These past couple of days I've been cruising the blogs, visiting the Holiday tour of homes of various bloggers. I really enjoyed all of the inspiring holiday ideas and pinned tons of gorgeous photos and craft ideas to my Pinterest board. After a while though I became overwhelmed (perhaps just annoyed) with all of the grand homes with their huge halls decked out with boughs of holly. It just made me feel a bit bad about my tiny home not being so open, spacious and grand. So then I thought, "well, why don't I search to see how folks are decorating tiny homes for the holidays?" ... There weren't many...But I found this wonderful blog post from Hari, someone who really knows what's it's like to live in a really small space, all 168 sq feet of space.
What really stood out to me was her raw honesty, "feeling like a caged animal" and three more boxes sending her over the edge, "where will we put ourselves". I think I've had these feelings at some point being in our house and especially at the cottage.
And it’s dark and it’s Christmas and we live in a house with a foot print of 168 feet. And the kids want a Christmas tree. I can’t convince them that we should leave all the Christmas boxes in storage. Where the heck can we put 3 more boxes of stuff? I spin a plan of decorating for the birds. We’ll get a tree for the deck and make ornaments from bird seed. Or course, that won’t do. So I give in (but not all the way) and find a 3 ft. tree in a pot that fits on the side cabinet next to the couch. Papa and I had plans to go to storage and just take a few things out of the Christmas box, but the kids were adamant about taking it all. Thankfully, our Christmas stuff is purged, but still. . . given that I’ve been feeling like a caged animal, three more boxes could send me over the edge. So, we put the boxes in the shed and only took the small one down to the house. We hung that stuff in 3 minutes flat, and the kids shot out the door. “Where are you going?! Shut the door!!” They came back lugging the giant box down the hill. “What are you doing!?? We can’t bring all that in here. Where will we put ourselves?”...
...When we finished, we turned off the lights and Stevie Wonder’s “One Little Christmas Tree (can light up the world)” played. My tears started flowing. From our little tree in our tiny house (where I’ve been feeling so blue) red, green, orange and pink lights circled the planet. My sadness turned to hope.
What I came to appreciate from Hari was that we don't need all the "stuff" and huge homes to be truly happy. Sometimes a cramped space can really cramp your style. However, what I have is more important than what I don't have and I feel blessed. Living in a small home means living with only the things we love, purging what is unnecessary, no walk-in closets, just crawl-in dormer spaces. Living modestly and making do with less. Easier said than done. At the moment, our small home is crammed with stuff that Tim and I have accumulated together and things we've brought together from our past when we married. I have to admit I have A LOT of stuff that I love and have difficulty parting with. I've come to realize that to be a happy nester in a small house, some of my stuff will have to go. Like my home, I too am a work in progress.
I like Hari's strategies for surviving in a small house:
Communicate clearly.
Keep it tidy! Purge, purge, purge.
Get outside.
Get up early.
Share your story.
Reflect on your growth.
Here's a closing thought:
Home is a place we all must find
It's not just a place where you eat or sleep.
Home is knowing. Knowing your mind, knowing your heart, knowing your courage.
If we know ourselves, we're always home, anywhere.
