Accommodating A Growing Family At Home

Accommodating A Growing Family At Home

A growing family can put real strain on your house, but moving will put an even bigger strain on your purse. People might say you should just move house if your family is getting too big for your current living situation. Those people might have the luxury of having enough money to move house, but a lot of us aren’t in that position. Tensions can be high in a cramped house, especially if you’ve got teenagers living there. Eventually, something gotta give. Moving to a bigger house isn’t an option, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give yourself more space. It will take some creative thinking, and you’ll have to make sacrifices along the way, but you will be able to make your house livable again if you try hard enough. So, how do you do it?

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Trunks

 

Trunks are often thought of as being an old fashioned, quite cumbersome piece of furniture. Not exactly ideal if you’re trying to save space, right? Well, they can actually be very useful, if you know what to do with them. Replacing coffee tables with trunks gives you a good amount of storage, without taking up any extra space. If you have a normal coffee table, you’re likely to have a set of drawers or a cupboard somewhere nearby as well. A trunk can fulfil both roles. They are also handy because you can store things that you use often in them, so they are always at hand. That way you won’t have to go rooting around in the attic every time you need something.

 

Think Vertical

 

All of that space above your head never gets used, unless you’re very tall, so fill it up as much as you like. Instead of using storage that takes up a lot of floor space, look at pieces that are much taller and narrower. It doesn’t seem like it would make much difference but really will. Changing traditional radiators for a thinner column radiator is another good way to free up a bit of room.

 

Get Rid Of Pointless Items

 

Most of our homes are filled with hundreds of completely pointless things. We never use them, but for some reason we can’t bring ourselves to throw them away, just in case we might need them in the future. One of the biggest offenders is kitchen gadgets. It seems like every year there’s a new one out. The commercials always tell you that it’s going to revolutionize the way that you cook. In reality you use it once and then chuck in the back of the cupboard, never to be seen again. Most of these things aren’t even needed because you can do the same thing with normal cooking equipment, so get rid of them.

 

Light It Up
If you’re struggling to make the space bigger, you could at least make it look like it is. Make sure you’re getting in a lot of natural light, and put in some mirrors to spread it around. It can make a room look double the size that it actually is. It isn’t ideal, but it might make people feel a bit better about the situation.