Both my parents died pretty young, so we got a lot of their stuff. Steve’s mom died about 10 years ago and we got a lot of her stuff. My Aunt died and left everything in her condo to us, so I went to NY and got her china and linens and old photos and Hermes scarves. This is the part where you should envision piles of china and crystal and silver that is too fancy to ever use or touch or look at because it’s in a cabinet.
Kind of a BONANZA! But every material thing on the planet carries a story/hope/idea/longing, so if dead people leave you a pile of things and you take them in, you take in their stories about their life and make them your stories about your life. Coupled with my incessant desire for MORE, our Big House became a jail of ideas and stories. Management of the stuff pressed in every day + cost a ton of cash. Mowing, cleaning, insuring, taxing, paying, organizing, washing, planting, digging, losing, finding. Once kids + Steve left for school I was plagued by questions (and dusting): “Why am I doing this? Who am I without all this stuff? How does this idea of ‘having it all’ play out?”
So when we finally decided to move into a Small House, it was game on. We sifted through our lovely belongings, selected which ones brought joy in any measure. These we’d take to the Small House. Most everything was in multiples that we never used – stemware, silverware, tableware, seasonal decorative stuff, books books books, wooden spoons, spatulas, plastic containers, spices, COOK books, linens, batteries in all sizes, 10,000 pens, medical supplies, special cleaning supplies for specific surfaces, games in packaging, photos in boxes – a bottomless pit. So I went through a cupboard or room one at a time. I chose the ONE pitcher that held meaning or joy; maybe TWO of ten vases; ONE pot in each size; ONE set of plates, silverware, glasses, and so on. Once it was “keep” or “go”, we sorted. If a “go” had value it went to the guest room-now-staging-morgue for stuff we didn’t want. Valuable stuff went to Funk n’ Junk for sale, the rest I advertised on Buy/Sell/Trade as a “Progressive Moving Sale”. The morgue had a separate entrance so I locked the door into the main part of the house and put out a jar with a sign: “PAY HERE”. People came, stuff went. They put money in the jar or didn’t’, I didn’t care, we were completely over it. It “cost” more to keep stuff than to let a bargain hunter steal it. (The only thing that got away that I wish didn’t was a black lace pencil skirt with contrast purple zipper by PinPin Apparel, so if you’re reading this and it’s languishing in your closet, can I please buy it back?)
This is when the Hoarder from Part I showed up. The house sold and we swept our way out the door.
Today, I rent instead of purchase. We kept the most sentimental Christmas stuff, of course, but not very much, so every season I buy some trendy decor and then give it to the thrift store or away instead of storing it for 50 weeks. This is a super helpful concept which we also use, for example, in autumn. We buy an apple peeler for $18 on Amazon, use it, then give it away rather than store it for 50 weeks. You get the idea. The point is, now we have time to goof around with apples.
I forgot to tell you in Part I how we decided it would probably work out to go SMALL! Because in our Big House, after about 7pm we all ended up in a pile on the commensurately-sized sofa, bickering about what to watch. So, as long as we had a sofa we figured we’d be good to go. Which brings me to the bones of Part II, which I’ll use to herein describe the day-to-day differences of living Small compared to Not Small so that if it appeals to you, you can make an informed decision.
Here is a list and a few gallery pics of negative things that happen in a Small House:
Shoes: An unwieldy number pile up by the door;
Dishes and Laundry: Piles and piles! Can’t start load because someone didn’t finish theirs;
Cars: All stacked up and someone might get blocked in;
Messy house in the morning and everyone leaves and it magically gets cleaned up while they’re gone;
Pile of bill-type papers and a “monster drawer”;
Storage problems;
Complaints about no TV;
Bickering (but the shout-factor is way down because everyone’s close by);
People leave their stuff everywhere all the time and don’t care and then ask where it is and blame someone for taking it;
People take each other’s stuff without asking because it was just sitting there;
They put toilet paper on backwards, leave toothpaste out and messy, toilet seat up/down/pee pee/don’t flush;
Oh, it appears the negative aspects of living in a Small House are exactly the same as living in a Not Small House, hmmm.
…except that the positives far outweigh them! Easy math!
We have everything we need, and it’s nice, or we enjoy everything we have or toss it;
We share meals;
We watch stuff together and laugh;
We have friends over;
We enjoy the view;
We don’t pay huge bills (heat/electric $100 in February, not bad considering that we literally heat the house with the oven, not kidding. No propane bill, lower taxes, insurance, no landline except internet $35);
We clean up after dinner and wash dishes while chatting (OR NOT, DISHES CAN WAIT);
It’s quick to mow the lawn and to weed the bitty garden beds, x 2, so gardening is a sporadic pleasure;
We have bonfires and sit around to ceremoniously eat sugar and drink beer;
It’s easy to clean the entire house super FAST;
It’s easy to clean the entire house super FAST;
It’s easy;
…which far outweigh the negatives which are the same as in a Not Small House.
…as always, your comments below greatly appreciated…
Love ya,
Win
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