If you’re feeling cramped in your current environment, you might start dreaming about moving to a bigger home or even building an extension. The good news is that there are plenty of steps you can take before any kind of drastic measures. From being selective with your possessions to putting seldom used items in storage, there’s always something you can do to make your home feel more spacious and inviting.
Here are our top five tips for keeping the clutter under control and discovering more space in your existing home.
Choose multi-tasking furniture
Think about all the wasted space in your home. When you’re a child, the space under the bed is just where the monsters hide, but when you’re a grown up, it’s storage space waiting to be discovered. Using under-bed storage boxes, you can hide away items which are rarely used. You could also store bedding, towels and anything that is cluttering up space in your home. Multi-tasking furniture with clever storage solutions will help you to hide things away when they aren’t needed. Storage ottomans and even storage sofas can help to uncover plenty of space in your home.
Cut the clutter
Marie Kondo recently popularised the idea of decluttering on a mass scale. While you don’t have to go quite as extreme as some of her suggestions, there may be ways you can cut back on the clutter in your life. Clear out your wardrobe to get rid of items you no longer wear. Be honest about the items in your home and decide if you really need to hang on to them. If you can’t give them away without guilt, consider moving them into one of our Chipping Norton storage units or our Bromsgrove self storage facility. This will allow you to free up space in your home without getting rid of all of your possessions.
Think vertical
When we try to store items, we often think horizontally. Bookcases, drawers and cupboards keep everything at eye level or below. But what if you look up? Using hooks on walls and ceilings can help you to discover more storage space which cleans up floors and surfaces at eye level. Bookcases can be added around the top portion of your walls or peg boards can be used in the kitchen to store pots, pans and utensils.
Store seasonally
You likely have a whole section of your wardrobe that you don’t touch in winter, and likewise in summer. By storing your items by season, you can free up space in your closet and streamline your morning routine. You could place items you won’t wear in vacuum bags to shrink them down to a more manageable size and then keep them under your bed. Or you could place these items in your self storage unit to clear out even more space in your home.
Update your rooms
When your children have left home, there’s really no need to keep their bedrooms exactly the same as when they left. Convert old bedrooms into a multi-use guest room. A trundle bed will give you versatile options for when visitors come to stay, while also freeing up space in your home. Think about what you’ve always wanted to do with the extra space. It could become a home office, a craft and hobby room, or even a home gym. This is one way a storage unit can be particularly helpful for clearing out the clutter.
