Living in a small house has many advantages. First of all, it costs significantly less and the price of maintenance is not nearly as steep as what people are used to. Nonetheless, it has its drawbacks too, most notable of which is the lack of storage space. Luckily, this is a problem that can easily be solved with some out-of-the-box thinking. Here are six smart storage solutions that can turn out to be quite life-saving when a person is living in a small house.
1. Slide-Out Counters
The first thing in your home that could undergo some storage-wise improvement is probably your kitchen. Now, once you fit the oven and the sink, you will have a limited room where to prepare your meal. This is what slide-out counters are for. When you need them, you can simply deploy them and then slide them in once you are done. This will give you enough space to create a proper family dinner without obstructing the movement through the kitchen otherwise. Once you reflect further on this idea, you will realize that the condensed space in the kitchen is actually a good thing rather than bad, seeing how you will able to reach every corner without ever having to move about.
2. Under Bench/Bed Storage
The problem with storage is that although a lot of people look towards the empty space, they seldom go down on the floor level. You see, there is a lot of space underneath your bed and your bench that currently isn’t being used. In order to utilize it to its full potential, you may want to try and fit some boxes there. In this way, they aren’t in a clear line of sight to anyone, yet they remain at your hand’s reach at all times.
3. Self-Storage Units
So far, we talked about tucking things underneath your bed, but what happens when the entire bed needs to be stored somewhere. Sure, if you know you won’t use it ever again you can just sell it online, donate it or give it away to someone you know. However, what happens while you are making this decision or if you hope to reuse it once more? This is where self storage units come in big-time. This is a great temporary solution to your long-term problem and it ensures that all the items you momentarily don’t need are at your disposal once things change.
4. Use Your Ceiling Space
Even though small houses usually don’t have quite tall ceilings, in some parts of the room, this vacant area can still be utilized as a storage solution. All one needs to do here is install some ceiling mounted racks at the appropriate height and there you have it. While some may have various safety concerns about this storage method, as long as they are installed properly there is nothing to worry about.
5. Closet Office
In the 21st century, working from home has become more or less a common thing. In fact, there is a statistic that these days well over 45 percent of US workforce telecommutes, at least as a part-time. This means that you need a proper office inside of you home, but the question is where? Some people solved this issue by installing a desk in their closet and reorganized this area as their office. Sure, some of you may argue that this leaves you with even less storage space, not more, but it also liberates you a large portion of the house you would otherwise have to assign to an office.
6. Trap Door
Finally, utilizing floor level cavities in your furniture is a great idea, but why not go even lower. Lower than the floor? Exactly! One of the most obscure, yet most intriguing small home storage ideas relies on building a trap door in your floor and storing some of your belongings there. Seeing how this will usually be under some furniture piece, it would be best to use it as a stashing place for valuables or items you don’t use regularly.
In Conclusion
As you can see, the biggest problem of living in a small house can easily be solved with just a bit of imagination and creativity. This is not only unorthodox but also an incredibly fun way of solving your imminent storage space crisis. In other words, where there is a will, there is always a way; or in this scenario at least six ways.
Author bio: Steven Clarke is a business consultant and DIY enthusiast. In his spare time, he likes to write about his ideas and share them with the world. Steven is a regular contributor to several websites.
