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 I've also gotten rid of my outdated tech manuals, except for the VMS books, and historically significant UNIX books.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)."

Comments

Sell, Give, Freecycle

[rueger]

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.

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 ,more fun it is.

Really, any of us have about 300% more stuff than we really need.

Table

[Seumas]

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...?

Re:Table

[Seumas]

I don't think it's very likely that a dude is going to have much sentimental attachment to a piece of furniture (unless it's a lazy-boy). I could be wrong, but that's been my experience.

People just collect too much crap. If you get rid of the crap you don't need (I have a huge DVD collection that I'm getting rid of, because it makes no sense to take up a whole wall to store them when I have already watched them and will probably never watch them again!). Keep a few of yoru most favorite DVDs (say, your Monty Python's Flying Circus collection and your Black Adder collection and your copy of Equilibrium and Brazil) but get rid of the crap. Are you seriously going to watch Red Dawn again? Or Romeo Must Die?!

And for furniture.. well... don't be sentimental and don't be concerned with having to have what you are told everyone has to have by a certain age. Just because they tell you everyone should have a house, a picket fence, a dog, a sofa, a loveseat, a dining table, four chairs, a bed, two end tables, lamps, nightstand, armoire, phone stand, entertainment stand, hallway table, throw-rug, paintings on the walls and a rocking chair doesn't mean you need them or that you even want them. Get rid of the crap that makes people think you're "all grown up now" and keep the crap that you ENJOY and **USE**.

Everything should be disposable in your mind, so that you can dispose of it when it has served it's purpose. Otherwise you're going to just let material goods run your life. You can't throw something away, because you might need it later. You might watch that DVD again in the next ten years even though you haven't in the last five. You might need that weird AC/DC adapter even though you have 14 of them in a plastic bag in an old cardboard box and you don't know what any of them go to. You might need that old $10 phone from Target that is taking up a bunch of space in a drawer. You just never know! Better keep it all!

Then again, I'm not one of those people who like the "cozy" and "cramped" feeling. My home is very stark. Nothing on the walls. No paintings, posters, pictures. Nothing. No throw rugs on the floor. No decorative anything. I have a plain shower curtain. I have plain desks with my computers on them. I have a plain lamp for light. And a treadmill and a cat-tree thing. And then my big TV. That's it. You could roll around on the floor all day and not feel the need for more space.

Even now, I'd rather have less stuff. Lighter stuff. Ideally, you'd have things in such a way that if you had to pick up and leave and never come back, you could do it all in one day - from packing to cleaning to shipping to physically leaving.

Re:Table

[JabberWokky]

And I just finished washing my hands from fashioning a Klingon wall hanging from a block of cardboard from an old three ring binder, a strip of natural muslin (I have a couple bolts, as a minimum of several yards get used each month), waxed thread off a spool (I have a dozen spools of various colors), and industrial tile (which I also use to cover my work area to protect it from scratches and as palettes when painting). To decorate I used a black Sharpie and watercolor on the muslin, and acrylic paint (indian red, gold and vermilion) on the hanging tiles.

Tools used were a two inch brush (oh, I have a pot of watered down glue which I keep on hand; I also used it to bind a book earlier in the day), a couple other brushes, a razor blade, a sharpened screwdriver (to score the tile), a pair of needle nose pliers, some sandpaper, and a Dremel powertool (to drill out the holes for the lacing in the tiles). Plus a pushpin to pop the holes in the muslin covered cardboard. Oh, and a pencil and artist's eraser to sketch out the symbol before I painted it.

That's a hell of a chunk of stuff... and I pulled it all out of boxes on shelves above my desk.

I dislike a cozy feeling as well -- my living room has a few pieces of furniture and that is *it*. Even in my office, I have a wall of tools and boxes and another wall with a window and almost nothing else. It's where I face when I'm using my laptop. But at the same time, my hobbies do require a good chunk of "stuff", both tools and raw materials.

I can play music on just a guitar. It's nice, and that bit of wood and wire is all I need. But when I build an entire set of props for a stage production, I need a bunch of "stuff". I have indexed and labeled boxes full of various odds and ends, and it generally winds up getting used. I occasionally even pick up stuff on the ground when walking around -- a beat up hubcap that I found in the gutter became, a bit of clay and a mold casting later, the emblem on a guitar case.

I hate pack ratting... I am very aggressive when cleaning out the pantry, the bookshelves, my bedroom (one bed, one chest of drawers, two side tables with one lamp each, one cage full of mice). But I do have a ton of stuff useful for art and stage: foam heads with wigs in one closet, power tools in the basement, another closet full of fabric.

Don't equate "stuff" with material goods -- it is the useless stuff that are the only things that weigh you down. And the attachment to things that can be replaced (and almost everything can be replaced). I've moved cross country twice in the past few years and dropped quite a bit of stuff in each move. But I immediately start building up a storehouse of useful items.

Because it's not the items that are bad - it's how you feel about them and what you do with them. A football player needs a football. A musician needs an instrument. And other people wind up needing a bunch of stuff that is another man's garbage. The researcher needs their pile of books. The working musician needs a pile of gear. Stuff is not, in and of itself, bad.

--
Evan

My story.

[grub]

When I got my divorce the ~2200 ft^2 here got a lot bigger. Food costs went down by about 80% too.

Re:Stacking

[toddbu]

Drawers are you friend.

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.

random ideas

[fred fleenblat]

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.

Latest & Greatest

[meckhert]

Look into a new invention called a "dumpster". I hear that its a great way to make room!

The metric system is your friend!!

[OneDeeTenTee]

Measure the table in meters to make it smaller.

Measure the apartment in centimeters to make it bigger.

Umm...Profit?

It's all about planning and organization

[whydna]

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.

IKEA

[Bruha]

Seriously they make stuff designed for small rooms or apartments.

Re:IKEA

[HungWeiLo]

Did you know 1 in 10 Europeans were conceived on an IKEA bed?

Efficient furniture

[jrockway]

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.

You can find the one I have at IKEA for $200:

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Prod uctDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=12&productId=11 534&langId=-1&parentCats=10103*10144

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/Prod uctDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=12&langId=-1&pr oductId=15923

This lets me store my junk somewhere but not have to look at it. Very helpful, and a very good looking coffee table.

Re:Efficient furniture [and shelving!]

[DeanPentcheff]

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).

Obviously...

[gfim]

Just pile everything on the table!

Re:Didn't you get the memo?

[smithmc]

The first rule of optimizing your living space is that you do not talk about optimizing your living space. The second rule of...

Re:Variable gravity.

[Jorkapp]

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!

Lift the Bed, and constructive shelves

[haplo21112]

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.

Magazine

[The-Bus]

This sounds a bit anti-slashdot but I had/have the same problem and just went to the hardware store and got myself a magazine just about organizing. There were a TON of really good ideas there and I've picked up (and used) some ideas over the past couple of years. Here's a small list, hopefully someone will still read this one:

• If you haven't used something in year, throw it out. If you think it's not garbage-worthy, give it to a friend or family member who might really like it. That was you can re-visit that poster/lamp/book when you see your friends.
  
• Think unconventionally. My living room I've turned into my office (desk for work, couches for longer conference calls or meetings). I don't have a dining room and my kitchenette has one chair in there for reading. When we eat, we out in the deck, the basement/home theater room, or on the kitchen counters.
  
• Give your clothes away. Any shorts or shirts you didn't wear this summer you should be giving away. In April, give away sweaters you didn't wear in the winter. Another test is to not do laundry as long as possible until you run out of clothes you want to wear. Once all the clothes you want to wear are dirty, clean those and give away all the others. (Exceptions for suits/formalwear/bathing suits etc).
  
• Get furniture that closes. Messes look a lot worse when they are inside furniture. You may think you're cramped but it's only because you have stuff stacked everywhere that could fit somewhere else.
  
• Media. While I don't feel like ripping DVDs, I rip every single one of my CDs. The discs I keep in easily reachable binders, the cases are all in boxes in storage in the furthest corner of the basement.
  
• Lend temporarily. Moving cross-country for a year or two? Leave bulky furniture with family or friends and come back it for later once you have a bigger place or once you move back.
  
• A lot of people mentioned wire shelves on the top of walls. I'll do you one better. While this isn't the most cost-effective way, it may look the coolest. Install wooden shelves with a flat bottom about 12-18" from the top of your ceiling. Do this along one side of the wall, or along three walls. Make sure they are seamless from end to end. You can always put in crown molding below the shelf so it looks more liek the home's architecture. I've seen these done and you can house hundreds and hundreds of books along space that is NEVER used. A few I've seen with recessed-/indirect-lighting.
  
• Resist buying lots of things. That's especially tough for me because if I see something cool for cheap I have to get it. What do, however, is give it to someone else who needs it.
  

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.