I know I am getting slightly outrageous today but I just wanted to plant this thought.
Now that you have created space in your home do you really need it? That much space I mean. How many of us live in homes that are far to big for our needs.
Is your home just a status symbol with more rooms than you need that just cause you a whole lot of wasted time doing housework.
When I was a child with four siblings and a mum and dad, we all managed to live quite comfortably in a four bedroom house with one bathroom, a kitchen, a lounge room with a rumpus room under the house. One of the bedrooms was actually used as a spare room and Mum’s sewing room as she did dress making from home for extra cash.
When I was 21 we moved into a house with four bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a billiard room, a study, a kitchen and a formal dining room. At this stage three of my siblings had already left home. Now my parents have “downsized” to a house with four bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a billiard room, a study, a lounge room, a kitchen and a dining area and they live together alone in this house.
I know my mum likes to think we can all fit into this house should we all come to visit at once but now that the grandchildren are growing up and starting to get married and have children of their own is she going to buy a hotel to fit everyone in.
It was just a thought, please don’t thing I have gone completely off the rails with the whole decluttering thing.
ITEM NUMBER 110 OF 365LESS THINGS
Clearly this has nothing to do with the topic of the day but it is however my contribution for day 110
jessiejack says
This is a great topic – in college I lived in half of a dormitory room, and I’ve been happy in a hotel room at a jobsite. How much really is enough?? Do 2 people need a 4 bedroom 3 bath house with family room, dining room, library and garage??
Colleen says
Hi jessiejack,
no they really don’t. I live in Australia where 90% of the land mass is arid and yet it is still the great Austalian dream to own a big free standing home on a plot of land. This is all very nice but at some point we are going to have to start to think more vertical and compact because we won’t have room for agriculture or our beautiful native aminals if we keep going the way we are. I think appartment living is starting to become more popular here but slowly, I hope so anyway.
Anne says
I would love to downsize, but with our housing market what it is, we’d lose a bundle because we bought when prices were up. Maybe an analysis of how much we’d save in electricity, etc. would show an eventual break even point if we were to move to a smaller place? Definitely something to think about!
Colleen says
Hi Anne,
I bet there are a lot of people out there in the same situation as you after the financial melt down the world has just gone through. There would be a lot of variables to take into account when considering the situation that is for sure. I hope things work out for you.
Even though I own a home I sometimes wish the market would stay lower because housing is getting so expensive that I despair that my children will never be able to afford to buy a home of there own by the time they are wanting to make that investment. It really is a catch 22.
Lena says
I started to catch up on the archives again. cup of tea and some grapes and there I go.
I found a website today that made me immediatly think of this blog. and while reading here, I might add a bit fresh comments (4 arent enough)
http://tinyhouseblog.com/
Colleen says
Hi Lena,
that Tiny House blog is great I think I have linked to it before. I could sit there for hours just looking at the great designs. The key to tiny homes is utilising space well.
Allison says
When I was growing up, we had yearly family reunions with about 16-18 adults/kids that lasted for multiple days, and we just rented a beach house. Everyone chipped in that way, and no one family unit had to bear the bulk of supporting a ton of people descending on them at once.
Of course, that doesn’t count some epic family Christmases. Thankfully we had an entertaining-oriented family in the mix!
Colleen Madsen says
Those foaming bottles are a great way to provide hand soap because they are very economical on soap.
Anni says
Haha… I’m a fulltime worker and I still live in a 14sqm “apartment” because I can’t afford anything better.
The not-being-able-to-afford-more-part is a bit sad, but I have grown to like having so little space. It’s simple and small, I don’t spend much time or money on cleaning my room and my conscience is clear environmental-wise. I work a lot and I live in a beautiful area, so I mostly only come home to sleep anyway.
The only bad thing is, I can’t declutter most of my stuff because I have to keep it in storage somewhere else. It’s a little ironic… If I could sort through my stuff on a more regular basis, maybe all of it would fit in one small room.
That’s my dream 🙂