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(More customer reviews)Most people can relate to the topics Lauri Ward presents in her book, Downsizing Your Home With Style: Living Well in a Smaller Space.
In my review, I will focus on her chapters on storage space because of all the very helpful tips in her book, I believe this to be probably the most universally needed.
Meaning, we ALL could use help with storage space. We never have enough and that which we do have, often goes underutilized.In downsizing your home, people often make mistakes they could otherwise avoid if they planned their priorities. Do you know how much space you are moving into? Take measurements. Don't rely on memory, Lauri advises, because we all forget things - how big the rooms are, how tall or wide the windows, how many outlets, and so on.
The first caveat Lauri gives the reader is to avoid the 10 most common decorating mistakes that people often make (but that you don't have to make).
Rule 1: Define your priorities, becuase NOT defining your priorities is a common decorating mistake that will get you in trouble, each and every time.
Planning, space allocation, deciding whether you want paint or wallpaper, knowing how to create a comfortable conversation space (and knowing how to avoid creating an UNCOMFORTABLE conversation area - such as a cramped space or one that is like a visual roller coaster of varying focal points - some high, some low - with no uniform focal points) and avoiding too many pieces of furniture in a small space - all these are problems that are easily avoided with good planning.
Lauri has great photos that show what to avoid and how to fix these problems. These are real gems!
She also gives advice on what to always keep - a sofa and two matching chairs, armless dining chairs, ottomans, pedestal tables and drop-leaf tables - what to sometimes keep - love seats, a small desk or writing table, stools and footsools - and what to never keep - unloved or unread books, unused appliances, redundant items, shabby items, worn rugs or shabby furniture.
But the sad truth for many of us is we don't have enough storage space - and the storage space we DO have we misuse. So on to Lauri's chapter on The Truth about Storage - You Can Never Have Enough. On the first page of this chapter, Lauri mentions something we all know too well: Even if you live in a very large house, we all grow into the space we live in. Eventually, we run out of all available storage space.
Some helpful tips:
- If your closets do not have a shelf above the bar, build one. If you have room to build another shelf, build that, also. See if you can use plastic storage containers in your closet to store out of season clothes.
- If you have room for an additional hanging bar, this could really be helpful. (Speaking from personal experience, this is a genuine PLUS).
- A freestanding armoire in the bedroom can hold many items you may have had in an overstuffed closet. An armoire also separates space that otherwise may be crowded from sharing a home office in a bedroom or sharing a living room with a home office.
Most helpful are her tips on how to create a closet - Many of us have corner niches that are not being used. We probably walk by them every day, in fact, without ever realizing that these corner niches can be made into a closet.
In fact, I am looking at two of them right now - one above my home office/dining room and one in the living room. (We actually do not have many spare corners because we have large windows) but I can spot two that would be excellent closets.
- More good tips: Secret places for additional storage - cushioned window seats that open, benches that open, end tables or coffee talbes with drawers or cabinets underneath.
- Use empty luggage to store out of season clothing (my swimsuits are in my luggage) and my books are in my large tote bag;
- Be sure to buy plastic storage containers for under the bed storage and you can hide this with a bed skirt. You can, Lauri advises, also use bed risers to prop your bed higher and use higher storage containers than you otherwise might be able to get away with.
- Captain or platform beds (we have used these for years - and they do hold the necessary sheets and blankets, freeing up your linen closet).
I don't know about you, but since I've lived in Massachusetts, storage space, kitchen and bathroom space have all been small. Even the living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms h in the single-family homes I've lived in here have been much smaller than when I lived in Montreal, Toronto, Illinois or Utah. Everything here, (except for the truly large homes or those new McMansions) seem smaller than in other states. And I've been to enough nice, middle-class or affluent homes to know that people here are paying a ton of money for space that is much smaller than they could have in many other locales.
The point of my mini-rant is that storage is really difficult. I've seen kitchens in expensive apartment buildings with room for only one person, and I've seen more tiny closets that can hold only about 20 hangers than I care to speak about.
We have had to hang additional bars, buy extra racks, and even buy rope with which to make knots to vertically hang extra hangers.
So, I really appreciate Lauri's tips on creating additional closet space. I'm a collector of boxes and containers - I take organizing very seriously.
For me, more organizing for me this weekend. Our attic, once organized and tidy, has become overrun with everyone's stuff - even the walk-in closet in the unfinished portion of the attic needs fixing.
One of the most frustrating feelings a person can have in their living space is the feeling of being trapped - trapped by too little space, too many things, furniture or belongings that simply don't work.
Lauri provides tips on how to overcome these problems. That is a powerful and empowering feeling.
I thoroughly recommend this book. It is an EXCELLENT gift book!
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When you're moving a lifetime's accumulation of belongings from a larger home into a jewel box, the task can seem overwhelming-and so can your emotions. How do you decide what to pack and what to part with? How can you use the things you have so that they function well and look right?
Downsizing Your Home with Style answers these questions and more. Learn how to:
Create more storage
Make your stuff look smaller and your space look bigger
Update and modernize your favorite old pieces
Multipurpose your rooms and furniture
Find a new home for the stuff you no longer need
From the initial evaluation of your new home to one year after you have settled in, interior designer Lauri Ward takes you through every step with detailed tips, lists of good buys, tricks of the trade, photographs, and anecdotal examples, so that achieving spectacular results is simple and affordable, whatever your style or budget.
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