Who wants a little history on our house?
We moved to the house we live in now when I was 8 months pregnant with the little man, which is definitely not recommend, but due to my husband's job transfer we found ourselves trekking from the Des Moines area to a small county just east of Iowa City.
Needless to say I was emotional and not very happy about it.
My husband still remembers the "worst day of our lives" as he likes to call it, when we took a day trip to the county we needed to live in, only to find NOTHING and his pregnant, emotionally, pissed off wife, crying in the passenger seat. It was not a good day.
Long story short, we eventually settled into a small ranch style home in a small community. There wasn't a ton of housing available in our price range, so this cute little white house with burgundy shutters was going to have to do. Obviously the next few months included unpacking and birthing a child. Honestly, it was all kind of a blurr.
But there is one thing I do remember very vividly. My new house was small. Just under 1,000 sq. feet, it had three bedrooms, one small bathroom and NO basement. There isn't much privacy in our house, we've grown to live with it, but it can sure make a mom cranky sometimes.
I had to get creative. Where was I going to put everything? I am definitely not a "stuff" person. Trinkets are not my friends, but organization is. I would rather drop stuff off to Goodwill any day then fill a shelf in a living room with "junk".
Here is what I had to do with our drawers and closets that hold towels. Instead of folding, I roll.
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| Hand towel door in kitchen |
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| Hall closet holding bath towels |
By rolling everything, instead of folding, I easily can fit twice as many towels in each drawer/closet. It's a godsend. When my mom or MIL come to visit they still sometimes struggle with how to roll them extra tight and get them squeezed in there nice and pretty like I like....but I forgive:)
Someday we will move. We know this house is small and is temporary for our family. But it fits us now (barely). You don't have to have the biggest, grandest house to have a family, so we are embracing it just about as much as we can stomach it.
What space saving ideas have you come up with? Frankly, I could use more ideas! The husband and I are working on a project in the spare bedroom/little misses' bedroom. I cannot wait to show you...
I like it! We have a pretty small place too, so I do my best to use all the vertical space I can...the storage closet has a tall 6-shelf unit inside that we got at home depot or something. Also, we have a place above a cabinet where I put a tension rod with a plain-colored valance curtain so I could store stuff up above without it looking tacky. Hopefully that makes sense:)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, Ally. I think the rolling looks better too. I can relate to your moving- we moved back to Tama when Ella was two weeks old into a house half the price and smaller- but we have survived:)
ReplyDeleteI need to do this! My drawer and storage closet space is seriously lacking!
ReplyDeleteMy sister actually introduced me to this concept. She always rolls her clothes in her suitcase when she goes out of town. Now I do the same and I roll everything in our dresser drawers. It's so nice for kids clothes because you can roll outfits like leggings and tops together.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh,why haven't I thought of doing this in the kid's dressers? They are so cramped for space!
ReplyDeleteWe have a small house too - 1100 sq, but a full unfinished basement, which helps.
ReplyDeleteI do have wire racks on the inside of my pantry door for cleaning supplies - it goes half way up the door and is a total space saver.
I always roll when I pack my suitcase, but I have never thought to do it at home. Good idea!
ReplyDeletemy grandfather taught me the rolling trick when I was a kid...evidently it was the military way when he was in the army
ReplyDeleteI LOVE it!!
our house is also very small (about 900 sq ft.) one bedroom and the only closet is one my husband built because I couldn't stand never being able to find any of my craft supplies
I also have no real kitchen cabinets
half of our furniture opens for storage...but my fav space saver is the 'over the door' shoe organizer!
I have one on each side of the bathroom door..one on the kitchen side and one for the bathroom...and one on the inside of my craft closet door
it's AMAZING how much stuff they hold..and if you get the clear ones..everything is easy to find :)
When I worked in hotels, the linens were usually rolled. It stores easily with little space and it also eliminates creases. One of the places I worked at would fold the fitted sheet and the flat sheet into long rectangles, maybe 1 foot by 3 feet. Then they'd fold the pillowcases and place them on top of the rectangles. Everything was then rolled together into a little bundle - the 2 sheets and 2 pillow cases. So when you wanted to make a bed you just grabbed the one bundle and everything was together. My mom and I now use this with our bed linens at home. It's so easy to just put on a shelf. When company comes, you grab one bundle and can make a bed. You don't need to sort around looking for matching sheet sizes or find that missing pillow case!
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