There are a lot of excellent reasons to choose a small home. You can save money on a modest mortgage in a smaller home and enjoy the benefits of an upscale neighborhood with larger homes. Maintenance and repairs are quicker and less expensive with respect to the size of the house. Utility bills can be significantly less. Smaller homes are easier to clean, and there is a limit to the number of things you can actually bring into the property (so you spend less on furniture).
Organizing a small house is a straightforward project to undertake when you are ready to sell your home and need to declutter for staging, or when you find your perfect smaller home in the Upper Valley region and want to keep your home organized and easy to manage from day one. Here are some helpful ways to organize a small house.
Step #1: Declutter
Declutter: Whether you are looking to sell your smaller home or to better enjoy your home, you need to declutter. The trick to organizing things is not having too many things. Decluttering works best as an ongoing project. Sell, donate, give to friends or discard items that are no longer loved or used in your home. Think twice before buying new things. You don’t have to work harder for the declutter process to work well, you need to be vigilant and work smarter.
Step #2: Storage
Think Vertical: When purchasing storage solutions for your closets and living spaces, remember to consider the vertical spaces and use them to the greatest advantage. The spaces in closets are often underused, mismanaged, and haphazardly overstuffed making the task of finding an item to use difficult. Simply invest in a closet organizational system from your local home improvement store. Utilize the entire vertical length of your closets and keep everything in order with the modular closet system. Vertical storage thinking is practical in every area of your home: use stackable clear containers in kitchen pantries and bathroom cabinets to make use of space, and quickly identify where things are (alternately you can simply label opaque containers).
Clever Furniture: There is a lot of clever furniture out there…don’t get outsmarted, choose furniture with storage. There are beds with storage, ottomans with storage, couches with storage, and coffee tables with storage. And there’s nothing wrong with a one-trick-pony item if it has a good trick a tall vertical bookshelf, anchored to your wall for safety, provides an elegant storage solution for all of your favorite items (with or without storage containers).
Step #3: Gifts & Keeping Clutter at Bay
Holiday Gifts: Holidays and birthdays are wonderful to celebrate with family, friends, and loved ones. These celebrations are often honored with gift giving. Gifts take up space and add up quickly. Anything brought into your home needs to be stored. Set the stage with diplomacy by letting everyone in your circle know you are working on simplifying your possessions before an upcoming holiday party. It would be indelicate to just say “no thank you” to gifts but with a gentle touch and finesse you can offer some alternate gift ideas (chocolates, wine, theater tickets, sporting event tickets, or lift tickets to your kid's favorite mountain).
Housewarming Registry: Gift registries are an excellent way to politely offer family and friends a list of items you would like and actually need during key events in your life, like weddings, babies, and buying your first home! You won’t end up with unwanted clutter. Just be sure to include storage solutions on your housewarming registry (or purchase furniture with storage ahead of time to keep things in order as the gifts arrive).
One-in, One-Out: You can enjoy shopping for new clothes and enjoy a clutter-free wardrobe when you practice the one-in, one-out policy. When you buy a new sweater, simply remove an older sweater from your wardrobe to donate. It’s that simple. The one-in, one-out policy is a minimalist’s way to keep possessions in check. The best items to donate are items you have loved and cherished those items will find a new home and become a treasure for someone else. Share the love!
The team at LindeMac Real Estate is looking forward to helping you with all of your real estate needs in the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont. Contact us today!