Space Saving Technologies for the Home?

An anonymous reader asks: "My wife & I are moving from an 1800 square foot apartment to a 900 square foot apartment this weekend. In order to keep our one size extravagance, a 6' x 6' table, we need to make some compromises. What can I do to solve this problem? What other great space-saving solutions with technology are there?"

"The first compromise we've made is books. All of my O'Reilly books, and any other book that we can access on Safari is being given away or sold. I've also gotten rid of my outdated tech manuals, except for the VMS books, and historically significant UNIX books.

I've also disposed of all my desktops. My wife is keeping hers, but all I really need is a portable laptop stand which can mount an LCD screen, and my PowerBook.

Now comes the Living Room -- our entertainment center takes up way too much space. 400 DVDs, 100 videos, and countless CDs. We're going to rip all of the CDs, for sure. We're also going to get rid of our television and replace it with a wall-mounted LCD.

This leaves an important question: Digital Media Centers. I've seen a lot of half-there DIY digital media centers involving MythTV or Windows Media Center Edition. I just haven't seen the right solution. The right solution to me needs to allow me to easily rip and encode (though I'd be happy just ripping, because I don't want to sacrifice quality for space. I have 10 400GB hard drives laying in my office waiting for a use)."

Re:Stacking

[toddbu]

Drawers are you friend.

As are storage lockers and safe deposit boxes. Personally, I recommend evaluating stuff to see if you really need it. When I had an office, I had a 30 day rule. If I didn't touch it in 30 days, it was gone. It worked really well, and I had virtually nothing in my office.

Efficient furniture

[jrockway]

The furniture you buy can make a huge difference in how much space you have. I live in a small apartment, and have way too many tables (because I write, do homework, tinker with electronics, have multiple computers, etc.) I made room by getting a bunk bed that doesn't have a bed on the bottom. I have my main computer desk `under' my bed, and I sleep on top.

You can find the one I have at IKEA for $200:

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Prod uctDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=12&productId=11 534&langId=-1&parentCats=10103*10144 [ikea.com]

I also have other helpful pieces of IKEA furniture, like a $39 desk-on-wheels for my Linux desktop. It is really easy to move around, so when you have to rearrange furniture, it's not too much effort. Other things I've found helpful are shelves with partitions and things like:

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Prod uctDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=12&langId=-1&pr oductId=15923 [ikea.com]

This lets me store my junk somewhere but not have to look at it. Very helpful, and a very good looking coffee table.

Re:Table

[JabberWokky]

It could easily be a heirloom or favorite piece. My Mom had a rocking chair for decades that was one of the only things that survived a childhood fire when she was 16. She rocked all her kids in it. It hardly fit in with the decor, but it had history. She let it go when it ceased being useful (started falling apart), but there were entire rooms of furniture that came and went before the rocking chair left the house.

It could be just that they like it, but having a core piece of furniture that you are attached to is common. My fiance loves an old antique hardwood dresser. Freaking heavy thing that we wound up having to haul cross country. Blearg. But she loves it.

--
Evan

Ripping CDs as a space saver?

[An Onerous Coward]

Okay, sit back and think about this. If it takes you five minutes per CD ripped, you can rip twelve in an hour. Guessing that each CD case takes up 9 cubic inches, you're saving yourself a whopping 108 cubic inches for every hour you put into this project. You can't pack three t-shirts into 108 cubic inches. If your primary goal is to save space, this is a very inefficient way to do it.

You can get most of the same benefit much more quickly by getting rid of the ones you're not attached to, throwing the rest on an old CDR spindle, and ripping on an as-needed basis. Not nearly as sexy as having your entire CD collection filed away, but my rule of thumb is that 80% of the average digital music library is stuff the owner wouldn't want to listen to anyways. 95% for me, but I'm the shameless packrat who kept all those SXSW tracks around "just to be safe".

In summary, your media collection (books/movies/CDs) is just one of many things you should be looking at in your quest to unclutter your lives. I have to wonder what makes this table worth all the trouble. Unless it flies around the room granting wishes, remind yourself, "There's just the two of us, we don't need a huge table", then whittle it down with a bow saw.

Re:Table

[FLEB]

Counterpoint--

Me? I like my crap.

Although I do agree that one has to take the hobby of crap-collection as a casual thing, not a critical, life-warping obsession, there can be a joy, akin to any other cosmically-useless life endeavor, in getting and displaying new and interesting junk.

I'm a garage-sale fanatic, specializing in the little things that society rarely lets commoners buy on the open market (or, at least, things with that general vibe). I enjoy inspiring "WTF?".

My apartment is pretty much bursting at the seams. I have a collection of downed street signs all over the walls. (Plus one parking meter that I just found in the river... still working!) What that doesn't cover, the various posters (graphic designer = interesting junk mail), maps, and bookshelves do. (I like the vertically-towering weight of a good library... it's like the majesty of a skyscraper. Just be careful what you build them from. I once had a rickety homemade 7-level bookshelf dump about 300 pounds of books on the floor when a mounting broke.)

I've gotten rid of most of the old computers... ancient PC-architecture machines just aren't that sexy. I still have the Mac Classic (standard due reverence) and the Commodore 64 (my first programming box... awwww). I've got two typewriters (one 1930s, one 1970s) and a whole file-drawer of assorted old paper from estate sales, which I can use to make decent prop-forgeries of old paperworks.

I've also got the telephone collection. I'm glad my apartment gets good ringer power, because I've got about 10 live (and a couple I have to hook up) telephones from 1958 to present-era hooked up. It's a glorious cacaphony whenever anyone calls. I love it. (Actually, the whole thing stemmed from my brain not being able to distinguish "telephone" from "alarm clock" when "loud ringing" would wake me up. Now, there's no problem between "alarm clock" and "whole house shrieking".

My car, as well, is well-stocked. I have Michigan (and elsewhere) road maps dating back to 1932 (a modest collection). The front dash has a red roto-bubble light and a yellow rubber duck. The back dash has a yellow flasher and some melting electronics I've been meaning to take out of there. The trunk contains my latest pride-and-joy. I picked up a full Santa Claus outfit (for USD$1! Woot!), and I've worked from there to make my trunk into a mobile costume closet. It's coming along slowly, but costumes and the like are admittedly difficult to come by cheaply. It's mostly hats. Some highlights include a 1940s-60s era (can't really narrow it down) aluminum helmet, a green mosquito-netting hat, an official ref's shirt, an old Army cap with pins, and a very nice plastic Mammoth Caves worker's helmet (which I intend on making more paste-over logos, things like gas/electric company and such) for.

I keep my memories locked up in little boxes of letters and old store reciepts (for some reason, I have a very good recall of events from store reciepts), although most of my "memorables" are digital, packratted away on computer, CD, and offsite.

Not to say that the way you do things is wrong or undesirable... I just wanted to share my Joy of Random Crap.

Re:Sell, Give, Freecycle

[Basje]

Hear hear. I've been homeless for the last three months, moving from place to place. I live out of a suitcase and the trunk of my car. All the other stuff is not neccessary.

But although it is not neccessary, I still miss it sometimes. It's nice to have a place of your own with things that are not neccessary. I will be happy when my new home is finished, but I expect to have a lot of free space for the first year or so.

Priorities...

[gabe]

So you're moving into an apartment half the size of what you've currently got, but you're shelling out all this money to cram your lifestyle into half the space.

Have you thought about keeping the old apartment (or getting a new one) with more space and not spending so much money on tech (ten 400GB hard drives?!) and other stuff (400DVDs?!).