Christine’s Big Bed & Little Apartment

Today we’ve got another special treat.  Christine from the blog, Simple Savvy, is here to share some peeks into her bedroom with all of us.  (You might remember Christine from last summer when she shared her beautiful and simple wedding with us.)  Not only is she letting us into her home today, she’s also sharing some really amazing insight into the internal conflicts with what we think society says we need and what we actually need.   Or as Christine found out – what we can actually fit into our homes!

Here’s Christine to share her home…

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This story starts with a bed. It’s a big bed, bought to assuage my big ego not long after I got my first grown-up job and thought debt was something everyone lived with. I figured my first grown-up apartment deserved a big bed — I deserved a big bed.

Not too much later, the U.S. economy tanked, my husband and I changed jobs, and we moved to a smaller apartment over an hour away. That’s when we realized the big bed was a huge mistake.

Why? Because we had to lay out our new apartment according to our bed’s needs. The biggest, most well-lit room obviously held our impressive bed. It was front and center, smack dab in the middle of everything (including the walkway through the room). We had a lot of wasted space making sure that bed was well taken care of.

Thank goodness something clicked and we realized that our bed could survive in a small, dark room just as easily as it could in a big, beautiful room. We moved things around so that the big, beautiful bedroom room became our living room and the office became our bedroom; our living space doubled as our bedroom space was cut in half.

Despite the lack of space, the bedroom is cozy and feels like a cottage — like I’m on vacation when I’m in there. I now use it as an actual space to hang out and relax, instead of just a room that I sleep in. We keep it cleaner than we might have otherwise (well, in theory), simply because we like that cottagey feeling. We play cards in there at night, snuggle the puppy, have tickle fights.

The neatest revelation of all is that since the bedroom is so small, I get sick of it easily. Yes, I really am in love with not being in love with my bedroom. I’m more likely to get outside because the bedroom is tiny and I can’t spend all of my time there. Now I get my space and sunlight from the outdoors instead of from my house. It’s funny how small spaces make you do that.

Since learning to live in a small bedroom, Mr. Savvy and I have figured out that we can live in a small apartment.

We’re looking forward to moving someplace smaller, saving some money on rent, and downsizing our lives. All this from a bed!

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Huge thanks to Christine.  Don’t you just love her honesty about accepting that she is not in love with her space… and that makes her happier?!  Soo inspiring.

Is there something in your home that you thought you had to have?  And has the discovery that you don’t have to have it changed your perspective on home?

Catch more readers’ small and simple space tours, and I hope to hear from you next to share your love for a simpler space.