Grateful Living: Reflections on HOME

This is my post to share a touching story and lovely quotes about the most important place in a person's life--their home...

Best Snowflakes on the Block
It is Christmastime on our street. The homes are decorated with tinsel and many-colored lights. Some windows frame beautifully decorated trees, and well-shaped wreaths hang on the doors. At one home, however, a little confusion of homemade snowflakes congregates in the picture window. They are hung in childhood fashion (not in the adult perfection of other windows nearby) and whisper a special secret about the occupants of that home.

I want to share a secret with you. The secret is that children are more important than picture windows; that fingerprints and boot-drips and carpet stains aren't nearly as important as a child's self-esteem. Those little white snowflakes tell me something more. They tell me that smashed bouquets of dandelions adorn that kitchen table in the springtime and are loved as if they were the most beautiful of imported orchids. They tell me that a pet potato bug in a box can live there unmolested, that helping with a bug collection is just as important as doing the wash, that viewing the first violets of spring with a child's hand in yours is better than a shiny floor, that listening to a child's fears is more important than television, that children's art is more beautiful than the greatest of the old masters.
Oh, they do tell a special story, those snowflakes.
(Sherlene Parker, Ensign Dec. 1976)

A small house well-filled is better than an empty palace. ~Thomas Haliburton

Houses that express comfort and well-being can go a long way toward making us feel at home in the world. ~JoAnn Barwick

Everything in the White House must have a reason for being there.  ~Jacqueline Kennedy

Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free...Amish song

'Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
~Pa, Little House in the Big Woods

God bless this house And all that's in it

A garden of flowers Some books for the hours

Sweet dreams Good Health

and Love, glorious love. ~unknown

“...I remember thinking how often we look, but never see...we listen, but never hear...we exist, but never feel. We take our relationships for granted. A house is only a place. It has no life of its own. It needs human voices, activity and laughter to come alive.” 
― Erma Bombeck, A Marriage Made in Heaven: Or Too Tired for an Affair

Small Home Decorating Tips

Here are a few tips I have gleaned while trying to scale down to a small home (1400 sq. ft.).

Furniture

The more floor seen—the larger the room will feel—so have furniture that shows the floor.  Incorporate narrower furniture.  It can be a long couch (10 feet!), but if it’s narrow, it will take less space.  Flat screen TV’s have made all the difference in our home!  It’s the same principle.  Choose less bulky furnitshings.

Clean and Uncluttered

Show as much window as possible and clean them regularly.  Hang drapes higher and the room will seem taller.  Every time you bring new stuff home whether it’s books, collectibles or any kind of decorations—take something out of the home.  Cluttering the house, coffee table and shelves with stuff can make a home feel smaller. 

Style

I lean towards vintage furniture especially from the forties and fifties that was designed for smaller homes.  When refurbishing, I prefer slipcovers or reupholstering that will show the legs which are often interesting anyways (and shows more of the floor). 

Purge

Finally, don't be afraid to consign or donate extra stuff that just doesn't fit.  After going through this a few times, I'm less likely to make purchases without fully considering their impact on my space.

Do you think more people are scaling down to smaller spaces to live in lately?  This seems to be a new trend these days.  What do you think?

Grateful Living: Scaling Down to a Mobile Home

Jacqueline Kennedy once said, "Every thing in the White House must have a reason for being there."  This is even more true for a small house!  Want to know one of my decorating inspirations?  Old episodes of The Rockford Files!  (Gotta love Jim Rockford!)  One thing I noticed about his crummy little mobile home (NOT trailer!) on the beach was that as soon as Rockford went inside and shut the door, the place was quite charming.  For a tough guy, there were a lot of homey (yet masculine) touches.  I thought, "I could do that!  I don't have to stick with this generic factory-built decor."  Decorating a mobile home can be a lot of fun--especially if you have ever had a doll house for your Barbies like I did.  It takes so much less money and time than bigger houses.

When you have limited floor space you have to think small.  Most of my larger furniture has been exchanged (literally I swapped furniture with various people), for smaller pieces.  My furniture has to be practical and comfortable.  Furnishings are kept to a minimum.  I've even decided to swap out a full-sized piano for a keyboard style they use in music schools (update: daughters have prohibited this!).  The big screen T.V. has been exchanged for a flat screen that fits on the wall above the fireplace.  The workout equipment has been swapped for a family gym membership near my son's school that's $55/month.  Father and son go together each morning on their way to work and school and their bathroom at home stays much, much cleaner.  Plus, working out no longer interferes with family time.

I have a comfortable love seat that sits off the ground, which helps to expose more floor area.  Matching the couch color with the wall color so that it's not such a contrast really helps to make the room seem larger.  It's a smaller piece of furniture with narrower arm-rests.  I also have two comfortable dark leather chairs that are really too big and dark for the space and I would like to replace them with light leather recliners that are smaller (I've seen these at Macy's but they are expensive!!!)  I have to keep the furniture against walls in order to have as much floor area exposed so the place stays light and airy and not so crampt and I like to do yoga and Leslie Sansome workouts on the area carpet in the middle of the room.

As I've mentioned, mobile homes look best if the furniture is small-scale and the home and furnishings have small-print textures and patterns in wallpapers, fabrics, tiles, etc.  We used honey-colored wood-look linoleum flooring throughout.  I can't tell you how many times folks thought it was real wood flooring.  We had wood flooring throughout the 2,200 square-foot house we built and then sold, (bathrooms and hall were tile), and I was always so exhausted from having to take care of the floors.

Our walls are the same throughout the mobile home which is good for small homes.  I chose butter cream for the paint color.  Just take a stick of butter to the store and match it to a paint sample and voila!  That's the color of my walls.  They are cheerful, yet warm and comforting.  I've gotten pretty depressed from moving from my house to a mobile home and having to scale down so much -- yet wall color really can help create a peaceful, happy feeling and keep me grounded.  (And listening to Dave Ramsey).  But light, cool colors are generally good for small spaces.

I don't use a lot of tables, coffee tables, etc.  I was given a small and charming matching buffet and china cabinet and I use the buffet in the living room to house the electronic stuff for the t.v. and also extra dishes, etc. that don't fit well in the kitchen/dining area.  The china cabinet is pretty and functional and all of my dishes are housed there.  (See my post about scaling down http://homemakers-journal.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-really-like-this-blog.html)  The only other table in the living room is a side table that has a glass top.  (Not a fan of glass tops, especially around children, but if you have to have tables, glass tops are better for small spaces).

Pages from my Idea Book

I have an Idea Book for Recipes and one for decorating and gardening.  Idea Books are a great way to keep track of what you like so that when you're ready to decorate (inside and out) you can just have at it and know that you'll probably love it.  Time to time, I will weed the Decorating Idea Book of ideas I'm no longer interested in, but I'll usually keep the pics that inspired something I have done.
(Some of the tips are inspired from the following source:  Sep/Oct '96 Country Woman, p. 45)

Living Small
Homemaking Journals
Grateful Living Series: Dress Up M. H. Windows
Grateful Living: Repurposed Trunk
Grateful Living: Repurposed Armoire
Grateful Living: Class Up the Mobile Home Fireplace
Grateful Living: Front Porches
Grateful Living: The !#*! M.H. Walls
Grateful Living: M.H. Spa Retreat

8 Ideas for Living Small

Ideas for living in a small space: 

1. Put children's artwork on the fridge. Place child in front holding how many fingers he is. Snap a photo. Throw out less-creative work.
2. I use only kitchen tools that are multi-purpose. I gave away the "extra." None of my furniture is decorative. I don't have enough cabinet space so I use a china cabinet to hold the dishes we use each day. I only have one set of dishes (that serves 8). For years I used Corell because it was indestructible. I'm creative about what I serve food in--like my beloved Pyrex collection rather than fancy stuff. 
3. I decorated my bathroom with a "Spa" feel because it lends itself to being minimalist. Family members use the bathroom in shifts in the morning according to priority. Also, think 1988 BYU Deseret Towers--1 bathroom for half-a-floor of girls. Personal items leave the bathroom with you to be stored in your bedroom. Every bedroom has a large mirror. 
4. It literally took five years to whittle away the excess. Every year, study and find ways to do without is my advice. Bookshelves are essential to us because we read our collection of books over and over, and I have quite a few albums. Digital albums can be a time and space saver--just be sure to make a "hard copy" (meaning you publish the book) because technology is always changing. 
5. Christmas begins about a week before Christmas (not the whole month). Focus on Christ--not space defying decorations. I just divided up our mostly homemade tree decorations for my nearly grown children since two girls will be leaving this fall. Decorations take one box now. 
6. My office consists of a tiny desk with a used laptop and a multi-purpose scanner. A cardboard file box fits underneath and is thinned out each January.
7. My style is eclectic. I don't like that Rooms-to-Go feel that many houses have. Most of my furniture is hand-me-downs that are repurposed. The narrow hall is the "family history" gallery. All my cross-stitch has been framed and displayed on various walls. 
8. One week's worth of classic clothing is all we need. No dry cleaning (except for men's suits). I pay for good clothes and good shoes. Two church dresses. No fluctuating in size allowed. When my husband lost 30 lbs., I gave away all his clothes. When he gained it back--he decided to lose it for good because his clothes were TIGHT, and he has. (I look like Aunt Bee--but I don't fluctuate).

Aunt Bee