I have always lived in a fairly small home. Never been one to want a large space. I enjoy the coziness that comes with a small home. But then there is the issue that it can get very cluttered living in a small space.
Back in the year 2000 it became quite clear just how packed and cluttered our home had become when we moved my father into our home after being told he could not longer live on his own and his health was declining. The need was immediate which meant moving him from his home to our home right away. We were already cluttered and then we were packed.
Our whole house felt like my pin cushion I call Ruth. We packed up our clutter to make room and lived with boxes packed in our bedroom and any other place we could squeeze it into because it had to be done.
It has taken us several years to undo the compounded clutter that we had in our home and we continue to this day to remove items and will until we feel we are finished.
Or do we ever truly get completely uncluttered and still enjoy our home?
Lets look at the room we call the sewing room. It has been many things now. It evolves constantly. I finally realized that there was a difference, junk and quality. Then purpose or only decorative. We need our tools and supplies to make and do the things we enjoy. But we also need to "fit" into our space which requires reducing the amount we have, keeping the things that have quality or purpose.
I tried storage boxes of all types and shelving units and the house started to smell like plastic because plastic emits smells from what it is made from. So that did not work for me.
I started on a mission to rid ourselves of things that made us cramped in our home. That means giving up things. If you have read my blog you know we finally got to a point that we realized we had tipped a point to where we just did not like living with the things of "today" but rather things from the "Past". That is when we decided we would rather live "Like" the past because in today's world there is just too much and most of the "too much" has no quality to it anymore.
If Katherine could talk she would say, "Mom, dachshunds don't wear ear muffs".
My goal is to have air flow around things and space to clean. It does not matter what we put in that space as long as we can easily clean our space which we live. If we stack things or push things tightly into our space it will collect dust and become stale.
We do not need a bigger home if we fit into our smaller home. I am still trying to fit and continue to sort and it is getting better as I keep trying. It is like working a large jigsaw puzzle and I am 3/4 or more finished. For the first time I actually have a few empty drawers in the house which I will most likely will put something in them as I continue sorting other drawers and organizing. But the fact I have made it to the drawers is amazing. There are no piles of anything on the floor or on top of the beds. I can now sweep or vacuum without moving items, only chairs out of the way.
We recently found a solution to my genealogy books and notebooks. I have done years of research and this led to a lot of folders and notebooks. I had put them in several places and many of the places were very hard to reach so my husband and I put our heads together and came up with this plan and added curtain to the bottom of this table that sets in the hallway. It already had a shelf and so I condensed down to getting all of my books on this shelf. Now it is easy for me to get to the books and I have a place for the 5 gallon bucket I like to keep handy in case I need to gather water quickly due to a severe storm brewing or workers needing to cut off the water to work on the line which has happened on several occasions.
We want to have an interesting home. Our Grandchildren enjoy coming to our house and know there is always something interesting going on here. We want to keep the items that have purpose and when you look at it like that it is a bit easier to discard.
As we continue our journey we continue to discard what we find unnecessary.
Fitting into our space also means fitting in a garden anywhere we can because it is important to grow some of our food. For us, gardening tools are very important to have which can be a bit cluttering but it is not clutter if it is useful. This is where organization comes in.
How about fitting into our refrigerator. What is in our refrigerator? Is it filled with leftovers that should have been thrown out weeks ago? Or is it filled with vegetables and nourishing food?
There is a new old item that has come into our home instead of going out. This past weekend was our anniversary and my husband gave me a beautiful gift which is an antique Martha Washington style sewing cabinet. We are not big into giving each other gifts so this was very special. This cabinet will get a lot of use at our house and I really like how it fits at the side of my treadle sewing machine. I just wish it could talk and tell me it's life journey. Take Care, Grandma Donna
