How can my husband and I declutter a 900 sq ft apartment that's clearly too small for us?

Question

We are a childless couple and live in a small apartment. It's a 2 bedroom apartment with an open concept living room/dining room and a small kitchen. I study from home and my husband works from home, so we've managed to cram 2 computers in our place, and a whole bunch of my husband's other stuff. Since he started working from home, he had to empty his office and all of his office stuff came home. We've already filled up our storage locker, his office (that's the second bedroom) and there's even stuff in the living room. We don't know what to do. Ideally, we feel like we definitely need to move in a house, because once we have kids, we're going to have to. But, in the meantime, what should we do? I'm thinking maybe rent a public storage space, because I think we definitely need one.

Answer 1

Get boxes or plastic storage bins. Mark them keep, pitch, store, and donate. If you can do this, it will help. If time to do it is a problem, work on it for one hour per day. At the end of the week, you have spent 7 hours on it.
If it is in your bedroom, clean one draw per day. Kitchen- one cabinet per day.
At the end of all of this, you will know if you need to rent some storage. You will also be able to tell what size.

Answer 2

I bet a lot of the "stuff" is junk just collecting dust. Am I right?
Here is what you do.
Organize everything so it's against the wall. The more open space you have in the center of a room, the bigger it will feel. Push the couch, TV, entertainments, etc, against the wall. Make sure that when you step into your apartment, you don't have to maneuver around anything to get to where you want to go (ie can walk a straight line the hallway, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, etc depending on the floorplan and if it's feasible).
In the office, put the desk against the wall and in the corner if possible. If there is a file cabinet, try to put it in the closet. When putting a second computer in the office, put it on the opposite wall and/or corner. Buy a bookshelf as a means of storage.

If something is going into long-term storage, evaluate if you really need it or not. I understand seasonal items (Christmas decorations, etc) but don't keep something just because you "might" use it again. Sell it or donate it.

In a nutshell, get everything out of the middle of the room. No coffee tables, you shouldn't see the back of the couch, move the office desk, and invest in side tables.

Answer 3

I would rent a storage place or rent out a new apartment....If you have enough money, I suggest a real home, cause that's the only way you'll have all of your stuff with you and at the same time have enough room to actually LIVE. But if you don't have much money, renting a storage space is the way to go for now.

Answer 4

I would look at getting another place ( house ). With all the foreclosures lately...there are a lot of low cost homes on the market. You can bid as low as 80% of the asking price and get some deals. I bought a 1200 sq ft brick home for less than $500 a month.

If you live in the USA.....

Go to >>> www.hud.gov <<< on the left side of page you'll find buying homes....click on it and go to the area for your state...and city. You can check out the homes listed and then drive by to see what the neighborhood looks like. The houses are usually in need of painting and minor repairs and new carpet...usually less than $5000 in remodel cost.

Answer 5

I can sympathize: My husband and I are both packrats, and we have less space to work with.

Yes, go ahead and rent a storage space. Get everything out of the house that you don't use. Invest in shelves: That will help with the clutter. Also, get plastic totes that you can use to store stuff under the furniture. Sort your apartment out one room at a time so it won't be so overwhelming.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Years ago I lived for awhile in an apartment in San Francisco that was just about that size. It's not unusual by the standards of that city, where everything is sort of miniature size. The place I had was sensibly designed, with a little tiny bath and a little tiny kitchen and the rest of the space was an adequately sized living room with a Murphy bed that folded out of the wall. It was on Nob Hill with very nice views of the city. I loved it.

Answer 7

Yes, be ruthless with culling & donating everything you haven't used in the past 3-4 years. Develop sorting system & STICK to it! I have to have visual clues or CLEAR plastic tubs so I can see what's in them at-a-glance. Color coding is a nice idea, but my stuff changes constantly, so it's impossible to stick with a color-coding system.

Try to go UP to the ceiling instead of OUT into your living space with your storage! Devote a section of wall to a new shelving system all the way to the ceiling. To hide it or make it compliment your decor, install a rod across the front of the shelves nears the ceiling and hang a huge curtain or piece of fabric on it to pull across your storage area when not in use.

It will only take 3-4 feet of your actual living/walking floorspace but holds scads of junk!

Answer 8

Go through the items that you don't really need and have a garage sale. Items that do no sell could be donated to charity. You soon find that you can get along without to much "stuff".

Answer 9

Get garbage bins, throw out a lot. Be decisive on getting rid of stuff, organize, get shelves and use vertical space.

Answer 10

Both you and your husband Throw away nine things a day for 9 days