If you have a 3 bed semi, 2 kids, how did you finally get your house sorted?

[millionaireshortie]

I am struggling. The house is massively getting me down. At what point do you admit defeat and accept you don't have enough space for a family? Problem areas everywhere, clutter everywhere, in spite of constantly 'tidying'. We've installed fitted wardrobes, regularly cull kids toys and clothes, have a donate box permanently available in my landing cupboard, regularly visit the tip/charity shop and don't feel we buy excessively AT ALL. What amazing storage furniture am I missing? Any tips on how to manage a house of this size with a family of 4?

@TeaPot40

We also have an outside box for wellies and boots and other stuff that would clutter the hallway

Where did you get your box? Is it secure? (not that anyone would want our old wellies and boots, but still!)

Take it you don't have a garage op ?

From amazon. Just typed in outdoor storage box. It was around £20

This is a (very beautiful and artistic) drawing of under my stairs. There are doors to hide it all away.

On the top shelf is wellies, bike helmets, spare toilet rolls, spare mats for front and back door, a box with car stuff (screen wash, de over etc)

Hooks are for my handbag, coats, dog leads.

Shoe rack is self explanatory.

Shelves on the right is full of baskets with art and craft stuff, knitting stuff, board games, and other indoor hobby stuff and some toys.

There’s also a large bag of dog food in there.

Shelves to the left have cleaning stuff (I’m a cleaner so there is a lot)

There are hooks for mop, broom, dustpan etc.
Then there’s Henry

Tbh there’s still enough room for one of the DC to emulate Harry Potter if they wanted to

I have a very small 3 bed house, more like the size of a two bed upstairs, downstairs has had an extension on back so extra living room, smallish kitchen and living room with stairs in. tiny bathroom and a porch.
I find it ok, there is no storage cupboards except for one in my bedroom where I keep the vacuum, towels and junk, sweeping brush, cloths horse, and floor mop hide behind a sofa. All toys are in the big ottoman boxes that you can get from Argos, two downstairs and two in their bedrooms. I have a Kallax unit in the porch for all shoes and another one in extension for all the little toys. It's generally ok, we are planning on moving because the garden isn't big enough, we need a garage and I'd like bigger bedrooms for the kids but we will be moving to a normal size 3 bed semi and that will be fine for us.

You can lock ours but we don't bother

We are spoilt. We have far more than we need and nowhere to put it. We live in a 3 bed semi detached house that has been massively extended to double the ground floor space. Huge kitchen and dining room, family room, utility room (the size of a dining room), downstairs toilet, downstairs study and separate lounge plus hallway. We fill every inch...because we can! Still stuff everywhere and still find ourselves saying where shall we put this etc etc. It’s ridiculous! I often think how did families before us survive in these type houses before us without any extensions...answer: they did because they had to and they didn’t have as much cr@p as we have now. I for one was one of those children in one of these houses (I grew up here too) and we didn’t feel the need for separate toilets, study’s, utilities etc but still had a cracking upbringing! Sometimes we have to take a step back and ask what makes us need any more than families did 20 years ago. It is all nice-to-haves. My opinion only and guilty as charged x

Do you watch a lot of mum bloggers on YouTube etc? It can seem like everyone else has a huge house OP which I think can add to low self esteem about your own house which leads you to feel frustrated and jealous. We have a smaller house and sometimes I long for more space but I remind myself that we can easily pay the mortgage in any circumstance and that it is quick to clean! I try to focus on the bits I love about it. I think a lot of families (not on mumsnet!!) live in 3 bed semis, it’s pretty average. Can you extend at all?

@millionaireshortie

clevercloset.co.uk/

They are called smart storage in Ireland and they're great for space saving under the stairs.

@pumpkinpie01

Take it you don't have a garage op ?

No. If only!

A 3 bed semi for 4 people is relatively average isn't it?

Here's a pic of our hallway with smart storage, vacuum, steam mop, coats etc gets chucked in the double doors. Shoes, books, toys that I haven't been able to declutter go in the drawers. As you can see we've got nothing apart from plants (can't see the plants) in the hallway

@Smallsteps88

Personally for me I would find it too small for any more than 1 child.

You can’t serious?

🤣🤣🤣🤣

We don't have a halfway, just a small lobby straight into the front room. We have this in the lobby www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/mackapaer-coat-rack-with-shoe-storage-unit-white-30334752/

and rather than leaving shoes on the shelves I have these www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/skubb-shoe-box-white-90186391/ 6 along the bottom and 6 stacked on the top. You can get more than one pair of kids and women's shoes in these, I also shove hats gloves and scarves In the boxes on the top shelf. The coat rack is a bit tardis like, currently I have 3 fleece, a hoody a Pac a Mac and winter coat on there, dh has 3 fleece and a winter coat and ds (16) has a couple of fleece and 2 big coats! A lot of stuff but all tidy and together!

We moved from a large 4 double bed semi with a huge kitchen, garage and garden office as well as a massive loft to a thin 3 bed townhouse with no loft and only one under stairs cupboard. I must have done 10 tip runs and 10 bags to charity plus had the council come to take big items I could not fit in my car. Under the stairs I fitted a U shaped rail as high up as possible that I hang my shorter coats on hangers from. DS’ coats are on the back of the door. I got a bookcase off freecycle and that goes against the taller wall under there with all the shoes on (plus it has Ikea shelf maximisers on there for double stacking). Boxes with hats and scarves and cleaning things on the bottom shelf. Miele and mop bucket and two big wicker baskets with sports things, DIY things shoved under the lowest stair I can. Shopping bags on hooks from “ceiling” of cupboard. Back of downstairs toilet door also has hooks for school bags midway and an over door multi hook for my longer coats. TV is on a cabinet that houses all my paperwork and things like placemats and table linen. Kitchen was de cluttered within an inch of its life when we moved here and is ruthlessly maintained with only the jar of stirring spoons, toaster and kettle on the surfaces. Shelves in the kitchen for Kilner jar dry food storage and cups hang from hooks under the shelf. Kallax x 3 in DS’ playroom plus steamer trunk that doubles as a coffee table. His bedroom has wardrobe and drawers that are regularly cleared out when he grows out of things plus more hooks on backs of doors for ski clobber and hoodies etc. My room has a gigantic triple wardrobe almost to the ceiling. Suitcases and camping stuff and Christmas decorations are in the cupboard where the water tank is on high shelves. Shed has bikes, decorating stuff, garden toys, gardening stuff and step ladder. SUP is deflated and under my bed, paddles in the shed! It’s a huge logistical effort to stay on top of things as the house looks so messy as it’s so small if even a few things are not where they should be.

@millionaireshortie I'm in a 3 bed (but do have loft conversion).

My kids are almost the same ages as yours, it's not you, it's not the house, it's not the storage, it is the kids 🤣 and also the husband in my case.

In my porch, I have a shoe rack, 2 of them actually, and yet they use the hallway to keep shoeshh, a coat rack, they use the chairs in dining room, toy storage in hallway, they use the floor - every available part of it.

Wardrobes with lots of storage, yet clothes make their way to the bed, the. desk chair, and dresser, as well as their favourite place - the floor.

My dinning room table is used for anything other than eating, my sideboard a dumping ground for all matter of bits, the photo frame and plant on it is always buried under a mass of clutter.

I've good kids on the whole but they are messy little things. If I'm at home with them all day I spend most of it saying "put that back where it be belongs"

Sorry about the rant, but I completely understand, also we are bombarded with insta houses, perfect homes etc and yet reality is usually very far from that!

I've been trying to get my 3 bed sorted since my second child was born,he's five now and I've still not achieved it. A mid sleeper from IKEA has helped in his small room, as he can store toys underneath and play under it too.