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a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation

04.17.2006

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space savers how to make more room
by Yee-Fan Sun
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continued from page 2

4 Adjust the thing… Adjust the shelving in your cabinets and bookcases to suit your particular needs. Many cabinets come with pre-drilled holes on the inside edges that allow you to easily nudge your shelves up and down by simply moving the pegs that serve as support. Some of the cabinets in my previous kitchen originally only had one shelf dividing each into two compartments; to accommodate more of our glassware, we lowered the height of the existing shelf and added a new one on top. You can buy extra shelving and pegs at any DIY or hardware store.

5 Hook me up baby Add hooks, available at any hardware store, to the walls, inside closets, inside cabinet doors, underneath kitchen cabinets, to the ceiling. Alternatively, invest in a wall-mounted rail and hook system, which you can find at most places that sell kitchen stuff (I've seen them at both IKEA and Crate & Barrel, for instance). They're great for items that get daily use, as they get stuff off the counters and tabletops, clearing up precious surface space, but still leave your goods readily accessible.

6 Multitask it Choose furniture that can work double duty. Make an office desk with the old file cabinets and door trick (paint the door and cabinets a fun color, and you'll save space and pep up the décor at the same time); look for dining and coffee tables that feature drawers or other under-storage, or stools/ottomans that feature hidden storage.

7 And… rolling! Oftentimes, the most useful place to have an object or furniture is not the most space-efficient, or aesthetically pleasing. In my current pad, the logical spot for the TV places it just a tad too far from our sofa for optimal viewing. Moving the TV closer would leave it smack dab in the middle of the path between main door and kitchen; inching up the sofa would make the sitting area feel cramped and tiny. The solution was easy: pop the TV on a cart with wheels. All we have to do is roll the TV nice and close when we're in TV watching mode, then push it back and out of the way whenever the ol' boob tube's not in use. You can make just about any bit of furnishing mobile by adding a set of sturdy casters (again, look towards your friendly neighborhood DIY store for these). They're highly useful for the aforementioned TV carts, and also make a dandy addition to file cabinets, coffee tables, and low bookcases.

keep a-wanderin' this way

 

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