Everyone needs space. The addition of a new family member, or a new hobby, can leave homeowners scratching their heads thinking about how they can free up space in their home.

Here are some ideas for homeowners looking to make more space in their property:

1. Have a clear out

The first thing to do, that doesn’t cost a penny, is to take a good look at all the rooms in the house. How long has that wicker basket sat in the corner holding magazines? Do the baby books that the kids used to read 10 years ago, still sit on the bookshelf? Often, we accumulate clutter that we just don’t need. The first step to gaining more space is to take a good look at the contents of the home.

• Throw away items that are just rubbish. Homeowners with large amounts of rubbish may find it convenient to hire a skip! There are many skip hire companies that can provide skips for reasonable rates. Make sure you choose a company with green credentials.
• Give books and old clothes to charity/friends/family.
• Sell good quality items on ebay.

2. Room use

Right – got rid of all the junk? In doing so, did you notice that there are rooms in your house that aren’t perhaps being overly used? For example, a family with a young child could find that a seldom used office could double as a playroom during the day, and an office at night. Or maybe a guest bedroom could double as a workout room if the spare bed was swapped for a sofa bed. For more tips on dual room use, check out this blog post from theinspiredroom.net.

3. Furniture

Evaluate if existing furniture is being used effectively. It may be that some of the furniture in the home isn’t required, or could be reused in a different way. This page on Pinterest shows some great space saving furniture ideas!

4. Make the most of outdoor space

Lesser used objects be stored in the shed or garage, freeing up cupboard space. Adding a patio heater and a cosy area close to the house, makes the patio feel more like an extension of the living room or dining room, giving the illusion of more space. Those with larger gardens could even add a garden studio or sun house to provide outdoor rooms. Getting an electrician in to run an exterior power supply is not that expensive and providing power to these outdoor rooms increases their usage potential enormously.

5. Extend

This one’s a last resort, as it’s the most expensive option. Relaxed planning laws make it relatively straightforward to obtain planning permission for a house extension. There are also many types of house extension. Examples include loft extensions, conservatories and flat roof extensions – the only limitation is a homeowners property type, budget and preference.

Looking at the house with a fresh eye, and spending a bit of time on de-cluttering is a good start. However, the key when trying to make more space in a property, is to have a bit of imagination!

In the experiences of many, getting adjusted to life in a new home can have something of a rocky start. It’s only natural that we take a little time to adjust to a brand-new space. It might be yours, but it can still feel alien, especially as you start to discover the little quirks you don’t love as some of the other features. But the best approach to change your mood on something is the proactive one. If you want to start feeling at home in your new home, you have to hit it running.

[Photo courtesy of BusyHomeschoolDays/pixabay.com]

Taking care of the essentials

One of the biggest mistakes of homeowners is waiting to find out that their new home has flaws. The vast majority of places, unless they’re new builds that you designed yourself, are going to have them. The trick is not let them catch you by surprise. When you move in, start looking over all the essentials that might lead to problems. Start with the utilities, testing every light, every socket, and every tap, as well as learning where the mains and shutoff valves are. Consider the security of doors and windows, the possibility of air leaks in the windows and roof, and more.

Bring out the comforts of home

Regardless of what you didn’t like about where you lived before and why you moved from it, there’s a good chance that there will be some aspects of it that you liked. You might have even been able to bring some along. It might be some of the photo displays you put up. It could be familiar smells that aroma providers like www.livelyliving.com.au can help you replace. Bring out some of the more emotionally engaging parts of the new home first to really establish your identity in the home and make it feel more ‘you’.

[Photo courtesy of kaboompics/pixabay.com]

Making changes

A real issue is moving to a new home when you don’t really have any ideas on what you want to do with it or you have few pieces of furniture or décor ready to be put up. No-one likes living in an empty space. The best way to avoid that issue is to prepare in advance and start buying items to put them in storage. If you neglect to do so, however, then teams like www.therenovationcompany.com.au can help you get a running start at it. The longer your home feels like a “project” rather than a home, the longer it will take you to start feeling at home.

Thinking outside the box

Don’t neglect the outdoors while you’re making changes inside, either. If they haven’t been maintained by the seller, overgrown gardens and faded exteriors can remove any trace of welcoming from the home. Give the grass a cut, add some living space outdoors and give the front door a lick of fresh paint. It can make a huge difference to entering the home.

If you’re content to sit and wait for your home to suddenly become everything you wanted, you might find that you never quite end up getting that. Instead of waiting, take it into your own hands and finish what you started when you first moved in.

From the smallest of home renovation projects to big new build constructions, you find yourself faced with one particular problem.

Well, okay, you find yourself faced with many problems. You find yourself waking up in the morning to a light layer of dust over everything, and wondering why you ever began this project. You find yourself visiting friends, staring at their walls – without holes in them! – and daydreaming of living in such a place. We all reach a point where the downsides seem to be so substantial, there’s no possible…

[Photo courtesy of Ksenia Chernaya/pexels.com]

Hang on; that wasn’t the point I was trying to make. Okay. Let’s refocus. No more whining; we all know the benefits of home-style construction and why it’s worth it. We live with our choices and embrace them – even if they can be a little problematic at times!

The issue I was originally referring to was much more simplistic. No matter the scope of your project, you’ve probably encountered it: should you buy or rent expensive machinery?

[Photo courtesy of Mark Schellhase/wikipedia.org]

This applies to everything, from a humble power washer when sprucing up your home’s exterior – right through to an excavator for a garden project. Hiring can seem the easiest answer, but it can also be prohibitively expensive. The choice is usually an individual one, but if you’re struggling to make a decision, here’s a few pros and cons on the hiring/buying debate. I’ll take it from the perspective of buying for yourself, for the sake of clarity.

PRO: It’s yours.

The most obvious one, but an important aspect to consider. If you do something to a piece of machinery you have rented – an accident, or misuse that results in a breakdown – you could be in for a massive bill. With your own machine, any potential mistakes that you make are your own. It will be cheaper to repair an item than to compensate a hire company for any damage that results from your use of it. Then when it is repaired, you can still use it free of charge when you own it.

[Photo courtesy of pixabay/pexels.com]

CON: You’re responsible for repair and maintenance.

Even if you decide the initial purchase price is cheaper than renting on a cost-per-use level, that’s not the end of the road. With renting, if a piece of machinery breaks down, it’s not your problem. You can hand it back to be fixed, providing you’re not the one who broke it.

If you own it, however, any breakdowns are going to be yours to deal with. Factor this in when you look at the purchase price.

As an example, let’s say you want to hire a mini digger for a big garden project. Rental is going to cost you $200 per day. You anticipate you’re going to need it for around seven days. The cost to buy your own is $1000 – a saving of $400. Seems an easy choice, until you factor in potential repair costs in future.

There are ways and means of lowering the cost. Performing routine servicing will keep an item running as it should. Replacing parts from a reputable retailer such as Woods equipment and the like can also insure against future issues. There should also be a warranty that means any issue not of your fault will bounce back to the manufacturer. But it’s still worth keeping in mind.

PRO: You can expand future projects thanks to it.

Staying with the example of the mini digger, you might have planned to use it for one particular project. That means it’s going to be surplus to requirements for anything else, right? So hiring might be more expensive, but at least you don’t then have to store a digger you have no other use for it.

You will probably find that you do find a use for it. The scope of your existing projects can change and expand because you now have a piece of machinery that makes more innovative ideas possible.

CON: You run the risk of not being able to take it back.

If you hire something, you always have the option of returning it if it’s not a good fit. You might choose something that isn’t up to the task at hand; or even an item you just don’t feel comfortable using.

When you buy, you’re stuck with it – within reason. All the usual buying laws apply to you, but you have to be careful to read the small print to ensure you can return an item. Some sales policies – especially for larger machinery – may only allow you to return an item for store credit, partial refunds or not at all if the item has been used. Be aware of your rights in case something doesn’t work as you hoped.

PRO: You can hire it out to friends and family.

One way of keeping a piece of machinery running is to make a little money off it. There’s nothing stopping you from hiring it out to your nearest and dearest for a small fee to help contribute to maintenance.

CON: You might not use it.

[Photo courtesy of Peter Griffin/publicdomainpictures.net]

There is always the risk that you will buy something, planning many future projects… and then never feel the need to touch it. If buying is cheaper than renting, then this still might be worth it – it all depends on the storage space you have available.

For smaller items like pressure washers and wallpaper strippers, you probably have a corner of your attic that you can use. For large machinery, then it might be a little trickier to give over space for something from which you’re not getting much use.

PRO: You can always sell it.

However, if the above happens, you always have the option of selling an item on. Returning to the mini digger: you saved $400 when you bought it, paying $1000. If you then sell it on, even for a small amount like $200, your saving goes to $600. Providing you get a good deal on the purchase price, this is definitely something to keep in mind.