Living in Small Spaces

My house is on the smaller side. I am not complaining. I love my house! It is perfect for my family. And I do realize there are people with more children living in smaller spaces. However, as Americans we tend to "collect" a lot of stuff! (And when you have grandparents who think the bigger the better this makes things a little harder!) Due to having little storage My husband and I are constantly going through clothes and toys to donate or sell. Thankfully my husband is a master organizer. Shocking I know! Usually the wife is the clean, organized one. Not in this house. He wins that prize. All of what I am going to share with you is from his fantastic brain!
Due to having little amounts of storage we have learned to maximize room in closets, under beds, in bedrooms and in every nook and cranny you can think of. Today I am going to give you a peek into my sons room. This is his closet:

As you can tell we have loaded tubs with toys from floor to clothes. This helps with a few things. He can see all his toys and get to them easily. He knows he is only aloud to have one tote out at a time. Things stay organized and don't get lost. We are able to store a lot of stuff.
There are also smaller totes on top of the shelf above his clothes. My daughters closet and my closet look very similar to this. Now, I know what you are thinking. Those totes can be expensive. Yes, yes this is true. If you noticed, Broderick's all have red lids. This is because we bought them after Christmas a discount price of $4.24! That is like half off! Look after Halloween and Christmas for deals on them. They may be black, orange, red or green, but they are going in a closet for goodness sakes.

This is my Broderick's "dresser." His room is an army theme (still deciding on paint for the walls) so we thought this was a great look for his room. And guess what...more storage!

The fabric bins for the most part have clothes in them. There are a few with books, hats and misc. things. The buckets are full of...you guessed it...TOYS! and the long tote at the bottom is all guns and swords. The great thing about this is, I can rotate the toys in the closet with the toys in the buckets for better accessibility! This was not one of the cheapest things we have purchased, but it can be used for many things down the road. The shelf can be put in the garage, the fabric bins could be moved multiply places and the buckets...well, what can't you use a bucket for?

Due to the house being on the smaller side you can only imagine the room sizes. (Broderick's is actually the biggest of the 2 kids rooms.) We do have a tiny, very tiny, play room. But for the most part the kids rooms are also their play rooms. To maximize floor space we bought them both loft beds. This was probably one of the best discisions we made when it comes to their rooms. They love it first of all! And I love how much floor space they gained.

Broderick has a desk for playing Legos, coloring, doing school work, or collecting more stuff! (Which is usually what happens!) And look...we hid more tubs! Are you surprised! These can also be changed out with the smaller tubs in his closet. The bucket is also a great thing! Right now it is filled with G.I Joes, but for future it can be a laundry hamper or other things.

That is what works for me. I hope it helps you too!