Reading through Facebook today I found this posted by another Nourishing Minimalism, a blog I started following. It’s a repost from TreeHugger. I find this idea quite interesting because I have been saying for some time that if I could design a house I would do it around the space we use most. Apparently I was onto something.
I don’t have to track any of the 4 people who are usually in my house to know what space we use. And when visitors come, I know exactly where we all end up hanging out. We don’t have a huge house at about 1800 square feet when compared to your typical mcmansion, but we still have largely unused space.
What do we use? #1-the kitchen. Hands down, we are here most often. It’s where the coffee is. Where else would we be before 4pm? 😉 But really, we spend a lot of time in there and every time I have people over, everyone congregates in the kitchen. I could have spent hours cleaning but they stay in the kitchen. Sometimes I wonder if they walked in and were afraid to explore further for some reason, but since they usually walk in to a bottle of wine and glasses on the counter, it seems like a natural place to want to stay.
#2- the dining room table. Really it’s an extension of our kitchen since we don’t have a table in the kitchen. It’s where the back packs are unloaded after school, the arts and crafts are done (seemingly endlessly) and its where we eat of course. I also use it as my desk for paperwork and the computer is in the same room. So for the 20 out of 30 days per month that we have internet flowing, there is also computer traffic (I can explain that later).
#3-our bedrooms. Since we sleep about 8 hours per night and spend some time in there putting away clothing, as well as the girls using the space to play, this is highly used space. Our master bedroom is HUGE. As in half of the upstairs huge. It’s nice to have so much room but it isn’t all needed. But I will keep my walk in closet, thank-you-very-much! My girls share a room and spend a lot of time in there. I recently moved all of their books to either their room on a bookshelf or the basement bookshelf so that is also where a great deal of reading is done. I always have a book on my bed stand although 5 minutes in and I’m usually asleep.
#4. TV/livingroom- My husband and kids can often be found in here watching movies or playing with blocks or games. I am rarely in the living room. First because I don’t ever turn on the TV of my own volition and second because I hate our couch. It is leather with bucket seats and it hurts my back. The recliner isn’t much better although it is slightly more comfortable. Usually if I watch TV it’s a Mad Men DVD with my husband after the kids go to bed. And that is plenty.
#5- the bathrooms. Well, you know what we do in there. I do appreciate having 2 bathrooms so that we kind of have his and hers bathrooms. I like having something of my own.
So if I could design a house I would design a huge kitchen that could fit a long farmhouse table and eliminate the dining room altogether. I’d have a family room with a comfortable couch and love seat where I could sit and maybe use my iPad or read. I’d have the computer desk in that family room because I thing that computers should be public. I’d have two large bedrooms and if at all possible I would still have 2 full baths. A mudroom/laundry room would also be handy but we could do without the 3rd bedroom. And since our basement is essentially storage space and playroom we could live without that too once we get rid of the rest of our extra stuff and do a major toy purge. Totally do-able. I don’t know what this would translate into in square feet but I bet if done correctly we could very comfortably live in something like 1200 square feet.
I realize that for some people that amount of space even seems like a lot and for others it may sound like a joke, but for me, it sounds perfect. I’ll keep dreaming of more space in less and maybe someday I’ll get my wish to come true. Or at least, get a comfortable couch…
I pray you have just the right amount of space 🙂
Liz