Tips to Lessen Feeling Cramped in Your Home

Feelings of being cramped or crowded in your home can cause your anxiety to rise. Considering the time we’re now being forced to spend in our homes can make this anxiety even worse. There are ways to to lessen feeling cramped in your home by making a few changes to your living space and that can make a positive impact on your life. 

Too Much Furniture

You don’t have to have completely empty rooms with bare basic furniture and no comfort or decoration, but you likely will need to remove or change some furniture to open up your space. Think about the spaces where you feel the most cramped. How many pieces of furniture is in the room that are actually not needed. Is there an odd chair or ottoman that’s not used very often? Consider removing it from the space. 

What is the shape and design of the furniture. Big overstuffed couches are not the only type of comfortable furniture. Furniture will smaller width arms or backs can be just as comfortable as bulky pieces. Armchairs are essentially the same. Choose chairs with arms that are not so wide or that have extra padding that really only adds to bulk and not comfort.

Home Office Changes

Is your home office crammed with an oversized desk and credenza? You can sell those big pieces on the marketplace and opt for purchasing used office furniture in smaller pieces. Many times you can find pieces that are like new for a much smaller price tag than brand new items. Take the money you make from selling your old office furniture and use it to buy someone else’s used pieces. Pick out a desk that is not too deep and that has a storage hutch. If your storage can go up instead of out into the room, you’ll be saving a ton of floor space. 

Examine All of Your Purchases

When it comes to buying new things, try to question everything you purchase for your home. Have a number of questions that you must answer in the correct way in order to buy something new. That way, you won’t be making unnecessary purchases that are wasting money and simply cluttering up your home. By questioning your buying decisions, you’re definitely going to find that you don’t actually need all of the things you’d like to buy. Don’t buy things on an impulse, that how you get into trouble. If you’ll take time to think through each purchase, you’ll likely not wind up with items you don’t actually need.

Don’t forget to measure your space before you purchase big items. Don’t just “eyeball it”. You likely cannot rely on your memory to determine whether or not an item will fit in the space you have to fill.

Declutter

Decluttering your space is the most important step in freeing up space and lessening the cramped feeling you have. You may have a bad habit of holding onto things that you never use or even see. Go from room to room getting rid of things like old magazines and newspapers as well as old books that you’ve read and don’t intend to re-read. 

You may have lots of worn out pillows or blankets that find their way into your living space and never make it out. If you want to keep them in the room for the sake of comfort, find a tall, narrow storage basket to place them in. Fold them neatly to maximize the space in the storage container. Place the container in an out of the way place like a corner or behind a piece of furniture. 

If you haven’t used something in a year, you don’t need to hold onto it.

Expand Your Floor Space With Shelving

Floor space is the most critical part of living a more minimal lifestyle at home. Adding wall shelving is a great way to add storage without taking up additional floor space. The more floor space you free up, the less cramped you’ll feel. There are several styles of wall shelves that mount in a variety of ways. There are floating shelves, bracket shelves, and more. You can get rid of the coffee table that’s taking up a lot of floor space by adding shelving and moving the coffee table items to the shelving unit. Add a couple of skinny end tables and you can still have a place for that wine glass or coffee cup.

Free Your Space and Your Anxiety

Once you free up some space in your living areas, you’ll feel like you can breath easier. A less cluttered room is easier to keep clean and will likely lessen your anxiety about having extra cleaning chores to do. You’ll likely feel less anxiety and feel more relaxed in a more open space. You may need to sacrifice a few furniture pieces to lessen feeling cramped in your home, but the trade of of peace of mind is so worth it.