More Stuff? Not Really!

    I realized that I had to clarify on my last post when I said that I realized we needed more things. That's not quite accurate. When you get down to the very few basics, every piece in a room becomes an unavoidable focal point. It's made me realize how important it is to me to be living with objects that have a beauty to them. There are so few items, comparatively, in each room now, especially in common areas such as our living and dining rooms, that their incongruity or all around found-in-the-back-alleyway-ness are glaringly obvious.

    There are reasons beyond aesthetics, though. I have dust allergies as well as seasonal allergies. They seem to be getting worse; I cleaned under my toddler's bed the other day and while it had been awhile since the last dusting, I was wheezing and short of breath the rest of the day. Uncluttering has certainly been helpful in this area in that there is less to clean and it is cleaned more easily, but it can't help alone. For the first time ever, I'm viewing my house as the space of an allergy sufferer, and making my plans accordingly.

  The items I want to keep I will be making mine, changing them to fit us. Other things will simply have to be replaced. Now that I have much less to care for, there is more time and money to make the house the way we'd like. We've spent ten years buying the least expensive of everything and making do with what we had because we're frugal. Or cheap, to be honest. Call it a byproduct of having nothing while growing up, but somehow upgrading everything immediately didn't seem terribly important. So we've done other things, like paying our mortgage off 20 years early. It's not a bad trade, but it feels like it's time to make this house we own a place we like to live in. Then we'll probably move; isn't that how it usually works?

 

Yes. Messy. These are not my books, though. And I totally restrained myself from tidying so that I would not be a big faker.

 

    We still have several bookshelves full of books. I can't (or won't) reduce my own books more than I already have. I've already given away twenty good sized boxes of just my own books. The rest of them either don't belong to me, are for homeschooling the girls, or are reference books. So. That leaves us with 4 full 6 ft. high book shelves. And a lot of dust. I'm going to slowly replace these Ikea shelves, made of particle board, which seems to sag soon after heavy use, with solid wood bookshelves I can make myself.  All this uncluttering has alerted me to the fact that while I am a bibliophile, I don't want to see the books. I plan on attaching solid doors, not glass, for a calmer, less visually stimulating bookshelf rather than having 500 titles staring out at me. This was particularly brought home to me when we moved our bookshelves from our dining room/living room area to the upstairs hallway. I use to think I loved how books looked in a house, but after that, I realised I found the space more peaceful without them. As I don't think we'll ever have a house large enough for a "library" and we might one day move to a place without a long corridor for books, I think the solution I've hit upon is pretty good.

 

    The couch. I have been wanting to replace it for a long time. Eight years of motherhood as well as the aforementioned dust allergies have convinced me that slipcovers are essential. I refuse to even think about all that couch has endured. I had initially wanted a sort of daybed/couch when I started wondering if we really needed it at all. We often sit on the floor while leaning against the couch. We only have the one couch and it fits 2 adults comfortably, if they don't want to touch each other, three if that isn't an issue. My mom doesn't like sitting there because she's tiny and too dignified to be seen scrambling off of it and her feet don't touch the floor; they stick straight out because of the depth. Ha, ha. So glad I made it to an Amazonian 5 '4. The Simple Man is tall and lanky, so no delicate furniture allowed. It must have what I call "sprawling potential." I thought in lieu of the daybed we could create a sort of floor divan with pillows, but I've discarded that idea. With four of us in the house and family over for frequent casual visits, having no real furniture in our living room seems obsessive and impractical. Even though The Simple Man was willing to go along with me on this, I think it might have been more out of complete apathy for the decor process rather than enthusiasm, so instead of having to redo it when he hates it, I'm just going to stick with my original idea. Plus, I have to say that to tell older people and pregnant ladies to pull up a floor pillow seems positively suicidal. And impolite.

 

 

I think something like this, only lower to the ground and lighter coloured. Seen here.

 

 

    Finally, I think I'll be painting both these alley acquisitions with white milk paint (non-toxic!). I plan on turning the first ones panels around so the glued on fabric faces the inside and painting the bare wood with blackboard paint so the girls can draw on it with chalk. I think the contrast of the black/white will look good, and it houses our school and art supplies as well as being in the room we do school work, so the blackboard is perfect.

 

 

 

 This one was originally a child's wardrobe; we took out the hanging bar and added shelves on the right inside of it. There is a space for the television inside but the toddler always closes the door while it's on, so for now it sits on top. Our cameras, dvds and miscellaneous tech junk is in here. And I really dislike red wood, so this will be getting whitewashed also.

 

 

 

    Those are my plans for "more stuff," by which I meant different stuff, mostly. I think we're all purged out for the time being, hence the concentration on what's going to stay!

Comments

[Robert Wall]

I've been battling the bookshelf problem forever too! The problem with most bookshelves from the store is that the shelf spans are too long, or the person who designed them never really expected people to put books on them.

We actually installed modular shelving on our living room wall - the kind with the uprights that have little slots, and shelf brackets notch into them. I'm using part of the modular area for my desk (24" x 48" shelf), part of it is our storage, and as soon as I get around to moving all of it the top levels are going to be our bookshelves.

It's not the prettiest setup the way we have it, but it's very functional - and if we wanted to make it prettier we could paint the supports and the shelves.

I definitely like the way you're re-purposing old furniture and modifying what you already have to beautify your home!

[Jean]

Love some of your ideas. I found that when I only buy or even find something I really love - of very good quality then I have a minimum of stuff. And when I look at the item I really love it. I have been very frugal for many years and only bought "cheap" or took what was given to me, but then I removed all those items and only had what I loved - really loved- my home was minimal and felt good. This is how I am living from now on. Being very very choosy. With everything. This is clothes, dishes, furniture and decor. I can see an item of exceptional quality and then wait and look around for just the right item at the right price. My anticipation increases and when I finally get it I really enjoy it.
I had over 1000 books and when they overflowed in every room almost I looked them over and decided I was never going to be able to read them all or even want to. I discovered the "library". I can order online for the item and they email me when it comes in. I pay 25cents, read it and return it. I do that with dvds and cds also. I feel freer. I am selling my books online at Amazon and sell about $40 a week or so. This makes me very very happy. I want to feel free.

Thank you for letting me comment

[TheSimplePoppy]

Hmmm, you've started me thinking, Robert. Maybe I will make bookshelves with less width. That way they would be easier to move too. I think you're right in that bookcases often aren't intended for heavy books, but rather decorative knicknacks, of which we have none!

Modular seems a good way to go with many things. One setup I've always liked is stackable cubes. In wood they look really sleek and modern, and can be used for just about anything; toys, books, tech stuff.

Thanks for dropping by and commenting!

[TheSimplePoppy]

Hi Jean, thank you for commenting! You've brought up such an interesting point. I've had a hard time balancing being frugal with having what I want to make things look nice. I've often ignored my picky-ness in favour of something inexpensive that I don't like as much for the sake of saving. While this may have paid off somewhat, I think it's probably cost more than if I waited and purchased what I really liked first. Sounds like it has worked for you!

I have always utilized my local library for both books and films; I've usually only bought books I know I want to read or refer to again. Unfortunately, that still happens to be quite a lot! I considered selling my unwanted books on Amazon but I don't have the time or patience. I'm happy to just let them go at this point!

[jaime]

Love this post. We are in the process of doing this as well (i think I mentioned that before). After all of the decluttering before the move, we have an absolute minimum in terms of furniture. We are trying to wait until we can afford quality pieces. I know we are going to need a new dining set asap and it will have to be a cheap one because after 7 years three of our four cheap chairs broke and the table is about to collapse. I'm all for simplifying, but I's not interested in eating family dinners on the floor. All of the other stuff can wait. I thought we wee going to need a new couch immediately, but we decided to rent an upholstery cleaner and it did wonders. We didn't even use the specified cleaner - just vinegar and hot water. So that bought us some more time. Anyway, I'm rambling. The bottom line is, I am totally with you on the better stuff, not necessarily more stuff.

As for the books, I have a confession. Since we are academics (both my husband and I are historians), we have thousands of books and we have no intention of ending our acquisition of "work books." We need them for reference, for students, etc... So when it came time to decluttering our books, we just hefted them over to the office. Technically, only my husband has a full time job and an office, but he made room for both of our collections. There, I said it, we are a book hogs.

[TheSimplePoppy]

Well, book hogs unite, because that photo of our books left out 2 important things; 2 MORE shelves in my bedroom. Early on in a minimalist frenzy I got frustrated with them, but quickly realized that the ones we've chosen to keep give back more than their absence ever could. A lot of them are reference also, for a way we want to live (self reliant small farm etc.) sometime in the future so I'm not sweating it. You guys have a great excuse though, "Oh, we're HISTORIANS, we can't get rid of all these books!" By the way, I love history, will have to pester you for good book recommendations!

I never thought about cleaning my couch with an upholstery cleaner. I vacuum it regularly, but I think I've just given up hope. Might have to try that out, and I love the vinegar and hot water tip, those cleaners usually are so bad for you.

[Tanja from Minimalist Packrat]

I love your alley acquisitions, especially the one with the fabric panels in it. Gorgeous! I bet it will look really lovely with the whitewash on it.

One thing I did (before the giant book purge but after I'd downsized to one bookcase) was got a tension rod and hung a curtain over it. I just happened to have an extra panel laying around (because I was a curtain freak, curtain clutter anyone?).

I also did this with my tv stand (with a matching curtain panel). We had a big boxy tall stand that didn't have doors. I hung a curtain from a tension rod inside of it to cover up the giant television. It was easy. Just cutting the curtains to the right length and doing a quick hem on the bottom.

It "simplified" the room without actually getting rid of anything. Instant simplicity. :)

[TheSimplePoppy]

Tanja, that's a great idea about the curtain rods! I saw something like that once in a magazine only involving installing a roller shade to the inside of the shelf, which I thought was entirely too much work and really too tempting for little hands - this idea is much better!

[Clarice Fullington]

Those bookshelves are a nightmare to keep dust free. If you have kids with asthma or allergy, it would be wise to invest in covered books shelves with glass doors. These can stay dust-free for a long time and can even be used to store more valuable items and displays.