15 Genius Tips for Living in Small Spaces

From: http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2014/01/15-genius-tips-for-living-in-small-space.html


Erin Boyle of Reading My Tea Leaves and Gardenista and her husband live together in seriously small quarters—a 240-square-foot studio, to be exact. She agreed to share her surprising tips about how to make it work (and not drive each other crazy)...
Erin's story: When my husband James and I moved into a 240-square-foot apartment in Brooklyn Heights, we negotiated a six-month lease because we weren’t sure we’d be able to make it in such cramped quarters. (Our apartment is a studio with a ship’s ladder to a sleeping loft, plus one tiny bathroom.) Two and a half years later, we’re still in our very humble abode, and gearing up for a whole new adventure coming in 2014: a very tiny addition to the family headed our way this June.
1. Maximize your windows. Drape your windows in a way that allows for maximum light—I’d go for the bright white curtains—and try hanging a mirror nearby to reflect light into the room. Remembering to clean the windows helps, too!
2. Choose simple furniture. We’ve found that furniture with simple and spare lines makes a tiny apartment feel roomier. (Our couch is the tiny Elton Settee and it fits perfectly in our “living room.”)
3. Remove closet doors. Closet doors that swing into a room take up considerable floor space. Take the doors off and ask your landlord to store them. Then hang a simple curtain from a suspension rod to hide the inside of your closet instead.
4. Keep closets organized. Our old wooden hangers are, admittedly, wide and bulky; these huggable hangers would probably do the trick much better.
5. Play a romantic song. In the heat of an argument, you and your partner may both crave space—but in a small apartment, there’s nowhere to go. Here’s a trick: Play a love song. Emotional distance from the fight is more important than physical distance. It's really hard to keep your blood boiling when you’re listening to a song you love, with the person you love, about love. It's like putting on a lullaby to soothe a crying baby.
6. Give yourself permission to say no to overnight guests. Our apartment has just enough space for one guest to sleep on the floor, head wedged between the ladder to the loft where we sleep and our loveseat, feet reaching nearly into the bathroom. It's okay to explain that you don't have the space to accommodate overnight guests.
7. Streamline your music collection. Tragic though it might be, tiny apartments likely don’t have space for the entire vinyl discography of The Beatles. Swallow your pride and go digital. We’re total radio junkies so we have a Tivoli radio, which also plays the music from our iPhones.
8. Invest in beautiful cleaning supplies. No broom closet to be seen? Swap the plastic broom and dustpan for something pretty and you won’t mind looking at them hanging from a hook or propped in the corner. (Brook Farm General Store is my go-to stop for fancy brushes and dust pan, and we buy Common Good dishwashing liquid and cleaning spray in bulk.)

9. Tiny things matter, too. Move into a tiny apartment and expect an onslaught of tiny gifts. (Look! A mini muffin pan! Tiny spoons!) Try to spread the message to well-meaning friends that tiny things can be as difficult to store as large things. Ask for comestibles instead!
10. Use quick-drying towels. We're linen towel converts. Our tiny bathroom doesn’t get much ventilation, but linen towels dry so quickly that there's no musty smell to contend with. (We recently upgraded to these pretty linen chambray towels from Fog Linen.)

11. Use an absorbent hand towel as a bath mat. There are very few bathmats on the market that fit in a truly tiny bathroom. We use a quick-drying hand towel instead. (These white Hammam Hand Towels are absorbent enough to keep the floor from getting soaked and just the right size for the tiny bit of floor space we have. Bonus: they’re easier to drag to the laundromat!)
12. Keep bedding simple. We used to have a bright floral quilt, but it made our tiny loft feel tinier. We also experimented with darker sheets but returned to crisp whites. Simple bedding is easier on the eye and makes the apartment look bigger. (We love our Brahms Mount Ticking Stripe Blanket.)

13. Unpack suitcases right away. In our tiny apartment, an unpacked bag causes stubbed toes and violent bouts of cursing. Even if we return home from vacation in the wee hours of the morning, the first thing I do is to unpack my bag. There’s nothing more delicious than waking up in my own trusty bed knowing that everything's just where it should be.
14. Embrace under-the-bed storage. My sister manages to live in a 390-square-foot apartment with a baby and a husband and keep nothing under the bed. In case you’re not blessed with similar minimalist super powers, use the space under your bed to keep winter clothes, extra blankets, and that guitar you haul out three times a year. (Muji’s soft storage boxes have been a godsend for us.)

15. Treat the whole dang city like it's your living room. We sit on the church steps across the street for weekend lunches and after-dinner treats. And if there's a public park in this city, chances are that we've picnicked in it or strolled through it. A few numbers to help you understand why: Central Park: 843 acres; Prospect Park: 585 acres; Brooklyn Bridge Park: 85 acres; The High Line: 6.73 acres; Our apartment: 0.005509 acres.
Overall advice: Approach your tiny apartment joyfully. I get more notes than I could ever answer from people who are nervous about an upcoming move to a tinier place. Here's the one bit of advice I can offer universally: See it as an exciting challenge and not as an impending nightmare. It is what it is!

Thank you so much, Erin! (I especially liked the tip about playing a romantic song after an argument.) Any advice you would add? Read more of Erin's many tips on Reading My Tea Leaves. xoxo

P.S. A 500-square-foot apartment in San Francisco, and a great book about small spaces.

(Photos by Erin Boyle; the bedroom plant photo originally appeared on Gardenista)

8 Sneaky Ways to Create the Illusion of More Space

From: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/8-sneaky-ways-to-create-the-illusion-of-more-space-206228

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There are plenty of ways to "open up" your living spaces by fooling the eye to make others (and yourself!) think that your home is much, much larger than it actually is. It doesn't always require tearing down walls or major renovations (although sometimes those help too)! Check out this bag of tricks at your disposal, and see if any work for you.

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Choose Monochromatic Colors

Monochromatic schemes are more peaceful as a rule, as the eye can move easily around the room without abrupt interruption by other colors. Use different color values add depth and interest to the space.

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Go With Glass

If you are doing a bathroom renovation, choose glass shower doors over a shower curtain, which becomes a visual barrier instead of letting your eyes take in every inch of space that exists. Similarly, you can replace wooden doors for french doors, or any doors with interior glass panels.

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Hang Mirrors

You can choose either individual mirrors, or mirrors that go from floor to ceiling, to reflect light and make a small room feel more open. Think about what parts of the room you wish to have reflected before hanging anything.

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Choose the Right Furniture

Avoid heavy, solid furniture or skirted sofas. Instead choose pieces on raised legs, or made of clear materials, that have less visual weight.

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Unify Your Flooring

Solid continuous flooring makes rooms look far more spacious. Don't break up your room by installing linoleum in the kitchen space, and hardwood in the living room. Also, avoid most patterned carpets and rugs (although stripes that run vertically through the room can make the room feel longer).

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Lower Your Lighting

Ensure that you have lighting at floor, table and eye level to help limit shadows versus ceiling lights. That means hanging any pendant lamps as low as possible.

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Raise & Widen Your Curtains

Extending the curtain rod beyond the actual window- both in terms of height and width, makes you think the window is larger, and the ceilings taller, than they actually are. If there are two or more windows side by side, try one curtain on the entire wall – hanging separate pairs unnecessarily chops up the space.

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Use Paint Strategically

Choose a wall color that's the same as your flooring so that the edge where they meet is less noticeable. Paint the walls and trim in similar shades of one color. Lastly, create the illusion of high ceilings by continuing the wall color onto the ceiling, making wall appear taller in the process.

What other tricks have you learned over the years?

(Image credits: Adrienne BreauxAndrea SparacioLindsey Kay AverillNicole CrowderJenny J. NorrisAlexis Buryk; Submitted by John; Carolyn PurnellMichael Alan Hoy)

11 Top Tips For Keeping Your Home Clutter Free

Cluttered Garage

(LS) — George Carlin once wisely observed that a home is just a place for your stuff. The problem is that many people keep on accumulating stuff, but they can’t bring themselves to part with any of it. Stuff just keeps piling up and piling up, and spilling over into garages and attics and storage spaces until something simply must be done about it. The following is list of helpful ways to cut down on the clutter in your home before you end up embarrassing yourself on Hoarders:

  • Dispose of old clothes. I know that you could always lose weight, but the chances of getting back into those size 32 jeans from high school when you’re wearing 44s is pretty slim… if you’ll excuse the pun. In reality, if you haven’t worn something in a year, then it’s time to get rid of it. Furthermore, you can always donate the clothes to the unfortunate and turn de-cluttering into an act of kindness.
  • When something breaks, get rid of it. For three years, I had a broken lawn mower sitting in my garage. I don’t know how to fix a lawnmower, and I own a better mower. Eventually, I put it up on craigslist, and ended up with enough money for a decent pizza. And, now there’s enough room in the garage for the kid’s bike.
  • Hang bikes on hooks and tools on nails in the garage. It’s amazing how much less clutter you’ll have in your garage when the bikes are stored up in the air on hooks, and the tools are neatly in their proper place on nails.
  • Recycle those old books. Both my fiancĂ©e and I were English majors in college, so our library multiplies faster than bunnies. The room is lined with bookshelves that are stuffed to the seams with books. Piles stack up at the feet of each one. Once a year, we cull the heard and take the rejects to Half-Priced Books for a little spending money.
  • Get some file cabinets. A sad byproduct of adult life is the stacks of paper that can quickly accumulate – bills, receipts, and records. The only way to responsibly keep track of all of that stuff is with a filing cabinet. And, when the records get too old, recycle that paper. I assure you that you won’t miss the cable bill from 1996. You have a dish now, anyway.
  • Outgrown toys must go. This is a tough one for many children. We know you loved Betsy Wetsy when you were little, Janey, but you’re 14 now. It’s time to give it up. Nobody is playing the PlayStation 1 anymore. When your children no longer use their toys, it’s time for a garage sale. If you can’t sell them, then put them by the curb. Somebody will come along and take them away.
  • Thin out the medicine cabinet. There’s very little reason you’re going to need the allergy eye drops that were prescribed in high school but just can’t bring yourself to part with. When it comes to medicine, you’re not just getting rid of clutter, but you could be saving your life.
  • Freezer burn isn’t your friend. Go to your freezer right now. Go. Stop reading this. Tell me you don’t find at least one frozen vegetable that’s been in there over a year and is so covered in ice you’d use it as a centerpiece for your table rather than a side dish for dinner. Throw it out.
  • Sort through the linens. Any towels with frays – gone. The fitted bed sheet you tore with your toenail last spring – gone. The old comforter Fido used in his dying days – gone.
  • Rent a storage space. You can’t just keep piling the stuff you don’t want in the house, in the garage, or up in the attic. The dry wall floors in most attics can’t handle the weight. And we know it’s hard for some people to part with the rotten old moose’s head you had on the wall in college. Rent a small storage space, and get it out of the house.
  • Find a place for everything and put it there. When things are put in their place, the house is simply less cluttered. Of course, there’s a limit to this. Move the bottle of ketchup two inches to the left in my uncle’s fridge, and he’ll go move it back. You can take de-cluttering too far.

De-cluttering isn’t just about making the house more presentable for visitors, but when your house is less cluttered, you can keep it cleaner, safer and healthier for your family. It’s ok to have a place for your stuff, just not so much stuff you can’t see the place.

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Small Actions = Big Results by Gary Ryan Blair

A moment's thought reveals that our entire world is simply an accumulation of tiny details.

Every action - every detail of our lives - has bottom-line repercussions, and it's dangerous and derogatory to think of any of those details as trivial, unimportant, or inconsequential.

You may be familiar with the old nursery rhyme which teaches this principle to children:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Downplaying small details, dismissing them as minutia - can and oftentimes will sabotage the biggest goal or project you can conceive.

Ultimately, the key to quality and excellence in every aspect of our lives is doing little things correctly - all the time, every time - so that each action produces a quality result.

When every nitty-gritty detail is lovingly attended to, and each step in the process is given complete and careful attention, the result inevitably will be of the highest quality.

Make your name and reputation synonymous with excellence, and you do that by making sure...


Gary Ryan Blair

“I lost my motivation

“I lost my motivation” is what a participant at one of our personal development workshops said when we asked her why her dreams haven’t come true yet.

 

When we say, “I lost my motivation” it usually comes from three things:

 

 

Start to pay attention where your thoughts roam. Do you think about your dream and how great it will be to live it? If you are like many of us, probably not.

 

You are likely thinking about all the reasons why the dream won’t work, why you are not good enough, or maybe you get jealous of others who did get their dream. Well it’s no wonder you aren’t “feeling motivated” by the dream.

 

A cure to conquering the negative inner dialogue is writing out your dreams.  Read them out loud and visualize them when you are reading them and feel it in your body.

 

2.) You have no direction or plan.

 

Sometimes, when you feel no motivation, it’s because you haven’t done the thinking and planning of HOW to get to where you want to be.  If you feel unmotivated in your life, create a 1-year and a 5-year plan... Write down goals and what you need to do in order to achieve them.  

 

Hire a life coach if you are feeling stuck in this area.  It helps to have experienced coaches help you see what sometimes is too personal for us to see.

 

3.   You are not looking after your health.

 

Check in with yourself.  Are you getting enough sleep?  Are you feeding yourself nutritional foods?  Are you drinking enough water?  Are you taking some time off to be in nature and reconnection with peace?  Are you breathing deeply enough?  These are all imperative to helping you stay on track to feeling your best and when we feel great, we are motivated to do what it takes to feel even better!

 

If you’ve been feeling like you lost your motivation, which one of the above issues might be at play? How will you combat it?

 

 

To a Motivated Positive Life,


The IALP team


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