by Hollyberry, Survival Blog:
I have always lived in a small space (apartment/mobile home/cabin) since leaving mom and dad’s nest many years ago. Small living is not for everyone. Being in a small living area, with pets and personal belongings, it can get crowded quickly. My husband jokingly says that we live homicidally close! I find that organization is important, as is letting stuff go when no longer needed or used. If you save everything because you may need it one day, then you can quickly run out of space. Clutter can take over quickly if not kept in check. We try to keep things tidy and organized. Evaluate everything you are bringing into your home, do I really need/use/covet this item?
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About 13 years ago, my husband and I moved into our little cabin. It was 680 square feet,. It had been built as a three-season hunting cabin. After looking at it and discussing how we could fit in it, we made an offer and here we are. There were no closets, no basement, and no outbuildings. Closets and outbuildings were added but a basement would have to wait for that winning lottery ticket. My husband and I and our dogs welcome you on a tour of our home and how we made it work for us. I offer you a cup of coffee and some homemade cookies!
THE LOFT
The cabin is a 1 bedroom on ground level with a ladder leading to an open loft. We had ½ of the loft enclosed as a storage space and filled the other open half with books, plants and such. We use the enclosed storage for the many mason jars we have, blankets, Christmas decorations, etc. My husband built some very sturdy wood shelves to hold most of the items. As we live in a very cold climate, blankets and quilts take up a lot of space. Plastic boxes hold various items. Make sure you label the boxes or it will be a frustrating hunting trip locating the box that the shoe laces are in. And you need those shoelaces right now as the dog just ran away and your shoelace just broke! The ceiling is slanted in the loft so smacking your head on a wooden beam is still a daily occurrence. Every home my husband and I have owned has had a slanted ceiling in it somewhere so you would think we would know to duck our heads by now. See, can’t teach an old dog new tricks!
Several bags of dog food can be tucked into the open corner of the loft. We also have a wooden blanket chest filled a lot of stuff but not blankets! Make use of as much of the space as you can. When entering our home, you can see the open loft area filled with bookshelves and plants but stuff tucked in the corners is not visible. We also have an indoor clothesline here for those rainy/snowy days. In the spring you will see grow lights and seedlings growing up here and a kiddie pool with chicks hatched out of our incubator.
THE BATHROOM
We had a closet built in the bathroom as there was no linen closet. There was a very small hot water heater which we changed out to an on-demand propane hot water heater. This is very economical and a space saver. A conventional hot water tank takes up a lot of room and consumes much energy. The bathroom has a small area walled off with a curtain that holds the well pressure tank and the on-demand hot water heater. There is also a small shelf above the well tank which holds laundry soap , bleach, etc. Brooms and mops hang on the wall here also. The electrical panel is on the opposite wall above the washing machine.
Originally, we had a very small and narrow shower stall. If you dropped something in the shower, it was so narrow that you could not bend down to retrieve it. If you were on the heavy side, you would not fit in the shower. It reminded me of a coffin with running hot and cold water. When we could finally afford an upgraded bathroom, we rescued a claw foot tub that had been in a field for God knows how long. My husband refinished the tub and it looks beautiful. It was a happy day to see the coffin shower stall lying in the driveway on its way to a new home, the town dump. We used a glass vessel sink and my husband built the countertop and underneath cabinet that hides the plumbing and holds toiletries.
The sinks and countertop had to be small to accommodate the larger tub. Living in Maine and being older, a nice, hot soak is worth more that any big bathroom sink and countertop. We had a stackable washer/dryer in the bathroom but several years ago the dryer expired and after pricing new ones we decided we don’t need one. I jokingly tell people I have a solar dryer and someone always asks what that is. We really only used the electric clothes dryer on rainy or snowy days so it wasn’t much of a loss to us. The electric bill did go down quite a bit which is always a nice bonus and the clothes smell like fresh mountain air and sunshine or occasional bird poop.
THE KITCHEN
As the cabin is an open floor space, the living room/eating area/kitchen all tend to blend together. Before moving in, we had a double sink installed. As I do a lot of canning, this is not negotiable. I need 2 sinks! We had more cabinets built and extended the countertop in an empty corner that just held a garbage can. You can never have enough kitchen cabinets. Our table is in this area also and can comfortably sit 4 people. If our friends bring their adult children with them for a meal, we bring in the bistro table and chairs from the porch for more seating. You have to be realistic about entertaining in a smaller space. You will not be hosting large holiday meals for the family or big gatherings. Some days I wish I had a dining room but how often would I really use it? My kitchen my be small but all appliances are full size and I have plenty of room for cooking, canning & baking. My husband and I can even prepare a meal and cook together without bumping into each other.
LIVING ROOM
We have a woodburning stove and in cooler temps, the wood rack is also in the living room. We have several coat hooks next to front door for jackets and more hooks behind the wood stove to dry or preheat a jacket on a cold winter day. We are limited on floor space and there is only 1 way to place the furniture. We have a hutch with glass door on top for nice stuff, like family heirlooms and the bottom is for storage. A couch and recliner and that is it. No room for a coffee table as letting the dogs out in the middle of the night would result in a visit to the local hospital as we would trip over it. We are considering building a couch with storage when this couch expires. I have seen some really nice ones and we could tailor it to fit the corner of the room.
We have two six-foot shelves on the wall above the couch for books we want access to without having to climb up the ladder to the loft. We have not had television for over a decade as we find it to be an unnecessary expense and the shows today are mindless garbage. We do have a DVD player and small flat screen on a shelf mounted over the living room window. I can’t even remember the last time we watched anything but w have a nice collection of DVDs. We especially enjoy older British comedies, like Last of the Summer Wine, Are You Being Served and The Vicar of Dibley.
