3 Tips for Controlling Clutter When You Live in a Small Space
Tiny living. It’s all the rage. And I jumped on the bandwagon! Well, sort of. Billy, the boys and I are temporarily living in a 40-foot camper while we buy land and build our dream house. (Temporarily is probably going to be a year or so.)
I’ve decided that I like to call our camper a “tiny house” because that sounds so much cooler than “RV.” But no matter what you call her, she’s very small. Living in such a tiny space has it benefits, but it also has its drawbacks. The biggest one being the obvious question, “Where do you put all your stuff?”
We do have most of our stuff in storage, and we kept only what we really needed–or thought we needed. Our RV is a fifth-wheel, so it has a lot more storage space than a regular camper. Even though we are able to put most of our stuff away, the fact is, we still have to get it out and use it daily. It doesn’t take long for things to start feeling cluttered, cramped and overwhelming.
I’ve learned a few tips over the last six weeks of living in the tiny house, so today, for 3 Things Friday, I’m sharing my tips to control clutter when you live in a small space. These tips help me keep my sanity, and stay happy when things get stressful. While these tips help me out in a tiny space, they can apply to any size space. Every mama knows that it doesn’t take long for kids to make a mess–and the bigger the space, the bigger the mess!
- A place for everything, and everything in its place. I know it’s a cliché, but clichés usually exist for a reason. I’ve found that the best way to keep the clutter down, is to have a place for every little thing. My favorite things to use are baskets and bins. I have a basket on the shelf in the refrigerator to hold our cheese and lunchmeat. We have a basket for bread. I keep all of our office supplies in a decorative box, and cords and chargers in a basket. We keep extra socks and underclothes in baskets on the closet shelf, and off-season clothes in bins under the bed. It can be overwhelming and time-consuming to put things away where they go. But keeping things exactly where they go, and keeping them organized, goes a long way towards keeping clutter at bay.
- Put things away as soon as I’m done with them. The other day after dinner, I asked Billy, “Should I do the dishes now, or wait until later?” He said, “Right now you want to sit down, but later you really won’t want to get up and do them.” It’s the truth! It’s tempting to put off cleaning and tidying until “later.” But when I put it off, little bits of clutter can become huge piles of clutter, or cause bigger messes to grow. My laundry is a good example of this. I hate to put away laundry. I don’t mind washing, and I don’t mind folding. But I avoid the putting-away as long as possible. We only have one laundry basket, so if it’s full of clean, folded clothes, we can’t put our dirty clothes in it, so they get piled in the floor. And we have to dig through the basket to find what we need. As much as I hate that chore, not doing it does make life more complicated for me.
- Lower my standards a little. As much as I hate to say it, sometimes I expect too much. It’s almost impossible to keep a regular-size house clean all the time, so you can probably imagine how much more difficult it is in a tiny house. Sometimes our mail or school papers pile up on the counter. The boys’ room is too small for them to play in there much, so most days there are Legos, cars and random little toys all over the living room. Sometimes my sewing machine or craft supplies just get moved from the table to the chair while we eat, then they get moved back again. I’ve searched all over Pinterest, and found dozens of picture-perfect remodeled campers. A lot of them look like something Joanna Gaines designed. But mine doesn’t. And I’m learning to be okay with that. One rule I try to follow is to get everything straightened out before I go to bed, so that I can wake up to a reasonably tidy space in the morning. But I’ve stopped stressing about it.
I know these aren’t huge in-depth plans to help clear away clutter. But they are three actionable steps that you can take every day to help keep your sanity–no matter what size your space is. Less clutter can lead to a happier more productive life, and who doesn’t want that?
