Creating more space at home
Posted by Vivek on September 1, 2007
Today, space at home is a luxury – well almost. Have you even got this feeling when you see your apartment empty that , “wow there is a lot of space here”. But a few months down the line you wonder, “how did I manage to fill this up so much?”
The answer lies in space managment. Everyone like to have a lot of room in their homes but given the sheer volume of furnitures, this space quickly vanishes away leaving us wondering, how to move on.
I will try and address a few tips which could be a space saver for your and your family.
- Pre constuction planning – I suggest that you try and utilize as much as possible of wardrobes and shelve space as possible. Make sure that they go into the wall and not stand out. The later can make the scenario even worse. In-wall wardrobes if furnished well are a great alternative to steel almirahs. They also offer you more storage.
- Plan your furniture requirements ahead in case you are buying a new home and also new furniture. If you are trying to shift your existing furniture into your new home, try and plan it on paper and see for yourself what goes where. This way you can possibly adjust somethings and end up more happy with your space utilization factor. Last option, if your current furniture is a bit old and out of place, I suggest you trade it in for new furniture which blends better with the new surroundings.
- Try and wall mount certain items like Microwave, Television (yes even the CRT based TV can be wall mounted), telephones, volatge stabilizers. Use your creativity here. The results can be surprising.
- Optimum lighting can create an illusion of more space. Make sure there are no dark spots when choosing lighting fixtures. An evenly lit home looks more spacious.
- Mark the pathway clearly and make sure no appliance, piece of furniture or any other item even gets into the way. One of the first reasons why the house looks less spacious is because you have less space to walk and your mind associates this with lack of space. Organization of placement is very important.
In my opinion, these are basic pointers to creating more space from what is available. If there are more, we would love to hear from you. Drop in some comments.
williamspk said
During the rainy season, have seen some apartments becoming a mess of wet clothes being hung up inside houses for drying. One can hardly walk around without your head/face banging into one of the drying items.
Guess there must be washing machines that take most of the pain out of this process by drying the clothes automatically. Still, quite a few houses don’t have those machines.
Another option I have seen used in some apartments in cities is to have either a very high ceiling in one room (hang up the clothes so high, that you don’t notice them) or have a balcony which gets converted to a drying room almost.
Wonder whether there are better ways to handle this…
Vivek said
@ Williams
Well, washing machines generally do not dry 100%. They leave a bit of moisture in the cloth. Some manufacturers claim that the cloth has the right moisture content for it to be ironed, but this is an absurd claim. The fact is that you need to dry them on a clothes line. You are right about the monsoon season predicament.
Developed countries use dryers which are also used by a few in India. Dryers do their job 100%. But there are few cons.
a) Dryers are probably more expensive than washing machines themselves as there is not much demand for them right now in India.
b) Dryers consume more electricity as they revolve at Higher RPM and also develop hot air within.
c) Last not the least, dryers need additional real estate in a home which is already crying for space.
Using clothes line in balcony is a way out. Also conservative washing during monson can solve much of the problem