Whether for work or for living in, space is at a premium for most of us. Demand for it is high, which means cost, whether you’re buying or renting, is, too.
The solution is to get creative and find ways to get the very most from every square (or cubic) meter of space we have. This, however, also means that you might have to take some stuff out. No matter how good you are at organizing, you can’t shrink your belongings or magically push them into a pocket void. What you can do is declutter your space and put the extra stuff into a storage unit such as one provided by Storage Post and similar companies. This way you’ll be able to create space, yet still have all your things close to you.
But before things come to that, here are our five top creative ways you should try to maximise space at home and work:
- Use furniture that’s cunningly disguised as storage
Almost every day, ingenious designers are coming up with clever ways to use space. Bookcases with slots to park your bike on, hoists for raising them up in your living room and clever contraptions that reach into the most inaccessible corners of your kitchen cabinets are just some of the ways furniture makers are revolutionising the way we use space. Combining these with proven space saving methods such as a sofa table, under bed drawers, and Ottomans that double as chests gives you added storage options in almost every room in the home.
- Use scanning technology and cloud storage
If you can scan paper documents such as legal papers, tax records, receipts and product guarantees, etc and store them electronically, you’ll soon be saving huge amounts of space. Even most user manuals for goods such as washing machines, televisions and cookers etc, can be downloaded in PDF format these days, so why take up valuable space for paperwork you’ll rarely use? You can even minimise the memory you need on your computer by using a cloud storage facility such as Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive.
- Use what you need – store what you don’t
We all have things we don’t want to part with, yet don’t necessarily use on a daily basis. Consider a self storage facility where these items can be kept dry, safe, and secure yet easily accessible for a reasonable cost. In many cases, you can use the space you vacate to (more than) cover the cost of the storage. Requiring less office or home space, renting out a spare room or desk area, or using freed-up space to conduct gainful business are three ways you can achieve this.
- Use vertical as well as horizontal space
If floor space is tight, make the most of the height a room offers. Tall cupboards with small footprints can be just as spacious as shorter alternatives with wider and deeper dimensions. Consider eye-level cupboards and shelves and mount televisions, computer monitors and loud speakers on the wall. You can also buy, or make for yourself, bespoke wall mounted storage solutions for CDs, DVDs, books, kitchen utensils, herbs and spices and other light items around the home and office.
- Use glass to create light
OK, so this is more of an optical illusion than a way to create actual space, but it’s liberating all the same. It’s amazing how bringing light into a space (or simply avoiding blocking it off) can make it feel and appear bigger. Ways to pull this trick off include using pale curtains or blinds, keeping the space around windows clear, placing mirrors where they’ll reflect the most light and using glass furniture such as desks, dining tables, coffee tables, etc.
