Maximizing Your Space | Tips I LOVE For Small Homes

hi everyone it's Nick welcome and welcome back to my channel in today's video we are going to be talking about maximizing your small space so I've lived in some pretty small spaces I think like my first apartment was not even 500 ft we're talking like small enough that in order to get the bed in the door to the bedroom you need to take it the the door off the hinges in order to get the bed in and close the door properly like you know pretty small was basically a studio at that point you know I've

been there and I have learned a lot about how to maximize the small space cuz with real estate being as expensive as it is like everywhere especially in urban centers rent is through the roof you need to you pay for every single square foot you have in that home right so how do you maximize the space that you have to enjoy it so you can have a beautiful lovely functional home so let's get going okay my first tip for you is going to be to think multi-functional you know we don't have when you're in a

small space you don't have the advantages of having like a great room a living room a family room a den a media room right like all those little things you know like those are people those are the big houses in the suburbs they have those but if you're in a smaller space and you're trying to create something that's going to make sense to actually you know navigate but you're in 500 ft or even 1,000 s ft or something you don't often times have the luxury of those sort of spaces that just do nothing you know

like entire rooms that just are there for storage you just don't have those spaces so I would encourage you to think multifunctional rooms being able to do more than one thing spaces doing more than one thing and also Furniture doing more than one thing so a good example of you know spaces doing more than one thing is something like a a they're so unfortunately named the Claus have you have you heard of this the clus is so so stupid but a clus is a closet meets office so let's say you've got in your bedroom and

you've got a little section and rather than sort of have a desk in the center of the room or not really knowing a space for you to do work because so many of us are still working from home post pandemic right at least part of the time it's nice to have a a dedicated space to do work but you might not have the luxury of having a dedicated space for an office enter the Claus it's stupidly named but here we are taking a little area of a second bedroom or the one bedroom that you have

and if you have sort of a little closet space whatever you can take the door off the hinges and just sort of like SE section out of space for yourself or keep the hinges on if you want to be able to shut your office away at the end of the day that's nice too but having a little area that you can section off and make your own and it's a dedicated space that makes sense for work so making your spaces do double duty becomes really important and Furniture doing more than one thing also really matters

right so you know you might not have the luxury even for a larger dining table but taking something like you know your coffee table area having rather than just having a regular coffee table having one that sort of like lifts up so you could use a little bit as a table for yourself to use for work if again you're working from home and you want to have your laptop you want to pop that on there while you're sitting in your living room that might make sense or a place for you to eat dinner or something

like that that can work really well as well so there's I'm going to link to a bunch in the description the affiliate links whatever are down there but like the transformer table or whatever they've got really cool ones that just sort of like lift up so you're able to do work or you're able to eat in this area without necessarily bending over to the coffee table so it's a coffee table but also kind of a table if you really kind of think about it things like storage shelves rather than having sort of plain open shelving

there can also be St storage shelves I think are really underutilized I don't know why retailers need to come out with more of these I've linked one here to westelle I'm going to show one here which is cute I had one from CB2 years ago that I really loved I had to leave it in my old apartment unfortunately but it was super super cool and I really loved it and they discontinued it and I don't know why so this is taking the idea of shelving which you might need to display your things or whatever we

all like a good shelf right prop a little photo up on there to have it be a storage shelf now it's double duty yes it's providing an opportunity for you to add a little bit more Decor but you can just take down you know fold down one of those little sheling units and now you got a space to put keys or other assorted crap make your own decisions in terms of what you need to store that's up to you but you've got stuff that you can throw in there and that is really key so we're

not just thinking in terms of one thing we're thinking how can this do multiple things at the same time and I would just also say that especially when looking at furniture pieces this is another really good opportunity just to talk quickly about storage because storage is clutch when you're in a small small space and again you don't have that room to just check a bunch of crap in there you probably don't even have a garage to be able to throw a bunch of stuff in there right so what do you do and I would say

looking for furniture pieces like my bed is from Sundays it flips up which is amazing and it's got a whole opportunity under there for you to put a whole bunch of storage such a great opportunity those bins that go under there fantastic you can throw those under a bed those are great too you can buy them here on Amazon or wherever you go like for all of your organizational needs Ikea's got some great ones right so all those different pieces you know even those couches that you can sort of like open up the seat and

you got an opportunity for storage in there coffee table opportunity for storage any way that you can put closed door Cabinetry to store all your excess stuff that you need need but you don't necessarily know what to do with that's a great opportunity to do it even like your Christmas decorations like maybe you might be able to store it somewhere else or you might get a storage locker or something but where do you store them if you live in 600 ft if it's got to go somewhere guess what it's going under the bed do you

know what I mean like find the the winter clothes in the summer the summer clothes in the winter you got to find spaces for all those things and in a small space it becomes difficult so finding Furniture pieces that do double duty of storage is key okay next tip I have for you all is going to be round Furniture so round Furniture is having a Trend okay it's having a moment it's been around for a few years yes yes okay we're loving all the curves loving the curved edges we're loving the curved everything curvy curvy

right we got Gwyneth palro she's sitting there with her little her gwith sofas everything's curved over there in her house and that's great we're not talking about the trend though I'm talking about the function for a second because I believe yes I believe this to be true the squares and rectangles are wonderful for optimizing space a square couch a square table a dining table whatever it's great if you want to fit if you want a 12 person table in your beautiful dining area and you're like ah do I get a square one or a round

one you know it's probably not going to be all nights to the round table on you you're probably going to want a big Square One do you know what I mean like you're going on a big rectangle Farmhouse styly whatever cuz you got you and your eight kids or whatever that are going to be there in your giant dining area and like that's fine like that makes sense but round round functionally does serve a purpose I do think round generally is more space inefficient generally speaking because you are going to be losing some of the

areas in those curves but it does two things one it's great for conversation Irrelevant for this video but I thought I would mention it it's great for conversation to sit in a dining T dining table or whatever that's really fun right okay so that's that's one advantage but the other Advantage is that it becomes easier to navigate around if you have a small area like if you got a small little dining area and you're not quite sure a square is necessarily going to fit around can do a really great job at providing that opportunity for

people to move around the space easier squares have sharp edges and again they're great for maximizing but they're not that great to navigate around in a small space so I would encourage you to think rounded curvy edges just make it a lot easier for human beings to navigate a space so it can often times in a tight area where you've got just the right amount of furniture that you need to be able to make your space work but it's just a small space in order to maximize I would encourage you to consider rounded or curved

edges that are going to make it easier for people to move around them that way people aren't banging their knees when they walk past places which is really super annoying no one's going to get any hurt shins and at the same time it's just going to make you space feel a lot easier to move around to have more ideal proper space planning okay next tip for you all to maximize your small space is to maximize also think vertical those vertical planes maximize what you're doing up because if you can't go out because again they don't

this is the thing your landlord they charge you for the square footage but they don't charge you to go up you know what I mean so that felt more profound and interesting in my head before I said it but anyway Jen I mean like you get you pay for the square footage but if you're able to store stuff up in the near the ceilings that is going to be ideal to be able to actually again get that some of that amazing storage but also even for some aesthetic things like beautiful books and art and things

hanging them kind of a little bit higher on the wall depending kind of on what your space looks like if you got massive vaulted ceilings obviously don't shove books up there but you know what I mean you're looking for a ways to maximize it going up rather than necessarily cuz because you're so limited on the horizontal plate maximizing vertical is going to come in handy so you know you might have some areas where you know above kind of the area you know you might have some space up above and you might be like it's just

a plain white wall I don't know what to do with it go to IKEA get yourself one of those little bestto cabinets I used to call it besta but I think the sweds all told me that it's best so anyway grab one of those I had one of those in that 500t apartment and honestly that's where I shoved a bunch of stuff that I didn't necessarily need it was space that was otherwise doing absolutely nothing so you know again you could do it for aesthetic purposes you can always store things really high that's really lovely

but also using it for functional storage use to be able to maximize things that are happening near the ceiling things that are higher uh above you know sometimes I think in design we tend to think kind of low to the ground and we tend to sort of think on the horizontal plane recognizing that there's a lot of space up there that you're not utilizing and again if you got a 3,000 ft home or like a 3500t home or something you got like a six bedroom Six B home who cares right you got space to burn

you don't have any worries necessarily about space in fact your problem is probably can I afford all the furniture why did I buy a six-bedroom home which is quite frankly a different problem but here if we're trying to maximize a small space going up is going to be really really important to make sure that you're maximizing all the square footage that you have especially when it comes to that all important storage you're going to hear me say storage about 17 times in this video because I know because I've been there because those winter sweaters need

to go somewhere okay next up on my list is going to be appropriate sizing this is about the scale right what size of the furniture pieces are we selecting for the home and this becomes really challenging I'll be straight up honest with you right off the bat here which is that if you are renting and you're moving around May some people move every year some people move more often than that right things that worked for you in the past might not always work for you in the new new space and you're like well what do

I do if it doesn't fit it doesn't fit okay you can try to make it work I get you but that's a real challenge with moving all the time is sometimes you're buying and selecting pieces that are going to make sense for that space but they don't always make sense for future spaces and that is also another really good reason why to buy sort of smaller or more appropriately sized furniture for the square footage of home that you're actually going to be living in you know Restoration Hardware let's say you love good old RH I

don't I think it's incredibly overpriced but you do you let's say you love RH honey you live in 600t it's just not for you you know there might be some things in there but probably not I don't know if you've been in there lately but it looks like it belongs in like the Gryffindor common room it like it seats about 45 people that's typically what happens when you're at Restoration Hardware it's just not for you okay 6 minutes square feet shop at retailers that are going to be more appropriately sized for what you're looking for

so Crate and Barrel for example you might love Crate and Barrel it's a great for it's a great retailer I think they got pretty good quality stuff you know people really love them generally though a lot of the stuff is made for that 3500 Square F home we talked about CV2 is a little bit more contemporary it's a little bit younger and the furniture is usually a little bit smaller in scale so at that retailer might make a lot more sense for you than necessarily going with good old Crate and Barrel Ikea is also a

great option West Alma is another really great option you may not like those retailers that's up to you you don't have to like them I'm just pointing them out there are retailers out there that have furniture pieces that are more appropriately scaled for what you're going to need them for buy furniture that makes sense for your space don't overcrowd it don't go too big don't buy a huge massive sectional always get your measurements get out your tape measure go old school okay you can go new a little bit and you can like plan it out

and go on canva and get your little dimensions and that's cool too but I also encourage you if you're not kind of into that whole thing get some green painters tape and section off the size of the furniture in your actual home move into the space go I need a new coffee tape build it out a cardboard I built one out of cardboard when I bought my when I bought my coffee table I sat there with some cardboard that I had I literally cut it to size and like taped it together and made a makeshift

coffee table just to see what it's actually going to look like in the space because often times especially in these big retailers like you go into Target or Ikea or dare I say Costco and like they the stores are massive and they make it look like it's smaller than it is and then you take it home into your 600t space and you're like uh this is too overwhelming get your measurements tape a two-dimensional on the ground if you need to build threedimensional if you're feeling crafty just make sure that it's appropriate size for your actual

home and if it doesn't fit cuz you bought too big put it on my Facebook Marketplace I know we all make mistakes we let it go we let it go we move on and in addition to the appropriate size I also say make sure you buy the appropriate amount now listen I'm not saying you need to be a minimalist I've said that a thousand times on this channel I'm like you don't need to be a minimalist but you do need to be careful with your clut because I think that when you're in a small space

it becomes even more important to make sure that everything that is in your space is put in with purpose that you actually have a plan for it and that you really enjoy it and that you really like it it's sort of some sort of functional need you don't have the luxury of just having piles of crap forever do you know what I mean you just you just don't you don't have the luxury for it because your space is small and honestly it's just a recipe of losing money to sit there cuz you're just going to

like buy and buy and get rid of constantly it's just this like constant motion if you have too much stuff I would say buy the appropriate amount of stuff and put the appropriate amount of stuff that makes sense for your home you say what's an appropriate amount of stuff again I'm not here to tell you if you're a minimalist or not you can be a maximalist you can be minimalist minimalist I don't really care but the point is is if it's filled with a bunch of clutter stuff that you don't need and you're not buying

with intention that's going to be the problem you know what I mean and this if you do have too much stuff this is also where cloth Storage Solutions come in handy so I talked about cloth storage earlier guess what we're bringing it back this is why because if you have too much stuff and it clutters your space it's going to feel visually overwhelming when you're in there it's not going to feel really comfortable it's not going to be easy to navigate and it's going to be really overwhelming again now this could be sty design style

specific soever whatever your sort of style is wherever you sit on the minimalism maximalism spectrum is completely up to you we're not necessarily talking about that because even as a maximalist or a minimalist you're acting with intention you're choosing the things that you want to be in your space because they make sense for you we're talking good oldfashioned clutter we're talking about crap that you just didn't put away that's really what we're talking about and just cuz you're a maximalist doesn't mean you get to be a hoarder and call yourself a maximalist do you know

what I mean like you have to rain it in a little bit and take the stuff that you don't need think about getting rid of it buy with more intention and if you have stuff that you have that you don't really want to display consider storing please see earlier tips on why you got all that storage earlier in the video because now here we are we have all that extra stuff we don't know what to do with and this is where you start storing them wisely so you don't have to look at them every day

but you still have access to them when you need them okay that's it for me today you guys I hope you really enjoyed this one I'm going to link here to my top Ikea organizational items it's a very new video that I just did so it's all everything's breaking new so a lot of this Ikea stuff should still be in the shops go check it out because I know that if you're living 500 ft you might like Ikea and I think you're going to like the organizational items because they're really clutch when you're living in

a small space so I'll see you on that video bye-bye