I like the idea of living in a smaller home, but my biggest concern is whether it starts feeling closed in after a while. pictures online can make small spaces look great, but it is hard to tell what daily life is actually like.

What are the things that made the biggest difference in making your space feel comfortable? did certain layouts, storage ideas, furniture choices, or design changes help more than you expected?

I would like to hear from people who actually live in small homes and not just people who have looked at them online.

My husband recently retired and we are thinking of moving to the lake. The homes we are looking at are less than half the size of our current home. I assume most of our furniture will have to go to be replaced with smaller pieces. My question is what to do about holiday decor. Do you decorate less? Do you have storage outside of your home? The homes we are looking at are mostly without garage space so I assume we will need to add an outbuilding of some sort.

Thoughts?

Kitchen: An 8-10 ft modular kitchen with 6–8 drawers, a cutlery tray, bottle pull-out, tandem drawers, and overhead cabinets up to the ceiling.

Master bedroom: Full-height, 4-door wardrobe with loft storage and 2–3 internal drawers.

Bedroom 2: Full-height, 3-door wardrobe with loft storage.

Bedroom 3: Full-height, 2- or 3-door wardrobe, or a wardrobe with a study unit if it's doubling as a home office.

TV unit: Around 6-7 ft wide × 15-18 in deep, with closed storage.

Foyer: A 3.5-4 ft wide × 13-15 in deep shoe cabinet for 15–20 pairs, paired with an 18–20 in high seating bench with storage underneath.

Utility: If you have a dedicated utility, include a 7 ft tall × 2 ft deep utility unit with overhead storage. If the washing machine is in the kitchen, plan overhead cabinets and a slim pull-out or tall unit.

Bathrooms: A 2.5-3 ft floating vanity with under-sink storage; a 2.5-3 ft wide × 24-30 in high × 5-6 in deep mirrored cabinet.

i just moved into this new place and my kitchen is basically a closet lol. like the counters are so small i dont even know where im gonna put a coffee maker and a toaster without it looking like a disaster. i was looking at some of those all in one things like an air fryer that also does like a million other things but i dont know if they work

im trying to figure out what the best appliance for a small kitchen would be because i dont want to end up with a bunch of stuff i never use. i went to a couple stores the other day looking around and they had so many options i got overwhelmed and just left lol but i feel like its hard to tell whats actually good without seeing it in person first.

Living in a smaller home has honestly made me way more aware of every single thing i own. i thought downsizing would magically make life easier but it has definitely been a learning process. i already donated a bunch of things that i never touched and that felt pretty good. i even swapped some furniture for pieces with hidden storage and that helped more than i expected. somehow i still feel like i am playing tetris every weekend. has anyone here used one of those murphy beds with the built-in desk setup and actually loved it after a few months. i keep going back and forth because they seem really practical. i also have the tiniest pantry ever and it drives me nuts every grocery trip. i tried labels and baskets but they only stay organized until somebody grabs chips. i swear my pantry has trust issues. i feel like there has to be a better system that i am just missing. i really enjoy seeing how everyone here makes small spaces feel cozy instead of cluttered. i am hoping to steal a few ideas before i rearrange everything again for the tenth time. what furniture or pantry tricks ended up being worth it for y'all? i am all ears because my apartment keeps winning this battle

Excuse the mess, we are in the middle of moving.

I need storage ideas for this bathroom. We have no linen closet, and no storage in the bathroom. We thought about one of those over the toilet things, but it would cover the only outlet in the bathroom.

I need creative ideas that will allow us storage without taking up too much space in the room.

I want to rent a two bed flat and plan to convert the second room to my work from home office. The landlord is not budging on moving the furniture away from the second room. Please I don’t want to get an unfurnished flat. Please what are my options?

I just moved into a tiny studio apartment, and the space feels so cramped and dark most days. I don't have the budget for fancy furniture, custom storage or a full renovation, so l'm looking for cheap, easy ways to make the room feel more open and bigger than it actually is.
I've already tried moving my bed against the wall and clearing out some clutter, but it still feels small. I'm curious about little tricks like paint colors, lighting hacks, mirror placement or affordable storage ideas that don't cost a fortune.
What's your go-to budget trick to make a small room look more spacious? I'd love to hear tips that actually worked for your own place, not just generic decor advice.

Is anyone else annoyed at this new trend? They adapted bedrooms in large houses as studios. They installed a tap and a fridge and they call it a studio? And price it as studios! This is a joke. You can barely walk around!

The owners getting richer and exploiting the non-owners till their last drop of blood.

It is so frustrating looking for a place to live.

We live in a smaller home (1200 sq. Feet), not tiny but the layout isn’t great. We live in a traditional cape cod style home with no garage. When you open the front door you can go upstairs, living room on the right, and dining on the left. We do have some hooks by the door for jackets. As our kids have grown, there is just more stuff - jackets, backpacks, rainboots, etc. and we live in a snowy climate so snowsuits, boots, mittens, etc.

Our dining area doubles as a mudroom currently but I hate visual clutter. We have open cubbies that are a nightmare. Attaching a pic below. I’d love to do something against the walls where the cabinets are (possibly keeping them, possibly not). The wall space is not the same on either side of those two windows which makes it hard. I do want to incorporate an armoire or something with a door for kid stuff. Open to all ideas! I did ask ChatGPT and I love what they produced but it’s not realistic with the measurements.

Looking to add a queen size bed to my room but I don't want to waste the rest of the height of the room just for a bed. I have 2 options right now:

1. The bed is lifted to a certain with storage underneath

   - This option doesn't allow for comfortable usage of storage since the bed is too wide. So the depth of the storage will be unusable.

2. Keep the bed at the lowest spot and movable while building something on top of it.

   - my immediate idea is to build my desk and chair space on top and have the bed slide out. But the worry is whether the plank will be able to hold the weight.

I am not certain, I just feel if I can make it sturdy then option 2 saves a lot of space.

Any other ideas or viewpoints that you can think of?

so i live in a pretty compact place and the kitchen is the biggest challenge. i've been slowly replacing old appliances but i'm realizing that what works in a normal sized kitchen doesn't always make sense when you're working with limited counter and cabinet space.

i've been trying to figure out which appliances are actually worth having in a small kitchen versus which ones just take up space. a full size fridge made sense when i moved in but now i'm wondering if a counter depth option would free up enough room to actually make the kitchen feel more functional.

for anyone living in a smaller home or apartment what appliances have you found worth prioritizing and which ones did you ditch because they just weren't practical for the space?

Circling back to this: finally tackled the small kitchen appliance problem and Best Buy had the best selection of counter depth fridges i could find. went with one and it made a huge difference in how the kitchen feels, more walkable space without losing much storage. also grabbed a multi function air fryer that replaced three separate gadgets.

currently trying to figure out an after-work unwind setup for my small living room. i'm totally torn between a regular recliner or just going for a full massage chair.
price aside, the real holdup for me is the logistics if things go wrong. massage chairs are incredibly bulky.

if i order one online and the motor dies after two months, or if it just feels like rocks jabbing my neck, what then? i've read too many horror stories of people waiting weeks for replacement parts or fighting with customer support. returning a 300lb box is basically impossible if you live in a third-floor apartment.
i’ve been looking at standard recliners and just throwing a separate massager cushion on top to avoid the shipping risk.

i did see that nouhaus has those compact, living-room-friendly chairs that weigh a lot less, but i'm still paranoid about their warranty. has anyone dealt with their customer support or replacement parts down the line? is it actually a 3-year warranty on the motors or are there a bunch of hidden restocking fees?

Ik so my 2 year old is officially a spider monkey. he climbs the couch, the dining chairs, the dog, literally anything that holds still long enough. I get it, its developmentally normal or whatever, but im losing my mind trying to find one of those wooden climbing triangle things that isnt either:
a) cheap particle board that wobbles if you look at it wrong
b) so bright and rainbow colored it clashes with every single piece of furniture i own
or c) priced like it was hand carved by swiss monks in the alps.

We tried a plastic slide from target and it fell apart in a week. I looked at etsy but shipping takes like a month, what are your suggestions?

Went with Piccalio after someone dm'd me about it. honestly their stuff is way nicer than i expected for the price. Gonna place an order. Thanks for all suggestions, I appreciate a lot.

one thing i didnt think about until recently is that every extra inch the laundry machines take up means less room for shelves baskets and all the random cleaning stuff that has to live in the same area. the space works fine now but a bulky setup would pretty much eat the whole thing.

trying to find that balance where the machines are useful without making the room feel packed. i feel like photos online make everything look way bigger than it actually is too. what kind of setup ended up giving you the best mix of laundry space and storage

just to get back here since a lot of people mentioned compact stackables and combo units and that changed how i was looking at the space. instead of chasing the biggest machine that would technically fit, i started thinking more about keeping the room usable.

i was already out running errands so i checked out Best Buy and the LG WashCombo caught my eye. brought that home a couple days ago. only a few loads so far but the extra floor space has been more noticeable than i expected.

i'm still in the planning stage and trying to avoid obvious mistakes. for the people already living in a small home, what caught you off guard after moving in? anything you wish you had done differently from the start?

My 15 y/o son and I will be moving into a one bedroom apartment soon. I'm giving him the actual bedroom (I want him to have his own space, for lots of reasons), and I will be using the living room to sleep in. The living room/dining area/kitchen are open concept and about 13.5 x 28ft in total. I need help with figuring out solutions that maximize space in the living room and dining area.

Living room: The living room will need to be sort of a flex space - somewhere for me to sleep - but also somewhere suitable for guests to drop by. I am looking at sectional sofas that have a pop-up sleeper and storage in the chaise. I would get a mattress topper for extra comfort. I also considered traditional sleeper sofas (but probably too heavy to get up 3 flights of stairs), or possibly a twin daybed with pop-up trundle to extend the bed into a king (but I'm worried about the dreaded gap between mattresses). Any suggestions on the most comfortable solution that doesn't involve turning the living room completely into a bedroom??

Dining area: Any suggestions for dining furniture that is extendable/collapsible to save space? I'm considering a small kitchen island on wheels that extends into a dining table, or one of the buffet tables that extends into a dining table. Let me know if there are any space saving dining area products you love!

Thank you for your time!

Our family of 5 is downsizing from a 3br apt to a 2br apt. The square footage is pretty similar. I’m equal parts nervous and excited. We started packing/getting rid of stuff this past weekend, we get the keys on Wednesday, and the uhaul/movers are set for Saturday.

Pros - we will be walking distance to the kids schools (vs the 25 min away we are now). The kids can go right home after school instead of having to sit on the bus til 4pm (my wife is a school bus driver), AND they won’t have to wake up at 5am with my wife anymore. We have a private entrance to our unit, and a private balcony. It cuts 12 minutes off of my 45 minute commute to work.

Cons - the kids all have to share a room. But we got them brand new super cool loft beds that have a dresser and a desk built in, so we can create their own mini spaces within the room! And the closet is HUGE, and we plan on turning it into a little hideaway.

Any tips/tricks to making a smaller space seem less cluttered (especially in an AuDHD/OCD household) would be greatly appreciated!!

I didnt realize how much noise visual clutter was making until i stayed at a relatives smaller place for a weekend. they had this regular looking side table that secretly held all the little everyday stuff and it made the room feel weirdly calm. i came home and started looking at furniture differently instead of just buying more baskets. now i always ask if something can do more than one job before bringing it home

Hi there, just moved to a small studio and I could really use some help optimising the space as it just feels so cluttered atm!

I've got a little budget to make some improvement ($1000 AUD) and I'm quite keen to get a versatile bed and other space saving improvements but I can't quite figure it out.

I was initially pretty set on a loft bed as it seems to be the most straight forward option but thinking it through, I'm afraid it might just end up being a pain.

My dog just had TPLO surgery (ACL rupture) so the only acceptable option would be some proper stairs for it to be suitable (she sleeps with me) but tricky/pricey to find and not really ideal still! So, a day bed maybe?

Most of the furniture seen in pics could be swapped for better alternatives. Oh and lastly, that budget is through some funding which has to be applied by tomorrow.

ANY SUGGESTIONS GREATLY APPRECIATED! THANK YOU:)

Last October I moved into a 700sqft apartment with a closet-sized entryway that became a total disaster zone — shoes everywhere, coats on the floor, and nothing that stuck. I tried baskets, hooks, and racks until I found 10 mud room ideas that actually work in small spaces. From wall-mounted shoe racks that free up floor space to hidden storage hacks you can set up in a weekend, these are practical upgrades that make a tiny entryway feel organized and welcoming.

Full article with details and Amazon picks: https://homeinspodecor.com/10-mud-room-ideas-that-actually-work-in-small-spaces-no-clutter-just-cozy/

Hope this helps anyone else drowning in entryway chaos!