Small, Meet Tall, Part II

My title for this series of posts is figurative. But for this particular post it is literal. Living in a small space in our consumer-laden society is not an easy task. We don't buy our kids toys except for Christmas, Easter, and their birthdays, and even then, we go easy. But when you have 3 children, those gifts add up quickly! I try to do a good job of getting rid of toys we don't use and clothes that we won't wear, but it doesn't take long for our house to feel like it's being over-run by stuff. So here's a list of tips for living tall is a small space:

1. Think up! When we buy or build a house people often ask how many square feet, but what about cubic feet? There is a lot of space in our homes that goes unused and it's up high. Build shelves. (Or in hidden areas, install wired shelving). We've done this in several places and I have some more on my honey-do list.

2. Forfeit floor space for storage space. If you own your home and can build closets, go for it! Living space is not nearly as important as storage space.

3. Organize toys. We keep toys sorted in plastic totes. Toys are more likely to be played with when all the parts are easily accessible.

4. Rotate toys. Don't keep all of your kids toys out all the time. Box them up for a few months, and it'll be like Christmas when you get them back out.

5. Make "rooms" out of unconventional spaces. Our laundry room is in a closet that opens to our bathroom like you'll see in many homes. But, we also built our office in a closet that opens into our living room. Our hallway was 4 feet wide, so we built shelves on one of the walls and made it our play room. They serve their purpose without using a lot of square footage.

All that said, we're pretty cozy in 950 square feet with 5 of us, so 6 is going to push us to the limit with space for beds. Right now we have a full-size bed in the girls' room which we're going to put a twin bunk over, and a crib in our room. Hopefully, by the time this baby outgrows the crib, we'll have the top on our house.

Here are some things that we're going to do to make extra space for this baby:

1. Limit clothing. I read an article recently (mom brain can't remember where) that suggested only allowing your children 5 outfits each. While this is a little extreme and would put a lot of pressure on me to always stay up with the laundry, I like the concept. I'm going to try 7 play outfits, 7 nicer outfits, and 5 dress-up outfits per child. I may try rotating them more like I do toys by seasons. (Right now I just do winter/summer).

2. Buy a toy shed! The storage area we have for out-of-season and out-of-size clothing, as well as, Christmas decorations and out of rotation toys is filled to the brim. We're planning to buy a toy shed/play house/storage shed. This one is perfect: http://weaverbarns.com/playhouse/ but I doubt it's in our budget.

3. Build more shelves!