Thursday 27 November 2014

When the house just seems too small!


It isn’t always easy to move to somewhere larger with house prices rising and mortgages still hard to get. The rental market is very strong as well and many people are finding themselves stuck somewhere that is just too cramped for their use. This is especially true for families where the children are getting older and are sharing a room unwillingly. The secret is to make little corners of the house the special place for just one person, so that boundaries are kept up and no one feels that they have no privacy.

Living rooms

Living rooms often suffer from the fact that the television is in there and so anyone trying to do something that takes concentration is having to compete with the noise. There are several ways to look at this and both involve headphones! It is possible to buy sets of headphones and a sender which plugs into the TV so that only people watching will hear. This also works if one person is deaf and needs the volume up. This can give a rather surreal effect, though, because the people watching will react and it can be just as disturbing. The person not watching TV could wear the earphones instead – there are various apps for white noise that block out extraneous sound without breaking concentration.

Use physical dividers

Using furniture is one way to divide up a bedroom or lounge diner. Putting different floor coverings down – for example take a look at these  large traditional rug in the sitting area, or maybe a less formal shaggy rug in the family room – will also demarcate what each bit of a room is to be used for. In children’s bedrooms, round rugs in the ‘communal’ area will clarify who had which bit as their private space. You can also use colour to show that you are in another’s territory – neutral rugs giving way to jazzy colours will soon show who owns what.

Courtesy will win the day

The problem with families is that they often forget that they have to be as polite to each other as to other people. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ are words you sadly don't hear very much inside the average home and that is a shame. Showing that you are grateful for things done for you by others is a way of making them feel valued, as is showing proper respect for another’s belongings and space.

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