Mumsnet, won't you help me, please? My house is a squash and a squeeze.

[MrsJamin]

So there's 4 of us in a classic Victorian 2 up 2 down terraced house. I have tried my hardest to make the most of the space we have but I still get frustrated when lots of friends seem to be moving on from their first house to semi's and 3-beds. :( [self-pitying emoticon] The most frustrating thing I find is literally not having enough space to move about in without banging into something, as everything is so close together E.g. when it's bathtime, someone generally knocks their head on the sink as we cannot all (me and the boys) stand on the bathroom floor all at the same time.

Can anyone share any tips? And none of the "Move your pig, cow and goat into the house and then back out again!" variety. Here's some that I have found useful to kick this off (there must be others caught by the inability to move up the property ladder as their family has grown)

• Digitise all CDs and DVDs so we can shove them up in the loft
• Store clothes underneath beds
• Clear the sides in the kitchen as much as possible as clutter makes you feel like it is too small to live in comfortably.
• Get out a lot!

Hahahahahahahaa

Sob

We've just moved from a 4 bed detached town house to a TINY two bed cottage. (first bought house and out of rented) due to extend another bedroom and kitchen over the next year but we have two DC (5&1) and expecting number 3 in August.

Oh. My.

We are in a squash and a squeeze house, it has taken me about 2 years to settle. How old are your DC's? Are they are the lots of toys stage?

We were going to move but I did a major major de-clutter, we're talking furniture, pushchairs that took up too much room, kitchen items that were never used, clothes, towels, excess duvet covers the lot. CD's/DVD's/books went to the car boot/charity shop...kindle and the cloud (for music/films) is the way forward in this house, keep the attic space for stuff you might use again.

Shelves are good in this house too, particularly in the bathroom, keeping the floors clear seems to make the place feel a bit bigger. A proper loft ladder is good too so the attic becomes a place that you can access as easily as a cupboard which means that you can keep stuff up there that you might need once a month or so, or stuff like winter clothes.

There are five of us in this two bed, and two Labradors. We've been here almost a year and moved here out of a rented 5 bed, where all of the kids had their own rooms.
Our garage is rammed. Rammed.

We bought nine ikea pax wardrobes and arranged them artfully through the middle of the room in a sort of T shape to give us storage and the kids a corner each for their bed.

We are going to put it on the market and move. if it sells, we'll lose about £70k at least, but I guess a bigger house will also be cheaper because of the market.

I'm not holding my breath. My house is beautiful and gorgeous and v desirable. But only if you are a couple. When it's chock full of 5 person and 2 dog family claggage it loses kerb appeal....

I think using wall space for stroage is the key when you have a small house, try to keep the floor as free as possible. And declutter like mad!

Have a look at IKEA for ideas for storage, some nice houses here too
www.ikeafamilylive.com/en/home-stories

I like the link pannacotta!

Like the reminder about keeping floors clear, I'm terrible at leaving stuff on the floor. We are still at the sprawling toys stage (2 boys 2 and 4), so there's 20 cars over the entire dining room floor on a bad day. I love the spring as suddenly we have a whole new large room to use- the garden! Try and get out most weathers which makes me not feel so cooped up in here. I struggle in the winter for this reason. We have a lot of ikea storage too! Anyone else really struggle with house envy or is it just me? I find it difficult to listen to people's discussions about their new houses or extensions :(

"Take in a giraffe", said the wise LoopyLoops
"Take in a giraffe? You make me jump through some hoops!"
So she found a giraffe and stuck its neck through the chimney
(And found it helped stop the draft - before t'was quite windy)
But the giraffe did a big pile of poo on the rug
So Jamin sighed and went back with a shrug
Too wise LoopyLoops who made her take it out again
And replace it with twelve cocks and a hen
The cocks got too randy, the poor hen freaked out
So Jamin returned to Loopy with a pout
"Fuck it" said Loopy, "Just buy a new house"
So Jamin did that, and used all her nouse
To keep Loopy away from all household advice
For she learnt that it comes at a hefty price.

:o

Love that book (and pretty much all JD/AS books).

I have the same problem though...

Love it, LoopyLoeufdePaques!! You're quite a poet! Now to find a giraffe... Alas we can't really afford a new house unless I go back to work, and in the grand scheme of things I think it's better for the children if I don't work out of the home, unless I find a job that I really love.
Any other ideas for toys with a high amount of play per cubic cm?

Library books are very high play per cubic cm, as they live at the library.
Have you got high beds? They gain you a lot of floor space.
Give up ironing, then the dry washing just goes in cupboards instead of in an unsightly pile.
Download music and books instead of getting physical copies.
A place for everything and frequent tidying, I.e. living room, any toys must be back in one box at mealtimes and bedtime.

We're in a squash and a squeeze house (me, dp and 2x ds's) with no loft space and no garage. I hate clutter and the only way I can stay slightly sane is by:

Regular, ie at least monthly, charity shop clear outs. Usually I can fill at least one binbag with rubbish and one for the charity shop without a problem. Dp and ds's ( all hoarders, grrrr) don't notice what I've got rid of and I usually keep the charity shop bag in the car for a week or so before taking it just in case!

We've got a ridiculous amount of books and although I try to charity shop as many as I can, they seem to multiply faster than I can get rid of them. So I'm planning to put shelves above all the doorways in the house so try and spread them out.

Yesterday I got rid of our video recorder - finally time! So was able to charity shop all our old videos - more room for books and all the sodding wii games ds's have got...

When we moved into the house ds's were 6 and 4 and I had a no toys downstairs rule - they had the largest bedroom which doubled as the toy room and over the past 4 years this has worked really well. Toys get played with downstairs but taken back up by them - bizarrely - after they're done.

Am aware I'm sounding like a joyless harridan - honestly I'm not and our house is in No Way clutter-less, and I stress all the time about WTAF we're going to do as ds's get bigger - eg neither of them have a wardrobe (dp and I only have one between us + 1 chest of drawers) because there's no room. Ds1 is currently sleeping in a bed that had to be chopped up and made smaller to fit so in about 3 years' time I'll either need to chop his legs off or cut a hole in the wall for him to be able to lie straight in his bed...

I'd love a loft conversion but the bank just laughs at me when I ask to add on to the mortgage - althoughy salary's not bad our LTV ratio on the house is still around 90% so there's no chance in the near future.

Sigh. I feel your pain!

Yes to no ironing as well here! And put things away not down is my favourite phrase - oh how dp and ds's love that one..!

Also, the 2 year rule works for most gadgets. If you haven't used it (barring the week you got it) for 2 years, you never will. It doesn't matter how "useful" it could be, it's clearly not that useful to you and someone else should get a chance to make use of it.
Find someone who has DCs between yours in age so they can use your old stuff and you'll get it back for the next DC to use rather than store it (and do the same for them).

Im in a squash and squeeze too, and also suffer from house envy.
I do have a lot of storage space in terms of the loft and garage, but they are both full with junk!!!! I do agree with investing in a proper loft ladder, i am up there probably once a fortnight.
Frequent tidying is probably the key, BUT i am not tidy by nature so its a constant battle.

Have you considered taking in your cow?

Don't do ironing anyway. Go to library every week (but having a weakness for buying favourites on amazon). Boys have bunk beds and will have a decent amount of room once DS2 is in it and out of his cot (in same room, they have the biggest as well). Download music and books and have also digitised all movies. Have laptop and iPad instead of desktop PC. In the winter, I take a week's wet washing to the laundrette to get it tumble dried, so we don't have wet washing around 24/7. Stuff gets charity shopped pretty frequently but I probably could be more on top of it. We have ebay splurges every now and again to sell the better stuff. Definitely need to look into opportunities for more shelving though, good idea.
Part of the problem is I am not a natural tidier either (DH isn't either) so its a constant battle to make myself clear up as I go along.

Hi were staying in a friends house (while we buy our next house we got gazumped!)

So 4 of us in a 2 bed with all her stuff and ours is in storage and she's at her boyfriends- (I love her so much for the favour!!)

AnywAy what we found (moving from spacious 4 bed)
Keep pram in the car
Use end of beds for dc's stuffed animals (1dd is 2.7 the other is 8mths)
Dp keeps work things at work
Shop every 5 days instead of weekly
Get out (dd's are used to running about etc) ikea is a good trip
We do bath time then dress and dry on the mater bed. Spacious and safer (as bathroom is at top of stairs)
I'm going to eBay my spare prams and be ruthless with other things as this 2 weeks has really shown us what crap we have

I have felt inspired this morning, the mountain of toys dd had brought into the living room from her bedroom has gone back upstairs ( her room to be done another day!) but now I have one rib for her one for ds and a coffee table and floor reclaimed

We are 2 adults a 4 yr old and an 8 Mth old in a 2 bedroom and 1 living room with. Kitchen diner. If I can get a good job we might be able to move next year.

Dotty you made me laugh... We have a small flat too. My dh has suggested a stacking system for any future dcs, or as I'm getting into the whole baby wearing thing, perhaps I shall just wear them all. We have laptops instead of desktops, and try to use kindle & iPod instead of books & CDs...

4 of us in 3 rooms here. We have multiple coat hooks on the back of all the doors. I pack away out of season stuff eg hats scarves gloves, boots, big coats, beach stuff, sandals. I binned CD cases and put discs in a folder with sleeves. We just have 1 3 seater couch in living room. Shelves in all the alcoves. Use a laundrette as much as possible. I keep loads in the car. Big bathroom cabinet. Filled lower part of wardrobe with plastic drawer storage things.

ooh yes hooks everywhere - we've got a small hall cupboard and dp's dad put in every hook he owned when we moved in - none of them match but as you can't see them under the 6 million bags of crap stuff and coats we have in there, it doesn't matter. Hooks on the back of all bedroom doors and the bathroom.

Thin storage units - Ikea are very good at this - we've got a row of thin shoe storage thingies in the hall, which are OK now but again, as ds's grow, I don't know where we're going to put their shoes.

We've also got a pan rail from Ikea which is a godsend in the kitchen all our pans and seives are on it and it saved tons of space we haven't got...

I have the Ikea Ektorp Sofa - which I have discovered has enough space to store things underneath like catalogues and a basket full of Wii Games . I am also getting the Ikea Bromma footstool that matches soon which is extra storage. Regular charity shop visits are a must and lots of hooks and shelving under or over the stairs. Slim bookcases for small spaces and places downstairs for the kids tat . I only have 1 DD7 though so you may think I am fraudulent posting on this thread. Also DD has a box for all categories of toys ( you can get them in poundland) so she has a Barbie box, ponies box etc - makes tidying up so much easier. For extra space in cupboards those 3 tier plastic draw things ( about £15 from Argos?) are especially usefull. Boxes boxes storage and hooks everywhere!!

I have a divan bed, have just discovered that i can remove the cloth covering on the sides I have a huge space underneath where i can store towels etc. I ve covered it again with a valance so does not look unsightly.

We've just found out that we've got to move from a 3 bed house to a 2 bed flat. Which means loosing a bedroom - but also the shed and the attic (both of which are crammed). I will have NOWHERE to store things. Also all our previous wardrobes were built in, so nowhere for clothes either.

I'm having a ruthless chuckout of stuff. But my hoarder DH can't bear to part with things.
Are there areas of your house where you can really live with the bare minimum? (eg just s/m/l for kitchen pans etc) Or is it all about very very clever storage?