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Space Saving Technologies for the Home?
An anonymous reader asks: "My wife & I are moving from an 1800 square foot apartment to a 900 square foot apartment this weekend. In order to keep our one size extravagance, a 6' x 6' table, we need to make some compromises. What can I do to solve this problem? What other great space-saving solutions with technology are there?"
"The first compromise we've made is books. All of my O'Reilly books, and any other book that we can access on Safari is being given away or sold. I've also gotten rid of my outdated tech manuals, except for the VMS books, and historically significant UNIX books.
I've also disposed of all my desktops. My wife is keeping hers, but all I really need is a portable laptop stand which can mount an LCD screen, and my PowerBook.
Now comes the Living Room -- our entertainment center takes up way too much space. 400 DVDs, 100 videos, and countless CDs. We're going to rip all of the CDs, for sure. We're also going to get rid of our television and replace it with a wall-mounted LCD.
This leaves an important question: Digital Media Centers. I've seen a lot of half-there DIY digital media centers involving MythTV or Windows Media Center Edition. I just haven't seen the right solution. The right solution to me needs to allow me to easily rip and encode (though I'd be happy just ripping, because I don't want to sacrifice quality for space. I have 10 400GB hard drives laying in my office waiting for a use)."
I've also disposed of all my desktops. My wife is keeping hers, but all I really need is a portable laptop stand which can mount an LCD screen, and my PowerBook.
Now comes the Living Room -- our entertainment center takes up way too much space. 400 DVDs, 100 videos, and countless CDs. We're going to rip all of the CDs, for sure. We're also going to get rid of our television and replace it with a wall-mounted LCD.
This leaves an important question: Digital Media Centers. I've seen a lot of half-there DIY digital media centers involving MythTV or Windows Media Center Edition. I just haven't seen the right solution. The right solution to me needs to allow me to easily rip and encode (though I'd be happy just ripping, because I don't want to sacrifice quality for space. I have 10 400GB hard drives laying in my office waiting for a use)."
Having just moved from a three bedroom house to a one bedroom apartment, I can tell you that you best choice is to just get rid of as much stuff as you can.
,more fun it is.
Books, records, old software, old computers.... there is no end of stuff that seems too good to lose that in fact you can toss easily.
If it can be easily replaced, sell it at a yard sale, on e-bay, or just give it to friends with less means that yourself. If you haven't used in it in a year, toss it out.
Hell, I've given away cars in the past, and a seven foot aluminum stepladder today. The more that you do it, the
Really, any of us have about 300% more stuff than we really need.
Three Squirrels
Okay... think logically here.. What do you need a 6x6 table for?
I specifically avoided having a table or a sofa in my (1,100 square foot) apartment. Those two items would take up the whole damn place. Instead, I have a treadmill, widescreen projector HDTV and a huge cheap desk with rows of computers.
I can't figure what you'd use a table for that you couldn't use something else (that takes up less space) for...?
When I got my divorce the ~2200 ft^2 here got a lot bigger. Food costs went down by about 80% too.
Trolling is a art,
Put this on your action item list:
THE THINGS YOU OWN
THEY END UP OWNING YOU
Just blow it all up.
How we know is more important than what we know.
As are storage lockers and safe deposit boxes. Personally, I recommend evaluating stuff to see if you really need it. When I had an office, I had a 30 day rule. If I didn't touch it in 30 days, it was gone. It worked really well, and I had virtually nothing in my office.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
If you want to keep some of your stuff but don't necessarily need access to it on a daily basis you might want to get a public storage locker.
Another thing you can do is put stuff up on ebay and make money while you gradually clear out your stuff.
Lose the 6x6 table (or uncrew the legs and put it in the aforementioned storage); a 3x5 footer can fit against a wall when you don't have company over.
When I do spring cleaning I look at something and try to decide if I've actually used it in the last year. If not, out it goes.
Look into a new invention called a "dumpster". I hear that its a great way to make room!
A $30/mo storage locker and a push cart.
Stick all you can in the storage locker. Anything you haven't gone and retrieved in a year's time goes on the push cart whenever the Salvation Army is ready for you.
Measure the table in meters to make it smaller.
Measure the apartment in centimeters to make it bigger.
Umm...Profit?
Stop the world; I need to get off.
Having slowly moved in the other direction - dorm room to apartment with roommmates to 700 sqft "1+den" aparment to the 850 sqft 2 bedroom condo that I own now - I can tell you that it's all just a matter of planning and organization. Living in small spaces is a matter of efficiently using the space that you have. The gotcha, of course, is doing this while not making your place feel cramped.
Everything has a place. Make sure that everything you own has a place. In small spaces, sometimes you have to sacrifice a little bit of "logical placement" for some "practical placement". For example, I have my pile of extra batteries and spare lightbulbs in a drawer in the nightstand of my bedroom. Does this make sense? Not really; they should probably be in a utility closet or something, but, they fit well there and there was nothing else using that space. The important part is that they've got a place and they're not cluttering up another area.
Efficient use of furniture. When possible try to use furniture that has built-in storage. For example, an end table with a drawer or two can be really useful for storing all sorts of things. Think in 3D. If a piece of furniture is occupying some of your precious square-footage, try to make the best possible use of that space. Storing infrequently used items in drawers or underneath an end-table with a table cloth over it (for example) can make a big difference.
Shelving. You'd be amazed how much you can store on a couple of rows of shelves. If you're not storing books/trinkets or other "decorative" things, you can find wall-mounted book-cases with doors to hide your crap.
Density. In areas that are more-or-less designated for storage (closets, etc), pack densly, but wisely. Well-labelled boxes (like shoe-boxes) can be great for storing all sorts of stuff in a dense manner.
Organization. This one is a big one. Keeping track of where all your stuff is can be tricky. I highly recommend labelling storage containers and remembering to put back what you took out when you're done. When you're stuck in a small space, you'll be amazed how many things you own that you just don't use regularly. Keeping these things accessible but out of the way allows you to retain what you own and now feel too cluttered.
Seriously they make stuff designed for small rooms or apartments.
The furniture you buy can make a huge difference in how much space you have. I live in a small apartment, and have way too many tables (because I write, do homework, tinker with electronics, have multiple computers, etc.) I made room by getting a bunk bed that doesn't have a bed on the bottom. I have my main computer desk `under' my bed, and I sleep on top.
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You can find the one I have at IKEA for $200:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Pro
I also have other helpful pieces of IKEA furniture, like a $39 desk-on-wheels for my Linux desktop. It is really easy to move around, so when you have to rearrange furniture, it's not too much effort. Other things I've found helpful are shelves with partitions and things like:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Pro
This lets me store my junk somewhere but not have to look at it. Very helpful, and a very good looking coffee table.
My other car is first.
Spend quality time meticulously planning shelving in your closets. You can get far more shelves in than you initially suspect, if you're careful about the layout. Check the "ShelfTrack"-based shelving from Closetmaid (the white wire shelving available at Home Depot) -- http://www.closetmaid.com/ . You mount one horizontal bracket near the ceiling (i.e. on the wood of the header behind the wallboard there), and the vertical supports hang on that -- hence no searching for studs.
Plan on shelves closer than you normally might: you won't want things stacked more than a foot deep on the shelves, anyway, so you can get them 18" apart (vertically) for almost all things.
Another advantage is that the wire allows for air circulation, keeping things from molding (if that can be a problem for you).
Just pile everything on the table!
Graham
Or, for those of us unable to change the Gravitational Constant of the Universe, try this:
* Buy inflatable furniture
* Fill it with Helium
* Watch as your furniture floats to the ceiling when you don't use it!
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
We're going to rip all of the CDs, for sure.
Shameless filthy hippy pirate detected. DEPLOY LAWYERBOTS.
Mr. Anonymous (if that's your real name), prepare to be sued. I'm sure our settlement proposal will help you decrease the number of possessions you have to deal with.
Mwah ha ha ha! EVIL PIRATE!
Drawers are ok for small crap, but shelving is great if you're not worried about aesthetics. I have a small apartment, but I like my stuff. I have twelve 6' utility shelves lining the walls and four 4' in the closets. They're pretty cheap ($20ish each at WalMart) and everything has a place, figure i've probably quadrupled the storage capacity of this apartment.
milk crates, put stuff in 'em and stack those bitches up. very little overhead for how much space they take up and free if you take them from behind a 7-11. also great for organization, just use a label maker over the logo of the company of who it used to belong too. sturdy too!
Yes. With caveats.
...they are too easy to get a hole in, at which point they are simply a bag with a bunch of stuff in them. ...they cost far too much for the space savings they provide. ...if you leave something in these bags for an extended period of time, plan on washing it when it comes out. If for no other reason than to get rid of the wrinkles, though my experience is that something ends up in the bag that propogates smell to everything else as well.
Yes they do allow you to compress things and as a result save space. However...
A cheaper alternative is to pick up some clear 35 gallon garbage bags, put a few items in one, then use a vacume to draw all the air out. Now tape, or better yet seal the bag with some sort of thermal seal.
One of the few sets that some people may find worthwhile to own are the camping kit sets. Put a shirt in it, close it, roll the bag up to squeeze out the air, then unroll the bag to get it flat again for packing. It makes a workable way of keeping clothing dry if you go camping and are prone to falling into creeks or rivers, or dropping your backpack or other carry bag that way. Again you will want to watch out for overpacking, as the zip lock seals may very well come appart on you.
That's just my opinion though. Others may note other opinions.
-Rusty
You never know...
Seeing that your married I am going to assume that you and yours have a queen size bed? A full at least? Anyway the foot print of the bed is a huge amount of unused and potentially un discovered space.
1. Lift the Bed on blocks as high as you dare go with it. My wife and I have two queens in our house One of which is an antique cast iron frame. That bed as a good 1.5 feet of clearance under it Alot of stuff fits in that space. (or at least when we had a 1200sft house it did, with nearly 4500sft including the garage and basement now under bed storage space isn't nearly so as important.) The other bed was once upon a time before I meet my wife the one I had in my 1000sft house, at one point I had a 2.5 foot lift goinf with that one practically needed a ladder to get into it. LOTs of storage space there.
2. Use all the typically wasted space. Get those wire (usually closet) shelf setups from Lowes run the around the top of the walls in whatever rooms you can stand them. They have a width thats perfect for CD's/DVD's/VHS (hint laying a strip of cardboard on then putting the objects on works best.) If you have the space do more than one row. That gets the media out of the way.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
The space under the stairs is also prime server space.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
So you're moving into an apartment half the size of what you've currently got, but you're shelling out all this money to cram your lifestyle into half the space.
Have you thought about keeping the old apartment (or getting a new one) with more space and not spending so much money on tech (ten 400GB hard drives?!) and other stuff (400DVDs?!).
Gabriel Ricard
As cheesy and ungeeky as it sounds, take a look at some home organizing magazines or walk around IKEA or Linens and Things or Bed Bath and Beyond or The Container Store, and you'll get ideas. There's no one list of things that can be done because everyone's space and everyone's stuff is different.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Atomic diffusion, apparently.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
And if you hang balnkets off of the bed you get a totally cool fort to hang out in :-)
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.