Our previous blog post discussing valuable lessons we can learn from tiny house owners went over so well that we decided that a follow-up post was in order. This post offers a few more valuable lessons from the tiny house movement. Even if you don’t live in a tiny house, the lessons may prove invaluable to helping you maintain the home you do have.
Just as a reminder, the tiny house mindset says that you do not have to have thousands of square feet of space in your home to be happy. You can exist with a lot less floor space if you know how to use it wisely. Having said that, we know that tiny houses are not for everyone. We just want to point out some very smart things tiny house evangelists have come up with.
Make Thoughtful Wardrobe Decisions
As downsizing specialists, we frequently help clients who have way more clothing than they really need. This is often the result of buying new articles of clothing without thinking. Tiny house owners avoid clothing clutter by practicing what they call ‘curating’ their closets.
The curating concept is one of making thoughtful wardrobe decisions. When buying new clothes, you make choices based on what you already own. Does the new top you want to buy go with the pants and skirts already in your closet? Does that new suit you’re considering have any practical use beyond the one event you’re thinking of wearing it to? Carefully considering every clothing purchase can help you avoid buying more clothes than you need.
Think Accessibility When Organizing
You may decide to call in My Divine Concierge to help you organize a cluttered home. In such a case, we would encourage you to think accessibility when organizing. The kitchen is a great place to see this play out.
Do you have deep kitchen cupboards with plenty of room for all your pots and pans? If so, do you find yourself frequently digging to the back of the cupboard to find what you’re looking for? You can make the contents far more accessible by installing adjustable racks so that you are storing vertically rather than horizontally.
In your closets, reserve the space in the back for long-term storage. Space at the front of the closet should be left open for items you need regular access to.
Find Ways to Get Outdoors
Last but not least is a strategy that tiny house owners know as ‘outsourcing’. They used this term to describe getting out of the house as often as possible. This comes naturally to most tiny house owners, given that one of the reasons for going tiny is that they do not spend a lot of time indoors. But what about the rest of us?
Spending most of our time indoors makes us vulnerable to the temptation of acquiring stuff to keep in our houses. Stuff brings comfort; it offers a heightened sense of ownership; it gives us a reason to stay indoors. You can avoid clutter by making a point of getting outdoors as much as possible.
The family that spends a lot of time outdoors is a family that doesn’t need to fill the indoor spaces with things. Just be aware that there is one temptation that comes with this strategy: acquiring a ton of outdoor stuff that you don’t use too often.
Over the course of the last two blog posts, we have learned some viable lessons from the tiny house movement. You may never reach a point in your life that you are ready to live in a tiny house. Even so, you can adopt the tiny house concepts we discussed and, in so doing, keep your home better organized and less cluttered.