# How Do I Make It All Fit?



## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

OK, ladies. Get out your thinking caps. I've got a dilemma and I need your help. I have a living room that is 14x16. In it, I need to fit a long, low cabinet that holds all our vcr tapes and still have access to it. A chair and footstool. (stool is optional). An 8 foot long sofa, a single end table for the lamp, (no ceiling lite) a rather large snake tank that I can't fit anywhere else in the house, a small crib, 2 book shelves, the tv which is sits on the coffee table, a small toybox and a dresser. Can it be done? I've had all I can take of my daughter's clothes being all over the living room. Just because she sleeps there doesn't mean her stuff has to be everywhere. 

There is a 4 foot section of flooring in front of the front door which cannot be blocked. The rest of the room is pretty much like any other trailer. 2 windows on one side and 1 on the other. The single window can be blocked if needed. The double cannot. It gets way too dark in there when I do that. 

Ok. Start brainstorming. How can I make all this stuff fit in there and still be able to use the room? It has to be possible, cuz her clothes are everywhere on the couch and chair. Nobody can sit in that room and I can't stand it any more. Just for clarity, there is no room in any other room for the dresser. All other rooms are stuffed to their maximums. We are hoping to add on this summer, but right now it just has to fit.


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## 3ravens (Mar 16, 2006)

Hmmmmmmm.......shelving all around the room 18 in from the ceiling. DD's clothing and "stuff" in boxes or baskets or something up there. Most trailer ceilings aren't high, so she should be able to reach up there. A couple totes under the crib that can be slid in and out for access. Could some of the books be packed up temporarily and the shelves used for DD and Marky's stuff? If you pack them in small boxes you might find some odd small crannies around the trailer to tuck them in. A deep shelving unit instead of a dresser means you don't need to worry about space in front of it to open the drawers. Is it possible to use a floor lamp and eliminate the end table? If I come up with more I'll post again.


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## Queen Bee (Apr 7, 2004)

doulbe post...sorry


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## Queen Bee (Apr 7, 2004)

I would use the low cabinet for my end table, instead of the table. I would have a shelf all the way around the room, get rid of those bookcases. You can purchase one of those hanging racks for a tv place it up in the corner or place it on the dresser. For the crib and toy box, I would find an old drawer and some rollers and fix it so the drawer for toys could roller under the crib or under the coffee table. Maybe you could get a trunk for your dd clothes and use it as a coffee table and take the one you have out..Snake tank  (you don't want to know what I would do with it--LOL)! It can be done but you need to think 'up and under'.


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

I'd love to use the low cabinet for an end table, but it is 7 feet long. It's currently housing about 300 vhs tapes until i can get them transferred to dvd. (winter project) I am using the blanket storage chest which used to be my coffee table to hold up the tv. I actually thought about hanging it from the ceiling, but the "beams" are only 1x2's. I don't know why that surprised me, but it did. None of the beams in the ceiling or walls are strong enough to support a 36" tv. I'd put up a smaller one, but I don't own one. (This one was a gift from our oldest son last year.)

I love the drawer on wheels idea. I think I actually saved a couple of drawers from an old dresser for my fairy garden. I can swipe those for the baby's things. The biggest issue that I am having is storage for their clothes. They are EVERYWHERE. I'm so tired of washing and rewashing the same clothes. I gave Kimi the use of a cabinet in the bathroom for her clothes, but she just won't put them there. I'm tempted to let them all get dirty and make her wash, dry, and put away on her own. 

I did try to put up a shelf along the top of one wall in the living room. It was a disaster. I think my books are going to have to go in boxes in my closet for now. I don't know how they are going to fit. My closet has no clothing in it, just boxes. I am STILL trying to get the last of our stuff sorted out from amongst the trash in our storage unit. I'm so tired of wasting that money every month.


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## Queen Bee (Apr 7, 2004)

Do you have room under beds that you could use for her clothes? Just use the drawers with rollers on them. When we lived in our tiny cottage, I used ever inch of space under beds, on the walls. I even placed the sofa on 4x4 raising it up four inches to put things under it.. It felt funny for a little while but I got used to it and dh loved it because he is tall. Beds can be raised up also. You can make platform beds very easily and use them to store thing in/under. I added shelves along every wall in the bedroom, bathroom and livingroom. I had an old sq. table and cut the legs off a little to make a tall coffee table, used milk crates (covered w/ batting and fabric on a board for a top) so the kids could use the table and 'stools' for home work, eating, playing.. the crates stored things inside them. Notebooks, papers, toys etc. They fit nicely under the table when not being used. Good luck..


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## Sumer (May 24, 2003)

My sister has a long low dresser in her small living room and she put her book shelf on top of it having room left over for her TV. The book shelf she has had legs which unscrewed so she took them off, now it is flat. It really dosnt look bad, sorta like a huge entertainment center.
It would all depend on the topple factor given you have a little one running around but could you do something like that and put your bookshelves on top of the cabinet? 

~~Sumer


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

Sumer, that might work. The shelves are plastic, there is no weight to them. They might sit up there without a problem. That would free up about 8 feet of floor space, total. I could put the baby's dresser out there. I think there are boxes under the crib now, but I'm not sure what's in them. Maybe it's time a took a look to see what she brought home with her. (she was never good at packing.)

Queen Bee~raising the couch up is a brilliant idea. I have some 4x4's in the yard I can have cut down today. There is lots of room under there, as well as under the snake tank. Maybe I can put her boxes under the tank and free up some space in the room. I hate for the room to look cluttered and cramped. I waited years to be able to use the living room for it's intended purpose. LIVING! Now, I'm hiding in my office again, avoiding the gathering room. I don't want to be out there when it's such a disorganized mess.


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## hiswife (May 30, 2008)

we turned off our cable TV to be able to pay for higher gas costs (we live rural and drive 60 miles round trip 6x week to work) and we have a TV in our bedroom, so were able to remove the RV and associated tapes, etc, and even move the couch around. So now our tiny livingroom is spacious! Would something like taking the TV out of the living room be an option?


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

Not really, unless I was to put it on top of the dryer in the laundry room..........lol. However, I am seriously considering putting it on the shelf under the snake tank! I think it would fit, and that shelf is really deep!

I did decide to remove the video tape cabinet entirely. The tapes are going back into boxes, except for the ones that the baby watches. The cabinet is going out onto the porch, where it will have a back installed and become locking tool storage along one wall. (a potting stand, too!)

Then, we will move the snake tank outdoors for a day, clean the carpets and rearrange the existing furniture. I THINK that if I do it this way, I can set up the other futon couch in there and still have room for the crib. The blanket chest under the tv right now will fit under the crib as a toy box, and that should do it. I hope. We'll see how it really works out. 

If I ever get my cam fixed, I'll post before and after pix as well. Thanks for the help, ladies.


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