Just Like Home!

I've blogged about small spaces before, but this is perhaps the coolest small space of them all:


(click image to see larger view)

This is actually a picture of my room in the on-campus apartments here at GMU. It's a little on the small side, but it is still home.

I just entered my room into a "Just Like Home" contest to see who had the coolest room on campus. The prize was a $100 gift certificate to Ikea. There ended up only being five of us in the contest. I didn't win, but it was still fun to try. (You can see the other entries here.)

A few thoughts thoughts about living in a small space:

• It is easy to clean and everything is always close at hand.
• You are forced to keep your possessions to a minimum.
• They can be very unforgiving about too much clutter.
• It forces you to become very creative with your use of space.

A few non-obvious things about my current set-up:

• The small bookcase to the right of my TV, under the bed is very light and can be slid out of the way very easily. This gives me a "crawl-space" of storage under the bed.
• I have a nice set of speakers hidden out-of-the-way on opposite sides of the room, with a sub-woofer under the bed. It is very easy to fill this space with good sound.
• There is a small ottoman in the picture that I use as a footrest when relaxing/reading/watching TV and also as a step to climb into the elevated bed.
• My bed is at waist-level and is the perfect height for using as a workspace to spread out and organize stacks of paper.

I will move out for the summer towards the end of next week. My goal for next year is to get my place decked out even more and turn it into a great place for study and relaxation.

During finals, I had the idea to move a drop-leaf table from our living room area into my room to give me a lot more space to spread my clutter. I also set-up a small folding bookcase I have to give me more room for books and papers. It has worked out fantastically and made my studying far more productive. It's great to be able to just spread out a lot of books and notes on three sides of me and not have to keep stacking everything on top of each other.

I hope to duplicate this next year. Here's a picture of the current set-up while in study mode:


(click image to see larger view)

The small stand next to my desk can be lowered in height and slid under the drop-leaf table. I then drop the leaf and slide my ottoman underneath. Voila! It makes for a streamlined room once again.

A few things I'm thinking about for next year:

• Get a drop-leaf table like I currently have.
• Put a full-height bookshelf next to the drop-leaf table.
• Buy a desktop computer (iMac?) and/or second monitor for my desk to help me become more productive on the PC. (Also, get a laser printer that can print on both sides. It would help to keep paper down to a minimum in the small space.)
• Bring many more things I've collected from my travels around the world.
• Purchase a digital fireplace DVD to make it look like I have a built-in fireplace under my bed.

Does anyone else have any tips for things that have worked will for them in small spaces and/or to stay organized and productive? Any ideas for things you think would work well in my room? I'm looking for a good blend of style, simplicity, and function.