All of us are really small space lovers. While McMansions rule the suburbs, and those with means build estates and ranches, us city folk, aspire to the perfect perch.
Why? Because we are drawn the warmth and buzz of urban life.
We are cliff dwellers. We aspire to a nest on Fifth Avenue just like Lola and Pale Male. We long to be close to one another and feel the rhythm of the streets. We want to be right on top of it all, close to our friends, near the energy. If anything, we want a view, we want sunlight and we want location, location, location. Space, we are willing to give away.
But because perches are short on space we are all both high and low - forced to be creative when building our nests. Here then, is our starter list for our fellow cliff dwellers. Feel free to add your own.
Ten Tips for Small Spaces
1. Remove your interior doors (use curtains instead on closets and doors).
2. Replace your big refrigerator with a smaller, undercounter model. Its more than enough room.
3. Treat yourself to a really good small vacuum (we heart Meile).
4. Use track lighting aimed at walls to free up floor space and create an expansive feeling.
5. Install lighting inside closets so you can see whats in there. They will be easier to maintain and you will gain the feeling of more space.
6. Clean your windows often so that more light comes in and your gaze is not blocked.
7. Buy really good cookware, tableware and linens (small luxuries go a long way).
8. Go wireless and transfer all your music to your computer. Sell all your CDs!
9. Use full spectrum light bulbs to energize and enliven your home.
10. Have lots of dinner parties. People socialize better in small spaces and social homes are better kept up.
Amazing for small spaces www.wiederusa.com
You know, I'd love to free up the space that cd's take. But i'm a bit old fashioned around cd's. I love having the tangible disc. I mean, what if something happened to the computer? Or you lose the mp3 player? I know: that's what back up is for. Still. Sometimes I like to read the liner notes and I haven't seen that as a download. Anyone with me on this?
I disagree with about half of these. When will people learn that an MP3 is just nowhere near CD-quality?
I do like a light in my closet, although I'll keep the door.
Chae/Julianna -- uh, I still have a rack of LP's!!!!!
Where do you put your closet doors when you remove them? Ours would have to go in the closets, thus taking up precious space. :-)
Sound quality on a laptop computer is dreadful. It's fine for frivolity like pandora.com, but not for anything nuanced. (One *does* use a laptop with one's wireless network, yes? You can put a lot of CDs in the space of a desktop tower.)
I'm a fan of white and off-white walls. For those of you of a similar bent, replace those dingy beige electrical outlets and switches with spanking white ones. Very cheap (don't electrocute yourself) and a very satisfying feeling of an uninterrupted clean white expanse.
(This is especially satisfying to do in a rental.)
But Julianna, this isn't about sound quality. It isn't even about listening to music. It's about aural wallpaper for dinner parties. In that case, MP3s do just fine.
I'm with most of these ideas. I'm always surprised by what a nice difference cleaning my windows makes.
Put your CDs and liner notes in a big binder and give away the boxes.
I agree with maribeth - That's what i did.
And what do you do when all the odors from that cooking you're doing on that really good cookware wafts through your small space and locks onto your curtained doorways and the clothes inside your closets? More laundry?
I heart my solid wood bedroom and closet doors.
But totally agree with the socializing, the investing in good stuff and full spectrum lighting.
regards,
trillium
Ditto - we're getting a few binders for our cds....click my name for a pretty cool one I found at Target.
5. Install lighting inside closets so you can see whats in there.
Black goes with black so I'm covered (literally).
The tip on this list that I can totally get behind is the one about entertaining. It IS a great way to keep the house clean.
Music on the 'puter certainly needs to be backed up. I just keep the cds, and buy online if there's only one song I want.
The main complaint I have with my freezer on top frig is that I have to bend down so far to see what's in the frig. An under the counter frig would not solve the problem. I want a freezer on the bottom frig and a narrow one (24") would free up some space. Um, note to self - print more money.
Anne, our freezer-on-bottom refrigerator was the one thing I regretted leaving when we sold our house back East. Squatting to get basic stuff out of the refrigerator depresses me, though I suppose it's good for my leg muscles.
General comment: Having used an under-counter-sized fridge while we were rehabbing the kitchen back East... you have to really NOT be into groceries to make one work. One moment of passion in the condiment aisle, and you can forget having space for leftover pizza.
A question about light bulbs:
Do you suggest mixing up full spectrum bulbs with regular soft white ones? I currently have an open apartment layout and have full spectrum in the desk area, bathroom, and at the dining table. In the kitchen i have halogen lights on a track that i just love but i can't quite figure out what light bulb to use in the living room area. (This is an open space so all of the above mentioned lights can be seen at once if they were on)
The light is a Tolomeo Mega floor lamp and I've tried full spectrum and found it to be too dim. The light can take up to 150 watt and has a built-in dimmer which poses another problem, when I dim the light, it makes a slight humming sound that drives me crazy! I just put a regular old soft white bulb in last night and that improved the light situation but the humming noise is still there when I dim the light. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks so much,
Christina
this is so weird. i have a tolomeo mega floor lamp that buzzed weirdly and annoys me too. and we have the same name!
sadly, the tolomeo suddenly shorted out. It's less than a year old and i bought it from artemide. does anyone think they'll replace it?
Maxwell:
Less than two weeks until your book is out. When do we get to hear about your tour dates? And if you are not planning on coming to DC, won't you let some of us DC post-ers (um, guess I am volunteering a few people without asking) arrange something???
And doesn't everyone love it that the book already has five stars on Amazon.com? All preview readers, of course.
Anne and Wende,
I really debated the undercounter fridge thing too cuz my kitchen is a closet, really. But when it came down to it, I'm a notorious bachelorette and need frozen foods or I'd die. So I went w/ the LG 24" bottom freezer and love it. Counter space be dammned, I need a real fridge.
Christi,
Weird indeed, I think the lamp has a limited one-year warranty if i remember correctly, so you might be able to return it or have it serviced. I bought it as a reading lamp for the living room and while i LOVE LOVE LOVE the design, the buzzing noise makes me cringe!!
Burning candles in the kitchen will help with cooking odors. I think there are varieties for this and for tobacco odors.
i bought full spectrum lights for a lamp in my kitchen, i use lamps on the counters instead of turning on the ceiling light. the bulbs cast a clean light, but the living room is incandesent on demmers it's a warm homey glow.
forgot to mention, i had put all my cds in books and now all my music is in the computer and ipod,great way to save space. another spacesaver flatscreen tv on the wall or projector for wall viewing.this eliminates the boxy tube tv and the overwhelming media cabinet.
I second #2! You have to be brave to junk your old fridge and get an undercounter one, but it's worked just fine for me. It's a tight fit the day after a trip to Costco, but it's not like I keep more than that in the fridge most of the time -- how much do you really eat and drink in a week? Plus, I gave the old fridge to my super, who used it to replace his ancient one.
Sadly, my windows are completely blocked by an AC unit and security bars...
I too got rid of all my cd cases, and I've regretted it several times since. I had ripped all the songs I love from ALL my cds into the computer and moved the cds themselves to binders (in case I realized later on that I really did love some song I hadn't ripped). But nearly two years later, I've opened those binders MAYBE half a dozen times... so I'm thinking it might be ok to sell the cds. Well, fat chance of that without the cases/liner notes!
My next space-freeing purchase will be the flat-screen tv. For sure!
Re: music--
You've got to hang on to the CDs in case of a hard drive crash. Rip them (to a lossless codec if you insist!) and store the discs somewhere out of the way. Get an Airport Express or a SoundBridge to play your tunes wirelessly. You can have both quality sound and the flexibility/freedom of digital music.
Another tip for iTunes Music Store buyers--back up your songs, because if you lose them you're out of luck!
Superb advice, indeed!
I don't have a lot of sympathy for the RIAA, but strictly speaking, it's illegal to keep digital copies of CDs you no longer own. It's no different than illegally downloading them. I've got all my CDs ripped to lossless, streamed over a Squeezebox, and the original discs tucked safely away in storage.
I second (third? fourth?) the purging of CD cases. Last year I bought 3 of Case Logic CDW-264 binders (click on my name for the link) and it was one of the best things I've done for the space in my bedroom! The great thing about these is that you can fit the liner notes in there, too.
Previously I had my cds on floor racks that seemed to hog all kinds of space and just collect dust. Now I keep the binders totally out of sight but within arms reach, under my bed. I have about 30 gigs of my music on my computer but I still go to the binders for stuff I don't have loaded on there. Love it!
Come on Scott!
When one pays for a CD, transfers it into an MP3 format on one's computer and then discards the plastic CD, it is DEFINITELY different than illegally downloading the music.
ok, i know the vast majority here are nyc and, it would appear, sans kiddos. so, i would just like to say that for those of us who cook, who freeze food we cook in advance, and who cook for toddlers and other picky eaters, the undercounter fridge is not going to work, no, not ever, unless there was room for 2 or 3. if you can't part with the cds, at least do the mix tapes (you know you still have some -- well, if you're over 30, you do). and good god, if i couldn't lock the toddler out of some of the closets, i'd be insane. everything else you mentioned: right on!
I agree with most of the list except #2. I am SO tired of stooping over to get inside my undercounter fridge. Give me a nice slender upright fridge, with a freezer larger than a shoebox. (Now that Trader Joe is comin' to NYC it's becoming imperative!) Counter space is a big benefit with separate undercounter fridge & freezer units, but my back will be happier with a tall skinny unit.
I just say find a professional organizer that specializes in this , and let them figure it all out, because I know most of us have alot of other things to throw away besides cds, which this article did not mention (hint, hint those old clothes,lol).
In the old days GE? made a refrigerator that hung flush with and was disguised as upper cabinets, so could actually see into it without stooping. WOuld be nice to see them come back.
The under counter fridge thing has always been controversial on AT not because different ppl have different needs (it goes without saying that a family of, say, four will need more fridge space than a single person for example) and they express these in disagreement but because the assumption by AT seems to be that such a situation could not exist in its readership.
Why else say that an undercounter fridge has more than enough room?
A lot of the other recommendations work in general (who could argue against cleaning your windows? or installing lighthing in your closets? as long as you have the funds and permission to do it) but determining how much fridge space anyone needs is far outside of the realm of the other decluttering generalities that we know.
Another example: Most people would agree that getthing rid of any clothes or shoes that you have not worn in the last year or so (maybe even 6 months) is good advice but telling someone to get rid of a larger fridge to replace it with a smaller one does not even allow for the assessment of needs that the purging of clothing and shoes necessarily entials.
Why is it prudent to assess needs when purging a closet but not when downsizing a fridge?
I could never give up my large fridge. I love being stocked up on food and you always need the space when you are throwing parties.
the thought of taking down doors and using curtains instead can easily go into the hippy look.
"When one pays for a CD, transfers it into an MP3 format on one's computer and then discards the plastic CD, it is DEFINITELY different than illegally downloading the music."
"Discards" as in destroy or throw away? That is legal. "Discards" as in sell to someone else? That is definitely illegal. I'm not commenting on the morality of it, but that is certainly a violation of copyright. It is exactly the same as selling (or buying) a copy of a CD. When you buy a CD, you are buying the right to listen to the music contained on it. You also have the right to make "fair use" copies- backups, transfers to different formats, etc. If you sell or give away the original, you no longer have the right to use those copies. Again, I make no comment on the morality or ethics of this, and the chance of you getting prosecuted for doing this is zero, but it is illegal.
Yes it could, but it could look modern, functional, and inviting:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/021605/competitions/bedroom-8-our-spacious-mini-room-or-simon-cowell-is-a-pussy-002061
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/realestate/19HABI.html?ex=1142744400&en=79c38b0e8eda6cda&ei=5070
Make sure you check out the side show half way down the page on the right.
Above post addressed to dani
thanks, jamie pup. i was coming back to the thread to ask how to do it right and an angel read my mind.
Thanks for the links jamie-pup.
Seeing Maxwell's take on curtains in the closet has had me reconsider the idea. I still have two 20 lb Maine Coon cats whose mission in life is "fur up Chae's clothes", so the not having a closet door to keep them out sounds, uh, dangerous. But I'll consider it!
Chae
I'm jealous of your maine coon cats. I love my Freeway, who is a sweet timid little calico and has been my loving constant companion for 15 years. But a year ago I went to a cat show and fell in love with the maine coons and the Norwegian forest cats. They are gorgeous and regal and just fabulous. I will probably never own one because eventually i will move in with my boyfriend and he already has two cats and thinks a new big cat like that will just freak everyone else out. sigh.
It's a good point about the fur. I never thought of it. probably should just stick to the closed door policy for your closet.
something my wife actually made me do, was throw away all the DVD cases and store the discs in a large CD style binder. Now we can store hundreds of movies on just one small shelf, rather than a whole bookcase.