The commercial and residential building trend for today is more living area space and less bedroom space. When an apartment complex has to compromise -
large bedroom and its accompanying storage space will be first to get pink slip.Lack of storage space is a flash from past, when storage was not in walls or in shelving but in massive pieces of furniture each had a specific purpose and grouping seemed to take up whole room. As a renter - you'll have to supply your own storage.
What's solution? Consider how America used to live. Small bedrooms herald back to way before fifties, when people accumulated fewer things and consumerism was less focused on individual and more on common good of family. That changed substantially after World War II and birth of "Me" Generation - better known as baby boomers. An exhilarated nation lavished new goods bought cheaply from around world on its families, children and grandchildren, and consumerism has never taken a step back. No longer are we happy with one of everything (one winter coat, one TV) - now we have been enculturated to appreciate variety over value.
Increased availability and reduced prices for consumer goods has created an enthusiastic consumer for collecting small goods - clothes, trinkets, and accessories. For those who love to shop at The Gap and The Limited , and can afford to buy a whole new wardrobe every season, lack of closet space and smaller bedrooms can be a real inconvenience.
If space is a problem, look to past on how to solve it and make it work for you in meantime.
1. Revamp Your Wardrobe.
How did our grandmothers manage with those tiny closets and fancy carved wardrobes that we now use to hold our TV's? The answer is simple - they had fewer clothes and they took better care of them.
Throw out anything you have not worn in over a year. Be brutal. Clothes hanging in your closet won't give you any additional value, they just keep getting limper until you never wear them at all.
Assess what is left for wear and tear. Weed out some more. Again be brutal.
Try to make a mix and match plan with what remains. Any item that doesn't go with at least two or three other items, you don't need. A blouse should go with at least a skirt and a pair of pants, and perhaps, jeans. A sport coat should complement at least two different pairs of slacks. Some clothes can traverse seasons and work layered under other things. A T-shirt can add warmth to a medium weight sweater that will get you through most cold days.
2. Buy fewer clothes and take better care of them. Any new item you buy automatically makes at least two items in your wardrobe obsolete. Don't believe me? Do math. You'll likely wear a new item as often as twice in first week you own it, then you might wear it as often as once a week or more for a few weeks more. You'll also stop wearing items from same "era." Why? The psychological associations are simply too strong. If you really want to buy something, look at how long season is to wear it - 3 months to six months depending on climate in which you live then divide number of wearings (once a week) into that period. That is a quick way to decide if you realize that great blouse you just found is going to cost you $30 a wearing because seasons are about to change.
