Photo evidence of how a small house works for you?

[sgo95]

We're no longer in a small house, and I can't find pics that show how we organized it, so I mocked up a layout on Lazyboy's website (they have a great free 3D planner) of our old rental house (1200 sq ft). We had two bedrooms that were 11x11 & 11x10 that were crammed full of beds for DH, me, and 4 kids (ages 1-8 at the time) and had no room for books or toys, just beds and clothes storage. We had a 3rd bedroom that was the grownup's office and extra storage space. Our main living space was a long room that we partitioned into two areas--a tv/sitting area and a playroom/schoolroom--by setting up two bookcases and a tv table; it looked like this- https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing (hope this link works). The furniture looks just like the mock picture, just imagine that the pieces look worn (with torn upholstery in certain places) and the floor is strewn with lots of toys :tongue_smilie:. The playroom/schoolroom also had a 2'x4' folding table with metal folding chairs around it in the middle space for the kids to work that I forgot to add.

[garddwr]

We have always lived in small spaces. The best way I have found to make things work is to really, really work on keeping clutter down. If something is not used on a regular basis, out it goes. There are of course a few exceptions--seasonal clothes and a very few keepsakes. The other thing I do is maximize closet usage. When I had a walk-in closet I had it lined with bookshelves and that was where I kept my homeschool things.

 

Our living room has one couch that can seat 3 adults or 4 children comfortably, otherwise it has a computer desk, sling bookshelf, floor lamp, and piano. When we need more seating we bring chairs in from the kitchen.

 

I will try to post some pictures later. Though I'm not good at interior decorating and design--they definitely won't be as pretty as some of those above!

[*Jen*]

I think this link will work.

http://flickr.com/gp...8131@N08/p59NZ1

 

DS12 helped me to take some pics of the living and dining room just a bit ago. The camera is awful and we're awful at taking pics, so they're sorta grainy and the lighting is... eh. They're up. More should be up tomorrow, gotta charge batteries.

 

 

Would you be willing to repost the link. I wanted to see but the Guest Pass Expired and it won't let me look at the pictures.

 

Thanks!

[StaceyinLA]

This just makes me sentimental. We had a 1060 square foot home with 4 small children. I had it organized nicely, and it was a cozy, awesome space.

 

I now have a 2000 square foot, 5 bdrm home with one son left at home (and he is rarely here). It is empty and I can see now it's gonna get lonely in here.

 

Enjoy your small spaces filled with kids, laughter and lots of love!

[Guest inoubliable]

 

 

Would you be willing to repost the link. I wanted to see but the Guest Pass Expired and it won't let me look at the pictures.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Sure. http://flickr.com/gp/93078131@N08/862dZ2

I'll add more pics later of the other rooms.

[mytwomonkeys]

 

 

Sure. http://flickr.com/gp/93078131@N08/862dZ2

I'll add more pics later of the other rooms.

 

 

Your home is so lovely!!! I enjoyed the photos so much!!!

[Greenmama2]

 

 

Sure. http://flickr.com/gp/93078131@N08/862dZ2

I'll add more pics later of the other rooms.

 

Thanks for reposting. That was helpful.

[Guest inoubliable]

Thanks. :) It's a very cute little cottage, if you don't look too closely. LOL. And the paint colors! :svengo: We didn't choose them. Landlord was in the middle of having it painted when we applied. As soon as he approved us, he stopped painting. So the downstairs, ALL of it, is this weird mustard yellow color. Upstairs bedrooms are an icky green/brown color. Stairs, hallways? Flat white pain - so basically a big smear of life. It would make a huge difference in how everything looked here if he'd let us paint.

[Cosmos]

We're no longer in a small house, and I can't find pics that show how we organized it, so I mocked up a layout on Lazyboy's website (they have a great free 3D planner) of our old rental house (1200 sq ft). We had two bedrooms that were 11x11 & 11x10 that were crammed full of beds for DH, me, and 4 kids (ages 1-8 at the time) and had no room for books or toys, just beds and clothes storage. We had a 3rd bedroom that was the grownup's office and extra storage space. Our main living space was a long room that we partitioned into two areas--a tv/sitting area and a playroom/schoolroom--by setting up two bookcases and a tv table; it looked like this- https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing (hope this link works). The furniture looks just like the mock picture, just imagine that the pieces look worn (with torn upholstery in certain places) and the floor is strewn with lots of toys :tongue_smilie:. The playroom/schoolroom also had a 2'x4' folding table with metal folding chairs around it in the middle space for the kids to work that I forgot to add.

 

 

That is a nice planner. I'm going to try putting our living room in to get some ideas. Our living room is actually very similar in shape to yours -- long with an L. The way you have the tv table sticking out as a partition is very interesting. I'm going to think if that might work for our house.

[Wheres Toto]

We had a secretary just like that when I was a kid. I mean exactly the same. What a blast from the past seeing one like it! I just got hit with some sentimentality.

 

 

This sat in my grandparents living room while I was growing up. When my grandmother passed away, my father asked if I wanted it and I had to have it even though we really didn't have room for it (it actually works well right where it is). We have the original receipt from when my grandparents bought it in 1952.

[Spryte]

We live in a small space, and reading this post has been inspiring and helpful! I, too, find that keeping clutter down is the biggest help - also the biggest challenge for me.

 

No pics here, but I do find that hiding our stuff helps a bit - cabinets, drawers, secretary type desks that can be closed. Properly scaled furniture is a big help, too. Our furniture is too large for our living room - and we are not going to replace it any time soon - smaller scaled pieces would work better.

 

I grew up in a house that was very large, and very decorated. Expensive knickknacks everywhere. It's taken me some adjusting to realize that I prefer less visual clutter - even if it's "valuable" it can be clutter!

[jhschool]

This thread is great--I just want to sit down in your houses

with a mug of raspberry tea. They look so comfy and normal

and make me feel right at home!

 

And kkinVa (or is it inoubliable?)--that house

is way cool. It looks like an art film.

[Guest inoubliable]

This thread is great--I just want to sit down in your houses

with a mug of raspberry tea. They look so comfy and normal

and make me feel right at home!

 

And kkinVa (or is it inoubliable?)--that house

is way cool. It looks like an art film.

 

Je SUIS inoubliable! ;)

 

Thanks. You could come over for tea anytime.

[DaffodilDreams]

Thanks for reposting your link, KKinVA. I hope it's still active by the time dh can take a peek. We hope to move to the other end of the state relatively soon, and we'll be downsizing if we do so. You have lots of practical storage ideas that I intend to borrow! : ) I just wish we had an Ikea nearby. : (

[MeghanL]

I am having a horrible time uploading a picture, but we do all our homeschooling in our dining room, which is pretty tiny. If you go http://straderspiel.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/wordless-wednesday-organization-edition/ you can see where and how I store everything. We work at the dining room table...and that's it!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I think definitions of large and small space are so variable. We are in an apartment which is about 1200sq ft for 5 of us. This is our living space:

 

 

And here's the before and after pics.

[mytwomonkeys]

 

It's taken me some adjusting to realize that I prefer less visual clutter - even if it's "valuable" it can be clutter!

 

I really relate to this and agree! When we moved to our current home we planned to simply rent it while our previous home was for sale & then buy something here once it sold (we ended up purchasing this land though, which was a huge blessing!). Our previous home was 2300 sq ft and our trailer is under 1000. We had to get rid of so much stuff to make this option viable. I still have a storage shed full of things that i simply have no room for until we build. Too much stuff in a small space, no matter how lovely, still creates a mess of clutter imo. I think the key to living small is simplifying what you own and to utilize any wasted space.

[Sarah Bailey]

 

The house I had when DS was born was 700 sq ft. Other than being only a 1bd, I really, really miss it sometimes. It just seemed so....efficient compared to a "grown-up" house :) Can I trade you? :)

 

 

When I married my husband his 624 sq. ft home seemed big, then we started adding children - now we don't have a bedroom. Our son has one room and the girls another - the house is tiny, I'd take 700 or even 800 if it'd give us one more bathroom, even a half bath and an extra bedroom. :D

[mytwomonkeys]

I think definitions of large and small space are so variable. We are in an apartment which is about 1200sq ft for 5 of us. This is our living space:

 

 

And here's the before and after pics.

 

Wow! That look so much better! I absolutely love it!!

[Guest inoubliable]

Thanks for reposting your link, KKinVA. I hope it's still active by the time dh can take a peek. We hope to move to the other end of the state relatively soon, and we'll be downsizing if we do so. You have lots of practical storage ideas that I intend to borrow! : ) I just wish we had an Ikea nearby. : (

 

 

IKEA and thrift stores have been our friends. ;) When we first moved to this house, it took several trips with a minivan, a car, and an SUV. And THEN we rented the big 26' UHaul to grab the rest. And we STILL ended up leaving stuff behind. Ridiculous. Over the first two years, we made multiple trips every weekend to the local Goodwill. And then once we got rid of all of our oversized furniture, we had to start over again with furniture that fit. It's been a really cool project, really.

[MominIN]

We no longer live in what I consider a small house after adding on two years ago, but I sure remember those days of being sandwiched in! Here are some pictures of our home now, which is 1700 square feet (still not huge). I realized I don't have any pictures of our living room ... I'll have to get around to doing that sometime soon. I've really enjoyed seeing everyone else's homes!

[xixstar]

I am having a horrible time uploading a picture, but we do all our homeschooling in our dining room, which is pretty tiny. If you go http://straderspiel.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/wordless-wednesday-organization-edition/ you can see where and how I store everything. We work at the dining room table...and that's it!

 

I think the doors make a big difference, I think I stuggle with this because our space is all open shelving (even the dining room is 5 bookshelves that are a mess of stuff) and I think I would find it far less overwhelming if I didn't have to see it all. Now if only DH felt the same, he really likes to see everything, even it it's all a mess.

 

 

I think definitions of large and small space are so variable. We are in an apartment which is about 1200sq ft for 5 of us. This is our living space:

 

What a great use of space and way to make it work for you.

 

 

I am so grateful for this thread because I really get all up in my head feeling uppity and frustrated and down on my space because I get so caught up thinking it should be magazine style (because that is the style I like to look at) but really getting more of a sense that full of life and living really is great as well. I'm letting go a lot of my obsession over feeling like I need things to look a certain way - I'm evening inviting family over which we've not done in year because of the clutter and tight space, but now realizing I need to just enjoy life where it is and stop obsessing over where it could be (well maybe could be).

[xixstar]

hey i could not find good photos so I did a walk through with the camera, they are not really great pics either but hey

 

here they are http://craftyincoffeeland.blogspot.com/2013/03/homeschooling-in-small-homes.html

 

its mostly "real life" photos but I did kick a bra behind a door (ahem) and chose not to show the actual laundry pile I mentioned or the dishes in the sink :)

 

Its been cleaner and way messier but always so crowded.

 

 

Thank you, looks like you put all your space to great use, love how nooks and crannies are used. We do the same as well.

 

My husband doesn't realize it, but he thanks you for this whole thread. I can stop wondering why everyone else has these large sparsely furnished homes to live in - so happy to see many people with books and life and such. :)

[Cinder]

I've really enjoyed this thread. Thanks to all for sharing!