Hosting the last Chaplain Spouse gathering of the season gave me a good reason to get in there and finish setting up the house :)
Now, it's not "perfect," especially by American standards, but I do believe we've made great use of the small space with almost no storage!!
Entry
The curtain became a necessity to block out the heat of the afternoon sun! But there is a tie-back on the left wall, so it can be put out of the way when not needed. I have a basket for each of us that sits on top of the shoe shelves. I've scooted them all down to the end to make a space for the ladies to put their purses.
Now, it's not "perfect," especially by American standards, but I do believe we've made great use of the small space with almost no storage!!
Entry
The curtain became a necessity to block out the heat of the afternoon sun! But there is a tie-back on the left wall, so it can be put out of the way when not needed. I have a basket for each of us that sits on top of the shoe shelves. I've scooted them all down to the end to make a space for the ladies to put their purses.
This area really doesn't have a name as such, but its a good place to set up chairs when expecting a large group of visitors :)
Living Room
In the tower, the A/C units made great horizontal space for displaying pictures and such. Here, we have Japanese A/C units (above the sliding doors) so we lost that space, but the bookshelf does just fine. We probably won't be putting up too many pictures since the walls are basically textured paneling and we're just not sure how much weight they'd hold.
Kitchen
The shelving unit on the right had the "wooden" shelf and the bottom shelf. Rodney added a shelf in the middle and extension rods and a shelf above. It makes a huge difference!!
Garage
As I said, we have virtually no storage. We went from five bedroom closets and a hall shelving closet all with cabinets above and a big storage room, down to three bedroom closets!!! So, the cabinet in the back corner is now the "hall closet." The wardrobe houses towels and bed linens. The closet in this room holds my dresses, both regular and formal, and Rodney's suits and uniforms. Our containers of Christmas decor are on the floor in there, as well.
Guest Room
This room is kind of two in one... Yes, the guest bed is here and ready. The other side of the room is the "project" area, as in, there are many projects to be completed!! I've come to grips with the fact this room will never be perfect, but will probably always (for the next 16 months or so!) be a work in progress and that's okay!!
We put books on the other bookshelf placed in this closet. The big box housing the Christmas tree stands up in the corner of it, while "cold weather" clothes (long sleeves ;) are hanging up.
In spaces this size with the stuff we have, you have to get creative.... There's some stuff we had to leave in boxes because we couldn't part with it, yet didn't have storage space for it. So, then it's a matter of what to do with the boxes! Well, that's were creativity comes to play......
The shelf behind the daybed is a stack of boxes!! Covered with a tablecloth, they make a great shelf for a clock/ipod player and possibly a lamp :)
Now, don't fret, I've labeled each box, so when we find we need something that's being stored in one of these boxes, we can find it!!
