Yesterday I talked about maximizing space in your small garden. If your home is also tiny, you’ll want to keep things neat and organized in there too. But how can you do this if you just don’t have the space?
Minimize, minimize. Yes, a small home needs to have less stuff. Evaluate what you really use, and give extra things to charity.
Share stuff. Do you really need to own the things that you own? Can you rent them sometimes, or share with a friend who has more space? If some of your objects take up space and aren’t all that useful most of the time, look into sharing options.
Put things away. Yes, this is about keeping clean. However, if you have a really tiny space, you also want to be able to morph your space to keep it useable at different times of the day. Can your table fold up? How about a Murphy bed? Can you put clothes into a storage area under the bed?
Stack functions. Remember when I talked about stacking functions in the garden? You can certainly do the same thing in your home. You might have a side table for your couch, like we do. However, our table is actually a box, and it lifts up to reveal a lot of Lego inside. How can you nest objects inside other objects?
Designate functions to each area. In a smaller home, it’s easy to have bits and pieces of stuff spilling out from every corner. This makes your home feel unorganized, and it’s hard to find things. Make sure that you have what you need, and no more, by designating the purpose of each space. For example, in our kitchen we have a pantry for emergency food, an area for pasta and sauce, and a place for staples like rice and beans. That way, I can find everything and I don’t buy it twice.
Do you have a small home? How do you manage?
Image: Rita H Cobbs / CC by 2.0