It has been a while since I’ve done a decluttering or organizing post, so I went to my idea list for some inspiration. One of the items on my list came from my friend Cher at The Chicago Files who left me a comment asking for tips on staying organized in smaller spaces. Read on for a roundup of space saving tips for smaller homes.  

Bigger homes and smaller families

One of the great contradictions of the last fifty years is how homes have gotten bigger while families have gotten smaller.

And those bigger homes still don’t seem to be big enough to contain all our stuff. The global self-storage market has grown to a whopping $50 Billion U.S. (Source: Statista) and demand is still growing based on the number of new self-storage facilities that are popping up all over the place.

When my husband and I got married, we bought what many people would call a starter home. Almost 30 years later, we still live in that same home. We thought about buying a bigger house over the years, but the timing never seemed right.

Now that our daughters are grown and we’re heading into our retirement years, staying in that smaller home has turned out to be one of the smartest financial decisions we’ve ever made.

Over the years, I’ve learned a few things about making good use of the space we have available. Unlike most people in our neighbourhood, we actually park a car in our garage. And the only time I’ve ever rented a storage unit was to store the contents of my daughter’s college residence room in the summer after her first year of college.

I’ve put together a roundup of space saving tips for smaller homes to help you make the most of your space.

Space saving tips for smaller homes

First, declutter!

Before rushing out to buy storage baskets or organizing solutions, you first need to declutter. No matter what you might think, you can’t organize clutter! If you feel your home is bursting at the seams, it’s time to have a hard look at the stuff you own. I’ll bet you probably don’t use or need close to half of it.

If you don’t know where to start, visit my main decluttering page. You’ll find decluttering checklists, and room-by-room tips to help you tackle your biggest decluttering challenges.

Only after you make progress on decluttering, should you move on to organizing.

Look for furniture that doubles as storage

I’m a big fan of furniture that doubles as storage. Our bed has built-in drawers underneath, eliminating the need for a separate dresser. At 8.5 x 8.5 feet, our younger daughter’s bedroom is smaller than the walk-in closets in a lot of houses, so her bookcase bed with storage drawers has been a godsend.

In addition to our beds, we use a deacon’s bench by our front door to store hats, mittens and scarves.

Other dual-purpose furniture items to consider:

• A blanket box can double as a coffee table or window bench.
• A stool or ottoman with a storage compartment is a great place to hide things away out of sight.

Use space underneath furniture

If buying new furniture isn’t in your budget, make the most of what you’ve got. IKEA sells inexpensive under-bed storage boxes that are fantastic for storing bed linens, and out-of-season clothes.

Similarly, we bought some baskets to fit under our living room coffee table to keep craft supplies and other items out of sight but handy when we need them.

Make good use of vertical space

In smaller rooms, you can maximize storage by making the most of vertical space. When we renovated our kitchen a few years ago, we removed the bulkhead above the cupboards and extended the height of the cupboards to the ceiling. That extra storage made a huge difference.

We also replaced our wide bedroom dresser with a tall armoire that takes up about half the floor space and holds about twice as much clothing.

The principle of maximizing vertical space can also apply to bookcases, stackable storage baskets, and more.

Don’t forget about wall space

Our house has two bathrooms, both of which are very small. Our second bathroom is tiny, so we chose to save space with a pedestal sink and a wall cabinet instead of an under-sink vanity. We have a similar wall shelf in our main bathroom that helps to keep the countertops free of clutter.

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Over-door hangers

Over-door hangers are an excellent solution for hanging towels and robes, and for storing and displaying small stuffed animals and toys.

Vertical storage keeps drawers tidy

I’m not a fan of Marie Kondo’s approach to decluttering but the one thing I did take away from her book is the value of vertical storage in drawers.

Vertical storage lets you fit more in the drawers, and it helps to keep drawers tidy, saves time searching for clothes buried in piles, and prevents clothes from creasing.

Use every inch of your closet space

There are no walk-in closets in our house. For years, I stored out-of-season clothing in a closet in the basement taking time twice a year to do the switchover.

One of my proudest accomplishments with the 52-week decluttering challenge was fitting all our clothing in our bedroom closet and drawers. During my closet decluttering, I learned a few tips to maximize the use of closet space.

1. Attach storage baskets and drawers to the walls.
2. Hanging shoe organizers take up very little space and keep shoes and other small items organized.
3. An under-bed organizer fits nicely on the floor and is a great place to store tote bags, purses, and small accessories.
4. Shelves and baskets let you make the most of space in the top of the closet that’s often wasted.

Stackable containers maximize pantry shelf space

If you have limited space in your kitchen cupboards, stackable containers help you maximize the space you do have.

Keep counters as clear as possible

Horizontal surfaces seem to be a magnet for clutter. Our bathroom and kitchen counters used to be a cluttered mess. I still struggle with keeping the kitchen counters clear, but things are much better than they used to be.

Something that helped free up space on the kitchen counters is a magnetic storage container for papers that hangs on the side of our fridge.

Extend toy rotation to other items

When our kids were small, it felt like our house was overrun with toys. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn about toy rotation until after my daughters had grown up, but it’s such a brilliant idea. With toy rotation, you store half of your kids toys away at any given time, reducing clutter and giving your kids a fresh crop of toys to play with when the old toys reappear.

With a little creativity, you can apply the same principle of rotation to books, DVDs and other media, hobby and craft supplies, and a lot of other things taking up space in your house.

And…if you store things away and don’t use them for six months or more, you probably don’t need them and can safely declutter them.

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Thanks again to Cher from The Chicago Files for the inspiration. I hope you found something you can use in this post.

Have you tried any of these ideas? Do you have other space saving tips for smaller homes? Drop me a comment below with your ideas.