How to make the best of a small house

[SandysMam]

We have finally saved enough to buy our first house and found one that ticks so many boxes...but it is SMALL. It’s a three bed cottage (there are 4 of us) with a living room and a kitchen that sort of flow into one but a funny shape so not much room for a dining table. Even at that size it is top end of our budget. Can you give me your best small house living tips including small house furniture. Extending may be an option in the far away future but not for a long time!
Thank you!

We lived for seven years in a tiny 2-bed new build. Me, DH and DD (up to age 5)

• get the attic as useable as possible. Boarded, good ladder, lighting and boxes that stack. We also ended up with a storage locker too as we had baby equipment we wanted to keep from our first DC. We use ours to store DH's suits (he doesn't wear them often), opposite season clothes, coats and shoes etc.

• we also spent some money in the garden, creating a patio and made to measure shed to get the max size for the space. It meant that things like tools and other household DIY stuff was out there and the garden became an outside eating and social space in the summer, almost like an extra room.

• we used rack shelving in our understairs cupboard to fit as much in there too. Ours was only a half height and we got so much in there using shelves.

• Also, we had built in wardrobes to maximise the space we had. Our space was 1m deep so had shelves at the back and the hanging rail at the front.

• We had some inflatable cube seats and some folding fabric chairs for guests. They lived in the attic and we just got them down as needed (we only had a 3 seater sofa in the lounge).

I totally agree with decluttering and ensuring everything has a place. Ikea is great for clever storage solutions and small furniture. We also use Really Useful Boxes to get an exact box fit for underbed storage etc to fill the maximum space.

Built in storage custom made can be a bit of an outlay, but totally worth it.

Shelves over doors, under bed storage. It definitely can be done, being tidy is the key!

Use every available space for storage. Be smart about it. You need to be ruthless about your possessions and de clutter. Don’t move the stuff in to the house, get rid before you move in.
Walls are your friends, you can always get high shelves and hanging rails and pegs etc for keeping stuff tidy.
We live in a small house and we have two rules.

1. One in one out, if you buy something, something else needs to go. Mainly applies to clothes, shoes etc
2. No buying something without giving thought to where you will store it.

If you have a garden you can get a decent sized shed and use that for storage and a utility. Large tough clip seal type storage boxes are great for winter boots/ wellies/ wrong season shoes, clothes and coats.

Have a look at caravan layouts and canal boats. They use every last bit of space yet often sleep 4, 5 or 6 people.

As so many have said buy furniture to fit the house.

There are some amazing space saving furniture ideas around. Tables that hang on a wall like a picture the the legs slide out when you need it up. Large coffee tables where the table top flips to double its size and the legs rock to make it dining table height.

Pinterest is great for ideas.

We use wooden stools as lounge coffee tables then they pull round the dining table as extra seats.

We downsized from a large 4 bed to a small 3 bed. We're closer as a family. Bills are far less. I'm less pressured by stuff now I've finally got rid of lots of it - wish I'd decluttered more before we moved.

Oooh yes hang stuff, two that have worked well for me:

Pans on wall
Shoe rack to hang shoes flat on wall in hall

Hi everyone,

OP has asked for this thread to be moved, so we'll be moving it to Housekeeping shortly.

We've looked for furniture that can double as storage and have a sofa from nabru with storage compartments underneath the seats. We also have a bench for the dining table that has storage underneath the seat and a fairly large coffee table that has shelves underneath which are stuffed with books. There are also garden benches from Keter in the garden that have storage underneath the seat for outdoor toys, garden tools etc.

Honestly decluttering is the best thing to do - take a look at Marie kondo for great advice on how to do it.

I always think the kind of kitchen table that fits either a bench just one side or benches both sides, instead of chairs, is a good use of space. Or those ones where the chairs or stools fit completely under the table and sort of hug it.

Think vertically when it comes to storage. See the wall space as potential storage and not just decoratively. Use the height of the walls in this way.

We’ve just bought a new bed. It is ridiculously high. But it means that we can fit loads underneath it. You can get under bed drawer type things on casters for easy access.

It's all here!

Marie Kondo

Ikea - they are doing so well because their furniture is MADE for small modern houses

Mine is white throughout. I would rather have a massive house but small can work - decluttering is brilliant and less to clean!

Delighted for you OP

Sorry to hijack slightly , any recommendations for a table that can be taken down from the wall, Kinda like a Murphy bed but a table? TIA

Ikea does one that folds flat against a wall. I think you can get some that fold even flatter than that.

www.godownsize.com/furniture-for-small-spaces/
www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/tables/dining-tables/norbo-wall-mounted-drop-leaf-table-birch-art-80091713/

If you go on the Ikea website, and look at the ideas section, you’ll see lots of space saving ideas. Also have a look at IKEA hacks.

You can buy coffee tables that convert into dining tables. Use lots of wall storage, it’s amazing how much you can store by going up.

How about the George Clarke's Amazing Spaces type programmes that show things like houseboats and tiny homes, for ideas.

@MikeUniformMike thank you for that ikea link

You're welcome. I have seen one in action and I was impressed.

Large mirrors on the wall can make rooms feel much bigger

Some great ideas on here.

One more for you, we have a 6 lathe pulley maid in our stairwell to dry washing. It's brilliant and means we aren't tripping over airers on rainy, winter days.

We also have shed loads of storage, under bed, under sofa, in footstall. We also made our own skinny dining table to fit our living room as most shop bought ones were just too wide.

My niece uses one of those ikea wall mounted tables as a desk in a small bedroom.

sofasofa.com do some fairly compact sofas which fit smaller rooms better than some of the big squashy ones.

I feel like I'm always plugging Marie Kondo on here, but her book is brilliant for decluttering and storage ideas.

We live in a little 3 bed terrace house (me, DP, 3DDs and I'm pregnant!) and the key for us has been finding furniture that fits.

I like antique and junk shops and it seems that an awful lot of 60s furniture is made for tiny houses! My sofa is a 60's Ercol that I re-covered and it fits beautifully, my coffee table is from DP's Nan's house, then we top up our finds with IKEA.

Storage. Oodles of it. DP floored the attic when we moved here and made it super easy to access which means stuff that we need occasionally can live up there as it isn't a giant pain to get it down.

The children all have loft beds which gives them their floor space for playing (for the younger ones) and DD1 has her PC and desk under her bed...also, loft beds are apparently more fun. DP and I are going to get a made for grown ups loft bed once I'm no longer pregnant and the baby is sleeping through.

Were you successful in your offer OP?

board out loft and have a ladder in the hatch for easy access.
yes, yes, and a hundred times yes