Another post in the Minimalist-ish Family Series and this time it’s a young family deciding to love the space they’re in right now… even if it’s a lot smaller than they planned for.
1.) Tell us about your family, who you are, where you live and things that you love:
We’re a new family of three — our baby girl is just seven months old — and we all share a 750 sq. ft. wartime bungalow in the East York-Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada. We bought the property about six years ago after renting nearby. I love coffee, running, red wine, reading, country music, flea markets, and our fluffy ginger cat, Archie. I’m currently on maternity leave with our daughter, but I’ll eventually go back to work in children’s book publishing and my husband is a geologist. His career will see us move to Victoria, British Columbia, in the spring, so we’ll soon call a new address home for a little while.
2.) When did you first hear about minimalism and what was your initial reaction?
Soon after we got married, I got the house hunting itch bad. I desperately wanted out of our “too small” apartment and into a home of our own. We walked through our house three times before we made a bid — it was definitely too small (about 100 sq. ft. bigger than our one bedroom apartment and we knew we’d want a child one day), but something about it kept drawing us back. We decided we’d make a radical lifestyle change in order to own it and live in it comfortably — I decided I wanted a little house near the beach more than I wanted a bed frame (yep, our bedroom is only big enough for a mattress on the floor). I don’t know if I’d heard the term “minimalism” by that point or if that came later, but my reaction is kind of, “aah, my people.” I’m a big time convert.
3.) What do you find most challenging in trying to live with less stuff?
I like to switch things up at home and the commitment to owning less stuff (one set of bedsheets, for example) makes it difficult to do a simple refresh by cycling in your spare set. When I do purchase something new for the house (like a throw pillow, mirror, vase, etc.), I have to donate/gift/sell/repurpose whatever it’s replacing — there’s no high shelf in a closet (literally, my house has no closets) where I can stick the pillow I was tired of looking at. That can feel wasteful because there’s usually nothing wrong with or damaged about the older item. Also, one of my favourite ways to spend a Saturday is at a flea market or jumble shop — I love the thrill of the find. Of course, I most often leave empty handed because we really don’t have space for that perfect vintage school desk, which is cost effective — but can be a bit of a bummer.
4.) What do you find most rewarding in trying to live with less stuff?
I believe we draw a lot from our surroundings and that living in a simple, clutter free environment, surrounded only by things that are beautiful to look at or otherwise make you happy, is just plain good for the soul. It’s maybe too early to say for sure, but my daughter is just the happiest, calmest baby — I’d like to think that has something to do with the absence of a million toys and outfits. Living with less has also been a boon financially — we’ve been able to travel all over (we’re about to take our third vacation with our seven month old) and we’ll be able to keep our Toronto property as a rental and purchase a new (small!) home in Victoria this winter. Neither of these things would have been possible if I’d been making weekly Target runs for crap we don’t actually need.
5.) Do you see any challenges (older, bigger kids, retirement, etc) to continuing on with this lifestyle in the future?
My husband and I act as gatekeepers right now. The influx of stuff (grandparents, oi vey) for our daughter has been relentless since she was born, but any outfits, toys, and books that don’t meet our standards are promptly donated, returned, regifted, or sold and she’s none the wiser. Pretty soon she’s going to be aware of all her presents and probably want to keep more than she can possibly play with or wear. So that’s a challenge. The other challenge is really specific to this house and not to a minimalist lifestyle generally — her bedroom is 54 sq. ft., won’t fit a single bed, and we all share one itty bitty bathroom. This might be a problem down the line, when we move back to this house from Victoria with a pre-teen or teenager.
Thank you Kendal! Lovely to see how you make your small home work and your no-nonsense strategy on gifts is right up my alley. And good luck with your big move.
Interested in reading more stories from minimalist-ish families? Here are a few from the series:
Sounds you like have successfully accomplished the lifestyle of a minimalist! I like the idea of gifting/selling an item when you get something new. I might have to start implementing that myself.
Love this! I’ve actually been surprised how willingly our kids have let go of things that they don’t need or use often…I think they are minimalists at heart and I think they, too, appreciate the peace that comes from a tidy, simple home 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing!
🙂 🙂 🙂
We also have a small nursery / toddler room- just 60 sq ft. It’s one of my favorite rooms! There isn’t room for a rocking chair- but I’ve found that just encourages us to get on the floor and play / read. 😀
We don’t have room for a chair in the boys room. The boys recently had an idea to make sitting together on the floor while reading cozier: they pulled their pillows off their beds and sat on them. Could I buy some floor pillows? Sure. But this is free and makes something we already have multi-purpose.
Great post!
One thing I’ve learned is that kids don’t need twin beds (I assume that’s your “single”) as soon as the marketing seems to think they do. My five year old is the tallest in her school class and still fits comfortably in a toddler bed. She won’t as a preteen, but sticking with a toddler, or IKEA’s extended toddler, bed can buy you several years.
Great point. We have two IKEA child beds hacked into bunk beds. My 48 lb almost 7 year old (average height and weight) is on the top bunk and I think we have at least another year of him in it. My very tall 3.5 year old has loads of room in the child bed.
I love your IKEA bunk beds. I’m so sad IKEA isn’t selling Gulliver in the US anymore.
I know – why aren’t they? They’re such a classic design. We keep starting and failing with transitioning our youngest into the older two’s bedroom. That’s my benchmark for when we need to rethink beds and I’ve been considering everything from a single/double bunk to getting something hacked for two IKEA Gullivers and one single bed. But I feel like the IKEA Gulliver bunks should be used as bunks by another downtown family instead of having me split them down to just beds. Gah, IKEA why??!!
Sounds you like have successfully accomplished the lifestyle of a minimalist! I like the idea of gifting/selling an item when you get something new. I might have to start implementing that myself.
Love this! I’ve actually been surprised how willingly our kids have let go of things that they don’t need or use often…I think they are minimalists at heart and I think they, too, appreciate the peace that comes from a tidy, simple home 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing!
🙂 🙂 🙂
We also have a small nursery / toddler room- just 60 sq ft. It’s one of my favorite rooms! There isn’t room for a rocking chair- but I’ve found that just encourages us to get on the floor and play / read. 😀
We don’t have room for a chair in the boys room. The boys recently had an idea to make sitting together on the floor while reading cozier: they pulled their pillows off their beds and sat on them. Could I buy some floor pillows? Sure. But this is free and makes something we already have multi-purpose.
Great post!
One thing I’ve learned is that kids don’t need twin beds (I assume that’s your “single”) as soon as the marketing seems to think they do. My five year old is the tallest in her school class and still fits comfortably in a toddler bed. She won’t as a preteen, but sticking with a toddler, or IKEA’s extended toddler, bed can buy you several years.
Great point. We have two IKEA child beds hacked into bunk beds. My 48 lb almost 7 year old (average height and weight) is on the top bunk and I think we have at least another year of him in it. My very tall 3.5 year old has loads of room in the child bed.
I love your IKEA bunk beds. I’m so sad IKEA isn’t selling Gulliver in the US anymore.
I know – why aren’t they? They’re such a classic design. We keep starting and failing with transitioning our youngest into the older two’s bedroom. That’s my benchmark for when we need to rethink beds and I’ve been considering everything from a single/double bunk to getting something hacked for two IKEA Gullivers and one single bed. But I feel like the IKEA Gulliver bunks should be used as bunks by another downtown family instead of having me split them down to just beds. Gah, IKEA why??!!