Category Archives: Simpler Living

What Was I Thinking?

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , ,

I have two sewing areas. One is in the little sewing room on the main floor, where I sew clothes and piece quilts on one of two vintage sewing machines, and also have a serger squeezed in there. The other is in the basement, where my high-speed sewing machine sits on two large tables so I have lots of room to spread out whatever it is I’m quilting.

Nearby on an old dresser sits a basket full of thread for that machine, and a dish tub filled with extra parts and feet for it, along with other related items. That dresser was supposed to have been given to a relative 18 months ago, but then the pandemic came along.

I got to thinking that I would like a cabinet to replace that dresser once it goes; that way I’d have somewhere to park the thread, extra parts, feet, etc. I’d want something with cubbies up high, because I have a bum knee and have trouble reaching things in lower cabinets. I began looking at freestanding cupboards and cabinets online, trying to find just the right thing.

And then it occurred to me: I have no business adding furniture to this house! It’s got enough furniture in it. So I looked at the furniture we do have, thinking something could be repurposed as my new sewing cabinet. But nothing would work.

What to do…..as with so many other things in life, I realized I should just wait until an idea came to me. Within a few days it did. If I reorganize the storage under the big counter where I cut fabric (it was our kitchen island in the big house we gave up) I should be able to easily fit in the stuff that currently sits on the old dresser.

And here I was looking at new furniture. What was I thinking?

Extreme Wardrobes

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Personal, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , ,

During the pandemic, I became addicted to reading sewing blogs and watching a few sewing vloggers on YouTube. One thing they all seem to have in common is that they make a lot of clothes for themselves every month.

I realize they need to have a steady stream of projects to talk about. But speaking only for myself, I don’t want or need that many new clothes. And just the modest number of clothes I’ve made for myself in the last year caused me to go through my old clothes and winnow out things that still fit. I’ve been able to make the new clothes out of better fabrics than what I can find in ready-to-wear clothes, so for me it’s a no-brainer to get rid of some still-wearable clothes so I can wear the new things I’ve made.

The bottom line is that I have that rule for myself, where all of my out-of-season clothes have to fit in two big plastic boxes. When they make those boxes overflow, which they did not long ago, some things have to go, and they aren’t going to be the things made out of good fabric, things I put a lot of work into.

This makes me wonder if those sewists I follow keep their wardrobes at a reasonable size or if they don’t care. One of the vloggers has mentioned that she uses a spare room as her closet. No thanks! That’s too much for me. I can think of many uses for a spare room, but closet isn’t one of them.

Preparing for Smaller Living Quarters

By Claire Posted in downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living, Uncategorized Tagged ,

I read an article that suggested if you’re planning to downsize to a tiny house, you should reduce the possessions in your current home to the bare minimum so that you’ll be acclimated to living in a tiny house before you get there.

On one hand, I can see where that’s true. Living with the bare minimum is going to be a necessity for you. On the other hand, I don’t think anything can really prepare you for going from a large house to a small one. You just have to jump in with both feet and do it.

Once you get there you’ll quickly realize that not all of your furniture will fit, and that you don’t have as much storage as you once did. That’s not a bad thing, though: it’s like being given guidelines for how much you can keep. You can only fit so much in and the rest has to go. So bring in your favorites and keep everything else out in the garage, or in a storage unit if there’s no garage, and then filter through everything.

There’s also no way to prepare for the feel of living in smaller quarters. In some ways, it will be tough. When you’re used to a large kitchen, a small kitchen feels almost claustrophobic at first. You’ll need time to learn to work in it. If you’re used to a huge bedroom, your new cozy one will also feel different. But since most of your time in there is spent asleep, it quickly becomes a non-issue.

Ultimately, these things can’t be experienced until you’re actually there, so I don’t think you can really plan for them. If you’re heading for a tiny house, you might consider renting one first to see if it’s for you.

Clutter Variations in One House

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Personal, Simpler Living Tagged , , , ,

It’s easy to think of a house as being either cluttered or uncluttered. But the reality is that we often vary the amounts of clutter in the rooms of our homes depending on our needs.

For instance, back when we were raising children, we allowed them to decorate their rooms as they wished, and we only intervened in reducing their clutter level when it became difficult to walk across the room. Yet through all those child-rearing years, our living room remained uncluttered because we felt there should be one room that was always nice and clear, for us and for visitors.

Today, we try to keep most of our house uncluttered. The exception is the storage area of our basement, which is packed pretty tightly with things we need, but not right now.

Your purposes for creating an uncluttered home may vary. Perhaps you have toddlers or small children, and keeping the house uncluttered means fewer broken items. Or maybe you just love having clean, uncluttered rooms even though you have to work hard to keep them that way.

Another reason is that you’re going to put your house on the market, and you want it to look clean and roomy. When we put previous homes on the market, our realtors told us to pare down everything because potential buyers want to picture themselves in the house, and too many personal items will make that unlikely. I never agreed with that, arguing that it’s easy to judge a house on its own merits whether or not there are family photos on the wall.

But these days many people are selling vacant homes, or else they’ve stripped their homes of not only personal effects but even extraneous furnishings and décor. This is the result of the popularity of staging, which has been in vogue for at least 10 years. And I find that when I look in homes at realtor.com (not because we’re moving, but because I’m nosy and I like to see what people do with their homes), most have been stripped of everything but basic furniture and a few decorative pieces.

I didn’t realize how much I prefer this look now until I hit upon the occasional house that has not been cleaned up, much less staged, and is instead teeming with everything: walls covered with photos, framed pictures, bric-a-brac and those big decals that say things like “Live…Laugh…Love,” sofas covered with afghans and pillows, side tables with a lamp surrounded by clutter, bedrooms with exercise equipment surrounding the bed…you get the idea. It’s almost claustrophobic, and now I know what the realtors meant: you can’t really see the house because it’s so full of everything.

So whether you prefer a completely decluttered home, or just the main areas looking clean and open, it’s your choice. Speaking only for myself, I’ve found that as I’ve aged, I prefer every room to have open space and only our very favorite items on the walls. It just makes me more comfortable.