about my 'tiny' apartment and my 'smurf sized washing machine' that holds 4 or so pairs of jeans at a time. but really. it's not that bad. i realised for awhile i was use to -more- more money, more space, more stuff...
we're looking at moving in the not too distant future and i've had fun making this home a big ol' colourbox but our next home will probably be based far more on traditional asian, particularly japanese design. i really enjoy the visual simplicity and think it will motivate me to further reduce. i also like the trend of not displaying -everything- at once and having a nook or displaying an object and changing it with the seasons..
anyway. i babble. but something i've been mulling over in my brain lately:>
|
|
|
|
Post by brenda on Sept 23, 2008 12:27:44 GMT -5
I think for many of us we could fill a football stadium if we had the space.
I make active choices to let things go and not take things into my home I do not need or will not be able to sell quickly for a profit. I very often sort items and give things away to make room for no purchases without overwhelming my space.
I have shelving on both sides of my two car garage and have items in tubs on the shelves. This keeps things organized and allows us to park inside (we are a one car household by choice). Most of this is for ebay (things I buy to sell during the holidays), some of it is holiday items and some is just crap I have yet to release.
I have a relatively small home at 1400 square feet with no usable attic or basement. We have three bedrooms. One is used as a guest room as well as displays my doll collection. The master we sleep in and only store clothing in and the third is an office. We have several ikea shelves in the office to contain John's game collection, books and office type items.
My best organizing tip is to acknowledge the space you have and allow only the items that can be easily kept in that space to stay in your home. I find it amazing what I do not miss or need now that I have let tons of stuff go.
Brenda
|
|
|
|
Post by messymimi on Sept 23, 2008 15:56:40 GMT -5
My family is living proof that it does not matter how big the space, we can fill it.
We have 3,000sf of stuff. Plus stuff in the attic.
messymimi
|
|
messmaker
New Member
Joined: September 2008
Posts: 10
|
Post by messmaker on Sept 23, 2008 20:25:56 GMT -5
my house is rather small which is a good thing considering I hate housework. I have enough trouble keeping a little space clean and straight. I have about 700- 800 square feet, two bedrooms, a living room, large kitchen, and tiny bathroom. Oh, I have a utilty room big enough for washer and dryer plus a little room for storage.
Fortunately I don't hoard too much stuff.
|
|
|
|
Post by moggyfan on Sept 23, 2008 21:16:39 GMT -5
About +/- 800 sq. feet; apartment--living room, dining room, bath, entry hall, bedroom, kitchen, enclosed back porch. Only the back porch is full'o'stuff (neat now, though :-) ).
It's a challenge because I live in a very old "Victorian-ish" building with almost no closet space. I've got lots of shelves & "cabinet-y" furniture.
|
|
|
|
Post by moonglow on Sept 23, 2008 21:30:25 GMT -5
My house is pretty small, I don't have any idea of the square footage but the living/dining area is 12x24 ft. The upstairs is a "half story" the same size so most of the space is not really usable. In addition one small bedroom downstairs, kitchen, 3 season porch and a tiny (I mean tiny) bathroom. No basement. Single car garage and outbuilding, both full.
Like ghettofab, I have NO closets - well I take that back. I have one miniature closet I made the carpenter put in when we remodelled upstairs (because the walls slope inwards he couldn't make it standard height or depth). And there is a storage area under the stairs. Otherwise a free-standing closet in the bedroom. I heard somewhere that really old houses don't have built-in closets because property was taxed by the number of rooms in a house and a closet counted as a room.
I used to think I needed more space - but I believe that if I had more space I would fill that too. I am coming to realize that what I need is less stuff instead.
I remember one book I read long ago on home organizing (sorry don't remember the name) that said to beware of purchasing storage containers. If I see my problem as "not enough storage" instead of "too much stuff", I could go hog-wild on storage bins and drawers and etc. The book called them "junk-bunkers" and said the more you have, the more crap you collect. That really stuck in my mind so I guess that's me.
|
|
|
|
Post by tiredofthis on Sept 23, 2008 22:46:17 GMT -5
According to the city assessor's office, my house has 1,270 sq ft of living area, whatever that means. I have 3 bedrooms; one is very small, probably 6x9. Each bedroom has one small closet. Half of the basement is semi-finished, 1/3 of that is the laundryish area, and the rest is full of the soon to be ex's stuff. The other half is the boiler room. Some stuff in there, but I try to keep that down to a minimum. There's an unfinished attic, which can not be used for storage. I also have a 440 sq ft 2 car garage, which is full of the afore mentioned soon to be ex's stuff; I don't have a key ... long story.  There's a built in linen closet with 3 drawers below it, and built in shelves in the hallway on the second floor. There's another closet off the kitchen, but the former owner put a toilet in there, so she didn't have to go upstairs to the bathroom. The toilet doesn't work, but it makes use of the closet almost impossible. I say almost, because the stbx has managed to cram some stuff in there. There are some cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. There really isn't any other storage than that, so it does make it difficult to put things away, and keep the place neat. |
|
|
|
Post by onwardandupward on Sept 23, 2008 23:22:36 GMT -5
I just moved from 1100 sq ft to 1450 sq ft plus 2 car garage. Both 3 bedroom, two baths. I think my biggest problem in the smaller place was that I had way too much furniture there and the layout wasn't ideal. Moving around required turning sideways to get past the dining room table. Looking back, I think I should have chosen smaller furniture pieces to clear up floor space. At my old place, there were two large closets and a utility room that was off the balcony. No garage at all, so all three of these spaces were floor to ceiling full of boxes from the last place and from a stash and dash or two.
I think the success I am having keeping the new place clean can be attributed to the fact that I have the garage for storage and I sorted everything as I packed this time around. I have every box labeled. I donated a lot of stuff and thew away a bunch, too. I still have too much stuff, but the way it is arranged in the garage means that 1) it is out of the way of normal living, and 2) I can easily reach the boxes so I can work on going through them one at a time.
I think the most important thing to help keep things clean is to have things organized and to store things as close to where they will be used as possible. For things that are rarely used, the garage, attic, basement are great ways to keep things out of the way.
Having less stuff around me makes me feel younger and more energetic and hopeful.
Onward
|
|
ladycathy
New Member
Joined: June 2008
Posts: 9
|
Post by ladycathy on Sept 24, 2008 3:53:05 GMT -5
i have started looking at how people in asian countries organize their homes. it has been very helpful.; djollydjolan, that sounds interesting, how have you found out about this? Any internet sites? Thanks, Ladycathy |
|
|
|
Post by houseworkhater on Sept 24, 2008 14:38:46 GMT -5
my house is 3200 sf, plus an attic ballroom and full basement (both unfinished) each another 1600 sf.
i have improved my situation greatly over the years, but still have lots of stuff in the attic, basement and even garage, at least half of which probably needs to go. because i have a big (old) house, there are some rooms that stay neat because we hardly ever use them -- the dining room, the parlor, the guest room), but my office, hubby's office, our bedroom and kitchen can get pretty bad. also, not enough closets in an old house, so i tend to leave stuff out.
i will say, though, that having lived in a small apartment and everything in-between, it is a lot easier to "hide" stuff here and give the illusion of nonclutter. but hiding things is not my ultimate goal...i must purge.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alexandra on Sept 24, 2008 17:17:16 GMT -5
We have a 2-BR apartment. Kitchen is of a decent size, with enough room for a table and chairs. We also have a storage closet downstairs--there's one for each apartment.
We have too much stuff, though. Actually, my husband does. I'm beginning to wonder if our place is a computer parts warehouse sometimes! He filled our hall closet with parts (most are obsolete) and I have no place for the vacuum cleaner--and we have to use our son's closet to store our coats. Good thing all his clothes fit into drawers, and his bed has three drawers in it!
I want to see that junk GONE out of the hall closet so we can use it for coats, and our son can use his closet for clothes. He's going on 7, and as he grows into bigger sizes, more room is going to be needed for his clothes.
All my stuff you can fit on my computer desk, or at least in my computer area...such as my crocheting/knitting paraphernalia, my yarn, my flute, my books...pretty much it.
|
|
|
|
Post by ramatama on Sept 24, 2008 18:09:55 GMT -5
Had to go to a place on web to convert square metres to square feet. Apparently almost everybody on this forum uses imperial still!  never mind, eventually you'll catch up.  So, 100 sq. m= 1076 sq ft. It is an apartment=flat. We have only 1 bathroom (which doubles as laundry room, albeit no dryer), There is only one WC which is a separate little room. We have 3 crammed bedrooms, one of which is study/office and when i can cram the stuff away into other 2 bedrooms becomes a guest room (thus, rarely). We share a large garden with 22 other co-op owners. Our kitchen is a galley type with a pull out table where 2 can sit at, otherwise we have half of our living room doubling as dining room. In our country, and in our city, what we have is considered average. We are happy with that. But the overflow has to eventually go. |
|
