Whether you’re a homeowner or a renter in today’s economic climate, there are two things which are of paramount importance. Saving money and saving space.
Especially when you’re first moving out of your parent’s home, you are most likely not going to be jumping into a big, luxurious spot that will end up being where you settle for the rest of your life.
You need to be smart about it. You’ve got rent, bills and expenses to pay and you don’t probably don’t need a place as big as you think you might need. If you optimize your environment and your furniture, you can put together a living space that’s comfortable and affordable.
Here’s seven ideas which can help you save money and create space in your home...
1. Build Shelves Into Your Walls
Something that is going to take up a lot of room in your home is storage space and so a lot of these suggestions are going to be based on re-working furniture and other aspects of your home to store things in a more practical way.
And one way to do that is to have some shelves built into your walls instead of buying an abundance of bookshelves and cabinets. You probably can’t do this if you’re renting but if you’re in your own home it’s worth looking into.
It’s not a major construction project so it won’t cost too much and you could use these wall-shelves to store anything from books to condiments to appliances and pretty much anything else you want.
2. High Sleeper Bed
In our bedrooms especially, we are always really concerned with how much floor space we have. Everything in our bedrooms is geared towards being on the floor. The wardrobes, the nightstands and most importantly, the bed.
In addition to that though, we also need to store quite a bit of stuff in the room. Imagine how much more you could fit in there if your bed wasn’t taking up half of the floor. We think of high beds as being for kids, but they’re so practical.
You could fit a desk, an armchair and a whole bunch of extra space for storing clothes underneath it. This is especially useful if your bedroom is smaller but you want more than just a bed in there.
3. Wall-Mounted Storage
In a similar vein to what we discussed earlier in terms of built-in shelves, wall-mounted storage eliminates the issue of having too many cabinets and drawers around the place because you aren’t adding any big bulky furniture.
The ideal place to do this is in the kitchen with your cookware. You can get a unit known as a pot rack, which attaches to the wall and has a series of hooks upon which you can hang all of your pots and pans.
These things are important but they take up so much space, so if you don’t have them clogging up your cabinets you can use that space for food and crockery and stuff. It will reduce the amount of cabinets you require.
4. Furniture With Built-In Storage
“Shut up about storage!” is what you are probably thinking right now. And no, no I will not because I am sticking by the fact that this is still the best way for you to save space. So what kinds of furniture can come with built in storage?
The best kinds would be couches and armchairs which have pull out drawers in their bases. You can use these for things like books and magazines or your kids toys. You can also get dining tables which have drawers in-built as well as coffee tables or footstools.
5. Multi-Purpose Artwork
Now we’re getting into the really creative stuff. You’ve probably never even considered this one, and I will admit that it does serve the aesthetic of your house a little bit more than just being a space saver, but you still want to feel like you’re at home right?
You can get paintings and ornaments which will look great in your house but which also double as storage space. Paintings which are cabinet doors that you can open and store your keys or makeup inside.
End table trinkets which are secretly tiny shelving units for those small little amenities and gadgets that you end up just tossing on the couch or the coffee table. Multi-purpose artwork is really quite a stroke of genius.
6. Adjustable Items
I know this one is vague but just think about it for a little bit. Outside of furniture, you just have so much stuff lying around, and if all of it could be made smaller somehow and still maintain its functionality, wouldn’t that be useful?
Well a lot of stuff can be. Think about your silverware and how you probably have several knives which are all different sizes. Imagine if they operated like a russian doll in the sense that you could store them all inside the largest one?
Then you wouldn’t need as much storage space for silverware. Or if you had a table which had adjustable surface space so that it could be both narrow or wide depending on how much of it you need.
Maybe exercise equipment such as dumbbells, which can be adjusted so that you don’t need so much of it. Some of this stuff is a bit more expensive but will undeniably save space.
7. Corner Desk
In 2020 especially with most of us working from home, we all need space to work, but desks can be big and bulky. Instead of buying one that will take up a lot of floor space, you could build your own mini-desk which can just slot into a corner.
It gives you a solid workspace and it’s one of the more functional ways to use a corner, which might otherwise just be an annoyance that inhibits space-saving.
It should be clear to you from these suggestions that the key to saving space and money is to get a little creative. And in addition to helping you in a practical sense, hopefully these innovations will also inspire more creativity from you so you can find even more ways to save some more space.
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