One of the biggest challenges facing a growing family is finding space in your home for all your belongings. It can often be difficult having a big family if you only have a small home without a great deal of storage for all you and your children’s belongings. Even if you do have storage space, finding the time to organise this and get everything in order can be a difficult task. But despite what you might think, you can get your house into shape with help from our guide and top tips for big families living in small homes.
Bedroom
One of the best areas to start getting organised are the bedrooms, as these often become dumping grounds for your belongings. Things get shoved into drawers and we don’t revisit them for months or even years later when we need to find them. However, this doesn’t have to be the case and there are often plenty of ways to organise storage in your bedrooms.
- Shelving; if you don’t already have shelving units in your and your children’s bedrooms, then you should consider it. Give taller kids higher shelves and fix large units to the wall so they can’t cause harm by toppling over.
- Bunk Beds; if your children are sharing a room then you should make the best use of the space available by having bunk beds that your children can share to free up floor space. Even if your children aren’t sharing, think about raised beds with desk units.
Kitchen & Bathroom
Other areas in the house that are often cluttered and not utilised properly are the bathroom and kitchen. One of the first steps toward organising your home for storage is to make sure that you have utilised all the available space. There are some great ways you can make use of storage space in the bathroom and kitchen, such as;
- Hooks; using hooks on the back of the door can give you some extra space in both rooms, and you can hang items here to keep them out of the way. This can even make it easier to find items you usually search for.
- Cupboards; make full use of any cupboard space that you have in both rooms, whether it be the boiler cupboard or space in the kitchen that isn’t used for many belongings. Add shelving to make full use of vertical space in a room.
Furniture Storage
Furniture is probably one of the last places that you will have considered as offering the potential for extra storage, but this is a great space saving tip. There are plenty of ways that you can gain storage space by choosing the right furniture to store your belongings. This is also perfect if you are thinking about getting new furniture anyway as you can make the best use of your space. Using your sofa as storage is ideal, and you can find storage sofas which lift to reveal a hollow inside with storage space. Other pieces of furniture such as ottomans also offer storage space so that you can better organise your living space.
However, one of the top ways of getting organised and creating more space in your home is to make sure everything has a home. One great way to get this message across to your children is to tell them and remind them that anything not in its right place at the end of the week will get thrown out. If you are still struggling for space, then you should consider taking out self storage. This can help you gain space back into your home while you sort out your belongings.