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seriously downsizing…need advice
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Hello everyone, this weekend my family will begin a new chapter of our lives. We have lived in a house of about 3400 sq. ft. for the last 7 years. The home we are moving to might be 1200 sq.ft. We are actually excited about the new adventure but I must admit that really weeding through all the stuff is a challenge. I know that a big impact on our adjusting well is being organized with the small space.
Do any of you have advice on fitting in school materials and kitchen stuff and bathroom stuff? We’ll have 1 bathroom. There isn’t much of a kitchen. We won’t have a dinner table because there is no place to put one. I’m thinking we could put small desks in the kids bedrooms to work. We will have a nice size back yard, so I’m planning to have a table out there. The kids like to be outside anyway, so when the weather isn’t rotten, we can work outside.
I thought many of you creative ladies might have some suggestions that I’d never think of, so I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks, Tamra
I got a plastic rolling drawer thing at Walmart that will contain all the things needed for school supplies like our math manipulatives, cd’s, pencils, papers, art supplies etc. I tuck it in the corner of the kitchen or dining room with a CD player on the top.
In the bathroom I mounted (in the studs) a 1×4 board that I had painted and screwed hooks to for all our towels to hang on. I hung an over-the-door canvas shoe holder (the king with pockets) in the closet by bathroom where I placed all those things you want in the bathroom and didn’t have room for. The shoe things can be used for lots of stuff – toys, art suuplies, craft items, etc.
Build a book case in the end of the hall in the dead space between the door frames or in the empty end. I’ve done this in two different houses. Love it.
Go up the walls as much as possible.
Limit the toys to things that will tuck away under the bed – only keep the dollhouse, barn, or other big thing out in the open.
Store canned goods or other pantry items under your bed – there are actually plans for you to build a system to help you store and rotate your pantry items this way.
Be ruthless – if you have’t used it in 6 months or a year, what are the chances of it being it used again? Donate it to a women’s shelter or Goodwill and keep it out eyesight of everyone. It is too easy to take it back if you can still see it. =) For me, this is especially helpful with kitchen items.
Cut your clothes back to 7 outfits a person, and get rid of the rest.
Well, I went through something similar. 2800 + sq ft. too 1200. But we have a dinning room and a large kitchen. Do you have an attic? Basement? We didn’t have one when we moved but we redone our attic. I don’t know how big youir kitchen is but does it have an island?
Bathroom- I put a large storage cabinet in the bathroom. This is also where our laundryroom is. So I found it better to keep all the clothes in one area. It saved me time folding and putting away. It also saved me time and money. My son loved to pull clothes out of the drawers and throw them all over the room. I had a shelf for each member of my family. Then the cabinet fell apart and my husband found that we had laundry everywhere and bought another bin right away. Now it is missing a shelf so my daughter and I share one. when the close fall out it is either time to get rid of clothes or change them over to the next season. Either way works well for us. So summer clothes go in a suitcase to be stored until we go on vacation or summer comes. 🙂
We also do not have a linen closet. 🙁 (use to have one in our old house) We have one cabinet in the bathroom. This is where I keep the towels, TP, repellant, sunscreen,ect.. in a box. Mostly seasonal things go in here. If you have shelves great! you can put them in baskets. I purchased a drawer bin for under the sink. Measure and try to find one that fits…:) Make sure you measure and include the fixtures first! 🙂 I hang up the blow dryer by the sink. A sturdy basket holds deoderant, hair brushes, ect… This way I can move it around if company comes. We don’t have a medicine cabinet. 🙁 Had one at the old house too. 🙂
We put unmatched socks in a sock bag. Matched socks on a drawer type bins on the dryer. But my friend has a good idea. If a sock has been missing for two weeks she tosses them. I can’t part that easily with them but I think I will have to do the monthly or quarterly drop of the sock bag.
You can use all of your wall space is your best bet. Go up! We have been doing this and it seems to work best. As a matter of fact I just purchased a bunch of store shelves to hang up in my room and the for school supplies, crafts, ect.. The kids have book shelves in their rooms. They go up to almost the ceiling. That would be my best advice. Buy bookshelves before you move in. Put in shelves everywhere. For your school stuff try plastic file box crates. You could put those on shelves. Measure things first though.
Kitchen- You could have a plate, glass, and some silverware for each child in the house. This way they have to take care of their own. It gets washed dried and put away by them. Limiting the number of dishes in your cabinets. I buy my food in bulk so I have 5 gallon buckets with Euro-lids on them to keep the food fresh. If you have an out of way place to put it you could just refill the food items (oats, flour, cane-juice crystals, rice, ect…) I am putting in store shelves so I can take my small storage cabinet out of my kitchen. More shelf space, because they are deeper. I will have to put a curtain up but now I will be able to hide my vaccumn cleaner. 🙂
Livingroom- We have a large livingroom. This is where I put my books for school that are in use. Out of use books go in the boys bookshelf in their room. I plan on putting shelves up in this room ASAP. I have 2 book cases and that is not enough. 🙂 So many things could go in here on the shelves. I want to try making my monitor and computer stuff on a shelf.
You will revamp again and again when you get new ideas. My husband went over someones house recently and that was all they had was shelves up their walls. They stored everything on shelves. He finally got my vision. 🙂
When purging stick to the basics. We brought things we didn’t need. Thought I might but found out we didn’t. Some of the furniture I wish I would have left behind. It took up to much space. I like the furniture that you can store things in. Ex.. footstool, chair, that you can lift the seat up and there is storage. I think Flexsteel is the maker. I also wish we had a hide a bed in our couch. (next time we purchase a couch!) We have company come all the time. Another idea that might work great for you could be a camper. We just purchased one last year and it has been great. It would have a table and you could keep you books in there. We use it when company comes but if you live in the south it could be used most of the time and you could cook in there and not heat up your house. You could even use it to move….
I almost forgot. Wooden TV trays. You could use them for school and to eat on and they can be put up when someone comes over…. 🙂 This would give you more space in the kids bedroom. Which by the way we put a lego table in. This helped them because it had bins under to put their toys. But if you plan on having dressers it may be an overkill. I’d say drop the dressers and go for the plastic or wooden armoire in the bathroom or laundry room if you have space. 🙂
Well, I hope this helped some. This is just a few things I found helped us. Even a garage is better than nothing. We didn’t even have that when we moved. 🙂
Blessings on your new move! and I hope to hear others great ideas!
I’m not sure I can add much to the already great ideas. Just to echo the others though….purge, purge, purge. Get rid of as much toys & junk as you can now. And organize the rest. I like to have all the Legos in one plastic bin (labeled) with a lid, same for blocks, etc. They can then be stacked on shelves which helps with space.
For the “linen” closet – we keep our sheets in large Rubbermaid containers (with lids) in the rooms they are used. Ours are under our bed, for the boys, they are under one of the bunks, previously in the very top shelf of a closet. In the actual linen closet (which is rather small) we have everything in plastic see-through boxes, with lids, and VERY clearly labeled. One holds all my “medicine” type stuff, another holds all the “extras” – extra tubes of toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, etc. Towels are stacked on one shelf as compactly as I can make them. TP & Kleenex are on the very bottom.
If you have closets with super high shelves that you don’t use frequently, use those for storage of paper goods (toilet paper, etc) or seasonal items. If you don’t have one of those awkward high shelves, put one in!
I use a large cabinet in the garage to hold my larger appliances like my crockpots, wheat grinder, etc. The ones I use more frequently I keep in the house, in the kitchen if there’s room, if not in a cabinet with doors – once it was in a bedroom, once in the living room, another time in the corner of the kitchen. I’ve also had a separate cabinet (in whatever room I can fit it in) holding cooking supplies and food items.
Like mentioned, we got rid of a lot of clothes. If my kids won’t immediately hand them down (within a year) I get rid of them. I don’t have the space to hold onto them. We try to put dressers into the closets or use shelves in the closet instead of dressers in the actual bedroom space. I do the same for bookshelves or shelving units – as many as I can get into closets and then another few in the room. All the boys sleep in one room – 2 bunks beds. The extra room is then used as a schoolroom/playroom/library.
I also don’t have “doubles” – I don’t need 7 spatulas or 4 wooden spoons. Most of our CDs are now in a CD book. I’m eyeballing the DVDs to see if that will work.
Best of luck!
I read a great idea about storing linens from a woman who lived overseas with little storage. Each bed in the house had two sets of linens; one to go on the bed, and the other, once washed and folded, was stored between the mattress and box spring of each bed. This would also save the trouble of trying to find the appropriate linens for each bed!
Hey Evergreen,
I just laughed when I heard you say that because I was thinking. Why store them in between the bed. Just flip the mattress with the sheet on! Ha ha ha…. Just had to have a laugh for a second there. That was a good idea though. The europeans are so much better at storage then we are. They only have a few articles of clothes too. It is their signature clothing. 🙂 Ok now I really need to downsize somemore.
Up here we have the winter flannel set and the cool summer set. What to do now? tehe he 🙂
May I also suggest that you take advantage of the great organizational and storage items offered at Ikea and/or The Container Store? Ikea offers a wide range of affordable storage options, from bins to baskets to shelves and even portable closets. The Container Store is a bit more pricey, but their stuff is also very high quality. When organizing a small space, it is very often totally worth spending some money on items that will make your home feel like it has more space and so that everything has a place.
As to storing linens: We only have 1 sheet set for our bed. I wash and put it back on the bed all on the same day (and if I forget, we use sleeping bags LOL). We do have spares for the kids, which we keep in 1 big giant pile on their closet shelf. I have spares on purpose, if you get my drift. 😉 And, aha, add another shelf to the linen closet! Great idea!
I also store toys only in their rooms, and only under their beds plus 1 plastic drawer set (3 drawers) and 1 toy box (dress-up) in the girls’ room. We have 3 girls in 1 room, and 1 boy in another. He has plenty of space. Too much, actually, and his is the smallest room. 😛 I’ve actually considered switching rooms with the girls. They are downstairs, and we and our son are upstairs. Our room is lots bigger, but we actually really like the idea of finally having our own master bedroom… It may be reconsidered down the line.
We also utilize wall space as much as possible, I need to get my hubby to add some more shelves/cabinets in the laundry room and our schoolroom.
I am working on purging things, and we hope to downsize again someday. So this post has been awesome! Thanks for all the great ideas!
Lindsey – Please do not use the I-word around those of us that live far from one. And no Container Store either. The pain, Lindsey, the pain…..
A few more ideas –
We have a very small space for a kitchen table to fit. We measured and shopped online and in stores FOREVER, but finally found a smaller sized one that fits the area, and still works with our family of 6. I can point you to some ideas if you’d like. We opted for two benches on the sides – one against the wall, the other backing the kitchen area so they can be pushed in and not take up a lot of room.
While I LOVE physical books, I put a lot of them onto my Kindle. Especially older, free books like Henty or fairy tales and such. I also don’t keep current fiction that I can find at my library. I still have way too many books and bookshelves but that’s pretty much all we have!
For school organization I do similar to my linen closet – a plastic box with a lid, clearly labeled with items grouped together – art supplies, science supplies, etc and then all stacked on top of each other. Most of my teacher’s manuals are in magazine file folder box thingies. I also group them like that on bookcases in the living room. This way I can fit many books into a neatly organized space and I can just grab a box, take it to the couch and work our way through it.
I have a hanging organizer in the schoolroom with 3 big pouches – the top has oil pastels, chalks and scissors. Then second has a few other art supplies, the bottom and easiest to reach has pencils and erasers. The tops of the bookcases (reached by a chair or stool) holds either plastic boxes of “school supplies” or things like the math scales. Some of my bookcases in closets have an additional row of books on the top.
Still thinking….and realizing I need to get rid of some stuff and organize the rest!
We moved into a house with less than 1000 sq feet a year ago. Ouch, huh? One idea – we school in our living room mostly and also at our dining table. I am assuming you have some type of table for eating at. Using that saves the desk space. Or we also use clipboards and sit on our couch. Or lay on the floor…or outside…. 🙂 we have under bed storage, and I store canned goods in the basement. I throw everything away but what we really need.
Tara
Tamra,
DId you check to see if you can get a bigger bed up the stairs? I know sometimes they don’t fit…. (this is knowledge speaking. ) Found out after we got here and the box spring wouldn’t fit up the stairwell…
Just thought I would mention it. … I don’t have the luxury of underbed space. Just thought I would tell you just in case you have a rude awakening like we did. ( It sure looked like it would fit.) luckily the mattress part could be squeezed up. 🙂 Sometimes those old farm houses just throw ya for a loop! 🙂
Oh, chocodog, good point! We got a new mattress and box spring at our old house (1200 sq. ft), and we had the box spring “cut” in 2 pieces – and they still wouldn’t get up the steps! It had 3 steps and then a 90 degree turn, but they were so narrow, nothing could get up there without going in small pieces. We were very disappointed. So glad we can use them in our new house now!
Sometimes the best way to get large furniture into an upstairs room in an old farmhouse is to go in through an upstairs window rather than up the stairs. That tip is from my father who has moved many people into and out of old farmhouses. I have never seen him unable to get something in an upstairs bedroom!
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