living in small spaces

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cowsmanaut
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living in small spaces

Post by cowsmanaut »

I saw this video just now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnFTXHOYhV0

and I've heard of a number of places that use space like this to house people in various countries, and even use this to provide places to stay for paying guests..

For myself, moving out of a 4 bedroom location to a 3 bedroom meant throwing away not just an entire spare bedrooms worth of stuff, but the rooms were smaller and our storage was tiny, so we threw out pretty much an industrial bins worth of items. Some of it was damaged in the last flood we had (one of the major reasons for our relocation). However, now, we still have little space. We don't invite people over because our home is still somewhat overflowing with items we use.. much of it pretty often. Some of it is once a year items (is xmas tree, and other seasonal decorations) and others are specific to a season (kiddy pool, gardening supplies, etc). So it's not like we can just toss them either. We also both like to cook, so having dry goods, and spices, and various cookware takes up a lot of space. We both have book addictions and so our overflowing bookshelves now have a new book addict in the house taking over. We both switched to digital versions of books (kobo, and android devices).. However some things just don't do well in digital formats.

I also have an extensive DVD/Bluray collection and made a custom storage place for it which doubles as an end table and can fit around 500 or so of them.

I'm always looking for new ways to store our items, to clean up our space more.. and slowly trying to replace anything that is a specific tool with a multi tool that takes less space over all. It's a constant battle . We've done some pretty great things so far, and have many ideas to do more, but a lot of it is very custom built.. and time consuming.. but we're getting there :)

Do you have any examples of great use of storage space? or stories of how moving to a smaller location has impacted your life?
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Wizard Zedd
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Re: living in small spaces

Post by Wizard Zedd »

I had the opposite happen - went from a very small space to much larger area with a garage. Thought that we would never be able to fill the space - but over time, it filled up and now having to purge to make room :)

When living in a smaller space it is always good to have items that do double duty - such as your end table that you store DVDs in. A seat, foot stool or bench that opens for storage. Under the bed is a great place for a variety of storage containers and good closet organizers can also help.
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cowsmanaut
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Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2000 12:53 am
Location: canada

Re: living in small spaces

Post by cowsmanaut »

Yeah, just looking at the kids toys and thinking maybe a purge is due.. or get a new sofa that can become a toybox :P

The biggest issue for us is the inefficiency of our cupboards.. if you pack them full you never get to the back, so we've looked at shelving or lazy susans to make it easier to get to everything without wasting space.
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Wizard Zedd
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Re: living in small spaces

Post by Wizard Zedd »

There are a lot of great solutions out there...I have seen them on various home improvement shows. You just have to do some research...and be creative :)
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