For my husband’s 30th birthday a few years ago I booked us into a small cottage in Jedburgh for a night. It was a small single-storey property with one bedroom, a hallway, living room, kitchen and bathroom. It didn’t even have space for a dining room table for two – just a breakfast bar with stools along one wall of the small kitchen. Going to a property with only the essentials and a few creature comforts, be it a caravan, hotel or holiday home always seems to make life look so much simpler, and while we were there I was wondering why people didn’t live in such a small properties anymore – or even (without any real urge to do so), could we? Houses seem to be getting bigger even as households get smaller but they don’t seem to feel any more spacious.
What had struck me was the absolute lack of clutter. The property was set up for short-term stays; there were no bottles in the bathroom because the owner brought them in when they cleaned it and took them away again. There was no storage space for hobbies, winter coats, formal wear – it had room for the everyday essentials and that was it. Did it make me want to sell my detatched house and move to a one bedroom flat in the country? No. Did I come home wondering how I could get that low-stress holiday feel in my own home? Definitely. Even before knowing what minimalism was, that seed and craving for less clutter in my home was planted and things started to move slowly out the door.
Continue reading The Seeds of Minimalism
A Life of Well 