A small home can be a blessing or the thorn in your side. The difference is, first of all, how you look at it, and second of all, how you manage it. Even a huge home could feel cramped and way too small if it were unorganized and cluttered. So, the challenge in a small apartment or small house is to find storage where you didn’t know you had it, and to organize the things that you use every day in a way that is easily manageable and easy to deal with. Follow these steps to getting your small living space in order so that you can be happy in your own home.

1) Utilize storage areas that you haven’t considered before. Use pantry organizers, or even peg boards made for the garage on the insides of your closet doors. You can store all kinds of little things and keep them organized if you just think outside the box a bit. Use a trunk or wooden toy box for a coffee table. Display your television on a dresser. Buy an ottoman that opens up to reveal secret storage. Put your couches and beds up on risers to make room underneath for extra storage. You can buy medicine cabinets that recess into the wall and only look like a mirror when closed. Think about all the little places you can create storage that is out of sight so that you don’t see the clutter that may be stored there.

2) Next, declutter your surfaces. It’s hard, especially in a small space, to keep the flat surfaces of the house clear. One way to do this is to disguise the things that need to be out all the time, so that at a glance, the house looks neat and organized. Use containers and baskets with lids or tops for mail, keys, your wallet, and other things that you use daily. A charging station is great for keeping cords concealed. The more you can keep countertops and tables looking “empty” the more space the room will seem to have.

3) Use space saving hangers in your closets. These hangers are flat, velvet hangers that grip your clothing and allow you to hang them really close together. I love these because they keep all of my thin-fabric shirts from slipping around and getting crumpled up. They hang so flat together that the hangers themselves save about half the space. Then you can add hanging clips to cascade other hangers from them, doubling or tripling your closet space.

About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for velvet hangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.

Just because a room is small, does not mean that it has to be dull, cluttered, or unusable. By using creative lighting, storage, design, color and decoration techniques, you can create a very attractive and usable space in a small area.

Design Inspiration: Keep it simple in a small room to avoid making the room look crowded or cluttered. Floating shelves, simple lamps, a single rug, and minimal throw pillows will help the room to look larger. Try using a large mirror on the wall instead of a large painting or photograph. Mirrors can create the illusion of more space. Empty corners also make a room seem larger. Instead of end tables or corner tables, try to get away with a simple coffee table. The more flat and empty spaces you can leave, the better the room will look. Add just enough decoration, such as flowers, candles, or books, to create the feel that you want without cluttering the room.

Color Inspiration: People used to believe that dark walls made a room feel smaller. However, a dark accent wall can make a room seem larger. It draws the eye to a part of the room that normally you wouldn’t be drawn to look at. This “looking around” effect makes the room seem bigger to you. The darkness also disguises where the wall ends, making your brain think that maybe it recesses further back than you thought. Dark floors make ceilings feel taller and dark furniture keeps a room simplistic and not “overly decorated”.

Lighting Inspiration: Lamps give a room a warm feel and track lighting helps to illuminate key elements or light colored walls in the room. These things give each small detail meaning, making the whole room seem more significant. Even a boring laundry room can seem luxurious with the right lighting. Installing interesting lighting is relatively inexpensive and can make a big difference in a small room. Don’t forget to take advantage of the natural light in the room. Use sheer curtains, if any. If there isn’t a window in the room, use a mirror to reflect a window from another room.

Organization Inspiration: If you need to use your small room often, you will inevitably need some storage space. Many couches and chairs are now made with hidden storage areas underneath the padded arm rests. You can find ottomans, coffee tables, and even entire couches whose cushions lift up to reveal storage. If you don’t have a closet, hang a decorative hanging rod by the room’s entrance for your guests’ coats and jackets. Stock it with interesting or high end clothes hangers, like walnut and brass hardwood hangers, to match your room’s décor. If you do have a closet, you can use space saving hangers, like velvet hangers, to make the most of the small space.

About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for velvet hangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.

When you share a small closet with someone, you start feeling competitive about the space. You want to make sure that your partner is not taking up more space than you because every inch is a precious treasure! If you both own too much stuff, then the closet will surely be crammed with everything possible and then some items will live outside of the closet in boxes, laundry baskets, and storage bins. This problem is common and there are ways to solve it.

1) Do a major overhaul of your wardrobes. Things that you’re saving to wear maybe once or twice a year should be kept in storage somewhere, not in the closet that you both have to use every day. Be selective about what you put in the closet. Only allow your favorite items to go inside. Most people only wear about 25% of their wardrobes 90% of the time. Try a rolling garment rack for keeping dress coats, suits, formal wear, and other items that don’t get used very often. You can store them in garment bags or get a zip-up cover for the garment rack to keep things fresh and ready to wear whenever you’re ready.

2) Give away whatever you can. If something just isn’t worth keeping because the space is too small for it, go ahead and give it away. You can also get rid of clothing that is too tight, too big, too short, too stained, or simply out of style. Thinning out your wardrobe is the easiest and quickest way to get your closet de-cluttered and back on its way to being organized.

3) Now you can use specialty clothes hangers to finish the job. Flat hangers, like slimline velvet hangers, keep clothing perfectly straight while making them take up almost half the space of regular, plastic tubular hangers. The velvet coating is very grippy and keeps clothes from slipping during your rummaging. Cascade these hangers from each other using tiny hanging hooks to create even more space. Cascading space saving hangers are great for hanging multiple items in one space. Tiered hangers can give you room for all of your pants and skirts in a very small area. Tie hangers, scarf hangers, and other specialty clothes hangers can help you to more efficiently use the space.

4) For items the need to be stored, try vacuum bags. These keep clothing fresh while compressing them down to a fraction of the storage space that they would take up in a box or big plastic storage container.

About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for velvet hangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.