3 Ways to Increase Living Space In Your Home Without Spending A Lot of Money
|Depending on your station in life, you may find yourself desperate for more space to either store your belongings, play with your kids, or expand your hobbies within your own home. And while purchasing a larger home is an option, it is likely an easier and more frugal option to simply increase the amount of living space you have in your current home.
Constructing additional rooms may see like the best answer, but these types of projects can often cost much more than originally anticipated. So to help you increase the amount of living space you have at home without decreasing your bank account too much, here are three options you may consider for expanding within your current property.
Create Breathing Room
If your home used to be the perfect size for you but you’ve noticed a feeling like the walls are closing in on you, you may want to simply create a little more breathing room for yourself. Lauren R. of This Old House Online shares that a great option for opening up a space is to create a more open floor plan. This can be done either by taking down some walls completely or widening doorways and halls to give a few more inches on each side. This type of chance could also be a great renovation if you plan to stay in your home until old age sets in, as it will allow for easier movement with wheelchairs or walkers if they become necessary.
Finish The Unfinished
Many homes have areas that could bring in a lot of additional square footage of living space if they only were finished like the rest of the home. Heather Levin, a contributor to MoneyCrashers.com, recommends reinventing spaces like basements, attics or even garages to create useable rooms out of previously unfinished areas. Not only could upgrading these spaces give you more freedom to move around in your home, but if you do it right, you could even turn these previously unused areas into income suites that now become revenue-producing additions along with simply being a more finished house.
Get Outside the Box
For a lot of people, you may feel like the space inside your home is maxed out. You don’t have one square footage of space that you’re not using to its fullest potential, yet you still need more. When this happens, Dan Miranda and Claes Bell, contributors to BankRate.com, suggest thinking outside the box of your home and reaching into your outdoor space. Installing something like a gazebo or covered patio is a great way to take advantage of all the possible space you have available to you—not to mention that these types of renovations are often a lot less expensive than making changes to the structure of your home.
If you’re in need of more space in your current home, there are always ways to make this dream a reality. Use the tips mentioned above to find the perfect solutions for your living space dilemmas.