Category Archives: Small-House Living

Use It or Lose It, Procrastinators

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

Have you ever been called a hoarder? It’s possible that you aren’t exactly a hoarder, but you’re a procrastinator.

Procrastinators have a hard time making decisions. They’re afraid they’ll regret getting rid of something, so they just let it sit. Do that enough times and your house begins to look like a hoarder’s home.

If you’re a procrastinator, have you considered that by not making a decision about whether to keep something, you’re actually punishing yourself? You’re preventing yourself from either enjoying the item, or enjoying the extra space you’ll claim by getting rid of it. Plus you have to deal with that internal struggle every time you see it.

If you really used the item, you wouldn’t be debating with yourself about whether to keep it or not; you would keep it and use it. If you never used the item, it would be easier to just let it go, unless something is preventing you from doing just that.

That “something,” most likely, is that you’re worried about whether you or someone you’re close to might need it “Someday,” that mysterious time in the future. Let me tell you now, if you’re keeping it because your kids might need it someday, forget it. When we made our big decluttering effort, I kept certain special things for my kids. As it turned out, none of them wanted what I saved for them! They’re a different generation and they like different things than I do. Plus they aren’t nearly as sentimental as I am so they have no desire to keep things just because Mom saved them.

All of my kids live in larger homes than I do, and none of them keep a lot of clutter. In fact, one is a dedicated minimalist. I’ve learned that anything I give that one’s children is destined for the donation pile before long. I just hope the kids have fun with it before their mom sends it along to the Goodwill.

So I don’t think my kids have the procrastination problem, and I know I’ve mostly conquered mine. If you have this problem, I hope you conquer it, too. There’s enough stress in this world without adding to it by having an internal debate about things, mere things, that we can’t decide whether to keep or not.

A Stash Like No Other

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

I read a lot of sewing blogs, and one thing I’ve noticed is that during the lockdown, sewists have been working hard to reduce their fabric stashes.

A fabric stash isn’t like an overstock of mugs in your cupboard or too many towels in your linen closet. Those things are easy to get rid of and easily replaced. Fabric is not as easy to replace, and it costs a lot more money to do so.

Sewists who primarily sew clothes usually have pieces of 2-6 yards in their fabric stash. With quality fabric now costing as much as $15-25 a yard, we’re talking quite an investment. So it’s in a sewist’s best interest to make something from their stash rather than let it just sit there and rot (many fabrics fade and even rot over time).

Some sewists keep a running total of how many yards they’ve bought and how many they’ve used each year. This year the total bought is usually lower because many fabric merchants have been shut down or slowed down by the Covid lockdown. So some sewists’ outgo has exceeded purchases by quite a bit. In fact, many are using up 10-20 yards a month. Thus they are steadily reducing their fabric stashes and regaining space in the process.

Food, supply and fabric stashes are probably the only ones I encourage. Everything else should be reduced down to just what you need if you want to enjoy having an uncluttered home.

No New Furniture for the Foreseeable Future

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

(Warning: Whining Ahead)

So I’ve discovered that the place where we were going to buy carpeting is closed until further notice. And the furniture store where we were going to buy our sofa and chairs has put our favorite brand on sale…but only the floor models. What does this mean? Is the factory not running anymore? And if so, when will it be up and running again? Or won’t it?

These are small inconveniences compared to those who are fighting the virus. But they’re still real. We can make do with our old furniture, but it sure was fun thinking about the changes we were going to make.

It seems like this isolation is just taking the fun out of life. My grandkids are going to forget how to hug Grandpa and me; a couple of months is a long time for a little kid. Thank goodness we have Skype.

Now that it’s getting nicer out, it’s a good time to go through the house and declutter, finding everything we’re not using anymore and donating it or having a garage sale…except that that Goodwill is closed and people aren’t supposed to go to garage sales. I’ll just have to keep that excess in a corner of the basement until it has somewhere to go, I suppose.

(Whining Over, Hopefully)

All Cooped Up

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

Have you noticed that it’s easy to lose track of time when you’re in self-isolation? Even though I have a calendar right on the fridge, and my computer and tablet and phone also make the date very evident, I’m having trouble remembering what day it is. In fact, that’s why there was no post last week: I forgot!

Now it’s Monday again and I continue to try to keep my bearings in a world where everything has changed. It seems silly because others are having a much harder time than I am. Some are working from home while keeping track of their kids and making sure they do their schoolwork, which is now online. Others are trying to survive without their weekly pay; worse, still others have the virus. I feel sorry for everyone right now.

Meanwhile I just keep busy in my little house. I’ve wondered if I would feel more cramped isolating in a small house, but then I see celebrity posts online where they’re complaining about feeling cooped up in their mansions, and I realize that it doesn’t matter how small or big your house is; it’s that inability to go out when you want to, the loss of knowing that you can go places even when you don’t need to, that makes you feel cooped up.

Let’s all hope that the stay-at-home policy is lifted in every state very soon.