Making the best of small spaces

[StormySar]

We have the *possible* opportunity to buy a rental house my mom owns. It is a house I grew up in, so I know it well.

It is smaller than where we live now, so we've been on a big decluttering rampage lately.

I'm just trying to think of ways I can maximize the space in the house.

How can I use the space under beds most efficiently? What about the ceiling - any creative ways to use the space there? back of doors?

What about maximixing space in the closet without spending a bunch of money on closet organizers?

We will have a very small budget for this, so I'm trying to think frugally and think about repurposing things. What, i don't know... Could I use drawers to a dresser under the bed, and just push/pull them in and out as we'd need clothes? I often see drawers and dressers being thrown out, and the drawers are usually in alright shape. I'd love to not have a dresser in the rooms because they'll be cramped with the bunkbeds we have now. So closet and under the bed are the best ways i can think to really get the most use out of space.

Ideas?

[rere]

You could easily and inexpensively add wheels to the drawers to slide them under the beds.I think that would be a great space saver.

In the closets you could hang a thick dowel to make a second place for hanging kids clothes or grown up shirts.Does that make sense?

Socks and underwear can go in those over the door shoe organizers.Or if you sew you could make an over the door organizer out of an old top sheet or table cloth.And you could also put one on the outside of the closet door for toy storage.

The only thing coming to mind for the ceiling is a pot rack in the kitchen.

Maybe check out some of the small house groups on flickr?

[karne]

We got rid of my dd's large armoire because it took up too much space in her room. I've pared down the clothing to essentials and we put wire shelving in her closet along with the bar for hanging clothes. the shelving has two pull out "drawers" for undies, etc. It's much more efficient, and a better use of closet space.

[Pinoikoi]

My mother used to mount her queen size bed into the wall on two sides with the third side supported by a tall dresser or bookshelf.. they always had TONS of storage space that way.. it takes big spikes to do it, but I never felt it was unsafe (of course, she didn't cosleep)..

We have really cheap closet organizers Closet maid I think? A white bar is installed up and down over a stud (you have to have two sets of these) then a shelf support is added and the white shelves are put in on top.. they have a rod for hanging items from (instead of a dowel) and they have the shelf part on top.. Our house came with the basic set up for this system and we are slowly adding more shelves of different sizes to closets all around the house..

our house has storage in the garage, in the crawlspace, under the stairs, and in closets throughout. We have VERY small vanities though in the bathrooms and each bathroom has a mirror, no attic, and no medicine cabinets so we have gotten creative with the spaces we do have..

[EnviroBecca]

I lived for two years in a 7'x13' dorm room that someone else had to be able to walk through in a Z-shaped path to get from the hallway to her room. In addition to sleeping and doing homework in that room, I cooked (in a hotpot) and ate there, and I hung my laundry there. I learned lots of space-saving tricks:

A half-height bookcase placed along one side of a bed, with shelves facing out, serves as a bedside table (the top) and a room divider to give privacy to the bed, as well as a storage unit.

Wherever there's an awkward little space--caused by furniture not quite fitting against the walls, odd alcoves, etc.--find something that can be tucked into it, like a wastebasket, laundry bag, shoes not in use, etc.

If you need a wardrobe cupboard for hanging clothes (and this goes for the refrigerator, too) be sure to use the top! Put a big box of something you rarely use in the center back (this is where I kept my out-of-season clothes) and then put objects or shelves of objects around the edges. Try to position other furniture so that it's easy to step up onto it to reach these objects and you don't need a stepstool.

Some foods, like frozen French fries, are shipped to restaurants in sturdy cardboard boxes with a center divider. These make fabulous file cabinets or storage shelves! They're big and strong enough to hold most items you'd put on a shelf, but their overall dimensions are small enough that they're easy to fit into places, and they work vertically or horizontally.

If you have a large dresser- or desktop, put small shelving units or stacking file trays (the plastic office type) in the back corners. I used to keep my sweaters on top of the dresser in a French-fry box, for example.

Look for some kind of large, flat, stiff object that you can stash behind a door or between furniture and wall most of the time, and bring out to turn a bed into a table when you need a flat surface for drawing, playing cards, cutting fabric, etc. In my dorm room I had a 30"x42" artist's drawing board that was too scratched-up for perfect drawing, but when I had friends over for a meal or a game I'd put it in the middle of the bed and have two people sit on the ends of the bed and one on the floor. We now have two old doors that we keep against the hallway wall except when we turn our entire full-size bed or the bedroom floor into a table for cutting fabric.

For decor, think:
1. functional--pretty patterns for curtains, pillows, etc. that you have to have anyway, instead of knick-knacks that get in the way.
2. flat--pictures stuck directly to the wall instead of in frames. You can get tons of nice pictures for free by cutting up old calendars! These are great for decorating ugly backs of furniture used as room dividers. A flat way to decorate a big blank wall is to sew a casing along the top edge of a big piece of patterned fabric, slide it over a long strip of wood (you can buy molding pretty cheap at a hardware store), and rest the ends on two nails hammered into the wall at an upward angle. If you use thick fabric like polyfleece or a quilt, it absorbs noise.

Some friends of mine lived in a very small apartment for years, and they put a shelf about 8-10" deep all the way around the top of every room at the height of the tops of the doorframes. That created gobs of storage that was out of reach of kids, out of the way of everyone's heads, and interesting to look at! The trick to making that (or any large swath of storage) look good is to alternate dense things, like books or stacks of sweaters, with larger objects on display.

ETA: In one place I lived, the kitchen didn't have enough storage space, but the door to the basement steps opened off the kitchen. We bought some wire shelves with brackets that hung over the top of the door and put them on the basement side, and that's where we kept all our canned goods. I've been in another house where the kitchen side of the door was covered with nails for hanging aprons and potholders.

[dogmom327]

If you have an IKEA around they have mock "houses" set up in their store and they are all really small (I think about 250 sq. ft. to 700 sq. ft.). I get such good ideas seeing how things are placed, organized, etc.

[bigteamug]

Think about the amount of storage provided for floor space used - a wardrobe, stinky as they are to move, can be great for storage because they go up, using little floor space compared to say a double dresser. Fine even for shorties like kids - just put stuff they don't need this season up there.

Closets - add a second rod - the wood is cheap, and the plastic round caps that go on the wall (either with a wood screw if there is a stud there or a toggle bolt if not and it's sheetrock) are, too. Yes, over the door hangers are good for socks, etc, we also used one in the entry closet for mittens, etc

Under bed drawers - yes, add wheels/castors, and consider a piece of cloth/canvas on top to keep dust out. Use the middle section under the bed (where the drawers don't reach on a larger bed) for out of season stuff in bins or bags.

Kitchen - pot rack, wall-mounted magnetic knife holder, and IKEA. they have wall mounted stainless steel organizers I've been lusting after.

No real idea on ceilings unless they're really high and you could put a loft in. Not cheap though.