Downsizing

You can buy shelves and such for more storage space, if there is enough room to have them sitting against the walls. I used to have a cabinet that I had bought in my kitchen to use as a pantry and it did a very good job. My kitchen at the time was quite small and had very little cabinet space, but this addition made all of the difference for me. I also used shelving that I could hang up higher on the walls, especially in the laundry room, bathroom, and bedrooms. This way, the floor space was still there, but I added places to put things as well. You may want to look at the house and the way it is set up, then decide where you could put shelving, or have a cabinet sitting where it would look nice and utilize the space the best. Things such as over the door hangers work well for coats and towels because they are accessible, yet out of the way, a shelf that goes over the toilet in the bathroom works well to add storage and not take up additional floor space. The other thing that I would suggest would be to downsize the amount of possessions that you have as well. If there are things that you, your kids and your husband don't really use or haven't used for a long time, why not get rid of them? I know that it is hard for me to let go of some things, but when really think about it, if it is something that does not hold much sentimental value and is not needed or used much, I can normally do without it and hardly even miss it, if I miss it at all. When it comes to kids' toys, I have found that if I make them get rid of the ones that are broken or they don't really play with once or twice a year, there is a lot more room because a lot less has to be stored.

We're in the same situation in a lot of ways. After both my husband and I lost our jobs, we moved into a small apartment with limited space from our larger house. After downsizing and getting rid of EVERYTHING that we didn't need, it's still a challenge to find storage space. While right now buying anything at IKEA is out of my budget for the time being, I'm still using IKEA as an inspiration point. If you have one near you, you can walk through the showrooms to see the incredible amount of stuff you can store in small places. If not, you can always view their catalog online at their website. I've been using a lot of under-furniture storage. I got the bed risers and have a lot of stuff stored under there, as well as under the couch. I use a bedskirt and a long couch cover so that the items are hidden. Also, we use one very long folding table as a joint desk for the two of us. (About $35 at WalMart) It's long enough so that we can have both our computers on it but not look cluttered. I made my own table skirt to go on the front of it using Velcro and some clean but decorative looking fabric. We store a lot of stuff under there too, and the table skirt hides it. It's a challenge, but hiding stuff keeps everything looking neat. The best thing about it, because I like to look on the bright side, is that having a smaller place is MUCH easier for me to keep clean. Because I hate it when things look cluttered, it motivates me to keep everything neat, and a smaller place takes less time to tidy up. I hope this helps!

wow, I live in a 900sq ft apartment and it is rather small. We've got our closets fitted with lots of shelves to use the space all the way to the top, and in our bedroom we have 3 dressers and are thinking about getting a fourth. For quite a while we had a dresser in the living room to hold kitchen stuff and extra linens, but we had to move that when we had to clear out the spare room for the baby. I've seen it done though - I grew up in a 1200 sq ft house and there were 3 of us kids plus a cat.

use underbed storage as much as possible. store off season clothing there. cut out clutter by having a basket for each child and everything (all school work, lunch bag etc) go in that basket. even better if you can hang it off the wall. visit your local library for books on storage and living in small spaces. hope this helps.

I am living in a one bedroom apartment. I have my twin bed plus my son's hospital bed all in one bedroom - also his wheelchair and his lift! I am blessed with a big walk in closet that is stuffed with stuff! I put some shelves on top of my trunk to buy a little floor space. I just hope I don't have to open my trunk in awhile! I also have purchased some stackable units that are on top of my shelves - this is helpful to store office stuff! Good luck!

i would love to live in a four bedroom place as long as the rooms were a decent size. im sure you will be happy and find somewhere for your stuff

My husband and I had to downsize on our last move. We went from a nice big apartment to something quite a bit smaller. Unfortunately we ended up storing a lot of stuff that we didn't necessarily need at our parent's houses. Other than that we just learned how to really cram things in. This meant double stacking books on bookshelves, stacking things to the ceiling in the closets, storing items under the beds, etc. It may take some time but you'll learn how to best cram everything in and get it stored so that it's all usable! :-)