Hellobee Boards

As we are about to welcome a new baby, the mantra I'm using going forward in our small space is, "all the things in our home need to be either functional or beautiful."

We basically have storage everywhere. Each piece of furniture is functional. Drawers under the beds, tons of built-in shelving, the coffee table is a storage ottoman, etc. And much to DH's chagrin, I do lots of purging. Its hard on him and causes fights but its for the greater good. In my experience one needs to be fairly ruthless in a small space to keep it looking beautiful and un-cluttered.

Our home is about that size. To keep my LO's stuff from taking over the living room, I gave her two shelves on a bookcase in our living room (we don't have a play room) and we do a toy rotation. We have an ikea expedit in her room with a bunch of bins, and I keep a selection of toy's in each one. Every week, we switch out a bin's worth of toys from her room into the downstairs. We also have her play kitchen downstairs so some toys get stored in there.

Other stuff:
- Instead of a coffee table, we have two ottomans that have storage inside.
- We have a small table with a bench instead of chairs on one side, so it slides underneath and takes up no extra floor space.
- I purge LO's toys, her clothes, and my clothes pretty much every season. We are constantly donating or selling stuff.

@avivoca: agree, purging is key! We get rid of things as we don't need them (we are done having babies).

I've also been making a conscious effort to only buy things if we really need them, and I try to make as many informed choices as possible.

I too am not so great at getting rid of things, but a few things that have helped us:

Mount whatever you can to the walls, like TVs. This way you don't need to have a big piece of furniture to have it sit on.

Lofted beds are great for kids, you can find ones that have spaces for desks underneath if they need an area to do homework.

When I think about purchasing something for my house, I make sure to run it by my husband. He is a minimalist so if he doesn't see the function, he'll tell me and that's often enough to avoid a purchase.

DS only likes playing where I am so I have one low shelf for him in the living room and rest if his toys are stored elsewhere. I rotate them out periodically. He also just didin't have that many! But having less out at a time makes keeping them cleaned up much easier. At 2 now he actually loves helping me get out new toys and will clean up all his old toys.

For us to help with purging - Everything has to have a home (thats accessible and neat).

We live in a 2 bedroom 1 bath 900 Sq ft apartment with our 23 month old LO and 50 lb dog. My DH works from home, and we are planning on staying here through at least another child. Small space planning is my obsession, for better or worse.

-Think vertical! Tall shelves and wall storage are musts for us. I live by Ikea wall storage, and I'm just about to try to find some new wall containers for LO's play food and dress up clothes. I have her stuffed animals hanging in window boxes meant for flowers that I have hanging on her wall, and hER good books live on one of her window sills.

-Tension rods are your friend! I put them in odd corners to hang dry delicates, hang up dress up clothes, and turn a small closet with one hanging bar into one with 2. I usually use shower curtain rods for this.

-I don't toy rotate, but I'm picky about what big things come into our house. She can play with big chunky plastic toys at daycare. Or, I have to be OK with ones that will be everywhere. So when we decided to get her a slide for Christmas, we did so knowing that she would likely have it in the middle of everything. We were OK with that.

-I store toys in seemingly random places-under our buffet, in two of the drawers of said-sideboard, play pots and pans on the kitchen counter. But they're all organized into clear Sterilite containers, so they are easy to organize, easy to see, and easy to clean up.

-Make sure your furniture is proportional to your space!! Huget furniture isn't likely going to fit. Or, pick one thing (table, couch) thst you will use a lot, and give that the space it deserves.

-Rethink how you use your space. Do you use your diNing room, or do you eat in the kitchen? If you dont use it, repurpose the space into something you will use, like an office/place to color/do art and homework, etc. Look at your space with an eye for what you need it to do. I took my coat closet, which was next to my kitchen, and turned it into a pantry. Much better use of the space for us!

-Corners and odd spaces are your friend. I hang my broom and mop behind my pantry door, have my dresser shoved in a perfect little nook in our hallway, and created a little entryway by the door with a bench and a rug.

-Shelving, shelving, shelving. We bought bakers racks to line an unused hallway to store extra diapers, wipes, linens, and other things we like to keep handy but don't use often. It has been really helpful.

My three biggest challenges are:
-what to keep/what to purge? We want more kids, and I struggle with this. Fortunately, we have storage downstairs, but I do end up donating more than I probably otherwise would.

-keeping things accessible to LO. Ideally, I want things she uses to be in her reach, so she can be independent, or learn to be. But I can't just use 3 feet of her walls-so much unused space! I'm working on this balance right now. Not sure what the answer is.

-Access vs ownership. I want her to have things she likes, like a play kitchen. She has one to use at school and loves it. But do I really need to bring one here, where it might not get used, when she has one already?

I love Pinterest, Apartment Therapy, and the Ikea Catalogue foe inspiration. I would say the big keys are flexibility and a willingness to get creative. It's amazing what you can accomplish with limited space with the right tools. Also, keep in mind that it's likely going to take a while to hit your groove, and it will change as LO gets older. There are always ways to improve, but give yourself grace (says the pot to the kettle). The most important parts of the home are the people in it, so I try to remind myself when I worry about our space that it just needs to be good enough to allow us to enjoy each other as a family to the biggest extent possible! And not everyone's small space solution will work for others. I am not willing to give up our TV, but I don't care about a toy-free living room. I do care about things being up off the floor so I can attempt to control Dust Bunny City over here.