What do you do if your room makes you feel claustrophobic? You feel cramped in those quarters, but there isn't much you can do about it, or is there? Windows that face the outdoors would help tremendously but there is only so much you can do about the structure of the room. The landlady may kick you out if you knock a hole in the wall to create a window, but there are other ways of bringing in the light. Okay, before we even talk about light, is the room cluttered up?

The first thing you should do in a cramped space is to declutter. Get rid of all the things you don't need. As for what you really need, plan out where you can keep them so that you have as many clear surfaces as possible in the room. The less clutter there is, the more spacious, or at least, the less cramped and stressful the room would feel. Keep all the papers out of sight. Organize them in files, or boxes and hide these boxes in odd corners in the room, out of sight. By the way, how well is your room organized? Many rooms might have unused spaces beneath the window or they may be oddly shaped. Make the most of those odd spaces by building in cabinets or storage spaces and keep your belongings there out of sight, to reduce clutter.

Get a magazine rack to keep your newspapers and latest magazines in. Then keep that magazine rack near the wall. Actually, keeping the furniture against the wall leaves you more space in the center of the room for you to move around.