For many homeowners and residents across the UK, the lack of space around the house can be an issue. This is especially true for couples living together who plan on or have already begun raising children. Ultimately, as families continue to expand, they begin to risk outgrowing their current living space.
Efficiently working with the space you have is often a wiser alternative to moving into a bigger home. Take bedrooms for example: smaller bedrooms are perfect for toddlers and younger children as they’re able to make greater use of the space available to them. But when Junior grows to be bigger than you, things can certainly start to get a little more cramped!
Often the solution needn’t be physically increasing the square footage of a space, but rather creating a more spacious ‘feel’. So the real question is, how is this achieved?
- Declutter - are you guilty of hoarding? Could you realistically free up substantial space simply by ridding your bedroom of several things?
It’s remarkable how much of the space we live in is occupied by things that we don’t really use enough to warrant them taking up the space that they do. Consider whether you really do need that 6ft desk or whether it’s mainly serving as a surface to have placed a cluttering host of miscellaneous objects on! What about that exercise bike that hasn’t received any attention since January 2005? It sounds like a GumTree job.
Lots of us are guilty of hoarding endless amounts of clothes which is why it’s essential to make sure your garments are stored and organised as efficiently as possible. If you take a look at our sliding wardrobe interiors page, you can see just how many clothes storage solutions can be accomplished using various arrangements of rails, drawers, trouser hangers and shoe shelves.
- Destress - it’s remarkable just what an effect the interior design of your room has when it comes to portraying a more breathable, open environment.
We wrote about how to create a positive interior design for peace of mind a while back and just how key a factor things like increasing natural light and decorating with bright, harmonious colours are when it comes to de-stressing. The reason? Quite simply, the human brain associates lightness and bright colours with the outdoors and open spaces - implementing this association in your smaller space will undoubtedly make a significant difference in how you perceive it.
- Demonstrate discipline - okay, so you’ve managed to declutter and destress but the challenge now is to demonstrate discipline by maintaining this newly freed up space! Stay on top of things and keep your bedroom in tip-top condition by avoiding re-cluttering and make sure your small space remains a more open and spacious environment.
