{"id":98061,"date":"2019-09-16T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.bhgrelife.com\/bhgrelife\/?p=98061"},"modified":"2019-09-13T17:52:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T21:52:05","slug":"home-space-saving-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.bhgrelife.com\/bhgrelife\/home-space-saving-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Space-Sharing Ideas for Multi-Use Rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In\nMarch 2019 the median U.S. home price hit the $300,000 mark for the first time,\nan increase of seven percent. That means making better use of\nthe space you can afford<\/a>, because buying a bigger home may not be an option. Here are a few\nspace-sharing ideas for multi-use rooms that may save your family\u2019s sanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Create a Kitchen\/Dining Room\nCombination<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\njust don\u2019t live as formally as we used to, and we tend to meet friends for\ndinner at restaurants. That means dining rooms are often completely wasted\nspaces, dusted and polished once or twice a year. Why not reclaim this room for\nanother purpose\u2014home office, game or media room, library\u2014and revamp your\nkitchen so it works as a dining room, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Installing\nan island with a sink on one side and a bar table on the other means you can\nentertain your guests while you\u2019re washing, peeling, and chopping vegetables.\nThey can watch you cook, and you won\u2019t have to constantly run back and forth\nfrom the living room to the kitchen to make sure nothing\u2019s burning. The bar\ntable works well for on-the-run family breakfasts, too. You can also have a\nregular height, more formal sit-down table at the other end of the kitchen for\nwhen you do entertain; simply direct your guests from the living room to your\nkitchen\/dining room when you\u2019re ready to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Room\/Home Office<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unless\nyou have guests often, the guest room is another under-utilized area in most\nhomes. If you have overnight guests less than once a month, or for very short stays,\nit doesn\u2019t make sense to devote so much floor space to a bed that\u2019s rarely\nused. There are so many sleek, elegant, comfortable and affordable hide-a-beds\navailable these days that it makes a lot more sense to use the guest bedroom as\na home office and relocate if, and when, you have overnight guests. Chances are\ngood you won\u2019t be trying to work from home when you\u2019ve got house guests anyway.\nFold down Murphy beds are another option, and there are many new models and\ndesigns available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If,\nhowever, you want to keep the guest room as a guest room, you can still create\na home office in your guest room closet, if it\u2019s large enough (cloffice is the\nnot-quite-official name for this use of space). Now that printers and routers\nare wireless, they don\u2019t even have to be in the same room as your laptop. It\u2019s\neasy to add extra shelving to closet walls. In fact, you might find you focus\nbetter when the only visual distraction is your computer screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laundry Room\/Pantry<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Even\nif you do laundry every single day, you probably spend no more than 10 minutes\nin your laundry room. That\u2019s why it makes sense to make it a dual-purpose room\nand install pantry shelving or even an old set of kitchen cupboards that have\nbeen repainted or refaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost\nevery new washer and dryer is stackable, so take advantage of that and get your\nappliances installed vertically. You can also buy drawers for under the washer\nand dryer to safely store detergent, bleach, stain remover, and fabric softener\nright under the machines (and out of sight).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou\u2019ve got a laundry room that also serves as a mudroom and back or side\nentrance to your home, buy a storage bench for near the door and install as\nmany hooks as you can for coats and jackets. Coats are bulky, and only the ones\nyou wear on a daily basis should be taking up front hall closet space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather\nthan store out-of-season clothes in every family member\u2019s room, create a winter\nstorage area in the laundry room. You can fit a lot of clothes in a blanket box\nand an armoire, and neither take up a lot of floor space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make\nsure all your furniture is space-sensitive and create a design strategy that\nfavors dual- or multi-purpose rooms. Take advantage of corners and try to find\ncorner desks or shelving units. Dining tables that expand with leaves and ones\nthat fold down when not in use are always huge space savers. Ottomans and\ncoffee tables are great opportunities for storing occasional-use items like\nboard games and magazines. Instead of just a small table in your front hallway,\nuse a small dresser instead.\n\nBe creative and\ninvest in a variety of storage pieces. It\u2019ll be a lot easier to keep everything\nin its place once you\u2019ve created a place for\neverything<\/a>.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"