{"id":1094,"date":"2012-06-27T19:03:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T00:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2012-06-27T16:35:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T21:35:05","slug":"so-little-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2012\/06\/so-little-space\/","title":{"rendered":"So Little Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember with some embarrassment how excited I was about our house before we moved in.\u00a0 Walking through the spaces, imagining how spacious most of it seemed.\u00a0 The full bath was admittedly tiny, yet just across the hall was a big linen closet.\u00a0 Many of the spaces seemed full of potential.\u00a0 Using the spaces wasn\u2019t quite as simple.\u00a0 Whether you realize the space limitations before or after you move in, you still want to make the most of what you have available.<\/p>\n

When you space is physically small, the first thing to consider is going vertical with your storage options.\u00a0 Although many of our rooms are small, the taller pieces make the most of the available height \u2013 from our over 6 foot tall bookshelves to the tall and narrow \u201clingerie\u201d dressers.\u00a0 In the bathroom, we had a new medicine cabinet and matching cabinet installed over the toilet \u2013 creating some good depth and enclosed storage options.\u00a0 Using the vertical space can mean furniture although it can also be simply installing some things onto the wall higher up.\u00a0 Is there room for a stand-alone pantry?\u00a0 Remember if you go vertical, keep in mind how easy or hard it is to access those things on top, and opt to store lesser-used items in the hard to reach places.<\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a>

Small bathroom- medicine cabinet and cabinet over the toilet (no room for an over-the-toilet rack and pedestal sink so no storage room underneath)<\/p><\/div>\n

When dealing with a physically small space, one of the main tasks is to figure out what is critical to have in the space.\u00a0 What can live elsewhere?\u00a0 In our tiny bathroom, it felt luxurious when we got the cabinet over the toilet installed; we suddenly had this additional storage space.\u00a0 Only the frequently used items live in the bathroom, and the rest are divided between the linen closet and the half-bath upstairs.\u00a0 The bedroom linens don\u2019t live in the linen closet at all \u2013 it made more sense to store those upstairs closer to the bedroom in a chest we have.\u00a0 What absolutely needs to be kept in the limited space available to you?\u00a0 Where can you store the back-up items or lesser-used items?<\/p>\n

That linen closet I was so excited about is too deep and the fixed shelves too far apart for our ideal use.\u00a0 To deal with this, I started with those items that could be stacked in front of each other \u2013 the towels have two stacks, so once we get through the front stack, it\u2019s easy to access the second stack.\u00a0 This is surprisingly not uncommon \u2013 I have seen this too frequently, it makes me wonder what people think when designing closets.<\/p>\n

There are several options for making the most of closets and pantries \u2013 consider a Lazy Susan, maybe even a double tiered one \u2013 these can be especially useful in closets or pantries that go around corners, which can be challenging to use effectively.\u00a0 Any tools that are double-tiered can be useful, as long as you don\u2019t need to get behind it for things.\u00a0 Depending on the items and placement, an under-the-shelf basket can help utilize the space well.\u00a0 Often what helps is to put the front items into baskets, bins, or containers of some kind.\u00a0 If you use this, you can pull out the container in one movement and easily get at the things behind them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of thinking non-traditionally.\u00a0 Where can you store things that aren\u2019t a \u201cnormal\u201d place?\u00a0 I\u2019ve shared before how I purged some shoes to make room for the partial bookshelf in the bottom of my tiny closet \u2013 this isn\u2019t where you\u2019d typically think of putting books.\u00a0 I\u2019m currently using part of a bookcase to store office supplies \u2013 they are behind closed doors so it\u2019s not obvious and they\u2019re in a different room from the printer and mail supplies.\u00a0 You\u2019ve probably heard or seen people storing various items in their hutch \u2013 from photo albums or kids art supplies, not your traditional table linens, china, or silver.\u00a0 We sometimes think of under-the-bed storage as an option \u2013 and with the canvas bags this becomes more of an option when your bed isn\u2019t high enough for the traditional bins.\u00a0 You can apply this same idea to under your dressers and other furniture \u2013 and keep it relatively hidden.<\/p>\n

One of the popular ways to store things is to use the basement or attached garage.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen people install virtually floor to ceiling shoe racks \u2013 using both non-traditional storage options and thinking vertically.\u00a0 The basement and attached garage can also be useful for those back-up items \u2013 you move things from there into your home when needed and stock back up to the garage or basement.<\/p>\n

There are such a plethora of options for how to make the most of your limited space.\u00a0 Of course, you need to make sure you have exactly what you need and use \u2013 there\u2019s frequently an opportunity to purge, even if it\u2019s just a handful of things.\u00a0 We almost have too many options for storing things \u2013 it can be tricky just sorting through them.\u00a0 Also, you want to think about how you use things, make things work for you \u2013 despite much acclaim for storing cleaning supplies where you use them, this is often problematic when you have limited space.\u00a0 Can you embrace the challenge to make the most of the space you have?<\/p>\n

If not, call me! \u00a0I now offer virtual organizing. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From badly designed spaces to simply physically small spaces \u2013 there are challenges to make the most of what you have available to you. Here are some things to consider when dealing with your limited space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,8,5,22,4,17],"class_list":["post-1094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-household","tag-productivity","tag-routines","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-hE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1100,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions\/1100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}