Guest post by Christine at Dimes and Donuts
A couple of months ago I moved from a large two-bedroom, two-bath apartment into a tiny city condo with one bedroom and one bath. My fiancé, our two cats, and I didn’t need that much space but over the course of our time living in the apartment, since we had the space, we had acquired way too much stuff. Before the move, we had to clean out our apartment and our lives. We either threw out, donated, or sold a lot of our belongings. It’s been both refreshing and great for organizing our lives. So today I’m going to share with you all how to stay organized in a small home.
Declutter Your Life
I can’t say this enough! Declutter, declutter, declutter! Unless you’re already one of the most organized people in the world then you probably have a ton of things in your home that you don’t need. Me included. One of our worst rooms was the kitchen. How many pots, pans, cups, containers, etc does one family need? The number of cups and glasses that we had was insane. I won’t be participating when restaurants run “steal the glass” promotions anymore.
You will realize that the majority of the items you part with aren’t even necessary. I was saving way too many t-shirts because I “could use them to sleep in.” I don’t need to keep the ugly plain vase from every time I was given flowers, every free pen, keychain, whatever.
Pretty Small Storage
I mean this both literally and figuratively. Pick up some small storage boxes that are aesthetically pleasing but small enough to fit on shelves as I have in my living room. See that pretty little red, white, and black box? It’s filled to the brim with photos and other little knick-knacks I couldn’t let go of while decluttering. IKEA is a great place to find pretty storage boxes for cheap.
Keep It Neat
This one may seem obvious to some but clutter, out-of-place items, trash, whatever, makes a small space even smaller. In the apartment, some out-of-place things didn’t bother me but in the condo, I feel like I can’t function.
Collect The Clutter
Let’s be real – clutter happens. I suggest having a place to collect your clutter. For example, we have a “junk drawer” which is our designated place to put clutter. I’m almost positive every house probably has one. The collective clutter space is especially important because my fiancé likes to leave little things around the house like random tools, bolt-looking things, and things I don’t know names to half the time. The moral of the story is it’s great to have a place to put all the little things that don’t really have a home in your home.
Do you have any tips for staying organized? I’d love to hear them!
