Why I actually love wasted space

Before we renovated, our tiny 60’s shack had a strangely wide hallway considering the size of the house, and higher than average ceilings. It gave it the illusion of space – which was really the only type of space it offered.

We installed deep IKEA shelving along one of the hallway walls and filled it with toys, books, our printer, plant pots and frames. What we wanted, needed out of that oversized hallway was storage for home organisation. I was working from home as a craft and recipe content creator, a notoriously stuff-heavy job. Our small children, who shared a room, were in their own age-appropriate season-of-stuff and the kitchen cupboards were on their last legs so there was no chance they could support a ceramic croc pot.

We always knew we were going to renovate and extend, turn the existing house into bedrooms and add an open plan kitchen + living onto the back of the house. And this giant hallway would be perfect with custom cabinetry all the way down one side. So much storage. What everyone designing a home wants, right?

But our needs changed

Fast forward a couple of years to when we were planning the build, I was deep in my home organisation hyperfocus. I had decluttered half of everything we owned, and our kids had grown out of high chairs and hooded towels, bottles and prams. The focus of my work had shifted to mostly writing and I was making every design decision based on what I wanted from my home – which was for it to be easy to clean and maintain. And for there to be more space and less stuff.

Bulk storage wasn’t on that list.

I knew I didn’t want a linen cupboard, I didn’t even want a laundry room, Both were just more things to clean or become dumping grounds. Everyone was getting their own rooms with built-in wardrobes. I was choosing a huge butler’s pantry, which I think of as my shed. Those hallway cupboards were now obsolete and not in line with what I wanted from my home.

Did I mention my husband is a cabinet maker? It seemed crazy to scrap that plan, and also to not have a fancy laundry room, to not build a giant custom linen cupboard. That’s exactly what new builds offered, so much storage. But it’s not what we needed from our house. The feeling of space, less rooms to maintain and luxury that our oversized hallway brought was more valuable than any cupboard would be.

My mantra for my new home was, more space, less stuff, easy to clean.

During the build there were so many times that I would get pushed in a space-maximising direction from friends and trades, and it was always because, “we have the space to do it.”

You know you have room for a second sink in the bathroom? Nope.

More space, less stuff, easy to clean.

Are you sure you don’t want a linen closet? Nope.

More space, less stuff, easy to clean.

We could tweak the design for a dining room? Nope.

Eight more chairs to move every time I vacuumed.

European laundries are generally for apartments, not family homes.

More space, less stuff, easy to clean.

Before we bought this house, when we lived in a one bedroom apartment, maximising every square meter of space was what I needed. I dreamed of a laundry room full of cupboards that I didn’t have to share with the entire building.

But in my dream low-maintenance home, my priorities were different.

How is this relevant to home organisation?

Not many people get the chance to design the home that they’re going to live in, but we do all have the chance to design how we live in the home we have.

And I honestly believe wasted space can be the most valuable space there is. It can create ease, feel luxurious and be multipurpose depending on your needs of the season. Funnily enough, I now have a desk in that wide hallway. Perfect for this season, and only possible because of the ‘wasted space’.

Sometimes using every square cm can be the goal, vertical space in a wardrobe, extra shelving in a pantry, turntables in corner cupboards – awesome. Maximising a small wardrobe in a shared kids room – absolutely.

But if we can, I also love to leave a spare shelf in wardrobes to be used as a dressing table. A cute bowl for jewelry, a perfume stand, a framed picture. And it’s often a massive mind-blown moment for my clients who have been organising and reorganising that space unsuccessfully and only thinking in terms of, how can I maximise every square cm?

Often, they have been told that round jars in the pantry are a no-no because of wasted space. A generic organising rule that applies to every pantry, right?

But, when I ask them what they actually want out of their pantry, the answer is usually some variant of; Pinterest-pretty, easy to use, easy to maintain and be able to see everything in a single glance.

That’s a much different brief than, I would like there to be no wasted space at all. In fact, the two goals are at complete war with each other.

The vast majority of my clients are women who are overwhelmed by the amount of stuff they have to manage, in their homes and lives. What they often need from me is to find more calm, not more storage.

Dedicated to all the creators who are spending their time online de-influencing people from buying things.