This week, a reader sent me a message requesting recommendations for what to do with spare sofa cushions and pillows when converting a living space into a sleeping space for overnight guests or a child. In a truly small home or apartment such as ours, just tossing the cushions aside isn’t an answer, as they clog up floor and surface space that’s needed for navigation and everyday life. And when you’re already pressed for storage inches within your closet, under the bed, and in/around cabinets and shelves, it can often feel like there’s zero room for bulky temporarily displaced items such as these.
As always, my recommendation is to go vertical, and to work with what you have.
First, we double-up the cushions that we can keep on the couch without getting in the way of the sitting or sleep space. And we always use a cushion as a headboard, which makes the setup feel more bed-like, while also putting good use to an otherwise displaced cushion.
In our case, we scatter the cushions around so that no one area of our tiny house feels overcrowded.
We drop the pillows into functional decor, such as the basket hanging over our bedroom doors
We also use s-hooks to suspend some via market totes from the outside of our closet.
A hamper (or even a a trademark blue Ikea bag) could help, but they’re not the sightliest things to have out in a compact home. Luckily you can easily make your own Santa bag.
All you need is a spare sheet or tablecloth, gathered at the top with a simple tool like a garden hook so that it securely holds the makeshift sack together while also hanging from something like a curtain rod or wall hook.
It’s not the most elegant of solutions, but it’s effective, and it can keep your home feeling and functioning the way you want it to. Plus I personally prefer to work with what we have readily available, rather than searching for fabricated storage and organization solutions. It’s better for our wallets, our small spaces and our environmental impact
#SmallSpaceLiving
