When you look around your home, at all the different rooms, spaces, closets, furniture pieces, nooks, and crannies, do you feel like your spaces serve you and your family well at this stage of life?
Or, do the spaces feel like they prohibit you from enjoying your home and living the way you want to live within your home?
I suppose it might be a little of both — depending on the day!
Obviously, few of us have unlimited resources (money or time) to create an absolutely ideal space for our family… but it’s often more “fun” to use a little creativity and rework your spaces so they serve you and your family well (like moving a giant dining room table in the middle of your former living room so your kids have more space to do crafts, playdough, and LEGOs!)
Over the last 13 years, we’ve gone from a childless couple to parents of 4 children (plus a puppy)… so it shouldn’t be a surprise that we use the spaces in our home very differently now than we did when we purchased the home.
The house still looks identical on the outside, but the different ways we’ve arranged and rearranged the inside are almost too numerous to count!
As our family has grown, as our children get older and more independent, as their needs and interests change, it’s only natural that we’ve tweaked, changed, and completely overhauled many of our rooms, closets, and organizational systems to better serve our needs.
For example:
The Closet Under Our Stairs:
The closet under our stairs went from random office storage to a fun play area, to a little school area, to storage for our puzzles and games, to a cozy reading nook, to a craft area.
Musical Bedrooms:
We have a joke around our house that instead of playing Musical Chairs, we play “Musical Bedrooms” because we swap bedrooms so often.
We reconfigure furniture, rearrange closets, and swap kids in and out of various rooms at least once a year based on who needs to wake up earlier, who likes to stay up late to read, who needs more closet storage, etc. (the kids love it and so do I!)
At one point, we had 3 kids in one room and used the other bedroom as a playroom. Then Nora slept in the landing area for over a year. Now they are back to sharing boys in one room and girls in the other.
And… believe it or not, Dave and I have slept in every bedroom in our house at one point or another (even the landing area for a few months)!
Living Spaces:
When the kids were little, we spent the most time in our one carpeted room (the large living room on the main floor).
But as they got older (and stopped spilling as much), we realized we’d rather have a large dining room with 2 smaller living spaces… so instead of a costly addition or renovation, we simply swapped our furniture around.
Our living room became our dining room, and our dining room became a small living space off the kitchen. (Read/watch the full transformation here.)
Smaller Spaces
You don’t need to rearrange full rooms or large areas of your home for more functionality…
The arrangement of our kitchen cabinets has changed quite a bit over the years — making space for bottles and other baby gear, then swapping the baby gear for lunch packing supplies.
And as my cooking style and diet have evolved over the years, the types of food I buy are very different than 10-15 years ago, so my food storage needs have changed as well.
For example, we now have a lot of bulk grain storage and other larger quantities that need to be stored in the basement or our laundry room cabinets.
We’ve also switched up many of our closet arrangements to better fit our changing needs.
Our master bedroom closet used to be filled with our clothing — but now that we switched bedrooms and turned our old bedroom into a den, it’s filled with extra bedding, craft supplies, and games.
This past year, we noticed a positive difference in how our home functioned simply by moving our Christmas tree to a new spot (in the kitchen). It opened up the office area and felt much more festive!
We even noticed a huge improvement in our morning routine by keeping toothbrushes for the kids in every bathroom so they’re not waiting in line.
Do your spaces serve you?
Do you have different storage needs during different seasons of the year?
Have you recently become empty-nesters or added new children to your family and now need to utilize your spaces differently?
Do your spaces allow you to spend time on hobbies and other activities you enjoy?
Is something too high or too low to be as practical or as functional as you’d like?
Have your medical needs changed how you can use your space and what items you should store in various places around your home?
As life changes, as your family grows (or shrinks), as your interests and hobbies change, as you age, as your needs shift, there are countless opportunities to tweak (or totally overhaul) different areas of your home so your spaces serve you better.
To some, this might seem like extra busy work… after all, who has time to move bedrooms and closets and kitchen cabinets around?
However, after years of thinking in terms of our spaces serving our family’s needs, I can easily see the positive impact it has on the overall function of our home and life.
Not only is our home more enjoyable to spend time in, but it’s also easier to keep things neat and organized when it functions well for our needs.
How to create spaces that serve you better.
There’s no perfect answer for this… but here’s where I’d start if I were you.
Walk through your home with a pad of paper and pen and jot down what you like and dislike about every space in your home.
Then sit and dream a little — how would you like to utilize different areas of your home? Do you think there’s anything you could realistically do (big or small) to get you closer to that “ideal” space?
Don’t be afraid to move furniture around, swap closets, or rearrange your drawers — take pictures before so you can move everything back if you hate it! I’ve found that I often need to live in a new space for 48 hours before I know if the change is positive or negative.
Also, pay attention to those nagging feelings of “this isn’t working well” or “I wish I had more space for”. Stop and consider why that space isn’t working and what you could change to make it serve you better.
You might be amazed at the difference a few small changes can make!
Beth Nesseth says
Our family of 6 changed a lot, too! In fact just a couple years ago, my husband changed my puppet storage closet to a prayer room! All 15 grands now love it too!
Andrea says
I love changing the purpose of rooms and spaces to better fit our needs — so glad you do this too!
Rachel Rouse says
what did you use to hold cups for toothbrush holder? Silly question but im curious
Andrea says
Hi Rachel, the toothbrush holders are just heavy-duty Chinete plastic cups, secured to the door with double-stick command strips
C. C. says
I got sick and to save me having to drag my body into the kitchen when my family is at work or school or my family having to bring me food and drinks all the time I set up a mini kitchen/pantry in my bedroom. I have a mini fridge, a microwave, a sandwich maker and just got an air fryer and use a shelf I had as a pantry. It’s working great.
Andrea says
sorry to hear about your sickness, but I’m thrilled you were able to rework your bedroom to make life a little easier for you! thanks for sharing this idea with my readers!
Nancy says
Your “moving rooms” posts have always been some of my favorites!! So creative and inspiring! I love seeing how you change use of your spaces over time! So fun for the kids too! Thanks for sharing!
Andrea says
Yay – glad you enjoyed these posts 🙂 I love writing them (and moving the rooms around!)
JJ says
Oh my word, yes! Your posts continually get me thinking how to best use my space. My husband and I never thought of changing Christmas tree placement until kids. At our old house, we had our tree in several different rooms to keep little hands from being curious and dogs from chewing or knocking down the tree. Last year our 1 year old pulled our tree down in the living room, so we knew we had to rearrange. Our playroom worked perfectly.
I had seen a video of a homeschool mom who uses her regular kitchen hutch cabinet to hide all her school stuff. It was an aha moment for me. I was able to get a free piece of furniture from a relative who no longer needed a medium-sized kitchen cabinet to store all the contents of our science experiments kit for the year. It will house others school supplies as well. I used an antique cigar box to keep stickers for school. Side note: Old furniture cabinets can smell funky, but a glass with cinnamon sticks and water can suck out the smell. I left it in for 2 nights–what a difference! The school secretary taught me that when my classroom closet caught on fire(next to bathroom that caught on fire).
Also, because you mentioned in your email you send out weekly about The Home Edit, I checked into that. It’s nice they sell their stuff at Walmart!
On a funny note, in Sunday School we got on the topic of how parents hide their favorite snack, so their kids don’t eat it. Someone said they hide it in a different box they know their kids won’t touch. I have done that. and when the kids accidentally found it, their facial expressions were hilarious. Confusion then realization.
Andrea says
ok… I’m definitely going to use your cinnamon stick + water trick to get the smell out of old wood furniture –thanks!
And yes, I’ve seen lots of funny posts about parents hiding their snacks in healthy food boxes so their kids won’t think to look for them 🙂
Donna Marie says
Our house was designed to have the dining room off of the kitchen, but we have the living room off of the kitchen and it works for us!!!
Andrea says
love that you made your house work for you!
Hannah Beth Reid says
Yes, this is a great reminder! When our 3rd child was starting to crawl and pull up, we turned a bar height counter area into a coloring space for our older two children so they could work without baby brother grabbing everything. (The bar was over carpet, so we never ate there and it was virtually unused.) Now that we have three artists, we’ve had to change that space and find a new solution, but we had bought the bar chairs from Craigslist and so it was time and effort well spent for that season.
And in nearly all changes we’ve had to make, we’ve managed to find solutions at low or no cost, like the chairs from Craigslist (which have now gone to a relive who had a use for them.
We did buy two brand new 9 cube storage shelves to house our children’s books and games, but it was worth it because they fit the space perfectly and matched each other and our living room.
Thanks again for an encouraging and inspiring post!
Andrea says
I LOVE changing things up around our house to better accommodate our kids’ current stage of life. It’s so satisfying!
Nancy says
Andrea, how do you clean the braided rug in your mud room? Thanks!
Andrea says
I just shake it out and vacuum it!
Nancy says
Thanks, Andrea. I didn’t know if you had to be careful of the threads holding the braids in place.
Andrea says
I’m not careful with mine at all!