How to Get Organized When You Live in a Small House

Learn how to get organized when you live in a small house with these simple organization tricks and ideas!

How to Get Organized When You Live in a Small House

I have lived in a lot of small spaces in my lifetime. During my first year of college, my dorm room was what they called a “converted triple,” meaning that it was actually made for two people, but they stuck three of us in there. Good thing I loved my roomies– it was close quarters!

Right after we got married, Donnie and I lived in the obligatory one bedroom apartment. It was just the two of us, so it wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely cozy to say the least!

By the time Connor was born, we were living in a teeny tiny two bedroom townhouse where we had to push our dining room table back into a corner to make way for a pack-n-play.

Currently, our family of four lives in a three bedroom townhouse, which is where we’ve been for nearly seven years now. SEVEN! Though we hadn’t planned on being here for that long, it has been fun to have the time to transform the space and truly make it ours.

I am so thankful for our home, but there have definitely been times where I have said, “We just need MORE ROOM!!” It’s kind of a tight squeeze with four of us, especially as the boys get older, but we have managed to make it work and we even all still love each other, so I feel like that’s a win! 🙂

After hearing from my readers, it seems like many of you are dealing with small spaces too, so I thought I would compile a list of some of my favorite small space living tips to share.

How to Get Organized When You Live in a Small House

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

1. Purge like crazy. Declutter often.

After years and years of organizing and re-organizing in different homes, I’ve often found that the small space isn’t necessarily the problem.

The problem is that I have too much stuff.

I know. It’s hard to let go of things sometimes because we think, “Well what if I need that someday…?”

I so hear you on this one. I confess: I held on to binders filled with my hand written notes from every college class for 7 years after I graduated. And I’m not even using my teaching degree!

But eventually I realized that I wanted a calm, peaceful, uncluttered house more than I wanted to have random notes lying around because I might need them “sometime.” And you know what? There hasn’t been one thing that I’ve thrown out while I was decluttering that I ended up absolutely needing later.

If you can push past that mental block of being afraid to throw things away, it is seriously so freeing once you’re done!

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

Decluttering our garage last summer… it had to get worse before it got better!

When I go about decluttering a space, I am absolutely ruthless. Since we don’t have a ton of space to work with, every inch has to be used well.

When we were in the midst of our kitchen reno, for example, I gathered up all of my kitchen items– gadgets, small appliances, plates, cups, utensils, everything– all in one place so I could see exactly what we had.

Once I had taken inventory, I got rid of items whose job could be done by something else. For example, I had held on to our George Foreman grill for years “just in case,” but I never pulled it out to use it. I always used the regular grill or our range to cook meat. It went.

I had a beautiful blender that I got for my wedding, but in 9 years of marriage we used it once because we have a Magic Bullet and use that to blend everything. I gave the blender to my milkshake-loving dad who was then able to throw out the old, worn-out blender that he had gotten for HIS wedding over 30 years ago.

I had a ton of little gadgets that I never used and was able to get rid of. Sure, there were times I thought, “But what if I need this later?” But I haven’t needed any of the items I purged, and my kitchen is organized and clutter free. Yay!

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

I’ve had people ask what I do with the stuff that I get rid of while I’m decluttering. Anything that’s broken, worn out, or unable to be used by someone else gets thrown away or recycled if possible.

I have done garage sales before and sometimes sell items that are worth a decent amount on Craigslist. We donate some things to our local Goodwill. I try to do a major purge before our church’s annual garage sale and donate a bunch of stuff to them. If I’m waiting to sell or donate items, I keep them in a spot in the garage, but I try to only keep them there for a week at the most. Otherwise I’m just creating a new pile of clutter.

Very occasionally I will have an item (like the blender mentioned above) that I know someone else could use, but for the most part I try not to pass on my clutter to my extended family! 🙂

Bottom line: The best way to keep a small space (or any space for that matter!) organized is by decluttering like crazy and only keeping what’s really important! Purge, purge, and purge some more!

2. Separate rooms into zones.

Often times in a small space, one room has to serve many purposes. Rather than just throwing everything together, I like to create “zones” within the room to separate the spaces, define their function, and make it easier to keep them organized.

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

the living room and dining room “zones” of our main living space

For example, our main living space is actually one big room, so we divided it up, using part as the dining room, part as the hanging out/TV watching space, and part as the Cs’ toy area.

Would I love to have a dedicated room for the Cs’ toys (preferably with a door I could shut!)? Of course. But that’s just not an option in our current house, so we make the “zone” setup work.

There are perks to it too– since there is just one main living space, we all tend to spend our free time together rather than breaking off into different rooms. Family bonding!

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

the toy “zone” of our main living space

Maybe you don’t have space to designate a full side of a room to a separate function. My friend Chelsea from Making Home Base was able to create a toy zone for her daughters’ stuff out of a little corner in the room. 

Donnie and I definitely didn’t have room for an office in our first little one bedroom apartment, so we put a secretary desk in one corner. It worked perfectly because we could have a work zone when we needed it and close it up when we weren’t using it so that it didn’t take up much space at all.

Rolling carts are another great way to create a little “zone.” They’re small, can hold a decent amount, and can be easily moved out of the way when you’re not using them. (One of my favorite carts is the IKEA RASKOG.)

3. Maximize closet space.

This is something we’ve worked at like crazy in our current house that doesn’t have much storage. We’ve recently started putting closet systems in to really maximize the space (you can see how we’ve done that in our pantry, bedroom, and my craft room), but even if a permanent closet system isn’t an option for you, there are still ways to make the very most of the space you have.

The Cs share a room, and space is tight. In order to fit two dressers into their room, I was able to put one in the closet, and it fit perfectly underneath their clothes, making use of otherwise wasted space.

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

Before we turned our entry closet into a permanent pantry, I put an inexpensive shelf in there to hold items that our former minuscule pantry couldn’t handle.

Our old neighbors’ entry closet in their townhouse was right next to their living room, so they put a small cube unit at the bottom to store their kids’ toys. If you have a lot of empty space at the bottom of a closet, there is probably something you can put in there to utilize the space to its fullest potential!

4. Look for ways to use space creatively.

Just because the house “says” a room is supposed to serve one function doesn’t mean that it has to serve that certain function. We have an 8′ x 8′ space in our basement that was intended for storage, but since we’ve purged and can fit all of our stored items in the garage, we’ve been able to use that space for other purposes.

Before Caleb was born, I used it as a workout area. I had a small TV and DVD player to put on my workouts, and there was room for my weights, bands, mats, etc., plus just enough space to do the actual exercising.

When Caleb was born and had his own room at first, we moved Donnie’s office into that little basement space. It’s not gorgeous or glamorous, but it creates a “room” that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

In our current house we also swapped our entry closet with our pantry, giving us a much-needed larger pantry space and a mini “mudroom” so we could still hang coats.

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

our front entry closet-turned-pantry

5. Get items off the floor.

When I asked Donnie (who is actually WAY more organized than I am) what his favorite small space living tip would be, he immediately said, “Don’t put stuff on the floor.” Of course we put furniture or rugs on the floor, but what he meant was to not use the floor as storage space whenever possible.

This was definitely true with the Cs’ toy space. We used to keep all of their big toys in the corner on the floor, but it soon became a dumping ground and looked messy all the time. After some purging (see tip #1!), we brought in some inexpensive shelving units to hold the big toys, and the area feels so much less cluttered!

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

Our master closet also became way more organized when we were able to get our shoes off the floor. In our previous rental home where we couldn’t install a closet system, we used super cheap pantry bins from WalMart (similar to these) to hold our shoes and keep them organized rather than having a free-for-all all over the closet floor.

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

We’ve used the IKEA ALGOT system (now called BOAXEL) to organize 3 closets in our home, and we love it!

Not only does having the floor clear help to tame the clutter, it also makes it easier to sweep, vacuum, etc. because you don’t have to move a bunch of items every time you need to clean.

6. Utilize vertical space.

This is probably an obvious one, but when you are constrained by small rooms and can’t go “out,” go up! We especially do this in the Cs’ room with bunk beds, a vertical shelving unit for toys, and even a vertical arts and crafts corner.

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

We also tried to use as much vertical space as possible on the storage wall in my office, bringing in book cases and mounting a pegboard on the wall to hold craft supplies. It’s pretty too and doubles as decoration! Win! 🙂

Fantastic tips and tricks for getting organized when you live in a small space! Click through to the post, and get ready to organize your life!

7. Be very choosy about what you allow to come into your house.

This one is so key. I know it’s easy to walk down the aisles at Target and want every single thing. I’ve totally been there {like at least twice a week 😉 }. I know well-meaning friends and family members will offer you really cool stuff that is hard to refuse.

I know your kids (or your significant other!) will want all of those awesome toys and gizmos that you don’t have space for. It’s hard to say no to these types of things. But in order to maintain the decluttered spaces that we worked so hard for in #1, we have to be super duper picky about what we bring into our house.

If I’m considering getting something new, I try to make sure it can serve multiple functions and isn’t a duplicate of something we already have. When we bring new items into the house, I also try to get rid of something else. (This is especially true for toys!!!!)

Before I buy something, I think about where it will go. If I don’t have room for it or it will complicate or ruin one of my other organizational systems, it doesn’t come home with me. Be super picky! The clutter isn’t worth it!

Whew! I’m already over 2,000 words and I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface! Do you live in a small house? What would you add to my list? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments!

Living in a small space can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible! When we purge often, get creative, and find ways to make the most of our space, we can definitely make it work, even if the situation isn’t ideal. And hey, small spaces have their share of perks as well– it’s less to clean, for one thing! 😉 Let’s embrace our small space!

Have a wonderful day, friends!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

51 Comments

  1. This is a great post! I especially love the idea of creating zones in rooms. We’re in the process of cleaning and clearing out, and just fixing to start a major purge. (Yikes! Makes me nervous because I have tendency to keep things, but I’m determined to do it!) Love your blog!

  2. Christene Holder says:

    Yes!!! We live in a smallish space – a townhome too! It’s just my husband and I and there’s room but not a lot of dedicated storage spaces. As we are working on rooms we are trying to find ways to maximize areas for storage. So sometimes that’s replacing existing closet shelves (because let’s face it they are never put up in an efficient way) and other times it’s getting furniture that doubles as extra storage. We just got a new couch from Costco and it came with a storage ottoman. BONUS! Thanks for the great tips. I think I’m going to try and tackle our garage this summer since that’s where the bulk of our “storage” has been since we moved into our home.

  3. These are awesome tips! My husband and I live in a one-bedroom apartment right now. It definitely helps to make zones (we have a work space, a dining space, and a living space in our main room), and I love the “don’t store anything on the floor” tip!

  4. Christy * theharperhouse says:

    Great post Abby! We moved into our current tiny house almost 3 years ago in preparation to build our 3500 sqft “dream house”. Well, God told us to change our dream so the house is no longer being built and we’re trying to make the most of our little space while waiting to find another house. I have 3 kiddos (2 girls/1 boy) and the girls are stuck sharing a room (and queen size bed!) and needless to say they’re not too happy. But we are trying to be content as He teaches us that we really don’t “need” what we think we do 🙂

    Thanks for all these tips – I really need to try to amp up our use of vertical space! have a great weekend!

    1. thank you for your comment. We also have our boys sharing a queen size bed they are 6 and 9 . ive been struggling feeling like i am not a good mother becuase we dont have to space for all 3 boys to have thier own beds right now. they all three and sharing a room , but our 12 year old we are going to get a pull out bed for the living room so he can have his own space at night.

  5. Sarah @ The Teacher's Wife says:

    I am in LOVE with this post (considering we live in a small home with 3 children)! The only thing else I might add would be regarding tidying up. Our house feels cluttered and messy if things aren’t put back after they are used, so we do multiple sweeps through the house (before naptime, before dinner, and then before bed). I am so going to try that IKEA closet system this spring when we can tackle some closets!!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      I totally agree Sarah! ~Abby =)

  6. Emily, Our house now a home says:

    These are all great ideas! I feel you on needing space, I have three kids in a three bedroom house. My boys share and daughter has her own room. The one thing our home is really missing is an office/craft room. This house we have officially outgrown. It is ridiculous to say, but with my blog I need a designated craft, work, writing and picture taking room. You can only do so much organizing and we have reached that point. I love how bright your home is and you have done a ton to it!

  7. Thanks for the great tips, Abby! Staying in a small house is pretty challenging! I also shared a one-bedroom apartment before with 2 other girls. Surprisingly we got on pretty well sharing tiny space. I, too, have been keeping too much old stuff (books, notes etc) for years thinking that I might use them someday. I thought I would read the old textbooks again to refresh but never. “Don’t put stuff on the floor” is also something I remind myself all the time especially under the bed. No storage boxes under the bed. Sometimes it’s good to let go certain things in order to give ways for new things to come but be picky 🙂

  8. So many great tips Abby. But I had a little laugh at the garage clutter photo from last year. Oh men, so much stuff. I love how you make your small home work for your family.

  9. Love all of your tips!! I definitely need to do a purge myself. I have many decorative items that have been given to me over the years, I love dolphins, and have quite a few duplicates that I just felt like I couldn’t get rid of because they were gifts. Time to clean house and purge the duplicates and anything I haven’t used in the last few years!!

  10. I live in a small house the smallest I have ever lived in my life! It seems that my stuff is taking over the spaces may need to do some decluttering!! Spring cleaning!

  11. rosannebowman1 says:

    One thing I learned as I have always lived in small spaces since I’ve been married is there is usually room to add more shelving at the top of a closet. Most closets tend to have a lot of empty space toward the top, so I usually add a shelf or two which helps to store things that are seasonal or not used as often. Since we don’t have a garage or a basement, this comes in handy – especially as a family that plays multiple sports! 🙂

  12. Great tips, Abby! I have been decluttering and organizing my tiny duplex the last few months, dedicating a week or two to each space. I’ve had to get really creative with my limited storage space, but it is coming along.
    I have a two year old that loves to create murals on my walls (and once on the side of the fridge!) so I moved all the markers and such into a box with a lid and store it in the useless little cabinet above the stove. It is actually the perfect spot because the girls do their homework at the table so I can pull it out when they need it and keep my graffiti artist out of trouble!

  13. Ivana @ The Charming Avenue says:

    SO many amazing tips in here! Becoming more organized is one of the biggest goals of 2016, and your blog is such a great source of inspiration. I especially love the “creating zones” tips – I need to create a workspace in my living room, and I wasn’t really sure how to do it – now you have given me an idea! Thanks so much for sharing your insight!

  14. Love this. Where are the boxes with the studs and rose gold corners in the 4th picture from the top from?

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thanks, Katie! They are FJALLA boxes from IKEA!

      ~Abby =)

  15. Great article! Love it! So useful and I can relate to this post because I am living in a small home. I will start to change my habit now, minimizing clutter is top of my to do list. I do believe that nothing is impossible if you have the courage to do it!GOOD LUCK TO ME! Hope I can achieve this goal.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      You can do it, Judy! 🙂

      ~Abby =)

  16. Such a lovely space! So helpful since I live in a small home. Getting items off the floor is a great idea to organize things. I have kids at home and they usually play toys in the floor, after playing I just clean up their mess. It’s very hard to be a mother, even how organize you are, if you have kids, clutter can never be avoided.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      I can so relate, Maris! Definitely more challenging with the kiddos around! Wouldn’t have it any other way, though! 🙂

      ~Abby =)

  17. I like the idea of zones. We live in a 875 sq. foot house and I agree the key is to purge, purge, and purge some more. Just got done doing clothes and was able to get rid 5 trash bags of clothes. This freed up 4 totes. Some friends took clothes other clothes went to our clothing exchange at church. I like our small house, at least we won’t have to down size!

  18. CHRISTINE STACHURSKI says:

    Love it! Our home is 450 sq ft. We were doing tiny house before it was cool. Last year we made it a residence of 3. I can’t believe how fast babies grow and grow out of their clothes. We have a rule when it comes to our boy..as soon as he’s too big for whatever it is, ie clothes, equipment, toys, etc..out it goes! We have friends that greatly appreciate the hand me downs and we appreciate the space for new clothes, toys..etc. All we have is a small storage shed in the yard and its used to store the stroller and my husband’s tools. If we don’t use it, it leaves.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Love that strategy, Christine! Less is more! 🙂

      ~Abby =)

  19. Amanda Worley says:

    Now really, did you send the kids out with dad for the afternoon? There’s not a toy or hot wheels out of place! 😀 Just marvelous! Thanks again for all the great tips, definitely bookmarking your blog!
    P.S. Have you ever thought of changing out the pantry doors to two solid ones? There’s endless storage possibilities with racks, shelves and/or hooks on the backs of doors. Just a thought!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      We actually aren’t in that house anymore, but that would have been a great idea! 🙂 Thanks so much, Amanda! Have a great weekend!

      ~Abby =)

  20. Raye Fields says:

    I’m living in an efficiency apartment (as I am currently a college student and it’s cheaper than dorms) this year which means that everything (kitchen, bathroom, study area, bed, and entertaining area) are all in a room the size of a walk-in closet. Most of my furniture is bolted to the walls (ie shelves and cabinets) and I am struggling to organize my kitchen, desk and clothing areas. I have purged A LOT but still don’t have enough room, and if that isn’t enough, friends and family have bought me more clothes that I know what to do with! I am still trying to find a system that works for me, but I was wondering if you have any other tips for the truly desperate.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Hi, Raye! That does sound like an organization challenge! If you’ve purged as much as you possibly can, I would try to think of creative ways to use the space that you have. Use vertical space by adding shelves up high. Use the backs of doors and cabinets and add organizers made for those spaces or command hooks to hold items. If you have to bring in new items, try to make sure they serve more than one purpose and store easily or can act as storage pieces themselves. I like rolling carts because they can store a lot and be pushed out of the way easily. Without seeing your exact space, it’s hard to give advice, but I hope this gives you some ideas! Have a great week!

      ~Abby =)

      1. gerisgrltrl says:

        Hi Raye and Abby. Though I no longer live in a small home, I lived in tiny places most of my adult life. Raye, I lived in graduate student housing where the bed was a sofa by day, bed by night, attached to the wall with two drawers underneath (think Pullman train sleeper car). The closet was about 24 inches wide with one shelf and one wall was comprised of a built in desk and shelving, plus a desk chair. I lived there an entire year and felt living in a studio apartment was an upgrade! Even though it was the smallest space I ever lived in, I would entertain in that tiny space (I left the door open to handle overflow). I learned four things that year that have stuck with me for life: 1. No place is too small for entertaining ; 2. Always invite your neighbors to your parties (they will feel too guilty to call the cops if things get out of hand, even if they don’t attend); 3.Don’t accept “free” appliances, clothes, furniture, etc., just because it’s free (be conscious of what you bring into your home); and 4. Have a place for everything and keep everything in its place. These four rules have served me well whether I lived in a glorified closet or a relatively spacious home. Zones work in even the tiniest places,and multi-use furnishings (a screen as decoration and room divider; a cost for storage, seating and coffee table; shelves for everything from storage to display) help. Also, learn to display everyday items artistically: color coded shoes on an open shelf; horizontally and vertically stacked books; small items as art (I have salt and pepper shakers of Foo dogs, owls, etc. on wall mounted shelves in my office to add splashes of color). Most importantly, learn to be comfortable in your space: how much clutter you like is up to you.

  21. I am moving into a 1300 sf home and I’ve never been in a space this small. I have a lot of stuff I’ve been holding on to, so a major purge is on the way. Thanks so much for the ideas and pictures and recommendations for the IKEA items! Looking forward to reading more on your blog!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      So glad it was helpful for you, Zoe! Happy moving! 🙂

      ~Abby =)

  22. I enjoyed your post. We live in a small house three bedrooms one with a 2 foot closet. Approximately 1100 sq ft. No basement. My children range from 14 – 6. What’s been a challenge is the older our children get, the different interests they have. Where to put each persons things? We dont have much cupboards for storage and a tiny kitchen. When your children are little they all seem to play with similar toys. As they get older that changes. I go through clothes as soon as they grow out of them or don’t wear them anymore. Toys is a challenge as my son loves Lego’s sets and also cars. My one daughter loves stuffed animals and hard animals. The other one still has a huge American Girl doll collection and has a love for books. Still haven’t figured out how to keep my sons things stored nicely since the closets are so small. Does anyone have any ideas? The walls are filled in the rooms with bed, dresser, and bookcase. Closest can’t be used in the one room because we already have that being used for storing blankets etc. A lot of my time goes to reorganizing our stuff. I find a lot of the ideas for storage space I see work great for little children but not so much for older ones. Any ideas?

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Hi, Jen! It’s hard to give specific suggestions without seeing your house, but I can give it a shot! It sounds like you’re doing a good job at purging as much as possible, which I find is the most helpful thing. Are you able to add shelves for storage up higher on the walls? In our last house when I ran out of space horizontally, I started going vertical as much as possible. I also brought in things like rolling carts that could provide extra storage but could be moved out of the way easily. There are also a lot of storage options that hang over the back of the door that could help give you some more room. It can definitely be a challenge for sure!

      ~Abby =)

  23. I love this! We’re about to move into a home with roughly the same square footage, but less closet space. These tips are helpful. I love the clean look of your home. I know you’re not in that home anymore, but you don’t happen to remember the paint colors you used, do you? I’ve been on the fence between gray or cream, but I love yours!!

  24. Yvette Franklin says:

    After living in rented accommodation all my life we are now planning to buy a small 120 s.yd house it has two small rooms on the ground floor and two same size rooms on the top floor.very small almost non-existent kitchen. a small yard and the roof has a wall around it where we could make a small garden or sitting place for the evenings Hoping for the best.

  25. I have a 4 room house. Every room is multi purpose and I am finding it difficult to find ways to organize without getting rid of most of my belongings. Storage space is almost non existent. Example my kitchen is also my laundry and dining room. My washer is beside the sink and my dryer beside the stove. It makes living interesting to say the least.

  26. I like these little blogs on organizing but I’m rarely able to make use of them because we’re army and stuck at one particular base (sometimes military life just means staying in one crappy location FOREVER). I’ve racked my brains for years on how to best utilize the space we have but it’s getting harder and harder as the kids age and the hubby’s military gear accumulates. Does anyone know of a living on-base organizing blog? At this point I’m done playing nice and have started to rip out baseboards after finding that the walls in our circa 1960s era townhouse are barely square and then beating furniture into place with sock covered mallets. It’s like they designed the houses to be the opposite of functional or pleasant! I wanted to buy a house but the area is super rural and the schools are terrible and the drive to base both dangerous and aggravating (80,000 soldiers and contractors trying to get into through 12 gates) so I’ve given up on that for now. Any suggestions?

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Yes! Megan from The Homes I Have Made (http://thehomesihavemade.com/) is a military wife and always has incredible ideas for organizing and decorating their rentals as they move from place to place wherever her husband is stationed! And Chelsea from Making Home Base (http://www.makinghomebase.com/) is a navy wife and shares tons of good ideas for renters/temporary living, etc. I hope this helps! Good luck!

      ~Abby =)

  27. Lindsey M says:

    This is a wonderful post!! I live in a smaller 3 bedroom house with my husband and daughter (and our 2 furbabies). The house has enough space for us, but I struggled to find places to store towels, sheets, and all the linens. I actually used part of my laundry room to store them so we didn’t have to use part of the pantry. I’m definitely planning a purge soon! Thanks for the information!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      So glad it was helpful, Lindsey! Have a great week! <3

      ~Abby =)

  28. ahaan..its a really nice tips and easy ways to organized your bedroom and your house. But sometimes your kids ruined everything you plan :p
    But i am soon gonna try and follow these steps!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Kids can make it tricky, can’t they? 🙂

      ~Abby =)

  29. Barbi @ OrganizedLivingForBusyMoms says:

    I love how you used the vertical space. I have often wanted to try out using the “ladder” technique for storage of items not used as often (stored toward the top). A number of years ago, we moved from a large house to a smaller house. And, we got rid of so many things in the process. It took some time to go through everything. Then, upon packing to move from one city to another, I thought “I really had too much stuff” and “I don’t want to do this again.” Since then, I have been working to declutter more and get rid of unneeded items. It makes life so much easier when you live life on simpler terms.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      It really does, doesn’t it? So glad your hard work is paying off! Have a great weekend, Barbi!

      ~Abby =)

  30. My 2 biggest challenges are all the craft projects kids start and never finish, and all the birthday and Christmas presents that we have no room for. My kids have SEVEN grandparents, and only one lives in town. The one nearby knows to give experiences rather than possessions but the ones who live far away refuse to pare down the giving. What’s a good policy for giving things away, even if you’ve never used them? I know some people do “one thing in, one thing out” but my kids like the things they already have, and the faraway grandparents keep asking if they like and use the new things (no, not really), and the conflict really gets to me!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      For the kids’ unfinished projects, I would give them a deadline for finishing and if they don’t come back to it by then, I would get rid of it. For finished projects, we have an established display area for those in our house, and when that area is empty, we choose what stays and what is ready to go.
      The grandparents’ thing is tougher. Could you keep a running Amazon wish list for them that the grandparents could check when they want to give a gift so at least they are giving something the kids will use? You could also try toy rotation, putting some away until they seem to be bored with the toys that are out and then switching it up for a change?

      ~Abby =)

  31. On the ikea closet system… I didn’t see one with shoe racks like what you have. Do you know the model #
    Caroline

  32. Thank you for your great suggestions! It’s hard to find blogs about organization for small spaces! We have raised 3 boys in a 3 bedroom townhome. It’s been quite the challenge! I wish so much that I had not brought so much into our home over years. It’s so much harder to get rid of later.

    1. Abby Lawson says:

      It can be a challenge for sure! Small spaces can also be somewhat of a superpower though– they’re quicker to clean, they force us to be choosy about what we allow in our home, and they can really spark creativity! 🙂 Hope you’re having a wonderful week!

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