How To Optimize the Space In Your Home Without Spending Money

Optimizing the space in your home can make things feel less cluttered. It can also reduce anxiety, and help you feel more relaxed and comfortable. But you don’t want to spend a lot of money to optimize your space, because that can bring back all that stress you’re trying to get rid of. Here are some things to consider when you’re ready to get started.

1. Get Rid of What You Don’t Need

If it’s just been sitting in your closet for the last three years, or you find that you only use a third of your living room seating, why not make some changes? You can get rid of small items that are taking up space, and you can also remove big, bulky items. That huge sectional sofa might be better replaced with a loveseat and a recliner. Your huge side-by-side fridge takes up so much of your kitchen, as well. What about getting a smaller one? There are all kinds of ways to make your home feel and look more open, so your space is well-optimized.

2. Clean Your House Before Removing Big Things

Sometimes houses aren’t that full of big items. They’re just cluttered. If your house is messy, you’ll want to declutter it before making decisions on bigger furniture pieces or appliances. Pay close attention to shared spaces like living rooms and kitchens. Each person should be accountable for their own bedrooms, but everyone can pitch in and help clear clutter from a shared location. That way everyone in the house has a say in what stays and what goes, and each person gets to feel heard.

3. Make Spaces Serve More Than One Purpose

A multi-functional space can be a great way to have less clutter and not feel crowded. For example, your kitchen island or bar area could be used for dining. Your home office could also have a linen closet area and storage for cleaning supplies. There are some excellent ways to have more space in a home, and among the best ways are to make spaces work for more than just one thing. Not every space in your home has to have more than one purpose, but with some creative ingenuity you can have plenty of great things in your home and not have a space that’s overly crowded.

4. Identify “Dead Space” in Your Home

If there’s space you’re not using, that’s “dead space.” Some of that may be unavoidable, but there are also a lot of spaces you can adjust and work with in order to make them more functional. For example, if you have bookshelves or wardrobes, the space between them and the ceiling isn’t used. What could you put there? Shelving could get expensive, but you can still put some things on top of the bookcase. A step-ladder is inexpensive and can help you reach what you need. You can also store things under sofas and beds, with proper storage containers.

5. Make Good Use of Your Home’s “Prime Space”

The space between your knees and shoulders is “prime space.” That’s where the things in your house that you use must often need to go. You want those things to be in easy reach, and also in your main line of sight. Nice things should be on display there, so you can get to them quickly and so you can see and appreciate them. You also may have items you want guests to your home to enjoy, and those things should go in that same basic space. You can make your house look organized and optimized more easily when you have items strategically placed at the right height.

6. Label Your Things to Keep Track of Them

You don’t need to stick a label on everything in your house, but you’ll definitely want to label things that are used for storage. If you’re not sure what’s in a small stack of decorative boxes on top of the bookshelves, you could spend an awful lot of time digging through them. In the end, you might not even find the one thing you were looking for. Maybe it’s in the box under the bed, instead. Rather than spend extra time on that kind of a pursuit, keep things grouped together in a logical way and make sure you label the containers they’re in. Then you’ll be ready to quickly and easily find what you need.