With a lot of shows finishing for the summer, I’ve had less and less to be watching. Somehow I ended up watching tiny house videos and after a few, I was a bit hooked. Combined with the attempt to simplify things this year (it had been my one little word last year too), I got thinking.
What if you could take that tiny house thinking and use the methods in a big house?
I started watching Tiny House Giant Journey and Living Big in a Tiny House, amongst other channels. I think this nerd tiny house is one of my favourites. You can follow them on IG here.
Right, so back to my idea.
Could we apply some of the clever ideas used in tiny houses, in our “big” house?
As I wrote this post, it crossed my mind that some of the thinking was already in seedling form when the boys were away. I spent a chunk of the two-ish weeks, redecorating the bathroom, then restoring order to the airing cupboard and to the bedrooms. Did we really need all those towels? Did we really need x amounts of bedding? At some point, I read a tidying/cleaning hack somewhere about bedding. You take one pillow case and fold down the rest of the bedding (and any other pillow cases to make a set) so it fits into that pillow case. The idea being that next time you change the bed – just grab a bundle of bedding and go. This worked for us for a while but it starts to get untidy again so maybe it’s something I need to do regularly.
Fast forward through the 3-4 weeks until I discovered the tiny house videos. I found the videos and got inspired. Next up, I got started with sorting out Jaxon’s clothes and my clothes. I’d find that I’d catch up with the washing and realised that we both had too many clothes. To the point, that there wasn’t enough storage space. I started by clearing out all the too small clothes and the ones that have holes etc. I washed some of the very little baby clothes that were still in storage so they are ready to go to someone else who can use them. Then with my clothes, it was things like getting rid of those clothes that I don’t wear. It was also getting rid of those clothes that I keep “for the day when I am skinny enough”. There weren’t a lot of items like that but there were
In The Bedrooms
Next up I worked on my clothes. Tt was things like getting rid of those clothes that I don’t wear. It was also getting rid of those clothes that I keep “for the day when I am skinny enough”. There weren’t a lot of items like that but there were some where I was like “Why am I keeping this?”. This was then combined with the “Does this Spark Joy?” question that Marie Kondo talks about in her book. (How cool is this new Manga adapation?) I had loaded up a couple of bin bags between rubbish and charity shop. Putting Chris’s washing away too meant that I could see the space we had in our room rather than working my way round the washing.
Some bits were easier to part with than others. Some of the baby bits that I’ve been clearing out from the loft was hard. Part of me hoped they would have more use in them but with our current family set up in our sized house, fitting another tiny human in just wouldn’t work.
In The Bathroom
In the bathroom, I had been working on downsizing the shampoo/conditioner/shower gel collection. My current shampoo consists of about four different products each with it’s own smell. So I get a right mix! This is a bit of a challenge as some products are needed lots and others aren’t needed as often. (for instance, shampoo is a daily/weekly product but After Sun is seasonal and now may not be needed until this time next year.
In The Kitchen
In the kitchen, We have a fold down table (similar to the Ikea one that appears in lots of tiny homes). Our one is a whole lot heavier and older than the Ikea one! Chris came up with an idea which also works well for stopping junk congregating on the kitchen table. We moved the table round so that the centre bit is against the wall. We open one flap at meal times then close it down again. At present we still have solid chairs but the plan is to swap these out for fold down chairs. This should then reduce the space needed for the table further. The plan is to have a big hook on the wall for the chairs so it reduces floor space needed. This will open up the kitchen even more.
What Have I Learnt?
Sometimes the “rainy day” mentality can be a problem. Sometimes the hanging onto things “just in case” means we have things in the house that we really don’t need. This week I filled a B6 journal of various bits and pieces that I’d collected and always meant to journal but never got round to. The idea being that they are collected in one book in theory means that they aren’t spread around taking up space elsewhere. While sorting through the collections I filled a big blue Ikea bag twice with scraps of paper and other bits of recycling that I had been keeping but didn’t need.
What’s Next?
With adopting and tweaking further ideas from what I’ve learnt through the tiny house videos. I hoping we’ll be able to keep the house tidier and in turn cleaner going forward. I keep working my way through my craft boxes and also trying to crochet through my stash of wool. Where possible I’m trying not to buy new balls for projects, rather tweak the patterns with what I have in the house until I create something that works. There certainly wouldn’t be room in a tiny house for my journaling bits and all my wool as it currently is!
Do you have tips and methods for keeping your house or apartment tidy? What do you think of tiny houses?
