Tehama Country Real Estate

August 16, 2013

Tehama County Real Estate

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Tehama Country Real Estate – 3 How to increase storage in tight spaces C ozy, quaint homes attract many home buyers and renters. Be it a cottage-style house or a studio apartment, smaller living spaces often involve getting creative with storage. People live in a smaller homes for a variety of reasons. Some choose to live in a smaller home so they can be right in the thicks of things in a city or urban center. Others scale back on living space in an effort to save money. But storage space in small quarters is often at a premium, and thinking creatively is a necessity to keep the home tidy and items out of view. Rainy or chilly days are the perfect times to tackle indoor organization projects. When the outdoors isn't beckoning, you can devote all of your attention to addressing storage issues in your home. To begin, take inventory of what you have, going through your possessions and determining what can stay and what can go. Part with anything you haven't used in quite some time. The next step is to sort items and get organized. Then you can find a place for everything. For example, if you have a dozen bath towels but only one sauce pot, you will need to find more room for linens than kitchen cookware. You may need to borrow space from one area of the home to give to another area. The following are some additional tips to increase space in an otherwise cramped home. * Add shelves. Increase cabinet and closet space by adding shelves into them. This may double or even triple the amount of usable space, especially if you customize the shelving to fit storage containers you use to store everything from shoes to craft items. * Opt for dual-purpose furniture. Benches with lids that lift up and sofas that convert into guest beds are just a few of the many ways you can keep a small home neat and increase storage space. An ottoman is a great place to store extra blankets and linens, while a trunk or crate with a sturdy top can be used in lieu of a traditional coffee table to keep books or board plastic storage bins are neater and more stackable than boxes. Seethrough bins enable you to quickly find items so that you are not searching around the house for lost items and creating a bigger mess along the way. Clear storage containers work in the refrigerator, too. You can more easily spot leftovers, and uniform stacking containers free up more room for bulkier items. * Make use of space beneath your bed. There likely is ample room to store more things than just dust bunnies beneath your bed. A bed frame with built-in drawers is the perfect place to keep bed linens and out-of-season clothes. Beds can be raised on blocks to create more space games. underneath for storing rolling plastic containers and even sel* Think vertically. When floor dom-used suitcases. space is at a premium, you may need to look up for storage. Fre* Opt for an armoire. Armoires quently used pots and pans can be are not exclusive to bedrooms. hung from a decorative rack in Armoires can be used in dining your kitchen. Use magnets on jars spaces or in dens to store items out to store a spice rack on the wall of sight. An armoire can be used near the stove. Racks above cabi- when retrofitted with a pull-out nets or on doors can be used to shelf as a laptop desk, storing all store everything from shoes to jew- office items behind closed doors elry to toiletries. Shelving in chil- when not needed. dren's rooms can store lesser used toys away from the floor. Empty * Improve storage in the bathwalls are valuable real estate in a room. Try to choose a vanity that small home, and tall bookshelves has under-the-sink storage so you can house a number of different will have a place to store some toithings. letries. Home improvement centers sell cabinets and etageres that * Take advantage of oddly can be placed above the toilet tank shaped crevices. If you have space as a storage space for bathroom under a staircase or a spot by a items. In the shower, hang a secdormer or in an attic eave, use the ond tension-loaded shower curtain space to store items. You may need rod on the inside of the shower to get creative, such as adding a enclosure that can be used to hold door and small closet into the stair- bags of kids bath toys and other case, but such spaces make practi- toiletries, keeping them off the tub cal storage areas and add character ledges. to a home. When you think creatively, you * Use see-through storage con- can maximize storage space even tainers. Many people find that in a small home.

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