Maximizing space in a small house

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TxAg
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Maximizing space in a small house

Post by TxAg »

I'd like to hear from those who maximize space in a small house. I was just watching an episode of "Tiny House Nation" on FYI Network and it is amazing what they can do.

While we don't live in a 300 sf house, we do live in a relatively small house by today's American standards...just shy of 1700 sf (3 bed, 2 bath)

We lucked into buying at the bottom of the market and our home is worth significantly more than we paid for it. Assuming we have 2 kids (have one already) we will be a family of 4 plus a dog. We want to stay here but make the absolute most of it while still looking nice and fitting in the neighborhood.

I work from home a day or two per week. One thing we've done is to add a furniture piece in our "open" kitchen that acts as storage and a desk as well as displaying pictures. It will be a nice place for kids to do homework while we cook. I could work from there as well.

We have a long way to go to maximize all our space, and we want to hear from other who've done it. Please share ideas, links, pics, etc.

Our goal is to stay in this house for the next 20 years. Have been here 3 1/2 so far.

I'm thinking along the lines of dual purpose, storage, efficiency, cleanliness... You get the idea.
JFKtoSFO
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by JFKtoSFO »

I've lived in under 500 sq ft for most of my adult life. The #1 rule is DON'T BUY STUFF.

Do you really need 10 pots/pans when 4 will do?
Do you really need books/dvds?
Do you really need clothes you rarely wear?

You see where I'm going with this. People in small houses don't have the choice of more stuff. When you only have 1 tiny closet that you share, you maintain a capsule wardrobe... when you only have 3 or so kitchen cabinets and a mini-fridge instead of a full size one, you have to pare down on your kitchen gadgetry and grocery shop multiple times a week.

Aside from not buying stuff, when you have a combo living/dining/bedroom ALL your furniture has to pull double duty. My ottomans used to flip over to reveal trays that were my dining room table. My desk was a table from ikea that folded flat against the wall when not in use. My bathroom didn't have storage, and I had no linen closet, so I hung toiletries on the back of the door.

Lastly, think vertical. My bathroom towels were stored above my door on a shelf, I added shelves to my one closet that went all the way up to the ceiling. Above my 2 upper kitchen cabinets were decorative boxes with my winter coat, gloves and hat spacebagged inside.

Of course, I didn't love tiny apartment living, but in my city of choice, it was a way of life. The good news is once I got used to this lifestyle, anything else seems HUGE. You should have seen my friends' faces when I was marveling at the size of the 1100 sq ft place I bought.
TravelGeek
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by TravelGeek »

TxAg wrote:
While we don't live in a 300 sf house, we do live in a relatively small house by today's American standards...just shy of 1700 sf (3 bed, 2 bath)
That is the size of our house, and I have never lived in a bigger one. Unlike many of our neighbors, we actually have space in our garage for two cars :)

The fewer things you buy, the fewer things you have to store. I still have way too much stuff, but our recent move was an excellent opportunity to freecyle, eBay and otherwise dispose of lots of really unneeded stuff. My shredder also worked overtime (and eventually died, so didn't get moved).
stan1
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by stan1 »

Don't buy things you don't need and get rid of things you don't use. It really can be a struggle to keep up with this but one "rule" you can use with your kids is that they have to donate one old toy to charity for every new toy that comes into the house at Christmas and birthdays. I know many parents try this approach and it lasts a short time so you have to make a commitment to stick with it.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer
ralph124cf
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by ralph124cf »

Closet organization is extremely helpful. Look at California Closets or any similar companies. Don't buy from them because their prices are ridiculous, but use their websites for ideas. A combination of long hang (dresses, coats, robes) and double tiered short hang (shirts,blouses) is a great space saver, and then you can fit a second shelf over the long hang side.

Many other possibilities.

Ralph
novillero
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by novillero »

We've added some built-ins to areas that had wasted space. Houzz.com has some interesting ideas to sort through.

As to too much stuff, check out "minimalist" websites for ideas of how to downsize.
bluejello
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by bluejello »

Definitely agree with all the suggestions to not buy stuff or get rid of stuff you already have and don't need. Marie Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" is really popular right now. I personally try to live by the William Morris quote "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

Layout is extremely important. 1700 sqft could feel either cramped or spacious, depending on what kind of layout you have.

Think about the way your family actually uses space. For example, many larger American homes will have an open kitchen with bar seating at the kitchen island, a breakfast nook, AND a formal dining room. They'll also have separate living rooms and family rooms. And from what I see, most of the time everyone just gathers in the kitchen and the living and dining rooms hardly get used.

If your family is casual and you don't entertain much, maybe all you need is bar seating at a kitchen island and you don't even need a dining table. Or, maybe the dining room table can serve double-duty as the place where kids do their homework and they don't need to have their own desks.

You can also look to high-end hotels for design inspiration. Google image search for photos of rooms and suites at the Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton in big cities like NYC, London, or HK. They have suites that go for thousands of dollars a night and are only a few hundred square feet. But they're beautifully designed and furnished, and they feel extremely luxurious and spacious.

The website Apartment Therapy also has a lot of good suggestions on how to do interior design for small spaces.
tony44
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by tony44 »

1700sq ft is small? I guess my 1186sq ft is really small! The key to maximization of space is "stuff". Don't buy more stuff and get rid of old stuff. A lot of stuff is stupid and adds up. For instance, my wife bought a "pickle" fork. A regular fork was not good enough for her to garnish her hamburger. This is the stuff that needs to go.
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backpacker
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by backpacker »

I really love tiny homes. Our American culture has by and large completely lost any sense of proportion when it comes to our living spaces. Tiny homes are an important part of getting that sense of proportion back.

One of the thing I don't like about tiny homes is how cramped they can be. I don't want more room for stuff. I want more room for me. So instead of living in a 300 square foot house with 300 square feet with of stuff, my wife and I try to live in our 600 square foot apartment with 300 square feet worth of stuff. 600 square is bigger than we really need and probably a little gratuitous, but we like to think of ourselves as living in a tiny mansion.

1,700 square feet is a very reasonable size for a family of four. According to this CNN article, your house is right at the average for 1983. And families back then tended to be a bit larger too.

I agree with what others have said. Living in a smaller space is 90% about purging and 10% about storage and organization. I find that when I'm having trouble figuring out where to put things, it means that we need a good purge.

I love IKEA Kallax bookshelves for storage. They come in several sizes, are incredibly cheap, and virtually indestructible. Because IKEA has all sorts of drawers and baskets built specifically for the Kallax cubbies, you can store all kinds of things in them. They make great room dividers.
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GerryL
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by GerryL »

My own house is under 1500 sq ft. Downstairs is very open plan. Kitchen is rather small, although it doesn't feel that way because of the openness. Still, storage is at a premium.

I used to use a closet in the laundry room (actually the passage from the garage to the interior) as a pantry. A real PITA!. When I did a remodel/refresh a couple of years ago, one of the key features I wanted was a "shallow pantry" installed on a blank wall (~5 ft wide) in the nook where the kitchen turns into the "back" room (supposed family room that I use as an office). The pantry, which is right next to the fridge, is 12 inches deep, which means everything I store is easily within reach. I LOVE it!!!

Also, when I had to clear 23+ years worth of accumulated stuff out for the remodel, I only brought back in a limited amount of stuff. I store in the garage stuff I still need only occasionally and got rid of other stuff.
Rupert
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Rupert »

One thing I've learned living in a tiny-ish house (slightly larger than OP's house) is that your storage needs change as your kids grow up. So don't invest a lot of money on expensive, permanent storage furniture. Use Ikea and the like. That way you don't mind getting rid of an item you needed when your kids were 4 and replacing it with an item more useful for your middle schoolers or high schoolers.

I enjoy watching Tiny House Nation, but have you noticed that few of the customers seem truly happy with the tiny house at the end of the show? They all seem a little fake happy to me once they realize exactly how little space they will have. Personally, while I like having a small-ish house (because it forces me to de-clutter constantly), the "furniture" they build for those tiny houses would be a deal-breaker for me. Who wants their only chair/sofa to be a thin piece of foam on top of a folding piece of plywood? Whatever money you save on utilities, etc., would have to be spent on chiropractic care.
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Kenkat
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Kenkat »

IKEA also has entire displays of rooms to demonstrate maximum use of small spaces. You can walk through and get many ideas just by walking through.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by ResearchMed »

A few things from the past.

If you have a staircase, you could try building a desk into the underside, about half way up. That way there is room to stand up after moving from the desk. Under the front "triangle" (in front of the desk area), you could put in tiered shelves, with or without doors. Behind that, as "hidden storage space", perhaps accessible only from under the desk, you could put a few things you use rarely but still need for those few times.
And there might even be space for a shallow bookcase behind the desk chair (maybe...).

Beds: Use platform beds with drawers under the entire area. Get them on sliders to make access easier.
There should be comfy mattresses, especially these days, that don't require a box spring (which I think is oversold anyway, but that's a personal opinion).

Use the area behind doors, especially doors that don't open fully flat.
For example, on the wall behind a kitchen door, put in very shallow shelves (with doors), for spices or other small canned goods or things you keep handy. Use a door stop, to prevent the door from opening that last few inches (usually the door is "over opening" anyway, and that usually isn't needed).

As mentioned above, *use* all that space above wall cabinets, space that is typically unused or only used for decorative effects. If possible remodel slightly so there are doors there, so you don't have to deal with pulling boxes out. That way, on a small ladder (5-step or such), you'll see everything.

I've seen full length wall mirrors that have a full - but shallow - cabinet behind. The entire mirror swings open. Like a jumbo medicine cabinet.

Look at photos from "tiny homes", as they have amazing space utilization.
However, some of that probably isn't what you want, such as an open sleeping loft over the kitchen/bathroom.

There are some really functional bunk beds, where even the bottom one has steps, so there is tons of storage, and the upper has a regular mini-width staircase, with shelves/drawers built in under the steps (sort of like what I described for under a staircase, but much shallower).
Some have a desk and drawers/shelves built in, instead of a lower bunk.

RM
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

1700 is double the size of my first 2 houses. We have friends sho had a 500 sq ft house. They did not buy the cheapest-per-gallon dish soap or laundry detergent, they bought the smallest size and kept a running list for shopping. Unused things got craigslisted or donated or given away. When the kids grew out of their clothes, they were put in the donation box in the grocery store parking lot. The house had no knick nacks cluttering it up. Pictures were on the walls, not taking up surface area
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Chicken lady
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Chicken lady »

Think about using a murphy bed - you know, the old fashioned 'pull-down' bed that is hidden when not pulled down. Our guest room uses one of these and the bed looks like fancy wooden paneling - except when it's pulled down and is a bed. Some people call these wall beds.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by ResearchMed »

Chicken lady wrote:Think about using a murphy bed - you know, the old fashioned 'pull-down' bed that is hidden when not pulled down. Our guest room uses one of these and the bed looks like fancy wooden paneling - except when it's pulled down and is a bed. Some people call these wall beds.
These can also be built into a full wall, if the bedroom layout allows, with drawers on each side of the same depth.
Then, everything is flush, creating a new "wall" effect, with lots of storage space.
One "drawer" on each side could be smaller, making an instant bedside table for tissues, books, etc., all right there again.

Sconces could be mounted on each side "between" the bed frame and drawers, for reading lights or just to have ease of turning lights off/on from bed. And they'd provide nice lighting at other times, too.

A LOT depends upon the layout of the house.
My first "real" house was 1500 sq. ft., but seemed huge (and still does).
There was almost no space wasted in "hallways".
The bedrooms were small (I'd add armoires or something now, as the closets were pitiful), but there were two HUGE living rooms, separated by a wide opened and flanked by columns (built in 1919), and there was an even larger dining room.
I completely remodeled the kitchen, adding a half bath in a former walk-in pantry, and also renovated the one full bath.
But it was the floor plan that made *all* the difference.
I later moved to a townhouse that felt much smaller.

RM
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vveat
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by vveat »

I am fan of Sarah Susanka's books - the "Not So Big House" approach. She has nice clever solutions for optimizing space.

http://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Big-House- ... ah+susanka
http://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Big-Remode ... ah+susanka
http://www.amazon.com/Not-Big-Solutions ... ah+susanka


We watch occasionally Tiny House, but it doesn't make sense to us. If you need a mobile home, get an RV, if you don't care about mobility, get a small apartment. Why bother to fit a house on wheels, except for show effect.
archii
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by archii »

DW and I own/live in a 1240 sq ft home. It's one of those postwar houses, with small rooms and a tiny garage.
It's comfortable, but a challenge in several ways.

Cons:
Guests: We have no room for a permanent guest bed, so we rent a fold away when guests stay, or have them sleep on the couch. DW's mother is in now, and she's set up on a foldaway. We're not happy with this, as we'd love to entertain guests more. There just isn't room for a second bed. We looked at murphy beds but the room wall space is so limited that we don't even have the vertical space sufficient for one of these.

Furniture: If something new comes in, something old has to go out. Period. There just isn't room.
Storage: Extremely limited. We use the garage as storage, since closets are small.

Pros:
Extremely efficient for heating.
Easy to clean.
Feel we have a small carbon footprint


In the long run, we are going to have to either put an addition on to bring the sq ft to around 1700, or buy a bigger home. We've maxed out what we can do here.
barnaclebob
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by barnaclebob »

Copious shelves in the garage are a huge help. I even built some that hang from the ceiling. I also refuse to not be able to park 2 cars in a 2 car garage in lieu of storage.
bigred77
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by bigred77 »

One thing I learned early on is don't buy over-sized furniture that's too big for the space. I was surprised at how many different sizes sofa's can come in.

I resisted at first but my wife eventually convinced me to spend money on containers and storage solutions. They do make a difference.

The less clutter in a space the larger it feels (to me anyway).
WhyNotUs
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by WhyNotUs »

1,500 sf 3/2, was family of four with 100 lb dog. Now 2 + guests. 50% larger than the house I grew up in (family of 6)

In addition to not buying a bunch of unnecessary stuff, we have really worked the kitchen layout to optimize counter space and cabinet space. It took a little tweaking after the first attempt to ultimately dial it in but the space is really important to us. It is a galley kitchen that now feels open and allows two workers.

Have a home office built into custom wall-length bookcase. When children were at home I had a hook with "do not disturb" placard that I would put up that meant "go upstairs or outside but don't bug me".

We live in a sunny place and have good amount of glazing, makes everything seem big and roomy. Plants outside windows instead of inside house for color.

Have also worked over the years to transition to recessed lighting.

Closet kits have been an asset. John Louis kits from Costco in two rooms and EasyClosets.com for a third one that was custom.

Mistakes along the way- buying living room furniture that was too bulky for the space and incremental bathroom storage additions rather than doing it all at once for identical materials.

If I was starting from scratch- 9' ceilings, Murphy bed in guest room/gym.
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TxAg
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by TxAg »

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses.

We are fortunate to have an open floor plan although there is some wasted hallway space. We are also fortunate to have a two car garage and small shed out back.

We like to utilize our outdoor space, but it's a little warm July-September here. Regarding extra "stuff" I subscribe to the one-in, one-out philosophy.

I'll review some of the suggestions above for more space saving ideas for storage. I hate clutter so I like things stowed away and out of sight.
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GerryL
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by GerryL »

bigred77 wrote:One thing I learned early on is don't buy over-sized furniture that's too big for the space. I was surprised at how many different sizes sofa's can come in.
Ah, yes. Love seats instead of a sofa. They're shorter and more flexible for rearranging. I have two love seats and a large ottoman. Would have loved an ottoman with hidden storage, but that wasn't available with the style I bought.
Ninegrams
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Ninegrams »

As has been pointed out, it's the stuff, it's all about the stuff. Keep a handle on that and your home will feel spacious. My spouse and I have a 1100 sq. ft home that feels very comfortable because we avoid the temptation to fill it up with stuff/junk. I've built a ring of high shelves in the garage which helps keep things like camping equipment, canned goods, etc. out of the way, and a workshop in the yard which keeps my tool collection out of the way, but it's keeping the junk to a minimum that is the secret. The acid test, if you can't park your car in the garage, then like so many Americans you've got way too much junk.
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by stoptothink »

My family, wife and two kids, live in ~800 sq. ft. and if it wasn't for the fact that we share laundry with the other duplex, we'd have no problem with ut long-term. As previously mentioned, it is all about stuff - don't buy stuff you won't use. My mother lives in over 3x the home that we do, with one less person, and it feels downright claustrophobic. There is no secret, just don't fill every open space with stuff.
profnot
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by profnot »

I have a very good quality inflatable queen size bed that is very comfortable for guests. It's 27" high. Easier than dealing with a Murphy bed.

Use google images to look at interiors of privately owned train cars. One trick I learned this way was to use a small shelf (with a sconce or korbel) on a wall near a reading chair for a table instead of putting in a small table. Takes far less room and keeps the floor clear.

Google images cruise ship interiors for more ideas.

Google Yo! Homes. This former movie and theatre set designer has some great ideas that can be decorated in many styles. My fav: The sunken living room with sofas area gets covered by a bed platform lowered from the ceiling at night.

As others have said, go up for storage. Out of season clothes at top of closets, etc.

Gateleg tables can be wall-mounted or stand alone.

Make (or have made) ottomans with storage. Upholster tops so they can become extra guest seating. Put a tray on top and you have an additional coffee table for a party.

Take a wall and build floor to ceiling cabinets on it. Add paneling. No knobs - just push magnetic/spring closures. It will give you 12" or more of storage depth and look like a wall. Yo! Home did something similar and put a kitchen behind the doors.

Hang bicycles from the ceiling in the garage. There are special hooks for this.

Get books, CDs, DVDs from the library - don't buy them. I hang out at the library and read magazines as a way to get some time away from my home and home office. Cheaper than coffee shops. And free A/C in the summer with free heat in the winter.
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by FuyuKei »

Clothes: Flip all your hangers backwards. When you hang clothes back up, hang them up in the correct direction. Once a year, sell/donate any clothes that are still backwards. You haven't worn it for a year, you're not going to.
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sunny_socal
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by sunny_socal »

Assuming you have a garage, these overhead storage racks from Costco are great:
(Only buy them on sale - they happen to be on sale right now :) )
http://www.costco.com/SafeRacks-4%27x8% ... 06897.html

If you have an 'attic' above your garage you can create even more space.

Just look how happy this young couple is with their racks! :beer
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mevertsen
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by mevertsen »

1173 sq ft, family of 4 plus a dog, 2 cats and 2 birds inside.

Get rid of junk. Don't buy junk. Shelves in odd places for the stuff that is needed.

I grew up in a house slightly smaller than this as a family of 4.

America has become spoiled in home size and materialism.
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by 123 »

I once worked with a woman who lived on a boat with her husband. The boat was small because she said that they had to use the bathrooms provided on the docks. After living on the boat for a number of years they decided to move to solid ground, she said it wasn't any fun anymore if you were home sick with the flu and the boat was rocking. They moved into a studio apartment/condo and then she endlessly raved about how much room they had. It really all depends on what you get used to.
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patriciamgr2
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by patriciamgr2 »

1. I prefer: shelves in garage that are sized to fit one large clear plastic bin per shelf; storage rack from ceiling over only one car space (in case you succumb to minivan fever in the future); special organizers to get everything possible off the floor of the garage (mesh laundry sorters for soccer/basketballs, holders for hoses, pegboard for tools, etc.). Find a bicycle organizer that works for your space. I dislike the hanging ones if a family has kids--but there are lots of alternatives.

If there's any way you can fit it in, set up a mini-mudroom near the door from the garage to the house. A bench seat, hooks for clothes, and a place to put the shoes you change out of--lifesaver once the kids are older. Also find a drop location somewhere inside (not the counter) for bookbags & adult stuff like mail & keys.

2. I have added closed storage built-ins to wide hallways & the perimeter of dining rooms in houses I've worked on. If I was repairing drywall, I sunk cabinets into walls. But, you may be able to use Ikea closed cabinets & just finish off the tops to make them look more finished. [Ikea hacks are all over the web] I think dining rooms are usually a waste, but if your family likes yours but uses it infrequently--consider closed cabinets around the perimeter & get a heavy tabletop cover made for your table so it can be used the rest of the year.

I strongly prefer closed storage. It should still be organized inside, but if everything is behind closed doors you can avoid wasting money on "cute" storage & prioritize function. Also, open shelves look sloppy if you really use them & also attract clutter. Be ruthless about requiring everyone to put any item they use back in its place. I like to use large-font, printed labels on the inside of each clear plastic bin & I also keep a general master list of what is stored where. Decide on whether you & DW want a category stored centrally or close to where it will be used (eg cleaning supplies). I prefer central because it makes reordering easier. I don't have room for multiples of stuff.

3. Splurge on customizing your kitchen cabinets--after you take inventory of what you have. Lots of kitchen cabinets have useless shelves (not high enough, too deep or not deep enough)--move them. I also add stainless steel roll-out trays sized to what I keep in my kitchen. I buy when they're on sale at big box stores; they're easy to install. Makes a world of difference. Also, if you have unused space above the kitchen cabinets, try to find cabinets which fit. [I've had luck with (a) pulling trim off existing cabinets & then having a carpenter cut down stock cabinets (you can use both pieces--just need to build new "floors") to place above existing stock cabinets & then placing trim on top of the new short cabinet & using lots of fill pieces for gaps; and (b) when "a" wasn't possible because of the state of the cabinets, having a shelf built above existing & using huge decorative baskets to hold less-used or seasonal items wrapped in plastic that don't show over the top of the basket. Edited to add: be sure that additions are affixed to wall independent of the existing cabinets. Don't let anything rest on your current cabinet tops.

4. All beds should be on storage platforms or on risers w/ flat storage hidden by tailored bed skirts. I once wallpapered the back of two cheap bookcases w/doors & attached them to the ends of a child's twin bedframe in a small room. As long as there's room for someone to access items from each bookcase, it works. (I used bungee cords along shelves inside the cabinets to try to minimize items falling if the bed got knocked.) This was in addition to the usual closet organization.

If you have a small bedroom with a closet built out from the wall, construct a curved built-in laptop desk w/ shelves above next to the closet. Just be sure you adjust door so it doesn't swing into desk. Alternatively, you can build in closed storage, although I have found that restricts your door swing a lot. YMMV

Almost every door should have storage of some sort on the back of it. Anchor the storage securely to the thickest part of the door; you may need to fill & repaint other side. I think this is rather tacky--but I admit to using heavy-duty, hanging shoe holders anchored to hollowcore doors for storage of extra supplies for the bath like toothpaste/mouthwash bottles/makeup & in children's rooms for craft supplies, small cars, etc. Try to hang them so no one can see them--pretty ugly & messy looking--but great organization.

Key organization item, as other posters have noted: large donation box in garage. Nothing new comes out of the car without at least one thing being donated. Minimal, organized living saves huge amounts of time & stress on a daily basis.

Good Luck
Last edited by patriciamgr2 on Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by ThatGuy »

TxAg wrote:While we don't live in a 300 sf house, we do live in a relatively small house by today's American standards...just shy of 1700 sf (3 bed, 2 bath)
1700 is small? That sounds downright spacious to me...
JFKtoSFO wrote:Lastly, think vertical. My bathroom towels were stored above my door on a shelf, I added shelves to my one closet that went all the way up to the ceiling. Above my 2 upper kitchen cabinets were decorative boxes with my winter coat, gloves and hat spacebagged inside.
Thinking vertical is key, but it goes both ways. Going up, I hang our travel bags inside the closet, but above the doorway. Usually this kind of space is just wasted.

Going down, is also a cleanliness thing. The more cramped the house, the easier it is for things to just collect dirt. Get everything off the ground that you can. Use wall hung sinks and just mop underneath. Eliminate corners wherever possible, especially where it is hard to run a vacuum cleaner. Flat surfaces are better than crenelated. Grooves in between prefinished floors suck. Use wire baskets wherever visual ascetic is not the overriding ideal, for instance, for shoes. Then all the crap falls to the floor and is easier to clean, etc. Really, just take a good hard look at how you use your house from dawn til dusk, and optimize where you can.
Work is the curse of the drinking class - Oscar Wilde
lightheir
Posts: 2684
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:43 pm

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by lightheir »

1500+ is plenty of room!

I like the recommendations from Marie Kondo's book (#1 NYT Best Seller for awhile about cleaning your home/place - she's Japanese). Aggressively discard stuff you don't use regularly, and cherish the things you keep.

Avoid storage solutions, even if they seem smart and fancy. Not having to store things long-term in the first place is almost always the correct solution. For stuff that you are willing to keep, each of them should have its own special place where it is readily accessed and this place shouldn't be at the bottom of a box or at the back of a closet.
Rodc
Posts: 13601
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:46 am

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Rodc »

Get rid of junk. Don't buy junk. Shelves in odd places for the stuff that is needed.
Lack of space imposes a certain level of discipline for not letting your stuff own you.

Every 6 months or so figure out what you haven't used in a year and consider getting rid of it.

If there is something you really only need every few years and you can rent it, don't buy it.

Same is true for kids toys - 93.7% of toys that kids have they hardly ever play with. If they have not touched it in 6 months give it away to someone who might use it.
We live a world with knowledge of the future markets has less than one significant figure. And people will still and always demand answers to three significant digits.
stoptothink
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Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2010 8:53 am

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by stoptothink »

Rodc wrote:
Same is true for kids toys - 93.7% of toys that kids have they hardly ever play with. If they have not touched it in 6 months give it away to someone who might use it.
This is a HUGE one. It took a while for me to convince the wife to toss all the stuffed animals that took up nearly half of my daughter's room. I had never once seen her play or cuddle with a stuffed animal, but they took up more space than our entire bathroom. We gave them away and my daughter has never once asked about them. We have to remind the grandparents around birthdays and Christmas that if they come bearing toys, they are likely going to end up at the DI (Utah thriftstore) by the end of the week. Maybe some kids are different, but toys are a total waste of resources and space for my kids - they like bugs and rocks far better than anything anybody has ever bought them.

Around here were have great clothing and toy swaps through the churches. We are going tomorrow to one, my daughter needs some shoes and maybe a larger coat for the winter; in exchange we are bringing three trash bags full of clothes that they no longer fit in for another family.
Cigarman
Posts: 480
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2013 5:12 am

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Cigarman »

We needed more space in our pantry and bought these:

http://www.containerstore.com/s/platinu ... %20shelves

They are very handy and can be used in a variety of doors with different depth shelving.
gd
Posts: 1638
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:35 am
Location: MA, USA

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by gd »

sunny_socal wrote: Just look how happy this young couple is with their racks! :beer
The kid's going in the black bin...
jridger2011
Posts: 458
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:17 pm

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by jridger2011 »

One thing I've learned to do is fold clothing as if I were packing for a trip, as neatly as possible to fit as much as possible into dressers. Some things during the fold process make it to the donate or toss pile. There aren't too many reasons to keep old t-shirts that were free from an event which is rarely worn outside or even indoors.

The other thing that was helpful was getting rid of mugs and cups that are rarely used to free up kitchen space. It is amazing how many novelty mugs and cups one can accumulate over the years.
Cyclone

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Cyclone »

A recent issue of Better Homes and Gardens had a lot of ideas for small homes. I'm not sure if it was the August or September issue.
Beth*
Posts: 734
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2014 9:57 am

Re: Maximizing space in a small house

Post by Beth* »

Keep it neat and ruthlessly get rid of things you are not using. We lived in a 1,400 square foot house until our kids were 8 and 12. I kept the number of possessions down and I cleaned things up and put them away all the time. A cluttered space always feels smaller and a neatly organized space always feels larger.
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