It’s a lovely rainy day today
– rain barrels are filling and the garden is growing. I am home to tackle a few
projects that seem to have taken over the house.
I have been thinking and
reading about three topics that today come together for me: reducing our carbon footprint, living in a
tiny/small home, and the Permaculture idea of Zones. Zones are areas of your property that are designated for certain purposes, and because this post is getting really long, I will post separately about what our zones include and represent for us.
When we bought our home 10
years ago – the appeal was price, it is in the area my husband grew up in, the fact that
it was in “move in” condition. We were
sharing a home with our in-laws at that time to save for our own place, so we
had money saved when the opportunity presented itself. When we walked into the
house for the first time, I knew I wanted to live here. The process of buying
was so smooth and problem free and we love our home. At that time, however, we
were not aware of the level of consumption we were at, the level of energy we
needed to keep the house functioning and the cost of a few repairs that would
eventually be needed.
You could say that our life
focus was just to do what everyone does – work hard, pay our mortgage and other
bills and enjoy the evenings and weekends with our family and friends. It doesn’t sound like a bad plan, but, it did
not take the future into account at all, and now the future is here. At that
time, I never thought about Peak Oil, grocery prices going up 30%, that one of
us at any time could lose our job, that our children would probably live with
us until they were into their late 20’s – because of the slow collapse of our
economy and raising of prices for everything we need to live. We are happy to still
have a home to share with our children and friends, and fortunate to weather the last few years when so many have lost
so much.
When we moved in, people said
things like “this is a good starter home” or “this is a good first home” and I
would just smile because I know we will probably never leave Worcester, or this
house. I am sure that the size is one of the main reasons people thought we
would eventually move. It is only 900 sq. ft. Sure, I dream of vacations in a cabin in the
woods of Vermont, (in a yet smaller building) but I really and truly love this
city and being around neighbors, and having access to community that I think is
very important when times are tough, and let’s face it – times are rough now
for many people!!
Now, one of my favorite
topics to research is the Tiny House/ Small Home movement. For instance:
Tiny House Blog. People all over the
world are living in much smaller spaces and require much less of a footprint,
and when I think of all we do in our home, I know now that their lives can be
full and complete without a huge house. Over time, especially in the past
couple of years, we have made an effort to cut back our expenses and
consumption of resources. We recycled extra appliances, bought a couple of new
energy efficient (and smaller) appliances – like our refrigerator. We have
replaced all the light bulbs with energy efficient, replaced the roof (new
insulation, etc.), purchased an Elmira cook top wood stove for cooking and heat,
and energy efficient replacement windows. We tackled each of these things one
at a time and paid it off and started the next.
So, with these things all in
place, our heating is reduced, our cooling isn’t necessary (no more air
conditioning needed with the new windows) and we have learned to unplug, turn
off, and require less energy in general.
For our “night light” I have solar charged lights in the house, for the
yard – solar lights lighting the walk and back yard. We are not opposed to using energy when
needed…we put our outside lights on motion detectors and use lights if the
solar don’t charge – because we live in the city and we also have to consider
security and safety. But I am always looking for ways to do these things with
less power. One of the best ways I have found to cut unnecessary use of
electricity is to put everything into surge protectors that can be switched off
when not in use and turned back on when we need to use something.
With the functional and
energy issues being addressed, there is a major consumption issue inside our
home – of space. In the day to day of living, we accumulate so much. Gifts,
junk mail, regular mail, catalogues, holiday décor, recreational equipment,
gaming and games, clothing, school paperwork, pieces and parts of crafts and
projects and general living projects that we have taken on, such as canning, food
storage, wood working, gardening, music, etc. etc.
After reading many blogs,
websites and books, I see that living in a small home, it is necessary to
consider each item individually – pick it up, think about it’s value and either
find a practical use or storage, or pass it on to someone else.
Today I am starting that
process (again) at a deeper level than I have in the past. If we do this
periodically, I find (for myself) that I need less and less. When there is less
stuff crowding me – I feel like room opens up inside creatively and I can
write, sing, etc. But, when I am cluttered around me, it clutters up my mind
and consumes too much time – finding things, and recently injuring myself and ended up in the emergency room because this clutter creates a frenzy of searching and distraction that results
in injury.
Why we do this to ourselves,
I will never understand.
So, today is about this
process of picking up each item and figuring out what has a genuine meaning to
me, or a practical function and how it can be stored in a way that we have as
much space as possible available to us when these things are not in use. And
the rest will be passed on.
I have decided to tackle this
a room at a time. Front Hall and Closet, Bedroom, Living Room, Kitchens, Baths,
Back Hall, Basement Storage. I am using the space in our basement to sort the
things I need to donate, store or throw away.
The plan is to give myself an
hour for each room – to gather the quick decision things like
trash/recycling/laundry, etc. and deal with them, and then to take the not so
quick decision things and bring them downstairs. Every hour I will take one
rooms “clutter” downstairs and sort by use, project, donate, storage, seasonal,
etc. I also will designate an area for each person in the family so they have
the opportunity to sort through their own things.
Okay – I am 2 hours into this
and just finishing one hall - there is a
huge misconception that 900 sq. ft. is small.
It just sounds small until you have to clean it. I would say the same
about our property…100x50 doesn’t sound big at all until you look at the list
of 50+ plants we have growing so far. (not including weeds and volunteers). And
I would say that we are only using about ½ of the available space in the yard,
as well as the house. The house I want
to pare down and create beauty and space, and the yard I want to fill with
beauty and food.
Adaptation is probably the
most important thing about this process. Clearly the halls are the storage for
the other rooms – so I really am cleaning two halls of clutter and just
straightening the rest of the house. Scrap
the hour in each room – today is about cleaning the clutter out of two halls
and then sorting through storage in the basement. Most likely, and
realistically, it will just mean cleaning out halls and sorting another day.
This is better than any gym!
So the front hall is transformed
from a dumping zone to a dressing room/closet and hallway for coats when people
visit. This is just the first step, I can think of many different uses for the
hall and am leaning toward a bench window seat for reading and storage.
Ideally, I would like to find or make a coat rack, window seat/bench and find a
good storage system for office supplies and crafts, but keep the crafts downstairs. It would be most beneficial
to find them at a yard sale or consignment. But, first, we’re going to live
with the space and see if we even need to put anything else there.
A small note of importance is the flow of air that was blocked by clutter in front of the windows. Without air conditioning - the flow of air in the house becomes very important and right away I could feel the change. When I could get to the windows easily and open them, it creates a flow of air from the back of the house that is refreshing and can quickly air out the house and cool it.
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| Piles accumulated |
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| A place for shoes and clothing |
