Aspects of Tiny Living: Downsizing Again

I have realized one of the hardest things about living in a tiny space is owning sentimental items. If you are like me, you have a box (or two or three) of sentimental items. That hold yearbooks, baby books, photo albums, graduation caps, gifts from friends, travel mementos and scrapbooks. I have purged a lot of those items, but still seem to have some left. Another thing I run into is when the season changes, the summer clothes versus the winter clothes. I have a small armoire, I cannot fit all of the seasons within my allotted space.

Orders have slowed a bit before the holiday season starts up, so I had some down time the other day. I decided that I was going to tackle my ‘storage’ area in my house. By storage area, I am referencing the ‘shower’ area. There is not a shower in my place yet, so I was using the space for storing miscellany. I finally had had enough of staring at this pile of stuff every day since I moved in. It was the last remaining vestige of my things.

So, I tackled this corner with a bit of trepidation mixed with glee. What was hiding in this location anyway? Let me preface this by admitting that I am not that organized. After I condensed everything, I stared at the items I had left over, contemplating what I am going to do with them. I do not want to donate the pile I have sitting here to Goodwill. One of the items is a framed poster that I have been hauling around with me since I moved into my first apartment (a cute little studio apartment that was 440 square feet). My mother gave it to me, I love this poster but I have no wall it will fit on that is not already in use.

So this left me with a ‘To Donate’ and ‘Throw Away’ pile. The throw away pile was mostly cardboard boxes I was storing stuff in, but no longer needed because I condensed a number of things. That was really quite a relief, it means I had less junk than I thought. The ‘To Donate’ pile was also fairly small. However, that pile is harder for me to part with at this point. What I own has been condensed so much over time, that almost everything I own is because I use it, or I cherish it. Most of the time those two categories fall in line with one another at this stage.

What I found (in no particular order):

• My misplaced 2009 tax return
• A Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit (that I agreed to give to my father about 6 months ago)
• 3 paintings
• Dress shoes
• Some of my winter clothes
• TV trays
• A mirror
• A few gallon sized glass bottles I intended to use to make iced tea (which may have happened once or twice)
• Costuming
• Two small file accordions
• Some of my summer clothes I had been looking for (but not that hard apparently)
• A straw hat with leis attached (Hawaii)
• 2 small propane bottles (meant for a propane camp stove I haven’t owned in 2 years)
• Collectibles from my trip to the UK (I found my entry ticket to Buckingham Palace and my snowglobe from Stonehenge among them)
• A fruit bowl I hand painted (was supposed to give that to mom for Mother’s Day, d’oh!)
• A skillet I forgot I owned
• A strobe light
• Drawing and tracing paper

Jenny and Tiffy. Picture by Patrick Colvin.

Jenny and Tiffy (pictured left) were over that day. Kass had recently gleaned a bunch of apples and those two were helping him cut them up so they could be juiced for some hard apple cider. Tiffy loves purple, dancing and is a fantastic artist. Because of this, she ended up with the framed poster, the drawing paper and the strobe light.

I then was sorting through more items that I was going to later give as gifts to friends for Christmas, or just because. Robyn once commented that she appreciates when I give her gifts, as she knows that if I am gifting her something at this stage of the game, that it has a large sentimental value to me. This happens to be quite true, though I had not really given it much thought prior to her mentioning that. Eowyn later said that she could understand my desire to give things to friends and not donate them to Goodwill. Because these items have a history, a story, or sentimental value because of who gave the item to me.

In the process of going through items, I ran into my snow globe of Stonehenge. I love that thing, but have never displayed it for fear of it getting broken. It is the only snow globe I have ever owned. I had only opened it to look at it twice since I acquired it. One of those times was at customs. I finally took the darn thing out of the box and stuck it on my kitchen table! It has filled me with joy since. I was wondering what the point of owning it if I was not enjoying it.

Thankfully, The Fortune Cookie is blissfully uncluttered and cozy again. I feel rather accomplished and happier.

My next order of business is updating my wardrobe a bit. I have been wearing most of the same clothes for 5 years or more. I am hitting the thrift stores to grab some new clothes, as my waistline is shrinking and my clothes are starting to get loose.  This makes for a fun indoor activity as the weather is switching into wet mode here in Washington. Something tells me that after such an indian summer, that this Autumn and Winter are going to make up for it.  What are some of your favorite indoor activities during the fall and winter?

~Kera