Journey Notes: Evaluating Spaces

Compact efficient spaces are important because of the decreased cost needed to own and maintain them.  Important also because they challenge the idea that every home must be huge.  Today’s post is inspired by the Tiny House Talk Blog discussion about the tiny house movement (under 200 square feet) and why people have left it.

These super tiny houses inspire me.  I’ve been a pack-rat and found I was not happy.  I owned all sorts of stuff, the sorts of things you are supposed to own but which I don’t use.  So during a particularly chaotic period of my life, I swore to change my ways and find a better life for myself. hence, the slow purge.

I’ve taken it slow because when I began I simply had NO idea what out of all that stuff was there because I needed/wanted it or just because it was socially expected of me. NO CLUE.

INSPIRATION

Originally, I picked up Sarah Suzanka‘s books on the Big Enough House and LOVED them.  I started asking, “What do I DO and what kind of space do I do that in?” To my surprise, a lot of what I do uses a very small space and other things I do needed more space than they were being allotted.

I am amazed how I spend my time in only a couple of rooms in our home.   I believe it is because these spaces actually serve my needs, at least somewhat.

SOME THINGS I HAVE LEARNED

KITCHEN: I need a smaller kitchen with fewer kitchen gadgets (started by putting less used items in large bins to keep them from collecting dust, then moved the bins to a pantry, and slowly am identifying what is used and worth keeping, what is never used and should be sold or given away).

Nearly every kitchen tool I use regularly fits in TWO nice wide drawers and one deeper one.  I haven’t used more than two burners on my stove in five years–so why do I have a five burner stove???? I do my dishes by hand– it is so quick– so why is there a dishwasher? There is a trash compactor that I never use because it is NOT worth the effort needed to clean it.  I am amazed at what I have that I maintain, pay taxes on, never use and do not need.

SOCIAL SPACES: Cozy two to four person sitting areas for reading and socializing instead of a full living room. Usually if there are three or more people in this house they gather at the kitchen table.

MORE AND LESS SPACES

I need a BIG library space and some place open enough for dancing.

I find I need more pantry space and more closet space for things like sewing supplies.

I find I need less in the kitchen, fewer bathrooms and no separate dining room.

No formal living room but small sitting places–one off the kitchen–will serve us well.

PASSING THINGS ALONG

We no longer have a couch, do not miss it, and that was where my getting rid of things began.  I’m still a bit less clueless but far from finished with the transforming purge.

Dear Lord, please help us all to evaluate what we need in our lives and be freed from assumptions that enslave us to expensive buildings that fail to serve us.  Amen.

 

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