Small Space Puzzles
Sometimes I wonder whether I am a minimalist born of necessity. My things have always been important to me (just ask my baby sister), and when you live in a small space, you have to have fewer things, making it even more important that they be special or essential.
This week I played mid-terrace cottage Jenga once again. I work in publishing and since lockdown have mostly worked from home. I used to go into the office once or twice a week when M was in the nearby nursery, but now he's at school on the other side of town. Our local office is also shutting this week, so a proper home working space has become essential.
If you've perused my spread in The Soft Minimalist Home, you'll see that I used to have a lovely antique bureau in our bedroom for work. However whilst it was useful to have, I very rarely used it. Anyone who speaks about the internal workings and psychology of our homes will tell you that an office in your resting space is a bad idea. I've intentionally always kept our bedroom very calm, and I'm very rarely in there during the day. It's Malmo's room then anyway... So when we decided we needed a proper chest of drawers, I didn't mourn the loss of the desk I never used, apart from the fact that it was a rather nice old thing and I couldn't get an antique chest of drawers big enough up our very narrow stairs. But it did throw into sharp relief the need I had for a proper workspace. My husband and I both work full time and share the family finances equally, but whilst he has a job that requires he leave the house every day, I was feeling a bit homeless work-wise and it was leading to me feeling a little resentful. Not of him, but of the implied lack of value I gave my job.
I've been thinking about this problem for months, and as is so often the case, it was resolved in a day. When you live in a tiny house, you're always solving a puzzle. What do we need, where does it fit. And with my hatred of clutter, it has to look like it belongs there rather than has just been dropped. There was no way I was losing my beautiful glass cabinet, but it certainly serves less of a purpose than somewhere for me to work. So out came the trusty measuring tape, and given that it is essentially an exhibition space for my magpie's collection of homewares and therefore isn’t opened on a daily basis, it slotted very nicely behind our dining table, leaving the perfect gap for a charming old pine side table I'd just found on Facebook Marketplace.
I find with small homes, you have to be creative. Every inch of space is valuable, especially when it's a home of dual purpose - family space and workspace. This is a growing requirement for our homes across the world, and I can't overstate the positive impact having a dedicated workspace all of my own has had upon my feelings towards my (often challenging) job. It's like I'd been hot desking for years, which I'd never have done in the office. Yesterday we rehung the mirror which had been on the wall opposite, and I nested with pictures and pottery and a wall-mounted candle holder. We spend so much time both physically and mentally at work, we all deserve a space that feels comfortable and welcoming, even if our inboxes aren't.
Now for the annual game of where to put the Christmas tree...
