Can You Get More from the Space in a Room?

Can You Get More from the Space in a Room?

Modern homes and apartments are quite small, and this means that living and storage space is at a premium for many home owners.  There are a lot of tricks and techniques that you can try in order to make your home feel more spacious.  If your home is feeling rather cramped, then consider trying the following.

1. Replacing your dark wooden internal doors. You can use tricks of the light to make your room feel bigger.  For example, you may want to fit light oak or even glass internal doors.  UK homes tend to have several rooms on one floor, and you can produce a nice open-plan feeling if you increase the amount of light in the house.
2. Build up as well as out. If you're finding it difficult to fit everything in the house, then you could make use of wall mounted storage.  Few people make use of all of the available wall space, and floor-to-ceiling cupboards can be a valuable way to increase the amount of storage real-estate you have.
3. Light and Mirrors.  Those floor-to-ceiling cupboards may make your room feel rather cramped, but you can make the room feel much bigger by making creative use of light and mirrors.  Consider putting mirrors on your floor-to-ceiling cupboards to give the illusion of the room having more space.  Many restaurants and hotels use this technique. 
4. Concealed Storage. Consider replacing your old sofa, bed, TV stand or table with one that has concealed storage options.  This allows you to store more stuff in your house, without needing to give up extra space for it.  As an added bonus, you'll be able to enjoy some new and stylish furniture.  Look for furnishings that feature light colours and fairly clean designs/patterns, to keep the room looking lean.
5. Wall and door hangers: In very small apartments, you may want to hang items over your oak doors.  You can buy hangars for anything from coats and hats through to smaller items such as shoes or toiletries.  These hangars are discrete and flexible, and a good way to keep things organised in a small house.  

It can be difficult to keep a small home clutter free, but it is possible.  If you expect to have to live in a small apartment or home for a long time then you may have to adapt a more Spartan lifestyle.  Consider purchasing a laptop instead of using a desktop PC, reading books and magazines in electronic format, and being more selective about clothes and other items.  Keeping your home clutter-free is a good way to stay stress-free.

If you have a lot of possessions at the moment, then you may want to put some of them into storage.  You can rent storage units quite easily, and they will allow you to keep some of your treasured possessions while you're stuck in a small appointment for a while.  When you move to a bigger house you will be able to take the items back out of storage and enjoy them long term.