Things to Throw Away

This post was shared through FB by one of my friends:
http://embracinghomemaking.net/2015/04/200-things-to-throw-away/

Living in a tiny house demanded I "throw away" or in my case mostly "give away" a lot of "Things" so naturally I was curious about what was on this list.

I browsed through it and found that surprise, surprise I had gotten rid of most of the 200 things she lists.  

At least a 1/4 of the things she lists I never owned to start with (maybe that made it easier for me to downsize??) and no offense meant to anyone but if you really have all 200 of these extra's lying around your house somewhere you just might be a hoarder.  

Also, 

if you're having trouble getting rid of more than 25 of these you might consider having a friend (or counselor!) come over and help you declutter!

I've said for a while now: 

"If you have the space for it why get rid of it?"

I think the real problems start when we don't have the space anymore.  This is when we start to place value on "Things".  The things start to take up our time: cleaning them, moving them, organizing them.  The things start to take up our money:  buying storage tubs to keep things in, buying storage bags to keep things in, buying storage shelves to keep things on, buying storage racks to hang things on, buying storage hooks to hang things from, etc, etc, etc.  I'm sure you can come up with others ways "things" take up our time and money.

When you have the space for things, why get rid of them?  

Personally I don't think there is any reason to get rid of things if you have the space for them.  As people we tend toward valuing things: memorabilia, art, comfort items, etc.  In fact, even living in a tiny house, I value things such as my washer/dryer combo, my tupperware, my glass storage jars, my blankets, kids hammocks, legos, bakeware, mugs and tea.

"Getting rid of things shifts our values." 

 (credit: husband)

The most frequently asked questions about tiny house living is about stuff.  Shifting our values to other things has really helped us not to miss the things that we "threw away".  The kids are close, cleaning takes less time, we are spending more time on our hobbies (which right now happens to include woodworking, but also tennis, racquetball, and reading), we had more time than usual to spend with family over the Christmas holiday, I had an opportunity to help clean someone else's house before Christmas, we have time to help out around the church and when friends come to call we have plenty of time to visit.  

I think each person has to assess their values introspectively with "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" as a guide.  When our values are centered on seeking first His Kingdom, we can't go wrong.

I'm sure I'll revisit this topic of "things" again, tiny living in our society certainly brings "things" to the forefront, but for now I'll leave you with one by-law that has helped me purge:

If I have a question about keeping a "thing" 

and I can replace it for under $50, 

out it goes.

A bit crowded...

I'm feeling a bit crowded this week.

With Christmas presents coming in and trying to get everything out of our storage room, I'm having to do a bit more downsizing.

• I have canned maybe once a year for the last couple years: my steam canner is going to the white elephant gift exchange.
• Two plates (1 large, 1 small) per person is plenty: a stack of plates is headed to the thrift store.
• My American Girl books are going to my daughter...yes, this was hard for me!!  My daughter does not have a history of taking care of things and I treasured those books for years.
• Who really needs two pairs of hiking sandals??  My kids don't for sure: two pairs headed out.
• Awesome Cuisinart ice cream maker that was used once a year:  also headed to the white elephant exhange!
• Oh, and plenty of odds and ends papers that were put aside in case I needed them but I never did.

Awww...much better!

Sweet gift from my mother-in-law :)

Christmas in the (unfinished) tiny house

There isn't much room to decorate right now due to our living area being also a work area but I was able to do a little decorating.

I had thought about getting a tiny tree for our tiny house but with all the construction stuff in the way right now it would be hard to work around.  I fully intend to make room for one next year!

Side note:  if you've never used this "What God wants for Christmas" action/learning game I highly suggest it :)

I've tried to make sure the Christmas albums and pictures are available for the kids to look at.  The move has gone pretty well considering but the kids seem to do better emotionally if the past isn't "forgotten" due to the move.

Two challenges of living in a tiny house:

1. The unfinishedness of it (yes, I know that's not a word).

2.  The pitch of the roof is more than we wanted.  I saw how they made the pitch on tiny house nation and asked for the absolute LEAST amount of pitch while still having a pitch so its not flat.  I think the pitch could have been another 8-12 inches higher - not sure if I'm saying that right - and this would have given us enough space to change on both sides of the loft.  I should have been more specific about what I wanted, it's really my own fault, but it does make moving around in the loft more difficult.

Currently this is the only way to cook food:

It's working out ok, though noodles are turning out to be a challenge I am seeking to overcome!

I LOVE getting packages in the mail and I'm pretty sure this is the Biggest package I've ever received:

 

Not sure what this little sticker means but my food is cold :)

I am so happy with the way my shelves, tupperware, fridge and freezer are turning out!

Oh, and this is the promised picture of my daughter's steps.  Wall/rope climbing makes for great tiny house exercise!

Improvements are planned for visual effect
but we needed to get something up
so we didn't have to keep moving the utility ladder around our little house.

AND here's our seating/work/tool/whatever we need it to be right now Area:

It looks a lot neater when Chris is working on something, right now everything was shuffled around to make room for moving the fridge and freezer in.

Currently I'm at the library getting some much needed internet time ;).  

We're headed out here in a few minutes to get dinner, maybe frozen pizza's that will fit in my toaster oven???  Whatever the case, we can now keep ice cream on hand so we're set!!

Blessing of Friends

God is so good to provide friends.  

My son and I were at his homeschool co-op Christmas party and one of my friends there heard that I don't have internet or running water (there is certainly a toss up as to which of these is more important!).  My sweet friends instantly started trying to figure out who could help get the internet issue resolved.  After talking to several people, she found one of the dad's who could help get the right parts so Comcast will come out (if you didn't see my other post: Comcast won't do the initial install...cause we're on wheels...).  

Now we have the parts and a little bit more knowledge to put the initial install (or whatever it's called) in so we can call Comcast out to hook up our internet (and yes, we could probably go with some else but I REALLY can't handle slow internet right now).

Thank you God for friends!!

Running water and paneling

Right now the biggest inconvenience of living in our house is the lack of running water.

• We got a membership at the local gym for showering; this has also forced us to get exercise because it seems like a waste to go to the gym and NOT work out. 
• A three gallon water holder with a pump works for drinking and sort of for cleaning water.
• Thankfully I can wash my dishes in the other building on the property with a sink.
• And "wet ones" work great for washing hands.

I am glad this inconvenience isn't a tiny house problem and hopefully water can be hooked up soon!

As for paneling, we have cleared out all the 1/4inch maple sanded plywood from Lowes and Home Depot.  I am doing an accent wall down stairs with the pallet boards but the side walls will be paneling, which needs to go on before the pallet boards, which are now unavailable.

Living in our small space is still an adventure but not an unpleasant one.  Well, besides right now: my kids can hear my husband watching YouTube and so are not going to sleep.  I'm hearing a lot of questioning, complaining and commenting about why parents get to stay up late.  I think we will go on a long run tomorrow ;).

Adventures in our tiny space

I haven't had a chance to post pictures of our great loft spaces!

Here's some pictures of the cool net my husband put up for our son.  It still needs to be secured at each cross section but for now it provides safety for our sleep walking son :)  

We're also using that hole there in the corner as our access to the loft.  My son gets in and out like a monkey but my husband and I use a nice step stool to assist our ascent and descent.

Oh, and my son uses those vertical ropes to traverse across the loft area from the outside of the loft.

I actually love my loft space.  My clothes are in nice organized piles on the other side of the bed from the loft access.  Chris's clothes are in a bin in the far right corner.  It's working out quite well so far!

My daughter loves to be in her space, but mainly her hammock.  She swings and swings!  My husband got her steps put up yesterday.  I'll have to post more pictures later; she needs to be picked up from school now.

The Living Begins

We're officially moved into our tiny house.  

We moved in yesterday.

There's a lot mixed feelings involved in the move but the most prevalent among all of us is excitement.  We are excited to be in the space we have been working on for months.  We are excited to use our lofts and new beds.  We are excited to organize our space and use toys and things that have been packed away: I forgot how comfy my slippers are!   And I'm especially excited to finally get (most) of my baking things out of storage!

The kids were up bright and early swinging away in their hammocks, chattering like a flock of early birds.  
My son was all adventure when I was trying to come up with breakfast: "oh corn tortilla's and jam!  And we have peanut butter.  I can make a sandwich!"
He did just that. :)

We're still waiting on a few things, especially internet so I can post pictures on here!  But we also kind of need something besides a utility ladder to get into the lofts, the refridgerator and freezer (it'll be a week late because of the flooding, very frustrating but what can I do?), water piped to the house, a counter, a sink and of course a seating area in the living area (pretty low on the list right now!)

At this moment I am blogging from my small phone in my loft, my son is playing with Legos in his loft and my daughter is in her loft in her hammock swinging, swinging, swinging...and my industrious husband is at Lowes getting more paneling for the walls.

Right now I am thankful that we each have our own space but are only a few feet from each other and can easily converse.

Yay for vertical space!!

I installed these shelves today and was very happy with the way they turned out :)

Watching Tiny House Nation Again

It's been quite a while since I watched Tiny House Nation.

This show really inspired me to try living in a tiny house but for a while I just couldn't watch it.

When I watched it I would get really frustrated about how slow our tiny house is coming along.  C. also discouraged me from watching it because he felt he couldn't meet the expectations for excellence the show was setting.

Well things are moving along and I decided to watch the show again.

AND I AM FREAKING OUT ABOUT HOW MUCH STUFF I STILL HAVE!

Deep breath...it'll all iron out...deep breath...just because the living area is full of tools and memorabilia doesn't mean it won't all work out...deep breath...we're going to come up with some awesome storage solutions...well, we are!

OK so maybe my 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator won't fit.

But, hey! maybe C. can build me a special storage box on the outside of the tiny house for my dehydrator!

It might be good for me to wait to mention it till he's done with the cargo net for the middle loft, and the walls, oh and the kitchen sink and counter, hmm and maybe the table, seating area and shelves.

Just maybe ;)

Floors and Walls!

Well there it is: our flooring.  Isn't it pretty??  Yes, that's about all you can see of it.  The rest is covered in drop cloths and cardboard to prevent scratching and such. 

 I can't really say I like it.  

I haven't really seen it.  

But I'm trusting that it looks amazing!

In other news:  A. finished painting her bedroom walls, I almost finished my first "large" pallet wall, and C. is working on the paneling in our loft.

She picked out all the colors and painted everything herself.  I think she did a pretty good job for never painting a room before.

I like the way my pallet board wall is turning out. 

C. is going to trim the boards around the window when we frame them.
He has a tool that will make it really easy ....
Once the paneling is up in our loft I will finish this wall.

The following picture shows the panels we are putting up in our loft.  C. is finishing them tonight.    Hopefully I can get them Varethaned tomorrow.