Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Small Space Living

I know it's Wednesday, but I didn't have a video I particularly wanted to share. 
I have decided to do a new set of posts, they wont come regularly/weekly, 
but there will be many of them. 

The topic is the post title. 
Small Space Living.


This is why I want to post about it. 


When Andrew and I got married we lived in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, huge apartment in Springfield, MO. We moved to Kansas City where we purchased a 2 bedroom one bath house with LOTS of storage (Which was so cute...see pics here). 
Andrew and I moved to Dallas last April. We landed in a great little one bedroom, one bathroom 4plex on the line between Highland Park and University Park. 
When people from TX learned we were moving here, they swore we would never find a place close to Andrew's work. Well, to every ones surprise we did. We found this unbelievable space! It is 3 blocks from church (Andrew's work), 2 blocks from Andrews school and walking distance to the bank, restaurants, grocery stores and the Katy trail.
The best part. It is CHEAP. Nearly half the price of anything that is comparable. 

Once we found out we were expecting a child, the same question kept coming up, "Are you gonna move?"
In the past, I would have really considered it, but here are a two reasons why didn't have to think about saying, "no". 

1. We are a one car family. If we moved to a different apartment we would not only have to pay more, but we would have to buy another car. 

2. There is actually quite a bit of space in our home. We just have to move some things around and get organized! 

In our home we have a Living room, a dining room, a galley Kitchen, a bedroom a little hallway and a bathroom. We have 4 closets in total. That is all the storage we have. 
One day, I had swept and vacuumed the house and realized that I was able vacuum the whole place without unplugging the vacuum. I was so excited!!!! 

When we moved from our house we had a HUGE garage sale and got rid of a ridiculous amt. of stuff. We had to. We didn't have space for all of it. It felt amazing. We loved the feeling of having necessities and living simply. So, since we moved we have continued to get rid of things. If we buy anything, it has to have a place to "live". 

Here are some amenities we live without. 
 - A microwave - We keep saying that we will get one when we need one, but we haven't needed one yet...but I did buy popcorn one time without thinking about how to pop it. 
 - A dishwasher
 - laundry facilities
 - cable
 - a home phone


We just got a TV for Christmas, but from April to Dec we lived without that. 

I know this post is getting long, but its an intro post, so let me get to something good! 

With a baby on the way, my mom was getting extremely worried about having baby laundry. I cannot even tell you how many times she brought up "mini washer and spinners" over Christmas vacation.   Well, she talked about it so much that I started thinking about it. We have a line to hang clothes on in the back, and so I just figured that I could wash laundry in the tub or sink and hang it out. 
My thought was, "I have no where to put them...they don't have a home!" 

I started doing research on these mini washers and spinners and decided I could find a place...The thing about small space living is that you have to use EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY! 
So, I added them to my baby registry on Amazon. As soon as I did, I told mom and guess what showed up yesterday at my front door. 

They are SMALL! This is a mini "panda" washer and a "mini counter top spinner". 

This is the Washer! Just add soap, water, and clothes and plug in.

The spinner is on the Left and the washer on the right. 

This little nook had nothing in it and I have not been able to figure out what to do to utilize it.
This is them tucked away in their new home. You can't really even see them!
So, I did all my laundry today while I was working and went out to the back to hang the clothes in the sun on the wire.  I had some awesome memories of my grandma hanging clothes when I was a little girl. I smiled the whole time I did laundry today...I cannot remember the last time I have done that. I felt accomplished and "simple". And the clothes smell so good off the line in the sun.

I should say, The weather is nice enough in Texas to do this almost year round, when I can't I will do a drying rack in the bathroom.



2 comments:

Alessandra said...

You guys are such an inspiration!! I don't have a microwave, laundry or cable either!! Luckily, I can do my laundry at Craig's :) If you guys every DO need to move, my place in the Village (The Park) is super cheap ($667/month) and awesome. Love you both!

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