Friday, October 23, 2015

Learning to Live Tiny

It seems like my life has been an exercise in learning how to downsize.  I fought that for years.  I wanted my own giant house on a cliff that swept up into the sky, when you were on the water below the house you wouldn't be able to tell the house from the rock.....it was beautiful really.  I have every room designed and decorated.   All in my head of course.   Even still it always seemed big and cold and lonely.    Strange right?   Still, I spent hours perfecting it and started collecting things for when my dream, this big (palatial really) house overlooking the sea finally came to be.  I spent so much time and energy dragging all of it around with me from place to place or leaving it in storage or at my parent's house or various different friends......while I tried to fit in somewhere.  It never happened and still my "stuff" kept growing.

Here's the odd thing.  When I was a kid (ok, not quite but, close) my Dad's company went on strike and it was decided that we'd sell the big house and get a smaller one.  Part way through that the idea of all of us moving into a 5th wheel for the summer to save some money came up.  I thought it was BRILLIANT!! Yes, crowded (my parents, 14 year old sister, me - 18 and my oldest son who was just months old) but, it seemed like a fantastic idea and it never really left me.....it always seemed like a temporary thing though.  No one lives in a camper permanently. Right?  Then I'd hear about people renovating or building and staying in campers while the building was going on.  It seemed so ....romantic?  Looking back now I realise that it was the living in the small space that captured my attention not the fancy new houses going up.

Add that to my natural tendency to want everything to be repurposed in to something new or have more than one use.  Then throw my love of new places and hunger for new experiences into the mix and it becomes obvious that a mobile tiny house is the way to go.
If only I'd realised that years ago things would be so much different for me now.  Not that I'd change all the big things of course.

So, since I am not able (yet) to start building my tiny house I figure I should start living that way anyhow.  I'm living in a small enough house with my parents, sister, oldest son and the baby (well, he turned 3 today).  I share a room (and bed, co-sleeping is awesome! ......and another post) with the little one.

I have a design -mostly in my head- of what I want.  Bed. Desk. Clothes storage. Literature storage. Room to exercise (inside because it gets cold here). Space to make my jewellery or whatever other creativity that comes to me and store the supplies for it.  I've got a plan and I have no desire to compromise on comfort or prettiness.

First step.  Giant purge.  I got rid of so many pieces of clothing.  It felt great.  However, there's still so much!  I find I can't get at it though.  It's just piled up too high!  So....

Next step.  Build a shelf for stuff that I want but needs to be out of the way because it isn't used often. Blankets and winter coats and suitcases etc.....

That's what is going on now.  That's what the next post is about.

The pics are of my room.  A cluttered mess.  It's really time....it also isn't all my stuff.  The stuff on the walls is hung there to cover graffiti by my oldest son's now ex girlfriend.  She wrote on all of the walls, ceiling, and door with a giant permanent black felt marker....back when this room was his.

Thanks for stopping by!!



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