how will you make your small house appear more comfortable and functional with adequate storage?
Answers
1. Improve your home’s traffic flow
How you and guests move through your space has a big effect on how spacious your home is perceived. If you’ve never evaluated how traffic moves through your space (or haven’t done it in awhile) take a few (free) minutes to move through your house, from room to room and in each room. The movement should make sense (like you shouldn’t have to walk all the way around a room to get to the next), flow smoothly (you shouldn’t have to stumble over things in the way), and have a nice wide (as in no having to squeeze past a table and feel like you’re about to knock something other feeling) feel to the path that takes you through rooms and from each room to the next. Adjustments to your home’s flow could be as dramatic as a full room rearrangement to moving furniture a few inches to even just decluttering entryway wall hooks (so mountains of coats and bags don’t impede a walkway).
big art, wood floors, gray walls and wall collages in this airy room.(placeholder)
(Image credit: Leela Cyd)
2. Rearrange with the goal to visually lighten & balance
The idea behind this is to move the “heaviness” away from the entry of each room and/or spread the weight equally around the room. So instead of having the first thing you see in a space be a heavy piece of furniture, make it be something visually light, low or even just space. By dispersing the weight of a room equally (not having all your heavy furniture on one side of the room, and balancing out heavy furniture pieces with equally dominant/eye-catching design elements) you’ll keep your eye moving throughout a room. Don’t be afraid to rearrange furniture from room to room to achieve better balanced visual spaces, either. And though some small spaces sometimes have limited ways the furniture can be arranged, it’s worth experimenting.
hanging folded chairs on the wall of this living room save space and make the room feel more spacious.(placeholder)
(Image credit: Sherrie and Oliver)
3. Clear counters and floor space by storing non-daily items
In small spaces (and really all spaces), the clutter you keep on your counters and in full view should be the things you access daily. If you keep the toaster oven you use once a month out on the counter, it’s just not helping anybody, and it’s not that big of a deal to move in and out when you do use. Is there room in a cabinet for it somewhere? But that’s just one example; the idea could apply to bathroom toiletries you don’t use every day or even to bigger items like extra seating. Yes, storage may be tight, but get creative. Declutter your current storage and maximize shelving for more room. Tuck or nest small furniture pieces under larger ones. Even consider hanging items on hooks (won’t be hiding it, but will get items off of your floor and possibly help feel more spacious — Alana’s Brooklyn Railroad has a great example).
a tiny studio apartment with no window treatments and lots of colorful pillows and textiles.(placeholder)
(Image credit: Kim Lucian)
4. Take off dramatic, bulky window coverings
Not done properly, this trick could leave a space too bare. But, if you’ve got window coverings on a window that you don’t need for privacy, see if the space could benefit from a window covering decluttering. Depending on your type of window, if you take off window coverings altogether, it could give the space a more architectural feel, and it’ll certainly let more natural light in. But if you need some window covering, consider streamlining them so they don’t take over a room; shorten long flowing curtains so they don’t pool on the floor or try tying drapes back tightly.
a closeup of a clean interior door and door knob(placeholder)
(Image credit: Adrienne Breaux)
5. Clean those forgotten spots
Yes a good house cleaning in particular is of course a great way to make a home feel better for free, but don’t forget about those forgotten spots! They’ll let more light in (aiding to spaciousness) and just make a space feel better
Ive always loved the idea of having a smaller house, and making the most of the space I have. When I lived in my tiny English cottage (the house prior to when I lived in my giant house) it was like a game for me to find clever places for things.
How can you make the most of your small house?
1. Make finding space in a small house a game.
My small house was like a puzzle, everything had one place that it could fit. My husband’s closet was actually a linen cabinet in the hall. My canned goods fit in a neat and tidy corner of our basement on plastic shelving. We had baking dishes on wire shelving on an enclosed back porch. We put beds on risers to give us more space for things under the beds.
Oh how I wish I had been blogging 10 years ago (was anyone blogging back then, or was that before the internet was invented?)! That would have been a fun house to talk about. We did so much to that adorably small house to make work for our family.
I love coziness so for the most part, having a small house was fun for me, not a drudgery. I enjoyed figuring out how clever I could be with our storage and furniture placement. I was determined I had enough space for what I needed and it really was like a challenging game to find the solution.
2. Find more than one purpose for your rooms.
I’ve always wanted a library/dining room. Not only do I think it looks charming, it is practical too. You can use the room to dine in, but it can also hold library shelves for books or a home office. One room, multiple purposes. Love that.
I’m not sure how I feel about bookshelves in the bedroom (top photo). I wonder if it would feel kind of dusty? I do like how it looks but I think I’d rather have books in the dining room. But if the bedroom was all I had for my books, it would work!

Southern Living
3. Less furniture, more built ins.
Free standing furniture takes up a lot of space. If you own a small home, there are often ways you can tuck in a built in piece (or a free standing piece that fits in just like a built in) to give you more room for the buck.
For instance, I adore banquettes (built in benches with a table)! Tables and chairs take up a lot of room, so if you can build a banquette into a small niche, you can have an eat in kitchen even if the room is quite small.
Think about other ways you could eliminate pieces of furniture by having built ins. Or even if you can’t build something in, perhaps consider other ways to eliminate excess pieces and go for more streamlined furniture!

4. Get creative with the space you have!
A couple of years ago I saw this photo, above, and it had a pretty cool outside the box idea! It is a custom made dining table that opens up to reveal a pool table! You can have a family meal, then take the lid off the table and the space becomes a game room. While the table probably costs a pretty penny, imagine the cost of a whole separate pool table room! Not only is this an example of a dual purpose room, it is thinking creatively in a small space.
In our small house, for the first two years of my son’s life, our dining room was his playroom. We had to get creative with the space we had, and having a playroom for his toys at that stage was more important than having a dining room. By being willing to let go of something we used less frequently and setting the house up for what we really needed, we made the house work for us.
If you are trying to make the most out of a small house, consider ways to double a room’s usefulness! We don’t always need MORE room, we just need to be more clever with the space we have!