One of the things that I'd like to introduce through this blog is the concept of condo living. Contrary to what you may be thinking, my direction with this theme is more directed to living 'small', and not so much about all of the annoyances blessings involved in paying monthly condo fees, such as pools, landscaping, and snow removal.
Indeed, condo living does have its benefits, particularly when your husband is going to be away a lot and you're not particularly apt or interested in cutting grass or shovelling snow.
Today what I'd like to talk more about are the obstacles we have come up against in the year + that we have owned our condo.
To start, our condo is exactly 78o sq ft. Putting that into context, if you had a room that was 20ftx39 feet, that would be the size of our entire place. I haven't actually measured, but those could likely be the measurements of this little gem, as everything' laid out in a rectangular shape (shown below (sorry for the crappy diagram)).
With so little space, we've had to learn to be creative about how we store everything, and the types of furniture we bring in. We've also had to get rid of a lot of our furniture that we each had before we got married. Very few of our furnishings have a long history. We've got a dress and a dining room table that have survived, but that's about it. We have a sofa bed in our spare bedroom that Craig brought with him, but I think it's hideous, and hope it doesn't last much longer! Plus it's just a beast. It's only really a loveseat, but it's got the big plush (but not comfy) arms that take up almost as much space as the seats, and it sits right on the floor. And I think the fabric looks like puke. Craig disagrees.
But I digress. Our condo is far from perfect. There are still some many things that I'd like to change as we have the money, but we still take comfort in it being 'ours', even though its largely imperfect. I like The Nester's motto: It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. Hallelujah!
Our condo also suffers from some clutter, and many days it feels very cramped. Particularly on the occassions when Craig and I aren't very happy with each other!
In his book "It's All Too Much", Peter Walsh talks about creating a plan for each room, and removing anything that isn't part of the purpose for that room. In some areas, that has been easy for us. Our bedroom for example has no TV in it, as we'd like for it to be our intimate sanctuary and not a secondary living room. Our living room, however, is also our dining room and home office, so it is quite cramped. The desk will eventually move back into our home office, but we've kept it in the living room for now so that we can interact with each other even while we're both busy with other things. Our home office/spare bedroom has a closet in it, and while not very big, it serves as Craig's locker for all of his military stuff. Due to Canada's range of seasons, they're required to have a lot of different clothing and kit!
I think I've chattered on for long enough for this post, but soon, I'll begin a series on how we're maximizing the space we've got, and give some tips on how a minimalist approach can make life easier no matter what the size of your abode.
Jen
Indeed, condo living does have its benefits, particularly when your husband is going to be away a lot and you're not particularly apt or interested in cutting grass or shovelling snow.
Today what I'd like to talk more about are the obstacles we have come up against in the year + that we have owned our condo.
To start, our condo is exactly 78o sq ft. Putting that into context, if you had a room that was 20ftx39 feet, that would be the size of our entire place. I haven't actually measured, but those could likely be the measurements of this little gem, as everything' laid out in a rectangular shape (shown below (sorry for the crappy diagram)).
With so little space, we've had to learn to be creative about how we store everything, and the types of furniture we bring in. We've also had to get rid of a lot of our furniture that we each had before we got married. Very few of our furnishings have a long history. We've got a dress and a dining room table that have survived, but that's about it. We have a sofa bed in our spare bedroom that Craig brought with him, but I think it's hideous, and hope it doesn't last much longer! Plus it's just a beast. It's only really a loveseat, but it's got the big plush (but not comfy) arms that take up almost as much space as the seats, and it sits right on the floor. And I think the fabric looks like puke. Craig disagrees.But I digress. Our condo is far from perfect. There are still some many things that I'd like to change as we have the money, but we still take comfort in it being 'ours', even though its largely imperfect. I like The Nester's motto: It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. Hallelujah!
Our condo also suffers from some clutter, and many days it feels very cramped. Particularly on the occassions when Craig and I aren't very happy with each other!
In his book "It's All Too Much", Peter Walsh talks about creating a plan for each room, and removing anything that isn't part of the purpose for that room. In some areas, that has been easy for us. Our bedroom for example has no TV in it, as we'd like for it to be our intimate sanctuary and not a secondary living room. Our living room, however, is also our dining room and home office, so it is quite cramped. The desk will eventually move back into our home office, but we've kept it in the living room for now so that we can interact with each other even while we're both busy with other things. Our home office/spare bedroom has a closet in it, and while not very big, it serves as Craig's locker for all of his military stuff. Due to Canada's range of seasons, they're required to have a lot of different clothing and kit!
I think I've chattered on for long enough for this post, but soon, I'll begin a series on how we're maximizing the space we've got, and give some tips on how a minimalist approach can make life easier no matter what the size of your abode.
Jen
1 comment:
I love Peter Walsh's book. It was just so good and so many things he said really resonated with me. We have a room off of our kitchen. It's basically a den. But it's very long and narrow. The whole room is just awkward in it's layout and I've struggeled with how to decorate it. Last night I was even trying to rearrange furniture and thinking how I'd like to sell most of it (including an UGLY free sofabed that was given to us). Why do homes have to be so darn challenging sometimes?? But I really look forward to seeing your tricks for organizing a small space. We live in a house but it really feels like we are on top of eachother with all of our "Stuff".
Like my novel? :)
Post a Comment