With clever organizing, small homes won't feel cramped or cluttered. They can be stylish, functional and cozy. Before organizing the rooms in your small home, engage in some serious purging. Create a vision for each room, suggests Helene Segura; M.A. ED., Certified Professional Organizer of San Antonio, Texas. Start with what you don't want the room to look like, and pare down your belongings from there. Rebuild the room with just what you want in the room, organizing as you go.
The down low on office storage - Desks without drawers and computer tables pushed against a wall or in a corner have a secret. They provide an out of the way place to store short bookshelves or individual file boxes. File boxes with folders I don't use daily fit neatly under my large white desk.
Go vertical - The most underused space in any given room (besides the kitchen) may be the top third of the of the ceiling.
* Hang shelves from close to the ceiling down to your desk in an office or the corner of a bedroom.
* Run shelves near the top of bedroom walls to store extra linens or decorative items.
One room, many purposes - One room may have to serve more than one purpose. Organize furniture accordingly. A TV and a couple of chairs make a cozy viewing area. A table and two chairs set against a wall make a convenient space for eating, playing board or card games, or for a laptop.
Edit open shelves - Small homes can look cluttered if you don't edit your belongings. Organize books, decorative items or kitchen wares by color or theme to keep the space neat and attractive.
Make closets inviting - Small homes have small closets, and some rooms have no closets. Forget the tip to turn your closet into a small office, you need that space! Pull everything out of existing closets, donate what you don't need and organize the rest. Use closet shelving bins, hooks, whatever you need to make the closet functional.
Organize and be green - Store yarn, small toys, pens, markers, office supplies, and other arts and crafts in aluminum cans. Clean cans, remove labels and cover them with a decorative contact paper. Attach the cans together in two rows and hang. This will keep countertops, desks and craft areas clean.
10 minutes a day - Spend 10 minutes a day keeping your small home organized. Ann Sullivan, home organization expert in New York City, N.Y., advises using that 10 minutes to everything back in its place.
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