During the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the' race for space' was palpable for the property market, as demand soared for substantial properties in the UK’s various suburbs. Supply never entirely met demand, a significant factor in the country's stratospheric rise of property values.
Today, space is harder to come by than ever – and even harder to afford, thanks to the ever-present cost-of-living crisis. As such, how might you make the most of the space you already have at home?
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How To Maximise Space In Your Property
1. Decluttering
Before you make any significant decisions about the layout of your rooms or the broader structure of your home, you will benefit from taking some time to declutter every room. During this process, you should be nothing short of ruthless.
It can be easy to keep items – even those of little personal import – because of your current space or your reluctance to relinquish things altogether. But carefully picking through all your items might reveal that much of what you’ve been carrying is little more than dead weight. This could help you create additional space for other space-saving designs.
2. Vertical Radiators
While a specific point is nonetheless a vital one to consider, your radiators take up a surprising amount of space in your home, and upgrading them could incite significant changes to your layout. Specifically, replacing your existing radiators with vertical radiators can give you back a large amount of wall space, allowing you to either fit more furniture in or make your current furniture work better for you. This might include pushing sofas back against the wall, giving your living room an extra six inches of depth.
3. Storage
This brings us to a broader point about your home’s storage. Space is often occupied by ‘things’ – things we use relatively sparingly or things used for holding other items. A careful and intelligent approach to storage could give you back total cubic feet of space previously wasted while using space in different areas that were massively underutilised.
This is illustrated perfectly in a phenomenon recently gaining popularity: tiny homes. As more people move away from larger, unsustainable homes towards smaller and more eco-friendly alternatives, so too have they started paying attention to shrewd storage alternatives – including overhead storage bays for easy access.
4. Lighting
Our last point is not a practical one by any means. Light can in no way expand the physical space available on your property. But “space” is not necessarily or entirely about storage. It is also about sensation. The sense of space can make a room more comfortable, less claustrophobic or simply easier to understand at first glance. Light plays a vital role here, as an accent and task lighting can draw the eye to critical areas – while natural light can open a space up entirely.
