Modern Home Modern Baby

Decluttering Small Spaces

Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Kate in Home

Is your living room becoming the play room, with toys strewn about constantly underfoot? Mine is. In our house, every square inch is used, though admittedly not to its best advantage all the time. That’s why I’ve been thinking about how to best utilize small spaces, making them at least feel better organized and clutter free.

Here’s what I’ve learned: a place for everything and everything in it’s place. If it doesn’t have a place, the floor becomes the defacto resting spot and that just DRIVES ME CRAZY! I hate hate hate tripping over toys, especially those with sharp edges. When you’re rushing through a room with your hands full and not looking down, then EVERY toy feels like it has sharp edges, right?!?

Bookshelves are great and I think, at this point in my life, the more book shelves the better! If I can make a spot on a shelf for a bucket, box or basket to hold things, then those things will NOT be on the floor.

Better yet, I can teach my daughter to put the bunnies back in the bunny bin and the blocks back in the block box while singing the clean up song (you know the one that goes “clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up everybody do your share”) and it’s a game for her. Two birds, one stone.

Now, you may need to put more thought into bookshelves or other organizational furniture type things than just running to IKEA and buying the first thing you see. That’s cool – design it to fit your space and it will work that much better.

Oh, and while you have your “design” hat on, think about scaling down other furniture, like using side tables or an ottoman for a coffee table – that way there is more open floor space to visually make the room feel bigger.

But back to storage units – you can either go the open shelf or cabinet route and that depends on your budget and sense of style. Just remember, choose things that either have the same height or a complementary height to have visual continuity.

Get a color to blend with your room decor and wall color: sometimes white looks crisp and clean but darker shelves can “pop” and make a statement. And, when buying boxes, bins and baskets, get ones that match or coordinate – you don’t need 50 different styles – that’ll just make things look even more cluttered.

photo credit: Kelly Sue

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Tags: declutter baby room, home design for baby's room