How do you do it?

...is something i am asked a lot- especially lately. Do what? - you might ask. House 5 people in a 855 sf home. And i say Home because it very much is Home, and as small as it is, we are attached. There are definitely tactics and tricks that we have come to learn as we keep our space "put together". My neighbor Amy would say that our house is always a bomb, but i promise it is clean some of the time!!! :) Here is how we "do it"~

Bunk Beds. Their little room will not function without them. It also gives them a jungle jim to climb. No accidents yet :)

This medicine cabinet pretty much saves us. I have no idea where we would put all this stuff otherwise. 

Clean out the monsters under the bed, and use the space. What's under our beds? Closet doors, the train table {for when we have more room someday}, Sawyers' toddler bed {not too far away!}, baby bouncer that sawyer has grown out of, shoe racks{also for when we have room someday}, and all our quilts and extra bedding. Under the boys' bunk beds you will find 2 large drawers that are full to the rim with excavators, trucks, cars, and building blocks. A cannon shooter, more toys, and games. We also keep the wooden top to the train table under our couch- It's really convenient and nice to just pull out, play, and tuck back away. 

I should design puzzles. This is what i have HAD to do with our storage spaces. Pretty impressive eh? 

Use those corner spaces that are just waiting to be utilized. Behind their ladder- what was there before? Nothing. Perfect for those stuffed animals, and they can grab one when they go down for a nap or bedtime.

The microwave HAS to be above the fridge. That is the only way my kitchen functions. I am 4 foot 11 inches. It is high, but it is worth the extra counter space it gives us. 

Walls. Walls. Walls. I would not be able to have my office at all without all the wall shelves. Obviously. Pic- 

My office bench doubles as a kitchen chair. There are only 3 chairs that fit at our table, so when we all eat dinner i have to drag the bench a few feet and then back after dinner. Probably one of the things that bugs me the most, but we keep reminding ourselves that this is temporary. 

My Armoir. Oh this beauty. I love this thing. We bought our bed 5 years ago, and didn't have enough money to get the whole set. 6 months ago i went back to RC Willy to find it- $800 new. {and this was the clearance price} So i begged and begged Warren to no avail. One day he was looking on KSL classifieds and there it was. The exact one from our set. 2 years old. and in mint condition. HALF the price, and we even bartered it down from that. I love that thing. It is my little closet. And completely necessary in the Weston condensed household. 

Our room/nursery. It has to be this way. Sawyer has to be separate from the boys for many reasons, but i was pleasantly surprised when his crib AND changing table fit in there with us. There is barely enough room to walk around to the other side of the bed. Warren reminds me that there are families in Russia that will live this way all their lives. It's not so bad.

Our Parkview Apartments office stays in the closet. I only use it a few times a month, so i didn't want it to take up much of our precious space- and also i didn't want it excessable to the little guys. Because we have the armoie- this can work for us. I just sit on the floor and plug away at the accounting. {for those who have thought ahead, there is an extention cord that lines our room and makes it possible to have power in the closet.} I fax from my closet as well. People will never know right?

We also have some storage under the apartment stairs, and a few things in my parents' garage~ 

We have made sure to utilize Murray Park {it's right across the street}, Lagoon, and make plenty of trips up Little Cottonwood. The boys are at preschool from 8 - 11:30 am, then we have naps till around 3 pm, so we really enjoy the time that we get at home. 

We have recommitted to ourselves to tuff it out another year or so here. We have student loans that have been generously {or so the banks thinks} put into a 10 year plan. Are you kidding me? 10 years. I do not want to be in debt for 10 years. It took us 6 to get through school- let's not drag this out shall we? We are also insistent to pay off our 2 cars before we get a mortgage. We know it is very ambitious - exactly. We will never ever have a car payment again. We won't. Next Christmas we are going to wrap up our car keys and give them to each other like they do in those cheesy {and deceiving} car commercials-- {Merry Christmas!!! You are now going to have a $400 month car payment with 6% interest... you will actually end up paying for your car twice! Oh- and Happy New Year!} Only we will be owners, not borrowers. I know that there will be people that judge us, think we are crazy, or scoff at our mini living arrangements, but to them i say... Are you debt free? Cause that is what we want to be in 2009.