By Jude Njoku

For most people living in Lagos and other cities in the country, it is hard to hear anyone complain of too much space; what we hear is that the available space is grossly inadequate to take the household furniture. The situation becomes even more precarious for those who share flats or live in condominiums usually called in our own parlance, self-contained apartments and studio apartments. Even those who live in duplexes are not free from this problem as the wealthy tend to acquire more household property.

How then do you manage a limited space in your home and still create an aesthetic ambience that is both appealing and inviting? Space affects your mood, well-being and productivity. Homes that are heavily cluttered are likely to compromise personal safety. An Interior decorator, Mrs Carol Willaims states that since Nigerian homeowners lack the financial wherewithal to move into more spacious accommodation, the leeway is to adopt creative approaches that would help to maximise the use of space and reduce the clutter in the living area.

According to her, organising the living space should not be seen as a boring task.

The first thing to consider is the arrangement of your furniture. This is because furniture items are the most visible items in the home and they take up most of the space available. Take a living room furniture for example, the usual method to arrange them is to line them along the wall. An online write-up in http://www.articlesbase.com notes that while this is often good at space saving, it is also a tired pattern in home space management. “You will be surprised by the look that your home will get if it is arranged differently. To do it best though would require you to study the traffic and the available space of your home. You can also make the living room up to date by changing your throw cushion cases with the seasons”.

Making your home sparkle with good lighting is another effective home space management tool. Provided you do not exceed specifications, good lighting makes the home look livelier and more spacious.

When decorating, it is always wise to keep things to a minimum. “Follow a central theme but do not overdo it. It is understandable that everything bought to decorate the home is beautiful to the one who made the purchase but overdoing will often make the home a collection of confusing knickknacks without a central theme aside from an ineffective home space management. When decorating, it is good to imagine that you are actually directing the eyes to items that you want seen and to highlight a particular area. Too much detail in home decorating undermines other details”.

Keep your walls up to date by freshening it up by repainting. When you do, do not pick one shade of a colour for the entire house. Mixed shades give your house depth and texture. It is advisable to have one major shade with two minor ones. Beyond that would be confusion. If you must repaint the house, the best way to do this is to paint one large enough portion of the wall for you to get the effect. Finally, you should note that carpets and rugs would assist you in home space management. Rugs are also good way to anchor furniture in place. When installing rugs, choose patterns and colours that will compliment the entire ambience that you want created.