Sometimes it’s hard to make a house feel like home.
It’s especially true for us in the tire house. We have to keep things the way the owner likes them (from plates to couches) or rearrange everything we move when he comes to visit. It’s his vacation home, after all. He deserves to have his home the way he likes it.
Have you ever heard of compulsive cluttering or obsessive hoarding? It’s actually a disease, and I remember being in the homes of people who just brought so much stuff into their homes until the spaces completely filled up. You couldn’t even open the door of one home all the way.
Gradually, no one was going into those homes but the people who lived there. Not even their own grandchildren were visiting! There just wasn’t room for visitors. All of this stuff – enormous quantities of things and the accumulation of more things took over these peoples’ lives. It was new stuff; it was old stuff. It was things that mattered, and it was things that didn’t. And they were so embarrassed, but they just couldn’t stop. It’s such a heartache to experience!
Is it true? Are we about to hit the one year mark with the No New Clothes Challenge? Have Martin and I really, truly quit buying clothing that we didn’t absolutely need?
My gosh. My wallet loves us!
As you know, I’ve been steering more toward the idea of:
1. repurposing the clothes we have
2. shopping handmade
From cooking tofu to sauteing egg plant, I’ve been building up quite a few skills in the kitchen with different ingredients thanks to this handy collection of vegetarian cookbooks. I was starting to have problems with my baking projects. Namely: all of the cookies and baked goods I was making were coming from random places. I would jot down ingredients and simple instructions or print off pages only to lose them or leave them in the wrong country. I feel kind of silly to say, “I can’t bake X because my recipe is in America. Or behind the bookcase. I’m not sure.”
I am constantly battling between wanting to add cute details to our home and wanting to edit and avoid clutter. You probably know exactly what I mean. My conscious, otherwise known as he don’t-make-clutter cricket on my left shoulder, usually wins out. I think he whispers, “Do your realllly need that, Katie?”
“No,” I answer, putting down the new treasure. ”I don’t need it.”
No one likes soggy lettuce, and you certainly can’t skip washing your lettuce. Some people solve this problem with a salad spinner. I have to admit pumping a little handle up and down can be rather fun. We just don’t have room for a salad spinner in our kitchen no matter how often we like a little lettuce with our lunch.
Luckily I was helping a German friend in her small kitchen a couple of years ago, and she was making salad. She pulled out a fresh dish towel and laid her freshly washed lettuce right on top. She brought the corners into her hand like a hobo sack.
I'm an American in Berlin, Germany. My apartment is 480 square feet; the kitchen's only 36. This blog chronicles the DIY approach my husband and I take in Making This Home.Read more.
