downsize

Tiny House Part 4: Under the Bed

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

One of my early tasks was to figure out how to deal with those things I could not let go of, but could store – things like Christmas decorations, out-of-season clothes, and photo albums.  As I said in a previous post, I refused to keep anything that has to be stored outside of my apartment. The obvious solution was to buy a new bed frame, one that would be high enough to hide several tubs.

After reading stats and reviews of an annoyingly long list of bed frames, I finally settled on my choice and added it to my Amazon “New Apartment” wishlist. Then I took careful note of the measurements, taped off a correctly-sized area of my floor (including marking where the center support leg would fall) and started playing a game of “fit the totes.” I marked the floor because I held off on purchasing the heavy frame until I was close to moving, and I had it delivered straight to the new place.

What you see in this photo is mostly empty totes, because I hadn’t decided what would need to go in them. There are also a couple of filled totes, some absolutely essential totes (think permanent records), and a footstool that I thought I might possibly need when getting into and out of bed. This collection of tubs became a vital work in progress and a site of multiple mini-purges so that what I thought I needed to hang onto could morph into what I really could keep.

For instance, I had too many framed photos and nowhere to put them. So I pulled all photos out of their frames and set the frames aside for donation. I also went through everything in my two-drawer filing cabinet and the permanent files tote and purged those areas yet again. Some records I passed along to whichever son they actually pertained to and others, after verifying that I didn’t really need them, I shredded.

Random note. The shredder is one of the absolute necessities that traveled with me. In my tiny abode, I can’t let papers pile up; I have to deal with them. So that shredder sits plugged in and ready to chomp as needed.

When the boys put my new bed frame together for me (easy peasy), and my daughter (I don’t do in-laws. I love the daughters my sons gave me!) crawled under to settle the tubs into place, everyone was joking about how I could lease a second space under there. And they’re right. I have a massive amount stored under my bed, including a few items (Like a massage mat) that sit on top of the boxes as well as a case of water that landed where the unneeded step stool had been.

Yes, even though I chose a bed with 16″ of clearance, I am still well able to get into it unassisted. Had I thought it through ahead of time, I’d have known that, but the extra space was a bonus!

So, under my bed, there is a full art/craft tub, a tub filled with blankets and other things, an ‘office/tool” tub, a tub of out of season clothes and another of jackets and wraps, one tub of scrapbooks and another crammed with photos (I hope to share with my sons and eventually eliminate one of those), a tub of permanently-filed records, a Christmas tub that may well lose some of its contents this holiday season… I’ve lost track. Is that It?

I’m not sure, but as I packed them I put large labels on the tops and on the sides so that I can find what I need relatively easily. I’ve already pulled out a few and done some rearranging as I recognized the need for more ready access to two or three in particular.

For the record, the bed frame I bought is the HAAGEEP 18 Inch Queen Bed Frame and it is every bit as good as I expected it to be. It’s sturdy and not noisy at all. Another huge plus is that the mattress fits inside it, which means I’m not dealing with a sliding mattress. That was a common complaint in the myriad of bed frame reviews I scoured. I had considered purchasing corner guards, because one reviewer said they kept hitting their legs on the corners, but I’ve not had that issue at all.

And thinking about this frame as I was first drafting this post made me realize something. I’m going to try to remember to share about all of the special things I have and love as I continue this series, so I decided to set up an Amazon Affiliate account in hopes of perhaps bringing in a little money on the side.

Does that sound grasping? I hope not. I’ve made no secret of the fact that, though I have a full-time job and am finally getting at least some widow’s benefits, I’m also saddled with a lot of debt that I want to pay off. My desire is to be financially free, and the regular money that’s coming in won’t make that happen fast enough. So, should you feel like offering your support by clicking a link and buying something I can personally attest to, I would be grateful. I have a lot of reviews on this site, recommendations for things I genuinely like; I plan to go back through them and add some links there as well.

Again, as I said above, it’s the HAAGEEP 18 Inch Queen Bed Frame and you can check it out by clicking HERE.

Holy cannoli!

On a whim, I checked to see if Amazon carries my mattress, which I love, and they do! Ok, so my Nectar mattress is several years old. That means they’re not going to have the exact same one. But let me tell you, if I were in the market for a new mattress I would get another Nectar! They’re awesome and come with the best warranty I’ve ever seen in a mattress. It came in a box, delivered right to my front door. I opened it, rolled it out, let it pop up, and put it on my bed. It’s not too heavy and, though I’m sensitive to odors, I was able to sleep on it the very first night with no issues at all. So no, no offensive off gassing in my experience. Literally the only thing we dealt with was my husband thinking it was too firm. I emailed the company asking for suggestions for ways I could make it softer, because no, I had no desire to return it, and they shipped me a mattress topper, a good one, at no extra charge. Again, that was years ago and I can’t guarantee they would do the same thing today, but that’s some serious customer service!

The mattress I’m linking to is probably the upgrade for mine. You can check it out RIGHT HERE.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Tiny House Part 3: The Purge

Tammy M CardwellLeave a comment

I entitled this “The Purge,” but the purge actually happened in waves.

I’d already gotten rid of much of the junk my hoarder husband had insisted on keeping, and passed several of his things along to kids and grandkids, but in March I began the first true purge. There was a charity auction coming up and, even though I knew I would still be living in the apartment for another 5ish months, I pulled out everything that I 1) knew I could live without, 2) felt would bring at least something at an auction, 3) had confirmed that my kids wouldn’t want, and 4) couldn’t possibly take in the move, and I donated it all to the auction. I knew I still had a lot to let go of, including some things I really wanted to hang onto, but this move forward felt like an enormous success! It also helped raise hundreds of dollars.

The second wave of the purge happened as our floor plan was refined. There were some things that were non-negotiable. I had a queen mattress and, though I knew I’d be buying a new frame for it, I was not willing to drop down to a smaller bed. I also had a good-sized desk my son had just given me that I was determined to keep on the grounds that I needed it and it would serve as both work space and dining table. These two things were worked into the floor plan with about an inch to spare and determined the length of the bathroom (Which is the perfect size, by the way!) I was also set on keeping my lingerie chest, which provides an amazing amount of drawer space for its footprint.

With these things in mind, it was time to get real about what I needed, wanted, and couldn’t keep no matter what. The furniture that hadn’t gone in the auction was either given away or promised to others. The massive artwork that I felt would be completely out of scale for such a small space was also handed off to some who could appreciate it. I knew I would have limited closet space, so I hard purged my closet, getting rid of anything other than special occasion dresses that I hadn’t worn in the past year. I then pulled my out-of-season clothes and packed them away; I’ll explain that later. Then I measured what I had left. I was shooting for 3 linear feet of current hanging clothing. A lot hit the floor. I sent bags of clothes out the door.

I dealt with other things in similar manner, and worked towards actually living in that apartment the way I would end up living here. By that, I mean I figured out how I would store my shoes, I kept clothing in a small area, I rearranged my lingerie chest to accommodate my new lifestyle… In other words, I did my best to start tiny home living while still in the apartment.

The third wave of purging happened in those last few weeks. I’d hung onto some things just because, but in those final weeks I was giving away, throwing away, and donating things left and right. I knew I wouldn’t be doing much more than microwaving over here, so the only baking dishes I kept were two that will fit in my microwave. It and my electric kettle are my cooking team. Oh, and the toaster I just bought because I’ve been wanting peanut butter toast and hot Pop Tarts.

One of the most challenging parts of the purge was my book collection. If it weren’t for my kindle and my ability to store hundreds of books there, I would be in serious trouble. The book purge, itself, was actually a multi-step process as I slowly peeled my fingers off the spines of some of my long-time favorites.

I should mention that I’d been offered the option of storing some things elsewhere in the building, but I’d refused. I came into this journey determined to REALLY live in my tiny house. And truly, as I’ve lived here for the past several weeks, I’ve still found myself purging. Only when I got in here did I realize things like the fact that I had a ridiculous number of washcloths for one person – that’s actually what I passed along most recently. There have been several times when I’ve left things on my sister’s bar and texted to let her know they were there if she wanted them.

I’m still settling in, still finding the best way to have things stored, arranged, and used. I’ve gotten rid of things, purchased a few (very few) things, and tweaked left and right. Most excitingly, I had a friend who specializes in reimagining spaces come in and help me get out of the box. She made many suggestions that I was delighted to act on; created new storage solutions, decor, and art for me; and restaged the place. I love it even more today than I did before she came here last.

And so we’ve set the stage for the rest of my story. As we walk through this series, I’ll share things I’ve learned, specifics about choices that were made, and lots of photos showing how I live in my tiny dream home.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Tiny House Part 2: The Plan

Tammy M Cardwell4 Comments

If you haven’t read last week’s post, The Dream, you may want to start there. It’ll be a quick catch up.

So we had the basic area, and in coming weeks we discussed various fine points about the floor plan as they worked on it in the evenings and on weekends. This was a pretty constant back and forth as each of us realized or thought about certain things. For instance, they decided quickly that there was no way I’d be comfortable with the small shower stall we’d been considering, so they opted for a 36″ shower instead. (Bless them!) It wasn’t a huge difference, but it did affect the floor plan.

Too, I was determined to bring my washer and dryer, no matter what it meant giving up, so we measured and measured and measured again before settling on where these two appliances could go and exactly what base cabinets we could allow for the kitchen area.

One of the first things I did was get my hands on a pad of graph paper and start playing. I drew and redrew (to scale) as we adjusted and changed our minds about the big stuff (bath, washer, dryer, kitchen area, etc.), and then I cut out little pieces of sticky notes to represent the things I had to keep and the things I wanted to keep.

After a bajillion attempts, and a lot of help from them, we finally settled on this.

On the side of this image, you see a couple of pieces labeled pink chair and bookcase. Those were the last two “want to keep” items I had to get rid of. Everything else was “have to keep.” Well, I suppose that, technically, the bookcase could have gone, but it fits where it is and when I reach the point of posting pictures you’ll see how important it is to me.

Even after we settled on this, a few changes were made. I nixed the area of the closet labeled “shelves,” for instance, when I stumbled across a plan that would work and save them some time and money. Saving them time, effort, and money was a challenge. Several times I had to convince them that I didn’t need certain things – like flooring over this stained concrete that I love, and an actual door on the bathroom. I LIKE my bathroom curtain, and it’s only me here, so…

They wanted to give me perfection but with the limited time they had for the actual construction, perfection really wasn’t an option. Honestly, as I type this, there are still things needing to be finished as he finds the time to work on them because the calendar caught up with us. They literally only paused the work long enough for me to move in and then picked it back up for a few days to get things close enough to finished that they felt I could live here comfortably.

They have been absolutely amazing, and I bless God every day for this home that I’ve been in for a little over a month. In fact, as I was talking to God just yesterday I realized that I am as happy here as I ever have been in any other home I’ve ever lived in, happier than in most.

I’m literally living the dream.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Tiny House Part 1: The Dream

Tammy M Cardwell3 Comments

I’ve been fascinated by tiny houses since I first learned about them and I’ve always felt that, if I were alone, I could live in one and enjoy it. I loved the idea of getting rid of the unnecessary and paring my life down to what really matters.

Through the years, my conviction grew, especially as life with my husband became increasingly challenging. I pretty much ended up living in our bedroom until after his passing when I was able to “move back into” the rest of the apartment. Living in the whole house was amazing at first, but eventually it began to feel like too much. I didn’t need almost 1,000 square feet and, frankly, I grew uncomfortable with that much space.

When he passed on October 1 of last year, I lost his income, so I knew immediately that when my lease was up I would have to move out of our two-bedroom, one bath apartment. The challenge was that rents in our town have increased astronomically in recent years and my options were extremely limited. I knew that, if nothing else, my kids would welcome me into their home, but no one wants to do that to their children. Well, I didn’t.

I must pause to give glory to God here. Losing my husband’s income left me literally unable to pay the full rent. He’d been sick for nearly ten years, and life with him had been expensive. Our savings was gone, and the credit cards were maxed out. And no, as I imagine is true of many narcissists, he had no life insurance. No matter how tightly I ran the budget, how much I went without, I was consistently hundreds of dollars short of having enough to last a month. The money simply wasn’t there. BUT GOD WAS.

God provided faithfully. Every. Single. Month. For months on end, people gave me money without knowing why they were giving it. It was always exactly what I needed to make up for the shortfall. I did eventually start receiving my widow’s benefits, which made things worlds easier, but that was months later. God made sure my rent was paid one way or another in the meantime.

Eventually, after months of housing research and lots of prayer, not knowing what I was going to do, a beautiful offer was made to me. I was invited over and shown a small area inside a big building. “If we built this out, could you live here?”

“YES! I definitely could!”

And so, we jumped in. They started work on putting things together at their place, and I began taking things apart at mine. Some parameters were already set. The area they’d selected had originally been intended as a sort of pool house: It had three walls in place, one window, and an area that was already partially plumbed and would become my bathroom. The footprint was 22′ by 10′. Yes, I was moving into 220 square feet. My tiny home dream was going to become a reality at the same time my financial burden would be greatly reduced. Double win! (Well, triple win, because I was going to live only yards away from my very best friend.)

Within days of the decision being made, I’d gotten my hands on a pad of graph paper, mapped out what I thought would be the final footprint of my efficiency/studio/tiny home, and started reality checking. What were the necessities? What was possible? What was doable?

It was time to start working out a plan.

And this is the first in a series that will cover my tiny home life!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C