Living in a small apartment or house can be a challenge, especially if you live with a partner, have children, or have a hobby that takes up a good amount of space. While challenging, though, there can also be something rewarding about living in a small space. They often feel very cozy, and cleaning is quick and easy when you don’t have a lot of floors to vacuum or sweep. Unfortunately, small spaces can also feel claustrophobic and feel cluttered, too. That’s why it’s important to keep everything organized and to take the time to really maximize every square inch of your space.
If you live in a small area in Dallas and are starting to feel a little overwhelmed by how crowded and cramped it feels, here are a few tips that will help you get your small home sorted out.
Get Rid of Trash
The first thing you’ll want to do is to get rid of clutter. There are several steps to this, but it should start with getting rid of trash. Do you have a lot of old mail you’ve held on to for months or years? Maybe you have paper copies of bills or bank statements that you can access online. Why keep those papers? Go through all of your stuff and weed out the trash. Clean out your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. Go through your medicine cabinet and get rid of anything expired. Look through the closet for boxes or other packaging you may have held on to for some reason. It all needs to go in the trash.
This isn’t something you can do just once. You’ll need to regularly purge trash from your home, no matter how large or small the space is. Many people do fall and spring cleaning specifically for this purpose. With a smaller space, you may need to do it more often just so it doesn’t start to feel overwhelming. If you have a large amount of trash, such as when you do an annual purge, you may need to give Junk King a call so we can haul off everything at once.
It can help to establish a routine for dealing with this type of trash. For example, instead of pulling out the important pieces of mail and letting the rest pile up, sort through all of it when you bring it in. If it’s an advertisement, catalog, or other piece of mail you know is junk, immediately put it in the trash or recycling. Clean your refrigerator and pantry weekly. Don’t keep boxes unless you have a specific use for them. By making a few small changes, you can keep trash from piling up.
Sort, Organize, and Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need
The second step to getting rid of clutter is to sort through things that aren’t trash but that may not be useful. Do you have kitchen gadgets you just don’t use? Maybe you’ve got an old pot or two that aren’t really in good enough condition to use for food. Don’t let these things take up space, especially when space is at a premium. Look through your clothing and donate anything that you haven’t worn recently. If you have a lot of books, consider donating ones you know you won’t read again. You may even be able to make a little money with some of these items through consignment shops or second-hand stores.
As you’re purging things you don’t need, organize what you are keeping. You may want to invest in some organizing bins, trays, and other items to help keep things together. To avoid buying a lot of organizing items you may not need, take time to organize first. This will help you know how many bins, baskets, and other items you need so you don’t buy too many.
Look for Space-Saving Furniture
Do you have large pieces of furniture that take up most of the room? There may be alternatives you could invest in that would save you some space. For example, if you have a really small bedroom, you could get a Murphy bed. These beds fold up into the wall when not in use, so you could easily clear the space. Having a sofa that converts into a bed gives you the option to host guests without having an actual guest room. Folding desks that attach to the wall are a similar type of furniture that can save you space. When they’re not in use, the desk folds up against the wall, practically disappearing.
Tables that have fold-down sides or that expand by adding a drop-in leaf can give you additional dining space when you have guests but take up much less space when it’s just you. With this and a few folding chairs, you can easily host dinner parties when you want to without worrying about how to fit a large dining room table in your home.
There are many other fun, stylish, and space-saving pieces of furniture out there. Nesting tables give you multiple small tabletops when needed, then stack up when you don’t. Ottomans with built-in storage provide a great place to keep spare pillows and blankets. If you have children, you could even get them bunk beds to maximize the space in their room. If you upgrade any of your furniture to these space-saving options, be sure to get rid of the old pieces as soon as you can so you don’t have twice as much stuff in your home. Junk King Dallas is here to help whenever you need to get rid of large furniture or appliances.
You Can Still Have a Garden
Many people assume that just because they live in an apartment or high-rise that they can’t have a garden or grow flowers, but that’s definitely not the case. If you have a small balcony, there are many different solutions for adding hanging planters and plant stands that have multiple pots on them.
If you don’t have a balcony, you can purchase plant stands and place them in front of a window or two. Some of these stands are very decorative while also being functional. For example, if you do have a large window, you can purchase plant stands that are semi-circles with various platforms and hooks for pots. Placing two next to each other creates a focal point in a room while also giving you space to grow flowers, plants, and even a small indoor vegetable garden.
Even if that’s not an option, there are still plenty of ways to grow small house plants and even small pots of mint and other herbs for use in cooking. Plants also bring some color into your home, which can help make it feel less cramped.
Think Light and Bright
Color is a great way of making a small space look a little larger. Using white, light blue, or a light grey will make a space feel more open and airier, even if it really isn’t. Painting the walls is a fairly easy and inexpensive trick that can make you feel less crowded in your small home. If you’re renting and can’t paint the walls, you can bring in light-colored bedding, throw pillows, and rugs.
Make sure you’re not blocking out too much of the natural light, too. While blackout curtains are great in the bedroom, you don’t want to use them throughout the entire house. If you don’t have many windows, you can bring in a few mirrors and use them to help redirect light throughout your space.
Remember that getting rid of clutter and organizing everything will actually create more room is still necessary—the illusion of more space isn’t more space, and if all you do is paint the walls a light color, you’ll still find that you just don’t have enough room for stuff.
Think Vertically
If you don’t have much horizontal space, you’ll need to consider how to best use your vertical space. You may be able to put up some shelving to add storage. For example, if you have a lot of books but no room for a new bookshelf, you could add a row of hanging shelves all the way around the room about a foot from the ceiling. This gives you a lot of space for storing books, plus it also creates an interesting focal point for the space. It’s almost like a three-dimensional border at the top of the wall.
When Getting Rid of Trash, Turn to Junk King Dallas
Whether it’s an old chair or half the stuff in your home, when you need to get rid of stuff, Junk King is here to help. Our crew will carry everything out of your house or apartment and to our truck. We’ll even navigate multiple flights of stairs or wrestle stuff into the elevator. You don’t have to do any of the hard work. We can haul away just about anything, too, as long as it isn’t considered hazardous waste.
Ready to have more room in your small space? Give Junk King Dallas a call today at1-888-888-JUNK or text us at 1-737-888-5865.
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