Estimating space requirements for household items

Hello everyone,

do you know if there are lists on the internet or in book form that illustrate what household items (from furniture to tablecloths or soap) need to be stored in a house? I am aware: according to forum rules, posting links is not allowed for everyone (from 150 posts), except via a moderator. We would have to keep that in mind here.

Originally, we wanted to plan a very compact home, but we are encountering more and more "items" that we either already have today or should consider over the course of living.

For example, we did not think that with children also comes the need to store a bunch of jackets and (dirty) shoes. Or strollers, dirty laundry (although dirty laundry is just another state of otherwise differently stored laundry). Extension leaves for extendable tables, spare chairs. Per teenager, 0.5 m² in the bathroom for perfumes, curling irons...

It is not so important to me to name the small items, even if I mention them as examples above. I am more interested in the volume or area. I just discovered a cupboard in our apartment (again) that is stuffed with tablecloths and bedding... we already sorted out quite a bit a few months ago but it is still quite full (0.25 m³).

Such things are quite interesting to know in order to, for example, sensibly provide space for cupboards or cupboards at all. This then also includes the walking paths in the house, window arrangements, etc.
With a basement, you might still be able to stash a lot away, but if everything has to fit into the actual living area...

Maybe there is something about this in the "Textbook for the Home Planner" ;)

I do look at specific households and also bring up the topic with friends and family, but even then I don’t get an open perspective on the things that lie around in houses.

Thank you very much for your tips.

Uh, that depends on each individual. At most, someone might find a personal list because they were bored and wrote everything down. One person gets by with 2 sets of bedding per bed, another needs 5. Soap is also something like that. Does each family member use the same soap or does everyone use a different one? One person likes to stock up on canned goods, toilet paper, batteries, etc., the other buys when needed. It always depends on your own attitude towards life; you can't make a list of that. One person needs a basement for all their junk, another is fine with a storage room, even though the families have the same number of members. One person needs 1 meter of wardrobe, another needs 3 meters. Or do you want to know the storage space needed for every shirt and every pair of underwear and every pair of socks????? Just take the furniture you already have in your apartment and look at it, then think about where you would store it in the house. Then add a few square meters as a reserve and you have your space requirements.

I also think that one cannot generalize this. Whether there are lists for this, no idea, but with some effort, you can come up with it yourself. Maybe as a suggestion, I will list some larger things that will surely keep cropping up if you haven't planned space for them (besides household goods, consciously including things you need in the garden area): - Suitcases, backpacks, and other bulky bags (if you can even still afford a vacation after construction :)) - Strollers and all larger equipment for children (MaxiCosi, baby bassinet, etc.) - Vacuum cleaner, mop, cleaning bucket, etc. - Supplies of detergents for all kinds of textiles - Tools, e.g. wet/dry vacuum, pressure washer, or small machines in larger quantities (if you're a DIYer) - Bicycles, lawnmower, hedge trimmer, scarifier, wheelbarrow, and other garden tools that do not all fit into the garage (if you have one at all); summer/winter tires (if you don't store them externally) - Flower pots/planters not currently in use, stocks of garden fertilizer, potting soil, etc. - Computer workstation (it keeps getting smaller, but a printer still needs its place, for example) - Binders (for all sorts of files like invoices, etc.) - Items for hobbies (for me, e.g., camera equipment with tripod, etc.) - Things for pets if present or planned (scratching post, cat litter box, cage or similar) - Grill, patio furniture that should be stored indoors in winter - Seasonal decorations (Christmas ornaments, etc.) - Books and magazines that you want to keep (eventually every shelf is full) - Boxes that you want to keep (whether for warranty, resale, or as packaging for the next sale on the Internet) - ... Quite a lot adds up if you don't consistently dispose of everything that is no longer needed or only maybe needed. Maybe it's even cheaper to buy one or the other anew than to permanently keep space to store things longer. I also find it hard to part with such things, but maybe my pressure to do so just isn’t high enough. For example, I still keep my older cameras that I no longer use; after all, you don’t get much for them anymore and they were expensive once and you could use them as replacements if a repair is necessary... However, I also don’t buy every new model, so it’s still manageable so far.

So for me, a small dresser is enough for all my clothes (except jackets), meaning I currently don’t have a wardrobe at all. Instead, I need an infinite amount of space for all the animal stuff, which makes living in a rental apartment absolutely impossible because the normal "bourgeois layout" of living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom leaves zero space for additional things. I have 6 rabbits, 3 pairs that don’t get along with each other, and each has its own room with one rabbit hutch each. Then there are the squirrels. Another exercise room for ballet and fitness equipment. No basement where you could store something like that. The "normal" furniture and clothes, on the other hand, take up relatively little space. We moved into our house with 30 moving boxes from a 70 sqm apartment, most of which were books and CDs. As you can see, the amount of space you need is really very relative and individual. You can most easily tell when moving, because that’s when you get a very clear idea of how many cubic meters furniture and boxes use. But even that changes over time. It’s hard to establish anything universally valid.