My apartment is small and no matter how much I like it sometimes living on such a small space causes problems. I do manage though and I thought I’d share a few tips on how to do so. It’s all about using the space you have wisely.

1: Less Is More. It’s really easy to clutter up a small home since what’s actually not that much stuff tend to look like a whole lot more than it actually is when placed in a small space. What makes it work for me is one simple rule: when something goes in something else goes out. That way of thinking is also a money saver since requiring to throw something old out when buying something new really makes you think twice before spending money on stuff for your home.

2: Buy furniture with a function. Not something which just looks pretty. What’s better, a cute small table on which you can place a vase or a book case for all your movies? Obviously the latter. And speaking of furniture with a function let’s move on to…

3. Two in one furniture. This is furniture that can be used in more ways than one. Take this furniture arrangement for example. The couch is actually a couch bed which can be made into a 150 cm wide bed. Huge space saver there. Really great since I don’t have the space for both a bed and a couch. The long part of the couch can be opened and in there I store my bedding during day and couch pillows during night.The white chest is another piece of furniture in which I can store things.

Another example of a two in one pice of furniture is this foot stool in the hallway. Not only can it be sat on (or laid on if you’re a cat) but it can also be opened and used for storage.

4. Use the walls. Either by using furniture which goes all the way (or almost all the way) up to the ceiling or by putting up shelves on the walls. The wall shelves in my living room are placed high up close to the ceiling thus not cluttering up the wall too much.

The book case is pretty much as tall as it gets using most of that walls space. Had it been lower a lot of space would have been lost.

5. Keep it colour coordinated. The more colours your home has the more cluttered it will look. Even the most minimalistic home can look cluttered if every colour of the rainbow is used. You don’t have to decorate in black and white but try to keep it down to a maximum of three colours.

Got any tips of your own? I’m always interested in finding new ways to make my home appear bigger.