Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Maximizing Space in Your Living/Family Room

Tips for Tuesday

These last few weeks, we've been looking at ways to make the most of the space you have. Not everyone has a house with large rooms and large closets, with lots of storage. If you have a large family, but are small on space, there are many things you can do to make the most of what you have.

This week, we're looking at your living room.

• Clear the clutter every night before going to bed. When you start a pile, you keep adding to it, until you have several piles. But if you clear the small piles every night, you won't accumulate large ones.
• Purchase furniture with storage--an ottoman that opens, tables with drawers, a shelving unit with doors, etc.
• Purchase multi-purpose furniture like chairs or sofas that open into beds, or a file cabinet that can serve as an end table.
• Corral the controls--designate a basket or tray for holding the remote controls. Teach the family to put them back when they are done.
• Use wall space for storage. Shelving can hold books, DVDs, CDs, etc. Tall narrow units take up little floor space, but give you a lot of storage.
• Use the space under furniture to store blankets, magazines, table leafs, etc.

2 comments:

Hope White said...

Hi Michelle!
Do you know where to get the perfect "under the bed" containers? My son needs to maximize storage space in his small apartment and we think storing items under the bed could be a good use of space.
Thanks!

Michelle said...

It depends on what they are using the storage for. If they need to access the contents often, then an underbed drawer would work well. If they won't be needing the contents often, a latch lid container without wheels would work. If access is occasional, then look for a split lid container on rollers.
The most important thing to remember is the height of the space under the bed. Measure from floor to bottom of bed to determine maximum height of the storage. If necessary, use risers under the bed for higher storage. For a variety of containers, visit Iris-www.irisusainc.com.