What makes your home feel smaller than it is

Summer is in full swing!

And with it comes the hustle and bustle of lake trips, pool days, camping weekends, swim meets, hiking plans and so much more. The dry weather, the warm temperatures, have us ready to get outside and get up in all those out door activities. But what does all that super fun stuff require? Gear, baby! And sometimes, lots of it. There’s boots, tents, pool floaties, bottles of sun screen on every counter. The options are endless, for cool stuff you can collect and acquire to make your outdoor adventure so epic.

One of the things it does to us though, is eat up our square footage. Sometimes you can look around and feel downright overwhelmed by the crazy amount of items laying everywhere and taking up space.

Combine that with a good heat wave, or any amount of humidity and your house can feel absolutely stifling. We all struggle with functional space usage, at different times. But this is a particular dynamic we get hit with, during summer break, when it is full swing vacation mode, and ain’t nobody trying to organize.

Summer is a social time, all these fun activities should include friends. But with all the stuff all over the place, it feels more embarrassing than like an opportunity for hosting hang outs. Ideally, backyard bbqs and beers by a fire pit would be awesome. So what can we do to make our house feel more cool and spacious, and less like a hot mess?

Never fear guys, there are solutions.

An obvious go to, is facing the truth that the real killer, is the clutter. Get it outta there. Find a space, put a shelf in the garage, a storage tub on the side of the house, get that gear outta there.

Now how do we cool this sucker off a little bit. No one wants to hang out in a hot room.

Do you get a lot of direct sunlight through your windows? That can be lovely in some seasons, but in the summer time, sunlight beaming into any room equates heat. Get you some blinds, or uv blocking window covers during the heat of the day.

Did you know flipping your blinds up deflects the heat before it enters your room? If they’re slotted down, slits of hot sunlight still hit your window in a way that adds heat to the house. Flip them up and the heat is deflected.

Swap out heavy drapes, and thick cozy throws for light fabrics. Light in color and texture, like cotton and linen.

Heat makes your home feel smaller with physical discomfort. So block those windows and check the air sealing and insulation. Hot air gets in, and your air conditioning escapes, costing you more to cool the home.

Some of the nicest times of day during hot season can be early morning and late evening. If you’re having friends over for dinner, schedule it later in the day and open the windows. Set your ceiling fan to go counterclockwise to push air straight down and create a windchill effect.

Avoid using the oven, make a big salad and cut some fruit. The oven heats the house up so much it’s hard to counterbalance.

Turn off electronics, they release radiant heat when left on.

If you have a 2 story house, leave the upstairs windows open, it will suck hot air up and out of the house.

Clear bulky items like big planters from windows and doorways to encourage air flow.

An advantage of summer is your outdoor patios, especially in the morning and evening can be an extension of the house. Get some nice patio furniture and eat outdoors, read a book in the shade, expand your hang out space into the yard.

A lot of these steps can be taken with out having to go buy anything or making any huge changes to the house. It’s expensive to just be existing these days, so suggestions or solutions without a big price tag are a relief.

Take charge of your hot crowded spaces and air those bad boys out, don’t let the heat and the gear steal your summer time home happiness! You’ve got this.