I have discovered a new way to invigorate the desire to declutter. It is unconventional but it sure got me taking another look in what I thought were my fairly decluttered cupboards.
I have mentioned before that when my husband retires we intend to downsize to a smaller townhouse or apartment. Just recently we have been toying with the idea of doing it sooner rather than later. In fact for some time now hubby has been constantly looking at on line real estate sites and showing me properties but we never actually do anything about it.
Well, last week we finally phoned an agent and arranged to inspect a property. A nice little two bedroom, 1 study, 1 bathroom apartment in a refurbished old building. We were pleasantly surprised at how spacious it seemed even though it was smaller than our existing dwelling.
It occurred to me partway through the viewing that the ample floor space had a lot to do with the reduction in storage space. Which got me thinking that I have a ways to go yet before I am decluttered enough to feel uncluttered in a smaller place. I am up for the challenge though and feel a sudden invigoration in my attitude to decluttering.
Today’s Declutter Item
This is one of those foolish stock up while they are cheap purchases. Having a son doing high school fine arts at the time it seemed like a sensible purchase. Once he entered uni and his major soon changed to photography canvases were no longer required. Luckily art students know other art student so I gave them to a friend of his. She was very happy with the windfall and I was glad to reclaim a huge chunk of closet space. One more step towards fitting into a smaller home.
Artist Canvases
Something to me grateful for
I was particularly tickled when my son came out the day after viewing the property mentioned above and said if we were to move into that place he would need to declutter more of his stuff. He than began to point out what he would be happy to let go of. Â I feel grateful and pleased that he understands the point of all this. He even happily complies with my ways of reducing waste in our home. I feels good to think that I may be successfully raising a non-materialist young man.
Loved your post about downsizing to a smaller home!!!! My hubby & I are thinking about doing the same. Hope you have further updates on this topic.
Hi Randi and welcome to 365 Less Things. I will keep you updated for sure but since we are in no hurry to move we will only be buying if just the right place comes along. In the meantime I will continue to reduce so the transition will be smooth. Unlike our last one.
I bet you will have a great time fitting in your decluttered possessions into a smaller home. and the motivation-push is a nice helper for that 🙂
I consider it also downsizing, when my boyfriend moves in with me. my 44 square meter are a lot for myself, but actually not much for a couple. So we will have to find a way how to arrange ourselves and the furniture… I am sure we will manage, but having this in my mind, I can make really good decluttering decisions now, but some I just have to see and wait. I dont know what stuff he brings along and what will be easier to keep/toss…
melting two households into one will be tricky, but I am already excited.
adventures 2012 – here we come!
You are so right Lena, adding another person is just like downsizing space. No doubt there will be a few compromises to make but that is what relationships are all about. I am sure you are up for the challenge.
We would like to downsize, but need to look around more. Where we live, we will get less house for the same price as we paid our home, so it is a hard decision. I would love to be done with our mortgage, but we have about 80 thousand more to go. One question for you Colleen, do you worry about not having room when grand kids come visit? What is your plan for that. That has been one of our biggest concerns, since we have 5 kids, but we don’t feel like we should keep a home bigger than we need to just for the once a year visit.
My parents just went from a five bedroom house to a two bedroom, two office house with much less space for visitors. They plan on having the kids sleep on air mattresses in the offices if they come to visit. They have one guestroom upstairs, but that’s it.
I don’t think you should worry about the grandkids. They love to do slumber parties on the floor and when they get to be teenagers, they won’t want to come stay overnight anymore. At least, that’s been my experience with my kids!
Hugs,
Chelle
http://www.lifeonthedomesticfront.blogspot.com
Your last sentence says it all really Spendwisemom. Why ” keep a home bigger than we need to just for the once a year visit”. Our plan is to get a place with two bedrooms and perhaps a study or a large open plan living space. This way the visiting parents can sleep in the spare room and the kids, if there ever are any, can bunk down in the other space. If both our children come home at once with children then someone is just going to have to stay in a motel. I am planning on visiting them and messing up their homes as payback for all the years I had to clean up after them. 😉 😆
You are a wise woman indeed Coleen!
My grandchildren sleep in our big bed with me and my partner sleeps downstairs on the sofa:) hey, it’s only two nights a month!
pamela x
I can’t wait until my husband retires and we can do the same! There is no point in us doing it now as we expect to relocate and hopefully the housing market will have improved here by then so we will have more $ to take with us from the sale of our house. I have decided I will not worry about having room for visitors because that is why they have hotels!
Good for you Juhli,
my parents now in their 70s still live in a five bedroom house. They are now getting too old to take care of all that space. My mum is finally starting to convince my dad that it is time to move into a retirement village where all the maintenance work will be taken care of. So what if we won’t all be able to visit at once that is an insane idea anyway and it rarely ever happens.
That’s exciting Colleen! And it sounds like the right time for this challenge.
What do you hope will happen to your DD’s things if you downsize sooner rather than later?
Katharine, I am hoping she will beat us into a place of her own and I will be rid of her stuff before this happens. Otherwise I will shove it in the top of a closet somewhere until the time is right. She is visiting next and and is expecting to have to do some more decluttering while she is here. And she will be!
Great post. I know that when my mother passes I will be moving into something much smaller. I have been working on decluttering my things so that it will be easy to move. I also know that when that happens I will have a lot of Mom’s things to declutter. I think that other than my bed and office/studio items I will sell the house furnished. I think it will go fast to a snowbird if I do that. Plus, I won’t have to sell the stuff or anything else. The rest (clothes and stuff) will go to charity.
Good planning Deb J. It is good to have a plan in place before the event so things so smoothly at the time.
Wow!: that’s a big change! And a big challenge too..but I know you love challenges, don’t you? 😉
Good luck!
Sometimes Jliharma. It is funny how we see challenges, some things that seem like a challenge to some people are just a walk in the park to others. History makes a fuss of people who do incredible things but for the most part no matter how incredible they are they are often just a natural progression for the person involved. Life just maps itself out very differently from one person to the next. I often think that there are a lot of “everyday” people out there who surmount challenges that deserve more accolades that those that are famous and get all the limelight and reward. I long ago signed up for this moving about lifestyle so it is just normal for me.
Oh, Lena, now I feel spoiled. I have slightly over 60 sqm and it definitely feels like downsizing with the BF joining me here in four weeks … I am making some progress (the bed went to a new home a couple of days ago and I managed to sell a medium sized cabinet and some picture frames but the bulky antique armoire (and lots of other stuff) is still there.)
Tell, how it’s going, okay? I’m really curious. And at the moment it feels HARD and overwhelming to know that there is a lot of stuff coming to a place that I already find too full now.
But I am looking forward to it (and him) nonetheless.
60 is nice. that makes 30 each. plenty of space, haha.
My boyfriend will move in with me in july. Until that I have a “diplomarbeit” to write. So I dont have that much time to plan on the big stuff right now. He will come and visit me in two weeks time though, and I am sure he has already some ideas about this place. He is a very tall guy so we need a new bed, new couch and a new wardrobe. I keep telling him, that I am decluttering like hell (because my secret plan in life is to sell everything and live in a camping van) and I know for sure he isnt a pack-rat. So I am confident that we will find a way to keep things spacious and decluttered, and manageable for two people.
what I am afraid of is the kitchen. He is one big kitchen gadget lover and needs all sorts of stuff. as the kitchen is tiny and there is not a lot of storage space, I have the slight feeling we have to get a lot of new cupboards.
oh and my furniture is cheap ikea and pretty old. I really dont think my bed or wardrobe can be sold to anyone, so no tragic loss on that end 😉
Sounds great Colleen! Moving is a sure way to get excited about decluttering, even for the ones who are already living in a minimalist home. We have 56 sq m for three people, and honestly our place is pretty spacious. For example I can put up a play tepee for DD and there is still empty floor space left for her to spread out her play. There is only one bedroom we all sleep in, and not much storage. All of our clothes fit in one built-in closet in the bedroom, half the space is for DH and half for me and DD 🙂 Oh, and the upper cabinets are used for other storage, but are often nearly empty. Anyway, we have started to look at small houses, about 70-80 sq m. There are still some old houses that have not been extended on, or if they have, only a little bit. The smallest house I saw recently was 47 sq m old log house, super cute, with only one room plus kitchen! I would love a house that small -but not with kids, because eventually DD will want her own space. I’m really just doing maintenance de-cluttering mostly, to make sure that when we will move I wont’ have to do much sorting and the packing and unpacking will be a breeze. Last time we moved it took three hours to pack.
Hi Cat’sMeow,
you would love some of the old workers cottages around the area where I live. There used to be a big steal works near the city not so long ago and there were lots of little homes build to accommodate the workers. Many of them have been added to but there are still lots that are in their original small state. They are so cute too.
You are right your daughter will eventually need a room of her own so a home at little bigger than the one you are in is inevitable in your future.
just in case you havent seen that link: http://tinyhouseblog.com/ is an excellent blog about houses that are more than downsized…
Really sharpens the mind, doesn’t it Colleen, the thought of fitting what we now have into much less space!? That keeps me focused, (and clearly will for a long time yet 😉 ), that and the thought of someone else having to come in and face it.
Our daughter returned to her student flat for the year on Sunday( after four months), and suddenly, as I look around my lounge, I really CAN see the progress I have made in decluttering (it was being masked, first by Christmas tree, etc., and secondly by extra adult’s belongings in the room). I start to believe I really can win this battle!
You are well on your way to winning the battle against clutter Ann. I know you are. The progress you have made since you first started commenting here is amazing. Well done. My daughter is coming to visit this Sunday for ten days and she will be expected to do a little decluttering of her own stuff while she is here. Hopefully she will relinquish the four shoe boxes of notes exchanged between her friends in high school. Passes notes, locker notes etc. It would be nice to condense her stuff down to four large boxes.
Thanks for the lovely vote of confidence, Colleen. Two more boxes of paper and treasures sorted and about three-quarters gone today! An old duvet repositioned under the mattress for extra comfort, and therefore a cupboard shelf freed up – not empty sadly, just allowing the shelf above’s contents to spread and be “seen”.
My daughter cleared her room before moving back to the flat, my comment that if she couldn’t leave it more tidy than last year, I’d pack stuff up for her, obviously hit the mark – the room is now a credit to her! I can now let friends use it overnight if we need to.
And … I’ve been asked if I’d be willing to come on a local radio show, and explain about my way of shopping – bags, etc.!! Don’t know if anything will come of it, but I said I would be happy to, anything to spread the word!
Well done Ann, not only with the decluttering and coercing the daughter into clearing her room but also for being offered a radio interview. I am so excited for you, radio is fun. Spread the word my girl spread the word. Tell me how did this come about?
I was at our local Sustainability Group planning meeting for the year’s activities – I couldn’t get to any last year, and wanted to host one (you can guess what about 🙂 ) and get them to arrange a couple of others, got on my bandwagon to some people who really WERE interested to hear it (not always the case with friends), and the City Council Sustainability Officer, who co-ordinates the different groups, said she’d really like to get me on her local radio show (I didn’t even know she had one). I said “okay, I’d be willing”, and she said she’d get back to me. Hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps it will, perhaps it won’t. Once terrified at the thought of speaking out, I find I really want it to happen. I feel strongly enough for it. ……..
Good for you Ann I hope it goes ahead.
Good going, Ann! Let us know how it turns out.
Oh Colleen, having spent almost a year house hunting, I hear you loud and clear. Aside from the great hot water, and location, I love my HUGE cupboard in the kitchen/dining room – one side is mainly linens, the other is my pantry, with the floor shelves (the low annoying to get to ones) housing thesis papers and winter ‘stuff’ (heater, gown, slippers etc). It’s the BEST part of my teeny tiny (66sqm) apartment, as it give me space to have it organised. I do have another ‘niche’ for storage, but it’s nothing on this fantasmigorical cupboard… if only it wasn’t Orange! (it won’t be for long!)
Lena – congrats on 44sqm! That’s amazing! I think the key is to have small bedrooms, if you only use them for sleeping, of course, my bedroom is not… Nonetheless 66sqm seems ‘big’ enough for me, to me!
The place we looked at had it’s linen closet at the end of the kitchen too. It actually makes more sense than the one we have in this house. In this house we have three storage cupboards though, the linen closet, the little closet in the laundry and the what we consider the shoe cupboard in the foyer. Seeing that one linen closet in the other house got me thinking that there is more downsizing of possession to do around here.
I hope we will find that with the smaller apartments that we are looking at more thought has been put into designing so the small space is utilised well. The townhouse we are in is big enough that they didn’t bother to do that well. The place we looked at was actually very well designed I thought.
snosie, I love my 44sqm as well. I actually have two rooms basically the same size. the bit smaller one is my bedroom/office. bed on the one end, desk on the other, in the middle a huge grey soft carpet that I can sort my pictures on. amazingly much space in there. The other room is living/dining room, bit more crammed with furniture but still spacious. in the kitchen I have have a small table for max 2 people. I love my place. what makes it so easy for more than one person is that you can actually sit down everywhere. that adds a lot more possibilities to daily life.
It sounds perfect to me Lena. I am curious, do most of your family live near by or are they all scattered around the continent. What do you do when someone comes to visit. This situation seems to be of great concern to everyone I tell that we are downsizing. You manage to live with one bedroom but people here seem to think that two bedrooms won’t be enough for us even after our son leaves home. It is the old imbedded mindset situation again I think. I must be becoming a non-conformist as I get older. It’s a good think I like being different.
my mum and brother are living in germany too… my mum is actually going to visit me on sunday for a week. I dont mind sleeping in the same bed with my mum, we always do that when we are somewhere in holidays. I dont mind sleeping in the same bed with friends as well. its big enough to not touch each other all the time. but once I have my boyfriend here, this option wont be an option anymore. So I have a guest mattress on the floor in the living room and hopefully the new couch will be a bedcouch for other visitors. so if people are not comfortable with sleeping in the same room as others, well then they can stay in a hotel. their choice, their money.
if there are more than 5 frugal visitors, I have friends with couches in their living room, which we can always use 😉 They are very close by and generous people (my friends after all). I actually would always prioritize that option… and friends meeting friends is always fun too.
I love it Lena. I am sure if you crammed that many people into your little apartment they would all be having such a good time socialising they wouldn’t care where they slept. They would just sleep where they drop.
and yay to non-conformists 😉 “the older, the absurder” is still one of the big hopes for the future
Yeh Lena, vive la revolution!
Oh, please, everyone. STOP TALKING ABOUT CLOSETS!! (or send one over. would be much appreciated in the land of closetlessness :-))
Lena, don’t underestimate cheap Ikea furniture. Somebody may want it. My bed may have only cashed in 20 Euros for the complete thing with matress but at least this way I could keep it out of landfill for a little longer. When I moved out of my student room I sold my couch for 10 Euros within the same building. My wardrobe back then (ugly but sturdy) also came from somebody in the same house who gave it away for free. Every time I try to sell something I am amazed what really sells and what doesn’t. It is not always what I predicted but it always is something in the end.
Hey Ideealistin,
I am beginning to think closets are a bit of a liability. They just become clutter receptacles for most households. My parents have five bedrooms, each with built in closets and everyone of them is full not to mention the storage closet that runs nearly the full length of there two car garage. There is no way that is going to be my life in my 70s. Thinking about that gives me more inspiration to declutter.
amen. I was starting counting closets in my mums place, but after the 5th built in closet came to my mind, I decided to reconsider my options to ignore all this STUFF that is put there.
maybe I should plant the slight idea in her head to declutter them slowly.
My parents are finally talking about downsizing so they won’t have a choice but to declutter theirs soon. Perhaps I should offer to go and visit and give them a hand.
People take everything as clutter receptables (what a beautiful term for something not beautiful at all), round here it is very infamous to put stuff on top of wardrobes, sometimes stuff in their original boxes. Shudder. It gets dusty AND looks horrible. Or you buy big bulky furniture just to have storage. We even have a word for it which translates as „storage space furniture“. Really, take closets as a blessing and not filling them with junk as your ordeal.
Talking about dust on top of wardrobes, I just cleaned off the tops of my kitchen cupboards today. Yuk. They get all greasy being as they are in the kitchen and it took some scrubbing to get them clean. Not to mention I needed a ladder to reach all the way across the panty section.Now since I have the ladder inside I am going to clean all the light fittings and ceiling fans. What a fun day I am having. 😕
put old newspaper there, so that you cant see it from the downside. you will never ever scrub those things again but only change the greasy newspaper.
Good thinking Lena, why didn’t I think of that. I might have to use lunch wrap though because we don’t get newspapers. I’ll climb up there now while the ladder is still out.
Colleen, You couldn’t just pop over and do mine while you are at it? ……
Not so good on ladders still I suppose. You should have got your daughter to do that while she was there. Perhaps that might have been pushing your luck. I did what Lena said and papered them before I put the ladder back in the garage. I am now having a well earned coffee break.
The thought of downsizing was what really got me going on my decluttering. Awesome that you’re really thinking of doing it early. Just think of all the money you can save on a smaller place and really, you’re only giving up stuff you don’t need anyway, right? So awesome that yor son “gets it.”
We are lucky that we get cheap rent so this will only come about if the right place comes up. The one we looked at didn’t have enough garage space. We have a car and a motorbike and our son usually has a motorbike too, so one tiny car space just wasn’t enough.
My daughter made me bought her 17 canvases a couple weeks ago! A pack of 10 small and a pack of 7 bigger ones. $20 USD for all. That’s a great deal, … if they are used one day. She painted one already.
My neighbor is a painter, so at least I know how to dispose of them 🙂
Natalie, It is good to know you have a back up plan if your daughter doesn’t end up using them. $20 sure is a good deal, hard to resist I bet.
Thanks for the reminder of the newspaper on high kitchen cabinets! My mother used to do that. But bit by bit she started using the top of her cabinets for storage of everything that did not fit other places. Unsightly, I can tell you. So I forgot about that option. Well, during the kitchen reno she got cabinets all the way to the ceiling so the stuff now is inside … Looks much better though. Storage, curse and blessing in one … But my mum is showing first signs of getting better at decluttering. I’m looking forward to see how it goes (and that something goes!).
I have papered my cupboard tops already on Lena’s suggestion. Good luck with your mum I hope she catches the decluttering bug.
I’ve always thought that in big and less crowded countries like USA, Canada or Australia, people are spoiled having so much space! Here in Europe we are used to small places, both apartments and houses. My parents’ apartment in a city near Venice is around 90 square meters, and it was the home of 4 people (2 adults and 2 children) for more than 20 years. We had 3 bedrooms (my brother’s was quite small), a smallish living/dining room, a kitchen big enough to have our meals there (all the 4 of us together and even some guests sometimes), one bathroom (we had to schedule well our mornings) and a long corridor where we put a wardrobe to use as a closet. Closets here are not popular.
When we had guests we had a bedcouch in the living room where 2 people could sleep.
Now my parents live alone but my room and my brother’s are still in the same condition as 15 years ago! We both still have some clothes there, plus all our high school books, toys etc. I hope to be able to take all my possessions to my place in Rome soon… but my own apartment right now has no space (I’ll write this in another comment since this one is too long already!)
Hi Sabrina,
you are so right about us being spoiled having so much space. Although the funny thing about Australia is that although it is big the majority of the landmass is desert so we don’t have that much space at all really. Not if we want to grow crops to feed ourselves that is. Mind you at the rate things are going soon we will have a country full of holes in the ground (mines that is) and no arable land left. Yet still for the most part people insist on owning houses far bigger than they need or can afford in some cases. I almost feel I have to justify the small size of mine. People think we are less financial than we are just because we live in a house this size. They can think what they like I don’t want their McMansions or their debt or their carbon footprint or to have to keep clean all that space. Once I used to envy people with big home and now that I can afford one I don’t want it.
I don’t know how big in square metres our childhood home was but there were seven of us living in it and only one bathroom. We survived. My parents only moved into a five bedroom house when most of us had left home. Go figure!
I like the idea of downsizing but in this moment of my life I’m actually going to “upsize” soon.
My place is 65 sq meters and it was pretty spacious when I lived alone, with a very big living/dining room, a big bedroom, small kitchen and bathroom and an entrance that I think is a bit of a wasted space. Luckily there is a small closet that I use as storage space.
When my husband moved in last year I did not do much decluttering so he could not bring all his possessions over from his parents’ place where he was living previously. Our problem is that we both love books, he also loves music and has so many cds and even old audio-cassettes, plus he has quite space-needing hobbies: motorcycling and semi-professional photography, so he needs space for all the stuff that goes with those!
Also we are planning on having children so we definitely need one more bedroom. Finally, when my parents come over (they live 500 km from here) we are quite fed up to have them occupy for days our only common space (living room) where the sofa-bed is.
Luckily we have a solution under way. My husband has a half-constructed house in a village some 30 km outside Rome so hopefully we will finish building it this year and then move there. Nothing huge, around 150 sq meters + garden, but I’m so eager to move there! Then we can bring all our stuff from our old rooms in both parents’ apartments (my mother will thank me so much, after 12 years I live on my own!!)
The only downside is that we will have to take out a mortgage to finish the house, while we have been mortgage-free up to now. Hopefully it will not be too much money and we can rent my apartment out to pay for the mortgage rate.
Anyway I’m slowly decluttering so that our move will be easier and I don’t keep stuff I don’t need just because in the new house there is space for it…
Gosh Sabrina it sounds like you married my son, music, motorbike and camera equipment. Luckily my son is only 20 so grew up with itunes so his music is mostly stored in a tiny iPod. The camera equipment however is ever increasing as he is majoring in photography in university. The motorbike was damaged beyond repair in his accident before Christmas but I am sure it will be replaced eventually.
I can see why you need a larger space while my need for space is decreasing. I am sure both your parents will be pleased when you finally remove all your stuff from their homes. I know I will be glad when my daughter takes all her stuff. I just hope it doesn’t take 12 years.
Yesterday, our guest left after 3 months. We do now have so much more space and it feels as if it was too much. Our flat is about 68 square meters, devided into a big living room (about 25sqm), in which we slept in the last weeks as well, a dining kitchen (about 12sqm), tiny bathroom and tiny laundry room which have been used together and a bedroom of about 13sqm, which has been our guest’s entirely.
We’re still sleeping in the living room and haven’t touched our bedroom closets so far. It feels strange. We learnt that our flat is really big enough for three persons living there. It feels a bit too big now. I’ll see, what I’ll do with that “additional” space…
Sanna, you tweaked my interest so I googling 68sqm apartments and have found how nicely these spaces can be arranged and decorated. I was surprised to see that in such a small space they sometimes put two bathrooms, that seems like a waste of useful space considering there is only one bedroom, strange. You plan sounds a lot more sensible.
Yes, it all depends on the arrangement of the rooms (and on the light, a sunny room looks always inviting, no matter how small it is). I once lived in a slightly bigger apartment (74squm) which had an additional tiny bedroom and a wonderful, inviting balcony. It felt enourmously spacious. Our place at the moment has the plus of both kitchen and living room having two doors (one to the hallway and one between kitchen and living room) I love that I can switch between the two lightest rooms without having to use the darkish hallway. Plus, I think that these additional ways I can walk give me the feeling of my apartment being larger…
I know people who dislike connecting doors between rooms, as they might take away wallspace where you could place furniture. However, I love them for the extra versability they add to an apartment . (plus, at least the one in the kitchen doesn’t take up any space, as both doors in the kitchen are in the same corner of the room)
Btw: I just remembered, how I shared rooms in Japan once. We were two girls and as far as I can recall, we had about 40sqm (at most!) together. Despite that, it felt spacious. 🙂 As we slept on futons, which were stored in the closet for the day, there was no need for a “bedroom” – each of us had a combined office/living room (which turned into the bedroom at night), as they were divided by japanese sliding doors, you could “open the wall” in between them and combine those two rooms into one really big and spacious one. The kitchen doubled as hallway and even had a dinig table (for up to four persons). Bathroom and toilet were really really small, but had sunlight windows nonetheless. It was really nice for two persons. However, I learnt to love versatile rooms with little furniture there. It’s amazing, how big 10sqm feel if there is no furniture in them at all – and how crammed they feel, if you put a king size bed in there. 🙂
I’m not quite living the Japanese way over here, but I adapted some things – at least it is an inspiration to think out of the box and find ways to make a space more versatile.
Many of the doors in our house are sliding doors what slide into the wall cavity. They are very space saving.
We downsized 4 years ago and I am currently really decluttering my small space which after 4 years feels like it is going to choke me. Cheers, Wendy.
I’m late reading this and posting–we have downsized twice in the past few years. Currently, we have no garage and no basement or attic. Just a little shed for outdoor tools and camping gear. 2 bedrooms/2 baths. The only reason I’d love a garage would be to keep our bikes in a building as they currently are locked outside.
I don’t think you’ll have any problem with the additional downsizing, Colleen 🙂
I don’t think I could live without a garage in fact we don’t think we can live without a double garage because of having a motorbike and a car and leaving them out in the weather is not good for their longevity.