Growing Kids, Shrinking Space

They grow up so fast, don’t they? One minute, they’re a tiny bundle swaddled in your arms, the next they’re looking you dead in the eye. And then they start having kids of their own. The bigger they get, the more things they seem to accumulate, but when you live in a small house or apartment, space for all that stuff is hard to come by. If your children are starting to outgrow your home but you can’t afford to get something bigger, these space-saving tips will come in handy.

Put Sentimentals in Storage

Do you or your children have things around the house that you don't particularly use, but they still have some sort of meaning to you? Sentimental valuables like stuffed animals, baby blankets, bedroom sets, and whatever else you have can be nice to keep, but can you really justify taking up your valuable space with stuff you don't really use anymore? You can place all these things, and other items around the place that you’re not using, into storage. You’ll want to find a facility close to you so you can have access to your things when you want them. So, if you live in Hackettstown you’d search for storage hackettstown nj to find the best service providers near you. Only costing a few bucks per month, a storage unit will clear up some much-needed space for your family.

Sell or Donate the Things You No Longer Use

Kids outgrow clothing, grow tired of toys, and move on to other interests. If things are no longer being worn or used, there is no reason that they should continue to take up room that you need for the things you actually use. Put the sentimental things into storage, but get rid of all the rest. Whether you list things on eBay, Craigslist, or Facebook or donate to your local Goodwill or other second-hand store, you can be happy knowing that someone else can get some use out of the things your family no longer needs.

Buy Dual-Purpose Furniture

When you live in a small space you have to be creative with it. As you’re shopping for furniture, try to find items that can serve more than one purpose to conserve space. For instance, if you needed an additional bedroom, you could invest in a futon couch for the living room so it serves as a social area during the day and a bedroom at night. Other options might include an ottoman that doubles as storage for books, or a trundle bed which has dresser drawers, or an additional bed underneath. We just visited IKEA for the first time since they opened a new one near here, and they have lots of creative options for small spaces.

Invest in Wall Shelves and Units

When it comes to limited floor space the best thing you can do is invest in wall shelves and other wall units. For instance, putting a flat screen television on the wall eliminates the need for a large clunky entertainment center. Wall shelves are great for aesthetics and storage of everything from knick-knacks and home decor to books and toys.

If the size of your home or apartment suddenly stops being enough space for you and your family to live comfortably, these tips can help to free up some room to accommodate everyone. While eventually you may need to upgrade and relocate, for now, you can live comfortably knowing everything has a place. (now if you can just get the kids to put things away when they're done using them...)

The Best Storage Option

I thought it was awesome when my Dad bought a boat. What I didn’t realize was that he would have nowhere to park it.  So it sat and sat until it killed some grass.  The thing also got covered with leaves in the fall.  Then he decided that it needed a place to live permanently.  So we did some research into how he could store it.

Self Storage
The first idea we investigated was a self-storage unit, but those are really expensive.  Plus you don’t have ready access to your boat. Say it's a nice day, and Dad wants to go out on the lake and take my kids with him. That’s a win-win for me, but first he has to go and pick the boat up at the storage place, and by then the kids are cranky and tired of waiting.  Paying a monthly fee for someone to keep your boat locked up just doesn’t make sense.

New Garage
Then we looked into building onto his house.  This was his idea not mine. I already knew I couldn’t afford it, and I doubted that he could. Sure enough, the quotes he got for building a new garage were over $20,000.  He could buy another boat for that! What’s more, there would be a lot of turmoil during the process. A foundation would have to be dug. Heavy equipment would run all over the yard.  I saw that happen with a renovation a few years ago at a neighbor’s house. In the end, they spent another $1,000 just to reseed and replant their yard.   

Free-standing Carport
So then we looked into getting a free-standing carport.  I was surprised that a metal carport was such an affordable option.  It wouldn’t disturb the yard or require much in the way of installation.  Sure enough, Dad went for it.  The new carport was installed quickly. Mom was happy because it was a no-mess, no-fuss solution. Dad was very happy because it cost a tiny fraction of what a garage would have cost, and it protects his boat. This seems like a good option for cars and campers, too. You protect your investment from the worst of the weather, but you don't spend a fortune doing it.

Disclaimer: This is a guest post. My dad did not buy a boat, though it would be cool if he did. He did build a carport, though.

Top Benefits Of Using Full-Service Storage Solutions

Long gone are the days when you have to load up all of your belongings and transport them to your new home or to a storage facility yourself. These days, you have many storage options available at your disposal and one of them is storage pickup service Boston MA (the reputable company found at www.ondemandstorage.com). While there are many advantages to using storage solutions of all kinds, here are some of the top benefits of using a storage company that will pick up your stuff for you.

No Renting Trucks - It can be time consuming and expensive to have to rent a moving truck. Not many people enjoy having to load and unload the truck, and it can also be tricky to try and drive that huge truck in traffic. When you hire a storage service with pickup included, they will come to you, get your stuff, and transport it for you. There is no need to worry about renting or driving any moving trucks.

No Heavy Lifting - With storage solutions that offer pickup services, you don't have to worry about doing any heavy lifting. You have enough to deal with when you are moving or storing your belongings. Full-service storage companies will come to you, pack and load up all of your stuff, and then transport it to their storage facility until you need it again.

Return Items - When you use a traditional storage unit, you have to pack up your belongings and take them to the unit yourself. Additionally, when you want to remove your belongings, you have to go pack them up again and transport everything. When you use a full-service storage solutions company, they will not only pack and transport your belongings to the storage facility, they will also bring your stuff back to you when you are ready. There is no need to make the trip to the storage facility to pick up your stuff. The company will bring it to you wherever you need it.

Moving or trying to store your belongings doesn't have to be difficult anymore. Using full-service and on-demand storage services can take away a lot of the stress involved with moving. It couldn't be easier to get your belongings packed and stored away so that you can have extra time and energy to take care of other important things.

Leave all of the work to the professionals.

So Much Stuff

I finally got the laundry done!  Washed, dried, folded, put away - except for the dresses hung in the basement because I didn't want to put them through the dryer and except for the shirts that need to be ironed.  But, for now, I'm done, and I took some time today to start going through stuff in the back room.

The thing with having room for storage in the basement is that we tend to accumulate a lot of stuff.  And we don't want to move any of that stuff that we don't really need, if we don't have to.  That means we need to go through things and sort, toss, donate, and decide what things we really want to keep - hopefully a small fraction of everything we have.  One day of going through boxes, and I'm already thinking it would be easier just to call junk removal edmonton, and have everything hauled away!


Of course, if you know me at all, you know I could never do that.  I need to take the time to actually go through everything, so I can remember what we have and decide whether I want to keep it or not.  I go through old magazines and pull out recipes I want to try and articles I want to read.  I hold onto books I want to read someday.  I hold onto old clothes I haven't worn in years, because I try them on, and they still fit - and I forgot how much I liked them.   I hold onto old notebooks from my high school and college days, because you never know when I might need to refer to all those notes I took!  (Yeah, I think it's time to toss those - better get to that box before I change my mind!)

It really would be easier to get rid of stuff if I didn't take the time to look at it first...

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• Three Weeks' Worth

Purge, Purge, Purge

The fact that we're going to have three more people living here - and two cats - means that we need to get rid of all the extra stuff we have around here, otherwise there's not going to be any room for Beth and Tim and Jason and all their stuff.  It's amazing how much stuff collects when you live in the same place for 13 years! 

We have a fairly nice-sized storage room in the basement.  Jeffrey built shelves to hold everything, and we started organizing everything.  We figured if we boxed everything up, clearly labeled them, and stored them on the shelves, we could keep the stuff we wanted and always be able to find whatever we need.  The only problem is we never finished organizing, and the kids kept boxing stuff up and throwing it back there whenever they wanted to get stuff out of their rooms.  Pretty soon it was practically impossible to move around back there, let alone find anything.

So, everybody has been going through all their stuff and getting rid of all the extra stuff we don't need.  I'm mostly guilty of  holding onto magazines, waiting to have time to actually look through them before I toss them in the recycle.  I've tossed quite a few in the last couple months, but I have more.  Somebody remind me that no matter how many dealfun.com reviews I might see that offer impossible to pass up magazine discounts - I need to pass them up!  3 years of a really great magazine for 50¢?  Nope, gotta pass!  (OK, maybe they never offer quite that good a deal, but you get my point!)

The kids had stuffed animals, partially used notebooks from school, old toys, and all kinds of junk, so they both went through everything and neatly boxed up the stuff they want to keep, threw a bunch of stuff into the trash and recycle, and set aside even more stuff to donate to Goodwill.  It took several trips to get all the stuff hauled up to Goodwill, but it's out of here now.  It also took several weeks to get all the trash and recycling out.  Most of the time we put our trash out every other week because we just don't have that much trash, but for a while there we were filling the toter every week and putting out extra paper and cardboard for recycling, until we got it all out of here.

Now, if we can just keep from collecting more...

Too Much Stuff

How do we manage to collect so much stuff? Besides the obvious - that we buy stuff and don't get rid of the stuff we already have. Luckily we have a basement, so we have room for all this stuff. But then again, maybe that's not so good because now we have no incentive to throw some of it away, or donate it to Goodwill or someone who can use it.

If we didn't have the basement, and we still didn't want to get rid of stuff, we'd have to find something like this wilmington nc self storage - Extra Attic. If you don't have enough room in your house for all the stuff, you can rent storage space there. They have a really handy storage guide to help figure out how much storage space you actually need and also some helpful tips on packing and preparing your items for storage. Extra Attic offers a secure, clean, and affordable solution to extra storage dilemmas. Plus - they have weathered all hurricanes without any leaks or water damage. After being in Florida following a hurricane, I've seen how important that can be!