Everything is OK

I started my too early morning, greeted by hundreds of ants, invading my kitchen sink. I sprayed them down, ignoring that creepy-crawly feeling all over my skin, then plodded my way to the bathroom. I stepped on an extra wet towel near the sink cabinet that I knew should not have been so wet.

Sure enough, water was over flowing out from under the newly replaced sink, pipes and cabinet. 'Newly replaced' after the faucet exploded on the 4th of July, shooting up high enough to blow out the light bulb that still has not been replaced. The towel was on the floor, over flowing from our laundry basket, spilling out into the small hallway because of a reoccurring and unresolved plumbing issue in our laundry room preventing us from doing laundry regularly. The laundry room plumbing connects to our kitchen sink, causing it to drain only sometimes and when the water from the washer isn't backing up into it, producing a very narrow window when I can actually wash dishes. That narrow window is not long enough for me to complete a full sink load of dishes at a time and I can only do dishes during day light hours because the kitchen light also burned out and I keep forgetting to replace it...until it's dark again!

Five humans live in this house. One meal is a sink load. Five days or more with out doing laundry...is disastrous.

Along with this, is the fact that my adventure van is sounding and running like a lawnmower, spewing strong fumes into it so that we have to drive with all the windows open just so we can slightly breathe.

This could all sound so horrible and awful and make any mom want to go back to bed and stay there. I could have gotten angry. Given in to agitation. I could whine and complain about how terrible my life is, all day.

None of that would be true though. Sure, it's inconvenient. Last week a drawer face broke off, as someone tried to open it. Just snapped right off one side.

None of this will last forever though. Nothing ever does, good or bad. Everything will be fixed eventually. We did get a brand new water heater, after the old one had been continuously leaking and running for months after we found out. We're renters in this home and we have a good deal.

My side kitchen garden is really thriving and looks so lovely even though earlier in the week I had to pull out a mold diseased squash plant. It was a bummer but everything else is still looking good. The garden looks beautiful and lovely with it's mix of edible herbs, vegetables and wild flowers.

I can choose to focus on the FEW things wrong in my life right now. I choose to focus on the temporary nature of EVERYTHING in my life right now. The plumbing will be fixed. We have more than enough clothes. I can wash dishes in increments. I own a plunger. The Mr. was helpful enough to try and readjust the restroom sink plumbing to prevent more over flow when he came to pick up the ktbunch. We shared a laugh. The ants died and more may or may not be back tomorrow but my 5yo thinks it's the funnest thing ever to get to "spray the spray" and kill them.

I have a rush custom baby bloomer order to fulfill today that put some cash in my back pocket. I have a lovely family. I have a great sense of humor. I have a great job opportunity I'm starting, that is challenging and loaded with potential. Life is ALWAYS good. I really have no reason to get down. My live is lovely and beautiful and sometimes inconvenient which makes for fun stories and possible blog posts and laughter and snarky, sarcastic comments to process.

Life is going to end sooner than any of us will ever want. There may be painful moments. There will be lots of fabulous moments. I choose to not waste any more time focused on the negative or what is 'wrong' with it. I may share and let you in on some of it but a bad moment does not make for a bad day...or a bad life.

This is how my family not only survives but thrives.
Smile on.

Guest Post: Maximizing your Square Footage with Minimum Space

Welcome back to our Small Home Living Series! This weeks guest post is from Martha Artyomenko. She has some fabulous ideas to share with us about how to maximize our small spaces. Please visit her blog and say hello. http://homeschoolblogger.com/martha

I am the oldest of 11 children, which if you believe what you see on TV, means it is hard to live in a small space with many people. It is difficult, but not impossible! My memories of small home living are fond and many. I love to watch HGTV shows like House Hunter’s, Property Virgins, and My First Place. One thing I am always struck with is a person’s perspective. Many times I have witnessed someone walk into a place and proclaim it is too small for them and their one dog they own, because it only has two bedrooms. The Master suite only has one closet and the room is only 11 x 15, which I thought was a large room growing up.  I shared it with 6 siblings, but it was large to me. 

Martha and her nephew.

When I married, I moved to the state of MN, and shared a home with my sister and her husband for a while before we built a cabin of our own. The cabin was 14x24 with a steep stairway that was practically a ladder, to loft like bedrooms under a barn shaped roof. I quickly learned that less is more. We built our own skinny table that was less than 2 feet wide and 5 feet long. We had an extra one for guests, that hung on the wall on hinges and swung up, supported by one leg in the middle. The small room that we took showers in, had a portable toilet (there was no running water in our cabin) and measured probably 3 foot x 4 feet. It was under the stairway, so we used the space under the stairs, every inch of it. We made shelves under there that were covered by sliding cupboard doors. Outside the bathroom, there were little cubbies, on one side where there was plenty of storage for jars and many canned goods, and the other side for some children’s toys, papers and books. Our boys had one tub full of toys and everything had to fit in that space under the stairs. There was a couch, a large wood stove, wood box and that was all in the room. Coat hooks along the entry and a boot rack with shoes and boots lined neatly on it.  A large area rug separated the kitchen from the living area with the stairs between. We did have a small tricycle we brought in the winter for our son to expel some energy.  When the table was down, there was plenty of space to ride the tricycle! 

Under the skinny kitchen table, we stored buckets of grain, flour, sugar etc. Under the beds upstairs there were tubs with extra food, fabric, baby blankets, baby clothing. One small room, if you could even call it that, had a small entertainment unit with stereo and books on it. 

In many ways it was much easier to keep things clean in a smaller house! But with everything you bring into the house, you have to think, “Where will I put it? Do I have room?” 

You can maximize your small spaces by a couple of things:

1.      Look for out of the ordinary places for storage. We used under our table, under our stairway, under the beds. 

2.      Build a storage shed and organize it. – Heavy-duty shelving can make it easy to organize and find. Using hard plastic tubs can protect from rodents and bugs, but can be a way to store things you do not use everyday. 

3.      Pare down your stuff. If you do not use it everyday, pack it up. Less is more. Give away things you do not use. Only keep out a few extra dishes for the family and store the rest in a box in the shed, easily accessible, in case of guests. This will cut back on the amount of dishes that pile up, but also keep your cupboards neater. Sell extra toys and things that just add to clutter.

4.      Get rid of clutter.  Keep only things that are useful. Use useful things as décor.  Books can be used for décor, kerosene lamps, fruit, candles, photographs etc. can all be used to decorate a place and be useful in other ways. 

5.      Do not overdo it with clothing. Limit to a weeks worth of clothing, and every time you buy a new garment, get rid of one that you have. 

6.      Keep things clean: Small crowded place look nicer when they are clean and neat. It is hard sometimes to keep things clean, but it will feel better as a little mess feels like a bigger one in a small area. 

7.      Think outside the box when it comes to furnishing. Murphy Beds, tables on the wall, shelves on the wall around the whole room for books instead of a standing bookshelf.  I had many older construction project books that had many plans and ideas in them!

The boys

Enjoy your house, but also, when looking for a home, make sure if you choose a small home, you look at the areas resources. If it has a small indoor living space, what does the yard look like? Are there parks nearby? Is there a library in close proximity that you can use?  You will not have room for large pieces, look for small appliances, furniture, and smaller pieces, instead of the overstated, overstuffed furniture of today! 

In closing, one thing that I found made me never feel like I crowded or claustrophobic. We all had our own space to sleep growing up and later with my boys. They had their own area and could play there, read there, and sleep there. It gave us a place to go and chill, so to speak!

Our homes were not fancy and for sure nothing you would find in a BH&G magazine, but they were home to us!  There was an old poem we memorized and lived our lives by that I would put here at the end…. it always spoke to me when deciding what was important or not. 

A Hundred Years From Now

 ~Warren Parker

It will not make much difference friend a hundred years from now,

If you live in a stately mansion or a floating river scow.

If the clothes you wear were tailor made or just pieced together somehow,

If you eat big steaks or beans and cake a hundred years from now.

It won’t matter what your bank account or the make of car you drive,

For the grave will claim all your riches and fame and the things for which you strive.

There's a deadline that we all must meet, no one will show up late.

It won’t matter all the places you've been each one will keep that date.

(Taken from a Leonard Ravenhill audio sermon)

Outside the Box Storage

Continuing our Small Home Living series...

Storage is a real concern when you have an above average amount of people living in your below average sized home. I have been on a purge-the-stuff mission for the past year, but let's get real: 6 people PLUS their stuff condensed to a 3 bedroom 1041 sq ft doesn't leave much space.

I used to fight against the space, thinking if we just had bigger closets or more practical storage furniture OR if we moved every one's stuff into the garage! Yeah, that's the answer! Well, that really doesn't work if you actually need the stuff for daily living. Right? Small spaces can only handle so much furniture.

I am still purging, it's an ongoing process of weeding out what isn't being used, has worn out it's welcome or is no longer needed. I have at least one bag for donation per week. However some items are going nowhere because they are useful.

Blankets and comforters for instance. We have a small linen closet that holds towels, sheets, a few table cloths and hand towels and a stash of cloth diapers (until I decide what I want to do with them and they are still in use as great towels/hot pads/oven mitts!). Comforters tend to mysteriously make their way out of the linen closet onto the hall way floor, regularly from being shoved in tight.

I love the look of pillows on my bed, LOTS of them. However, I don't have room to store pillows on my bed that won't even be used. I certainly don't want to spend $$$$ for an item that won't even be used either!

I store unused blankets in pillow shams instead. This works perfectly, I get the look I want, save space, and the blankets are easily accessible at all times. Take a look.

This can work for any size blanket depending on the size of the sham. I found small square, decorative, zippered pillow cases on clearance last year at Michael's art and craft store. They were under a dollar each. They are the perfect size for baby blankets! Yes, baby blankets are still in use by the toddler and a few were hand made that have sentimental value and I hope will become heirlooms.

You could leave them on the beds and sleep on top, only using the blankets you actually need to keep warm. Also double the fitted sheets on your bed and when you need to wash, only remove the top sheet. Another option is to use them in decorating your home. Having throw blankets across the back of the couch or love seat is nice and cozy. Or even on the edge of a bed like this:

Don't forget that gold mine of space *under* your bed. Sure you can purchase slim under bed storage boxes BUT you can also purchase bed risers. There are plenty of styles to choose from. They raise your bed quite a few inches and it makes all the difference in the world! I have my daughter's bed positioned on a sturdy set and it provided just the space we needed for a full sized piece of hard luggage to fit under. She stores both her 18" inch dolls and all their accessories, in it.

If you are so inclined, you could use solid wood beams, and make your own risers like the picture below.

Source: zoologie.com.au via Katy on Pinterest

I love my neighborhood so much, I never want to move. We are blessed with super cheap rent and everything is within walking distance: two grocery stores, a fabulous thrift store, two parks, the post office, the library, a mall, craft and fabric stores, and even an entire street of restaurants. It's worth it for me to appreciate what I have instead of dreaming of something that may never be what we truly need. I'd rather stay here and *make* it work!



Come back next Thursday for another post in our Small Home Living Series, featuring another guest post: Maximizing your Square Footage!

Guest Post: Small Home by Choice

Continuing my Small Home Series, this week's featured guest poster, Chautona, is a mother of many, wife to one and published author. She shares why her family chooses to Live Large in their Small Home and a few tips she's learned along the way. You can find more of her writing at www.chautona.com 

 

I think the Lord was preparing me for life in a small house almost from birth.  We moved constantly when I was a child—starting with my father moving us while my mother was in the hospital having me!  We lived in a fun farmhouse, little bungalow, desert ranch, beach condo, city one-bedroom apartment, and so many more.  My last year and a half of high school found me living in an eighteen foot travel trailer in the middle of the desert—running water and electricity unnecessary to our comfort.  We took “Navy” showers and used Coleman camping lanterns for me to do my homework by at night.  No joke.

When we bought this house, I loved the hardwood floors, the large bedrooms, and “old” feel.  Our house was built in the 1950’s, and as one local who lived here at that time said, “They were the ‘luxury’ homes of the time.  Everyone wanted to live over here.  It was my dream home.”  Now, of course, people consider our house a “starter home,” and that is how it was billed when we bought it.

Now, to be honest, I didn’t plan to move again once we moved into this house.  I’d moved enough.  I was eighteen and if you count every single time I had to pack my things to live somewhere for more than a couple of weeks, I’d moved thirty times.  My dad wasn’t even in the military!  However, after our third child was born, people started commenting about how we’d need a bigger house if we kept having children.  I bought the lie.  I mean, it’s generally accepted that only one, possibly two children can share a room, right?  What if baby four was a boy?  That’d be three girls in one room!  Horrors!  

So, I started looking.  A friend was doing some house searching, so I went along.  I looked at what was available.  I saw floor plans, tried to figure out where we’d live and what we’d do if we lived there.  Nothing impressed me.  Then my dream house came on the market.  I’d salivated over that house for years.  It was simple but bigger and pretty.  Almost twice our current square footage.  Eagerly, we walked through with a realtor.  The kitchen was outdated in a way that bothered even me—mostly the counter top, but I ignored it.  Counter tops can be replaced, right?  The carpeting was very high shag—white with gray and black blotches everywhere.  It was so ugly.  I mean hideously ugly.  It looked as though someone had repaired a motorcycle in it.  I looked at bedrooms (smaller than ours), the second bathroom (with shiny gold fixtures that for some reason revolted me in so many ways), and the back yard.  The back yard is the only thing I liked.  The layout was awful, the space was much less useable than what we currently had, and well, it was the death of a dream.

It was also the birth of a new idea for me.  I walked around our neighborhood.  I quit looking at houses in other parts of town.  One reason was simply because I didn’t want a house that was huge.  I didn’t want to clean that much to be honest.  However, another reason was that I liked my house.  I always have.  It’s why I wanted to buy it in the first place.  I decided only to look at houses in my area.  If I was going to be inspired with new ideas, I wanted them for where we lived—so that I could copy them or alter them to fit us.

However, I’ll confess, I was sick of people asking, “How can you stand to live in that itty bitty house?”

That is what spurred me to embrace living in the home we had.  That was back when I was pregnant with baby four.  Nearly twenty years and five more (total of nine, yes you read that right) children later, we still live in that “itty bitty house,” and I have no intention of moving—until I leave feet first that is.  Over the years, I’ve learned a few things that make all the difference in not just existing but living in a small space.

Embrace— You really have to embrace your life in your small house.  By this, I mean don’t just accept it. Many people live in small homes.  Frankly, most of the world lives in half the space (or less) of the average American if my old research is still true.  So, you can be trapped by your small space or you can use it as your canvas for a unique and inspiring life.  If you resent your lack of space, it’ll show in every other aspect of living in it.

Reinvent— You can’t allow the architect’s footprint for your home dictate how you live in it.  We’ve reinvented our home with every change in our family’s life.  I even came close to turning the back room into a huge dormitory and the front room into a huge school/play room once.  The only thing that stopped me was that if I didn’t like it, the work to create would have been excessive, however it nearly happened. 

Edit— Small space means that you are forced to own less.  Period.  My mother bought my first four children their own rocking chairs.  It was such a sweet thing.  I really wanted them to have those chairs for their own children later—which was her idea at the time.  Guess what?  We didn’t have room.  I planned to have a “hope chest” for each of my girls (I have seven daughters), but after the fourth daughter, I realized it wasn’t going to work.  There just isn’t the room for it.  They couldn’t have closets stuffed with clothing.  Have you ever seen a 1950’s closet?  It’s tiny.  The one in our bedroom holds all of Kevin’s clothing and mine without any trouble (we have no dresser so it also holds our underwear, pajamas—all folded clothes), but neither of us have large wardrobes.  Can you imagine when we had six girls in our bedroom?  Can you imagine if they each had dozens of outfits?  Not possible.  Toys, games, crafts, everything had to be kept to a reasonable minimum.

Be Creative—Without creativity, you’ll miss all that small house living can offer.  The good news is that you do not have to be inherently creative to do this.  Once upon a time, it was harder, but with the vast resources on the internet, you can see things others have done in their homes and make them work for you.  Pinterest, design blogs, websites like HGTV and BHG are all there to give you inspiration.  Thanks to Google, you can skim through dozens of ideas either by word or picture until you find what you need.  One simple solution our family has used is shelving all around the top of the bedrooms and living room.  Over windows, along walls… long shelves that give us a lot of storage for little effort—and it’s pretty too.

Be Flexible—What works today likely won’t tomorrow.  I’m sorry about that, but it’s true. Your family’s needs change as children grow older, are added to the family or move away. This is why reinventing is so key to living in a small house.  This is how we’ve managed to house eleven people in 1,100 sq. ft. for so long.  Even though I haven’t moved in over twenty-three years, I have moved within this house dozens of times.  Bedrooms shift from here to there.  Dining areas move and change.  The only thing that has stayed one hundred percent constant is the bathroom.

Dream—This one will seem contradictory to embracing your space and its limitations, but it is good for those of us who are truly sacrificing things that we love for other things that we love.  For me, dreaming is one way that I can see beyond the limitations of the house.  This house is limited in what it can do.  I accept that. The truth is it will not always be full of growing children.  Our children will grow up.  They will marry and move away from here.  Slowly, rooms will empty and give way to new ideas.  When that happens, I will have a new canvas to create with.  I have so many ideas for what I’d like to do.  I have a great room planned for the back bedroom—a sort of “sleepover” place for grandchildren to enjoy spending nights together chattering into the wee hours before falling asleep.  The middle room (what we call the “boy’s” room now) will become my craft room.  I want to put a library in the closet at one end with a comfortable daybed built in.  It’ll be cozy and fun to fall asleep while grandma or grandpa reads them a book.  Hey, it’ll be fun for grandma to read a book and fall asleep herself!  The other end will hold bookcases and a bench that folds out into another bed.  It’s going to be beautiful.  Of course, none of it may happen and that’s ok too.  However, when I feel cramped (and of course that does happen) I let myself imagine a house where things are exactly how I’d choose for them to be and where it stays like that.  I know that when that day comes, I might miss having kids around to clutter it up with their artwork and things, but I suspect grandchildren will fill that gap.

Storage—One thing you’ll discover is that you have to maximize storage.  Check shelving in closets.  Do you need more?  I’m with Elizabeth Bennett when she says, “Shelves in the closet?  Happy thought indeed!”  I know she was being sarcastic, but for me it’s utterly true. Top, bottom, side—anywhere you can put one, do it.  Then learn to limit what you put on them.  I have a peculiar habit.  I like empty space on shelves.  Full shelves make me feel claustrophobic.  I feel the same way about wall-to-wall furniture.  Please, by all means, give me empty wall space!  So, when planning your shelves, drawers, etc., once you know what will go there, be sure to discover what you can do without in order to save space for later.  If you load them up now, you may discover that you have to unload something later when a new need arises.  Why keep that unnecessary stuff now just because you have room for it?

The ideas are endless.  I could talk about how to store games, books, fabric, cookware that you need and don’t need—the works.  However, I think we’re all a little too unique to make such blanket statements.  What would work for one family won’t for another.  However, I fully believe that living within the space we have is possible if we’re willing to embrace it and be creative in how we do that.  For us, five things have been essential to making living here work.

1.        Triple bunk beds.  We bought three and they were worth their weight in gold.  Sturdy as anything and beautiful.  I bought them from a man in Illinois and paid a fortune to ship them out unassembled.  It worked great for us.  I highly recommend them.

2.       High shelves in the rooms.  I honestly do not know how we survived without them.  We got rid of an entire wall of white storage cupboards simply by adding that shelving.

3.       Avoiding large toys and “heirlooms.”  Every time we made the foolish decision to purchase something large like a giant K’nex set or doll house, we’ve regretted it.  Those rocking chairs are long gone.  The hope chests went after them.  

4.       Giving things too much control over you—in either way.  If something gives you great pleasure, make room for it.  There is no virtue in stripping your life of things simply so that you can say you have few things.  If that old settle bench really blesses you, find a way to make it work somehow—even if you have to hang it from the rafters for a few years.  By the same token, no matter how much you love something, if it’s a burden, chuck it.  The hardest thing I’ve ever done was to give away the phonograph my parents owned.  That thing was gorgeous—truly gorgeous.  It had wonderful memories for me, but it was in the way.  Every time a kid bumped it, I got angry.  Every dent or tiny scratch was a sore spot until I realized one day that I cared too much about something that really doesn’t matter.  I loved that thing—but I didn’t love the kind of control it had over me and there wasn’t a way to store it for “later.”  I rarely miss it and never enough to wish it back.

5.       Teaching children to enjoy playing outside.  If you’re an introvert like me, you’ll be grateful if your kids love to be outdoors.  You’ll get a break from the constant—seemingly ever present—interaction. 

I don’t regret our choice to stay in this house.  There are days when I wonder if I’m insane (usually at the change of seasons when things get cluttered for a bit or when it’s time to make changes to keep it working for us), but then I look at floor plans, imagine cleaning the double or triple square footage that others in my town might have, and I realize that this is the life for me.  My kids know how to live with less.  This is a good thing.  No, they really don’t know what it’s like to live in want, but they know that they can live with less than others around them.  I’ve always seen staying in this small house as a privilege.  If it became a burden in any way, I think my husband would insist we move.  That has kept me motivated.  We live here by choice.  We could have bought a bigger house—we could today.  People assume we live here because it’s all we can afford, and I’m fine with that.  They can think what makes them comfortable.  The truth is that we live here because it’s where Kevin and I want to live.  I hope never to have to live anywhere else.

Come back next Thursday as we continue our Small Home Living Series with a post about embracing your small space by accepting the limitations, featuring more creative storage solutions.

Guest Post: Loving My Small Home

 I am doing a series on Small Home Living and today's featured guest poster is Erika from Earth Muffin Manor (isn't that such a cute blog name?) You will see from her story below that she and her husband weren't exactly planning to live in a "small home"...but it just worked out that way. Her home didn't change but her attitude did. She is going to share with us how she LOVES her small home. Hope you are as inspired as I was.

My name is Ericka and I am blessed to be the wife of a very wonderful man and the mother of a growing family of precious children. When we moved into our current home, I was pregnant with our third child. We looked at several homes and chose this one because, though the house was small, the lot was large. The other options we looked at had larger homes with small lots. We knew we could expand the house if need be but we couldn't expand the lot and with dreams of chickens and gardens and tree swings dancing in our heads, we chose to go the small house/large lot route. So, we live in what was false advertised as an 1100 square feet, 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house on 0.40 city acres with a detached garage that was also falsely advertised as having some minor seepage in the foundation during heavy rains. Once we got settled in our home and my husband measured off the square footage in order to put a new roof on, we discovered that our house was only 900 sq. ft. and that the garage was absolutely useless for any sort of storage options due to the 4 inches of standing water that collected in it every time it rained. Living in the Pacific Northwest means that it rains a lot! Now, 6 years later, we have 6 children (and no, Lord willing, we are not done:) ), two dogs, a lovely flock of chicken and the coziest little house!
Much to the surprise of the average American, I happen to like my little house. In 2006, the average American had 900 square feet. In our household, each of us has 112.5 square feet. In addition, we home school, so the children do not hop on a bus and leave their 112.5 sqft for 7 hours a day. What does this mean? For our family, it means the following:

1) We SHARE. We share the bathroom, we share the living room, we share bedrooms, we share the stereo, the computer, the sink, etc. In essence, we share everything. We don't foster a sense of individualistic ownership in this home. We are a family and all that we have belongs to US, not him, her, or me. Now there are a few exceptions: everyone has their own bed, everyone has their own toothbrush (:)) and everyone has a few special items that are not community property. But as a general rule, we share.

2) We KNOW each other. Because we are always together, and tightly together at that, I can tell you what each of my children is doing ALMOST all of the time (there was that time when the 14 month old got into the bag of flour. But give me some credit! Flour is a very silent enemy!!!!). I can hear the words that are coming out of my children's mouths, I can see the looks on their faces, I can watch their body language. This makes teaching and training SO much easier for me! This also allows my children to spend quality time with each other. There will be the occasional moments of individual play but for the most part, my children play and interact together nearly every waking moment, giving them lots of opportunities to learn to treat and deal with others in a Christ-honoring way.
Recently, one of my older children came down with the flu. I got him all situated in his bedroom and told him to lay low and rest. Seemed the perfect solution for not feeling so good: it was quiet, no one was allowed in, and he could read and listen to music all by himself without anyone bothering him. Not 20 minutes later, he came out, asking me if I could make him a little bed on the couch. "Why?" I asked in amazement. He replied, "Its just so lonely in there...."

3) We ACCOMMODATE. When your husband has to remove the toilet from your only bathroom when you are 37 weeks pregnant, it is an act of love that drives him to purchase a camping portapotty and put it in your bedroom. To your surprise, you may just find that getting your big ol' belly out of bed and shuffling 3 feet away to use the potty sure beats walking across the living room (as small as it may be) to visit your (little, tiny) bathroom multiple times in the wee hours of the night. You just might find, in subsequent pregnancies, that you secretly wish for that portapotty at the foot of your bed to magically appear again .

4) We MINIMIZE. We do not have room for anything we don't use on a very frequent basis. We simply don't. We don't have a coat closet or a pantry or a basement. We don't have room to stock up. We don't have room to collect things as a hobby. We don't have room to have fine china for company meals. We have enough room to house what we need to live and learn and that's it. And I LOVE it! This attribute of living in a small home with a large family definitely has its challenges and we are continually fine tuning this but it is a challenge that I actually enjoy! Every thing that we own, be it the couch or the coffee cup, comes with responsibility. The item must be given a place, it must be cared for, cleaned, and accounted for. This takes time and energy and often, this takes time and energy AWAY from people. The less I own, the less owns me and I like this.

We are blessed. We are blessed because our 900 sq ft has a roof, four walls, heat, running water, and electricity. It has a refrigerator, a freezer, a washer/dryer and a toilet. It has books, a piano, a sewing machine, Legos, beds and food on the shelves. Since all God promised to provide for us was food and clothing, I'd say He has blessed us above and beyond what we ever deserved. And when I envision our family in a large home, maybe with two stories, a couple of bathrooms, a large living room, maybe even a family room, a laundry room, a guest bedroom, etc, etc, I feel this lonely feeling come over me. Wonder where my children would be playing? Wonder what they would be doing? Wonder if I would be able to hear the little girls giggling away as they play with Playmobil? Or the sweet babbling of the baby just waking from her nap? Wonder if I would be able to catch that attitude that needed to be addressed? Or that good deed that needed to be praised? Yes, I suppose there wouldn't be as much dancing outside the bathroom door. And there wouldn't be as much stumbling over little people as I go about my daily tasks. But you know, I think the potty dance is rather cute and I actually like having precious children underfoot. So if you don't mind, we'll keep our 112.5sqft per person....and thank Jesus for it every moment we can!

Join me next Thursday for another installment in our Small Home Living series!  

Small Home Living Series

The Question:

What is the average home size in the U.S.?

The Answer:

According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average home size in the United States was 2,700 square feet in 2009, up from 1,400 square feet in 1970.

—The Editors

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I am starting a new blog series focused on small home/space living. It's not just for apartments, which we usually equate with living in a small space. The apartments I've seen have often been more spacious and space efficient than homes. This is intentional living in a small home WITH a family. Not two people to a 1000 sq. ft but SIX people to a home not much larger.

We are a six person family living in a 1041 sq. ft. home. We do have an unattached garage and a back yard, which in suburbia, is considered fairly 'roomy' as far as back yards and corner lots go.

The home we live in was built in 1955. Our bedrooms are small, not much space for more than a bed and modest dresser. The closets are not wall closets but the type that have narrow doors and a little space to the right and left on each side. Our living room/dining area is long and our kitchen is narrow. There are challenges and I hope to address those via this series.

Many would consider our home way to small for the amount of people in it, even though we have three bedrooms. Sometimes I do feel a bit cramped in the kitchen. Over all, though I love our home sweet home. I love that my children are always within hearing distance. I love that we usually congregate in rooms together. I think that may be what I appreciate most about small home living, the physical time we spend together. Rarely are any of us in another room alone. We actually like to be together, even if we are watching a movie or online.

The close physical proximity is one of the most beneficial reasons for intentional small home living.  Many claim there is less to clean. I don't know--cause I feel like I am always cleaning. I'll save that for one of the "challenges" posts. haha.

Here's a very interesting article written in 2006, about the rise of the personal McMansion. My how times (mainly the economy) have changed in the past five years! Many families are striving for a simpler lifestyle and intentionally downsizing.

Here is my small bedroom taken from the entry door...the door is to the laundry/dogs room.  That shelf is gone now and the room will soon have new/fresh wall decor. I'm in the process of purging. (a constant of small home living)

It's a little bare for my taste BUT it has a very peaceful feel to it. It is relaxing to be in there and it truly feels like a sanctuary. I think it just needs a little cozying up is all. :-) More furniture is not an option. What you can't see, just to the bottom left of the photo--is the closet. It's *right* there! More furniture in such a small space would just feel crowded.

Stay tuned....
for inspirations, tips & tricks, and over coming the obstacles of small home living!