If you are a small homeowner, you will probably want to do everything to save space and tidy up.

Having space for everything that is crucial is a real challenge for small homeowners. Unfortunately, many materials on this subject don’t offer step-by-step instructions.

Many of the articles on the subject still leave you to fill in the blanks.  That is why we have written a very comprehensive article to tackle this issue of space saving head-on.

So let’s get started.

Note: Because this is a step by step guide we will try to be practical and clear as much as we can. So you may want to get your pen and a sheet of paper to do some calculations if need be.

Also, we have divided this section into various sections to make it easy for you to follow through.

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Section One

Get to Know Your Home

You need to fully know the house or rooms you are working on. You need to know the area, the length, and the breadth of the room(s) or the house.

This will require you to take some measurements and do some simple calculations.

You will need to know the area of the floor and the height of your rooms (including the living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.) and other relevant spaces.

You may want to ask why this is important. This is crucial because by knowing the exact area and height of a room, you could know what is too big for the room and what is not.

To do this:

1. Get a pen and a sheet of paper.

2. Use a measuring tape to measure the length and width of the floor of the room. You can do this by telling a friend to hold down the measuring tape at one end and then stretch the tape to the other end of the room. Do this for the length and width of the room. See the picture below to have a clear idea of what we are talking about.

3. Record your measurements on a sheet of paper.

Tip: If you don’t have a measuring tape you may use your iPhone or iPad to measure your room. To do this:

• Open the Measure app on your phone. If you can’t see the Measure app, tap on Utilities and then select Measure. Please make sure your iPhone is running iOS 12 and above.
• Carefully move your device until a small circle with a dot in the center appears. When this occurs, move the phone until the dot (at the center of the circle) is placed directly on where you want to start the measurement (this should be one end of the room).
• When this occurs, tap on the plus + icon at the bottom of the screen. This will be your starting point.
• Then carefully move your phone to the other end of the room. When you get to the other end of the room, tap the plus + icon again.
• Your iPhone should display the value of your measurement. Repeat these steps for all other measurements you want to take.

4. Multiply the length with the width to get the area of the floor of your room. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for all the other rooms you want to calculate.

5. Use a similar method to measure the height of your room.

Pro tip: You may have one or more rooms with a recess or protrusion. This is how to measure it:

1. First, measure the area of the rectangular-shaped part of the room (see the picture below). Then follow the steps below to get the area of the recess.

a. Measure the (longest) width of the recess. See the picture below

b. Measure the (longest) length of the recess. See the picture above. Then divide this length by 2. Thereafter, multiply what you get with the width you measured in step a.

c. Then multiply what you get with the value of Pi i.e. approximately 3.14.

d. What you get in step c. is the area of the complete circle, so we will need to divide this value by two to get the area of the recess or the protrusion.

The formula explained in step a. to d. above can be written as {(Length/2)*Width*π}/2

2. Then add the area of the protrusion to the area of the rectangular part of the room you calculated in step 1 above to get the full area of the room.

Now that you know the length, width, area and the height of the room and have written them down, you can move to section two.

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Section Two

Group what is inside each room into categories

In this section, we will divide our belongings in each room into different categories.

Because we don’t want things to get confusing, we will not want the categories to be many. So, to start with, we will only divide what is inside each room into two categories.

Get a sheet of paper and pen (as you have done in section 1 above) and write down each category and the items that fall under them:

1. Discard Category: We are confident that you still have some things in your house that are not supposed to be there. These things are better discarded than being with you.

The Discard category may include the following items:

a. Items you want to give out as gifts.

b. Items that you want to give to appropriate recycling agents.

c. Items you want to use to make compost.

d. Items you want to sell.

It is usually difficult deciding which items to discard, we have therefore suggested some items that could or should make the list.

i. Packing box for phones, laptops, dishwashers, etc.

Note: You may want to hold on to packing boxes because you think that they would be useful one day.

From observations, these materials usually fill up useful spaces and they may never be needed throughout the life cycle of the electronics or gadgets they came with.

Unless you plan to sell a product with its packing box and you plan to do it soon, we will recommend you discard all the packing boxes that you are not presently using in your home.

If you ever need a packing box again, you can get one for a few bucks on Amazon.

ii. Items used when children were growing up.

You can easily give this one out as a gift to other parents. This appears better than having it lying around uselessly in your house.

iii. Items that you have left untouched for many years (more than one or two years).

It is better to sell or give away an item you don’t use than to have it occupy a wanted-space.

Many of your clothes may fall under this group.

iv. Extra items you have. For example, if you have two or more pressing irons, you can consider selling or giving away one, especially if the two irons perform the same functions.

2. Keep Category: This category will include those items that are playing crucial roles in your life. Carefully write down all those items that fall into this category.

After you have distributed the items into the two categories, the list should look like the picture below.

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Section Three

Divide the Keep Category in Section Two Above into Subcategories

This exercise relies on one’s creativity.

What we want to do in this section is to group those items that you can store together into the same subcategory.

For example, you might include pens, papers, files and related materials in the same subcategory.

Determine those items in Keep category that can be bundled together.

It is crucial you store related items together so that you can find them easily.

However, you may group unrelated items under the same subcategory if you find it perfect for your condition.

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Section Four

Determine Where To Store Those Items In Each Subcategory

Now the next step is to store the items in each subcategory in an appropriate place.

To do this:

1. Identify the storage areas in your home. For example, the storage area in a typical home can be:

i. Cabinet or cupboard

ii. Wardrobe

iii. Drawers of a desk

iv. The top of a desk

v. Under the stairway

vi. On the walls of the rooms or garage

vii. Inside the Ottoman bench

viii. Under the bed

ix. Outdoor

x. Inside the garage

xi. In the garden

Pro tip: It is not a bad idea to keep some items with a friend or family member if there is just no space to keep them.

2. Link items under each subcategory to the appropriate storage location. Note that a subcategory may be stored in more than one location.

To make it fun, we will recommend you get a large sheet of paper and write down the storage areas in your home and then use an arrow to link each subcategory to the appropriate storage area.

For example, you may draw an arrow linking your bicycle or that of your kid to the wall of your garage. The linking process may look like this (see the picture below).

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Section Five

Determine if You Need Extra Items to Properly Store Your Belongings

For example, if you have chosen to store some items on the wall, you would need hooks to hold them.

You may also need packing bags. We will recommend you write down all the items you need to properly store your belongings.

After writing them down, have a clear plan on how to get these items. For example, hooks (adhesive and non-adhesive hooks) can be bought on Amazon or eBay.

If you are getting an extra packing bag, put into consideration the length/width/area of your room so that you don’t get something that will be too big for your small room/home.

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Section Six

Determine if You Need Extra Furniture (Space Saving Furniture) or Space Saving Items

Now that you have followed instructions in section one to five above, it is time you determine if you need some space-saving furniture or not.

Space-saving furniture like ottoman benches or bunks are cool items to have.

We have written a robust article on the space saving items you can have, you can access the article here.

If you are getting a space saving furniture or item, don’t forget to put into consideration the length/width/area of your room so that you don’t get something that will be too big for your small room.

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Section Seven

Consider Using Corner Shelves in Your Home

It is quite challenging to neatly store items in the corner of your rooms.

Interestingly, corner shelves allow you to do just that. You can transform the corners in your rooms into storage locations with the appropriate corner shelves.

You might be surprised as to the number of items you can store using the corner shelves.

You can purchase a corner shelf from eBay or Amazon.

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Section Eight

Determine If There Are Any Items You Can Hang

It is a smart idea to determine those items that you can hang and then group them together.

You can hang your cooking utensils, overcoats, caps, etc.

In fact, you can hang your bicycle or that of your kid in the garage. Many of these objects are designed to be hanged. And even if they are not designed to be hanged, you can do so by making a little adjustment.

Simply be creative and you will see that you can neatly hang many things. Objects that are hanged take up literally no floor space and will save that space for you for other uses.

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Section Nine

It is Now Time to Actualize Your Plans

Most of what we have done in sections one to eight above has to do with planning. Now is the time to actualize.

We will want you to get those sheets containing the information you have written down and start to work on the plan beginning with section two.

Depending on the size of your home, we will expect you to finish the space-saving process in two to eight hours. It may take longer if you have a lot of stuff in your home.

Please note that self-discipline is needed to complete the process of space saving. If you don’t discipline yourself, it is easy to stop on the way.

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Section Ten

Managing the “Discard Category” Items

In section two of this guide, we wrote about the Discard category. Below is how to manage some of the items in this category:

i. Items you want to give as gifts

Remove the items you want to give as gifts from the Discard category.

Then look inward and see if there is anyone in your family or community that will need some of the items in the Discard category. List out the names of these individuals and reach out to them straight away. Don’t delay.

Also, research if there is any organization that accepts some of the items you would like to give as gifts.

ii. Items you want to sell

Pack the items you want to sell in suitable packing boxes and go to an appropriate online store to sell them.

If you are selling online for the first time, you can get a suitable online store to sell your items by using a search engine.

Search for online market in then mention the name of your place or country.

iii. Items to give to appropriate recycling agents

Bundled this group of items together and give them to appropriate recycling agent(s).

Whenever you can, make sure you give an item to a recycling agent instead of throwing it away or burning it.

This way, we can all help save our planet from the waste problem.

iv. Items to use to make compost

Organic materials can be used to make compost. If there are food items and plant materials in your waste, you can use them to make compost.

You can read more on compost here.

v. Items to throw into the trash bin.

If there are items that do not fall under any of the categories mentioned above, you can simply throw them inside the trash bin.

Conclusion

We believe that saving space in your home should not be rocket science and you can start saving space now by following the methods described in this guide.

Do you have any questions or tips on how to save space? Do so using the comment section below.

Finally, please don’t forget to share this article with friends and family so that in no time at all, they can also turn their small-space home into a spacious little palace.