Small Space Living and Organizing

We live in a fairly small space, or at least compared to the McMansions that seem to be popping up everywhere. Our house is a story and a half over a century old house. I don't know the exact measurements but I will guess and say that we have about 1200 sq. feet of space.

We have a half basement which is actually quite small so no good for storage or recreation, though hubby does have a workbench down there and often spends a little time tinkering with something or just listening to music and relaxing. It is his safe spot to get away from it all. We have an attic but one must access it through the small crawlspace in the ceiling of the playroom and the opening is so small you wouldn't be able to get a box through it, so we don't use the attic for anything.

Upstairs we have two small bedrooms and a landing which we use for the playroom. Downstairs we have the living room, dining room, office, kitchen, laundry room, and teeny tiny bathroom. There is no excess of space but I don't feel that our house is too tiny.

My main complaint is that downstairs there is not one single closet. That makes keeping things out of sight difficult. I wish we had a closet for our coats but we are making do with a coat rack and then we store them in an upstairs closet when the weather warms up. The lack of closet space downstairs does ensure that we don't hang onto a lot that we aren't using. Often times closet space in the main living quarters turns into a "junk drawer" of sorts with stuff stashed in it that you don't remember you had.

My kitchen is one of my favorite rooms of the house. When we first moved here my aunt called it "an old lady kitchen" (which is a term of endearment for her, as she loves old lady kitchens). It basically looks like a 1950's kitchen, which a few updates such as the new counter tops and new flooring. When we bought the house it even had a huge stove and dishwasher in avocado color. This picture only shows half the kitchen, there is still more counter space and cabinets to the left and the refrigerator is to the right. I will showcase more photos some other time. (I decided to take the photo even though the kitchen is not "company ready". Hey, got to keep it real sometimes! And this photo was snapped in the evening, which is why the window is dark.)

I do love all the counter space and cabinet space, we totally have adequate space in the kitchen. The window above the sink looks right out to the bird feeder and my flower garden. So in the winter I can watch the birds eat and in the summer I can see my flowers and watch the little hummingbirds zoom from flower to flower while I am washing the dishes.

While living in a small space demands creative storage solutions, it also is easier to keep clean for the sole fact that with less space you just have to have less stuff.
I have been working on the upstairs recently and have gotten rid of two big bags of toys. The kids do not need all those toys and anything that was a source of clutter that didn't have a clear home, we threw in the bag and sent it off to Goodwill. I have been going through the kids dressers and closets and pulling out items they rarely wear and tossing anything with stains or rips (and my daughter is a pro at ruining her clothes with stains and blows the knees out of almost every single pair of pants she has ever owned).

I am constantly reassessing what we have and feel that the motto "less is more" is oh so true. I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to organization and making the most of our space. I still have a lot of clutter to clear out as well, but I am getting there. I will be posting more about our home in future posts and hope to give (and maybe gain?) some storage solutions and organizing help.