Zoebird's Profile

We -- a family of 3 (two adults, one child) -- and we live in 450 sq ft. I want to assure you that this is a very comfortable amount of space, even for three people. So, two and a dog will also be just fine.

We spend much of our down time in the house -- being homebodies -- and we invite over guests for dinner and/or playdates regularly. And, the space is organized so that each of us can find a quiet corner and a sense of personal space, even though we are effectively in one big room.

The number one thing about living in a small space is decreasing clutter. Another way of putting it is becoming efficient in what your processes are, and seeing where you can streamline. And, of course, avoiding things like paper clutter.

One good bit of advice I got long ago from a friend of mine was to make sure that you always had "open space" in your storage solutions/organizations. Thus, if your linen closet has 4 shelves, only fill 3. If you have 6 shelves on your bookcase, use 5 -- or, only use 4/5 of each shelf or similar (personally, I prefer each shelf to be about 2/3 full).

This really makes the space feel open and uncluttered and welcoming. Everything has a place, and there is some space for new things (though generally, we tend not to try to fill the available space, but let go of things less used or not bring in new things. But, there is space for new things when that arises!).

It'll be great, and if it isn't, you can always move.

Amen to this one!

I don't even have more than two families! The pull between these two families was immense!

And, in our case, it really was a matter of time. Everyone wanted us on "the day." Thankfully, my parents (but not my ILs) understood and that's why we spread our celebrations out.

Our situation? DH and I graduated and had modest school debt. We also had saved up in university for our first move, and actually were able to qualify for a small condo. So, we decided to pay off all of our debt as quickly as possible, and did so by working pretty much non-stop. DH had a nice 'day job' but also did some part time contract work with another company (often working weekends). I worked part time and ran my own business as the full time gig.

This essentially meant that we worked pretty much every day of the year. I had clients who contracted me to work with them on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. This meant I only had "free time" on these days from 12 onwards, and driving two hours to one family, having a meal at two, jumping into the car at 4, driving an additional two horus, having dinner at 6:30, leaving at 8:30 and driving 4 hrs back to arrive home at 12:30 am, only to have to get up at 5:30 am that day to go and work a full working day. . . it wasn't exactly a nice time.

You add to this the normal family dramas, and all in all, it doesn't make for a fun time.

And, while I'm sure that we could have worked less during that time, the reality is that we were making hay while the sun was shining, and were able to pay off everything very quickly and create a good, solid financial foundation and future for ourselves.

This allowed us to move internationally, start our business here, and actually have more free time with our son (DH works part time with the business, I work full time, and DS requires no child care, but does go to kindergarden 3 mornings a week -- and that's when DH works). It supports us beautifully, too. So, now, we live a "normal" life. . . debt free, living our dreams, and having the opportunity to be with and raise our son.

This was possible because of those "hard yards."

When we explained our POV to our parents (which happened around age 27 or so, about 5 years into this process), my ILs thought we were great for being so financially responsible, but that we should still remember the holidays are important to them.

Did i mention that my husband and I don't care about holidays -- decorations, parties, etc? Not really interested.

Anyway, my parents said that they didn't understand why we couldn't "take our time" with the debt with tax breaks and all, and that we shouldn't work so hard, but they understood that we were working for our goals (not theirs), and as such they said that if it would be better to have holidays on other days, then we'd do that.

And that's how it worked out. So, on holidays, we would work in the mornings, then drive 2 hrs to DH's parents and have a meal, and then drive home to work again the next day. And on our normal days off (Sundays), we would go and do activities with my family that were holiday-themed.

We still don't care about holidays. Our DS is 4.5, and we have zero holiday traditions at this point. Since my ILs aer visiting, we really arent' able to make any. But, hopefully no one will visit next year, and we'll be abl to have some family time. On our agenda? Hiking and camping. That's how we want to spend the holiday.

Our families? not so much.

I never had the added layer of divorced parents, but just having ILs makes a huge difference in the holidays. What used to be nice and relaxing with just me and my family became a negotiation nightmare.

My parents and ILs don't get along well, and so even though I hosted several thanksgivings, it ultimately became another animal. Luckily, my parents are fairly relaxed (and would only complain now and again), and so we would move the holiday celebration to a day that was easiest for all of us. This also helped out when my sister married -- as her ILs are also difficult -- so by shifting the holidays around, it made it a lot more fun.

We celebrated "eastern orthodox christmas" in late January (when they traditionally celebrate it), and then we also did "canadian thanksgiving" in October. In early Dec, DH and I had our own, private holiday (in our community), and my parents and I would make a special trip to our favorite winter event together as well (again, not on christmas). DH's family did a new-years gig (nothing my parents did anyway, or anything they were interested in), so it meant spending "actual" holidays with my ILs, but then having "real" holidays (ones without stress) all round them.

For us, divorcing from the actual day to celebrate with more peace and fun and joy was *really nice*. It also extended the holiday season from 4 weeks to 4 months! It wasn't exhausting and had a nice pace.

The last three years have been stressful because we moved to another country. We set up skypes (which was difficult to achieve on our end) only to have our family (passive-aggressively on both sides) "no show." That was year 1.

Year 2, my parents came to visit, and it was a nice holiday but they hate to travel so they were *very* stressed and anxious. It was hard on them, and not as relaxing as we had hoped. We told ILs that we would not be skyping "on christmas." and set up a day that was better for us. They were upset, but that's life.

This year, my ILs are visiting, and they don't arrive until after christmas, so we will skype with my parents who will be "home alone" because my sister's ILs will be at her place for the week (i feel for her!), but they'll be doing our family tradition the week before, plus then seeing her again for "eastern orthodox christmas" too.

Next year, it's unlikely to have any family visiting, and we are relieved! We just want to have a nice, quiet, family holiday. Our plan is to campervan around our new country for a couple of weeks. I'm excited about doing this with our son, and creating our own traditions without drama.

Nice to see this. Our rental kitchen is quite dated, with dark wood lower cabinets and no uppers at all. I was looking at painting the room to "rice cake" (a white with a brown tint), then putting up dark-wood shelves. The counter-tops are white, and so this looks basically like my design idea. Time to get cracking.

We did a comfortable, established thing and were nearly paid off on our mortgage when we decided to sell up and move across the world to our dream city. COL has doubled, income was cut in half.

But, we've always lived simply, and continue to do so. We are able to pay for what we need, and we have started to put things by again. It feels great to do so.

I suppose the main thing is to look around and see what you can do. You can look for more/different work that would earn you more income, for instance. Or, you could look for ways of bringing your expenses down. Or, you could do both -- which is what I usually do. It's a process that I enjoy.

We have streamlined down considerably, and it's great.

In addition to these amazing classics, we also have introduced DS to classic animation from the same era. There's some really great (and funny) stuff from that time.

For NZers, Auckland is no where near as nice as Wellington. Wellington, NZ is awesome.

A friend of mine gutted a similar kitchen and then used craig's list and similar to find used commercial kitchen equipment (open, stainless shelving for under cabinets with stainless countertops, usually with sinks built in and stainless back splashes as well), and then put stainless open-shelves above (ikea, I believe), and then was able to get great, small commercial appliances from a cafe that closed down, and then basically painted the walls white and had a very simple all-black flooring.

It looked really cool and I think it cost her something like $5k all done.

i think the comments around art are really interesting.

i take a very minimalist approach *and* have a preference for scandinavian design, which often means no art on the walls. In fact, we currently have no art on the walls. But, we do have architectural interest in our place and a great view, so art isn't really necessary at that level.

Likewise, we -- as a family -- are more calm and have more creativity and fun together when there's no visual clutter on our walls and in our home. We even keep DS's toys to a minimum (and tidy them 2-3 times a day to "clear the visual field" which makes his play more creative and more focused as well).

At the end of the day, the choice for minimalism -- including the choice not to have art on the walls (or pictures of family or whatever else) -- really doesn't "mean" anything in particular. It doesn't' mean that I don't like art, don't like design, or have commitment issues.

It means i'm making a conscious design choice that works for me and my family. I'm sorry if others think that's "sad" but I guess that's on "them" and not on me.

I agree with Natalie. DS has a lot of art. I've been looking for a fab way to display it, and I think this would be cool. I have the perfect space in mind. :)