Space Saver Tips

Do you think you need more space?
 We have 6 people living in our house and our house isn't tiny, but there isn't much storage space. It's a constant challenge to keep it uncluttered. 
I read a little tip awhile back that has helped me. And that tip is simply to make the most of the space you have. Make sure you are  using the space you have well. 
For example, make sure there is nothing taking up space that doesn't need to be there. Like rubbish or things you never use anymore and probably never will. Like 20 pairs of booties when your babies have never used booties!!
Look to see if anything can be hung up, stored in a drawer, stored on a shelf or on the floor.
This week I realized how much free space I had in my wardrobe which could be used to hang things up. So I got a pile of coat hangers from the second hand shop and hung up all my tops, jerseys and singlets. I now have three spare drawers in my room and I've found I enjoy wearing clothes more when they are hanging up rather than folded up in a drawer! :)

Another way of storage that works well in our house is drawstring bags. For a while our children went through a stage of dumping all their toys, blocks etc. on the floor. And the nightmare of the day was to try and make them sort everything out and put them back away. Then I tried making material drawstring bags, and using one for cars, one for trains, one for little animals and so on. I hung them up in the cupboard with coat hangers and the children can usually only have one bag out a time. When its time to tidy them up, they put them into a big bowl or small storage container and I then tip them into the bag. This way of storing toys has made a world of difference for us!

I have also made drawstring bags to store clothes in. Storage containers didn't fit well in the space I had, but bags worked much better--they can be squeezed to fit. So I made a bag for newborn clothes and so on. For material to make the bags, I picked up sheets, duvet covers etc. for a few dollars at the opp shop.

For kids books, I used to use a big storage container. But the books got ruined very quickly and it was hard to find the book you were looking for. My five year old started putting some of the books in a smaller container with all the books standing up and I realized how much better that worked!!

Snaplock bags can come in handy too, for card games, puzzles with broken boxes etc.