You might think that I am referring to the children’s book, but I am referring to our new home. I love the book and our new house reminds me a lot of it. When looking at the front door, I swear our house is smiling at me! 

We have finally finished moving all of our ‘stuff’ from our 3-story plus a basement duplex into our two story, no basement, 1200 sq feet home. I love how cozy it is. It has taken a lot of strategy and creativity, but things are fitting in quite nicely. I do have some purging to do still, but it has been a wonderful process.

Because I have had to get creative with storage, I have been doing a lot of reading online about how other people fit things into tiny houses. I have come across some interesting data about house sizes. Did you know that in 1975, the average new home was 1,525 sq feet. By 2010, the average had ballooned to 2,169 sq. feet. 

Click to access sftotalmedavgsqft.pdf

Interestingly enough, according to the 2010 US Census, the family size was 3.14 people in 2010. That’s down from 3.42 in 1975. So our houses are getting bigger but the number of people in them has gotten fewer. Makes sense, right? 

nope. not at all.

Also, it has been interesting to read about people who have made a conscious choice to ‘down size.’ There is a movement, of sorts, called “Minimalism.” It has to do with owning less and enjoying what you own more. Going hand in hand with that is the idea that we need to spend less money on big homes and more time with the people in them. 

These are the things that have been bouncing around in my brain since we began this whole moving process. 

In addition to where to put our stuff was the debate of where to put our people. As you probably know, I have three daughters. They are currently 11, 13 and 14. I have decided to have them all share one room. After the initial resistance, it seems to be working quite well. In addition to having to compromise, it has allowed them to choose to be more considerate and more tolerant of each other. 

Allow me to step on my soap box for a moment…

When every child in a family has their own bedroom, they do not learn some pretty important lessons. When forced to share space, the art of compromise is born. I know I learned a lot from sharing a room with my sister. Maybe one of the biggest things I learned was that if my laundry bin seems over full, she has probably been adding to it in hopes that I will do her laundry for her. 

I also learned how valuable privacy is. Where does a child learn boundaries if they are never given any? Where do they learn to knock, to share, to listen, to care… we have to teach those. Sometimes we have to make a specific choice to put them in a situation they might not like just because it will teach them a valuable lesson.

I have the benefit of having watched Mia evolve from a non-verbal ‘wild child’ newly diagnosed with autism to a polite young lady who can converse and function in a regular classroom. A lot of her growth came from forcing her to deal with non-preferred tasks and situations.  I have often said that part of her amazing progression can be credited to her being sandwiched between two very capable and dynamic sisters. Had she been an only child, she could have avoided a lot of the growth she has experienced.

I’m done with my soapbox for now.

I will be finishing my unpacking this week. My hope is to take pictures of the whole house this weekend. Look for those on here in a few days!!!