Design your life to include more money, health and happiness with less stuff, space and energy.

Design your life to include more money, health and happiness with less stuff, space and energy.

6 Low/No Cost Ways to Create More Space in Your Small Apartment

We had the privilege of co-hosting the #ModernMonday Twitter chat yesterday with Design Milk, Dwell and Resource Furniture. One of the questions asked was “When renovating isn’t an option, what are some super easy, affordable tricks that make a small space feel bigger?” It’s a great question because even though many of us would love to incorporate moving walls and tons of built-in storage into our homes, the fact is most of us don’t have the budgets or even inclinations to do so.

Here are some of the tricks we and others suggested during the conversation.

  1. Get rid of stuff. Kinda self-evident, but many of us hold onto stuff we don’t use or that doesn’t justify the space it occupies. Getting rid of stuff is 100% free and, with a little extra effort, might make you a couple dollars.
  2. Clean and clear surfaces. Another obvious one, but one we might not abide by regularly enough. Few things make a small space feel smaller than cluttered surfaces and too much stuff on the floor. Clear your home’s arteries by keeping a regular cleaning schedule.
  3. Paint your place white or a very light color. Okay, we know some of you want express your colorful personalities with equally colorful walls, but the fact remains that few things make a space feel confined like dark walls. Painting your walls some variation of white can make even the smallest, darkest homes feel bigger and brighter.
  4. Get some decent lighting. The dim bulbs and Barry White soundtrack might work for creating ambiance, but they do nothing for expanding a space. If you have dim bulbs, up your wattage a little. If your home has dark zones, find ways of illuminating them.
  5. Put a mirror, mirror on your wall. Besides reflecting the light you do get in your home, mirrors of almost any size have the ability to create the illusion of more space than is really there, expanding the feel of your home.
  6. Ditch the heavy drapes. Okay, no one said this yesterday, but they should have. Drapes almost invariably make a space feel stuffy and dark.

If you can add to the list, let us know in our comments section below.

Interior image via Shutterstock