One of the more common, if not the most common, project to do downsize. People look around their home and think, "Do you really need all these things?" Honestly, no. People don't NEED much, but many things make our lives easier.
Our home is big, about 1700 sq. ft. without the 900 sq. ft. basement. We also have a garage that I think is a two car, but J insists that it's a 3 car. He thinks if he didn't have all his wood and tools in there, it would fit 3 cars. I have my doubts. We also own a pole barn referred to as "the shed." It's a lot of space, and we use all of it.
My best friend, SC, has never seen my home. I have never seen hers either. We live 1000 miles apart. She likes clean lines and clear counter tops so even though she has 2400 sq. ft. she often wants more space just so things don't feel so cluttered. She has often asked me, "What do you have to put in all that space?"
Well a lot. We have 5 people in our home. J's oldest son no longer lives here, but when he did, it was a household of 6. And we have taken in the some friends in time of need.
I also watch my friends' children in the summer. I have enough bikes for everyone who comes to our to play. I think we have 12. They are of varying sizes from toddler tricycle to adults bicycles and one (my) adult tricycle. We also have one of those bike trailers that little kids ride in. We don't just look at all our stuff. We use it.
People often come to home unprepared for outdoor play. Have no fear: I have what you need!
*Some friends drove 400 miles to visit us and discovered their daughter only had nice shoes to wear. She also had no swim suit and it was summer. I had both.
*A group of friends came to play in winter. Not all had all the necessary clothes. I had plenty of extras.
*My friend's son outgrew his rain boots mid-season. She came over and we went shopping in my basement. She found what she wanted and didn't need to spend $25 on new boots. She also didn't have to scour the thrift stores in our area to find rain boots size 8. I loaned them to her until her son out grows them. Then she will return them to me, and I will use them for the little girl I babysit.
That list could be almost endless.
Many of the men in my family (husband, dad, brother-in-law) do construction for a living. They often build or remodel houses for people who are well off. They are the kind of people who simply get new appliances because the ones they have are old. They still work, but they are old. We take them and store them in the shed.
When the oven that came with our home started to not hold temperature well, I simply went to the shed and got a different one. When the washing machine started to not spin well, out to the shed I went to get another one.
This past summer, we raised meat chickens. I was pretty excited. Butchering time came around, and I made mistakes and quickly corrected them. I learned to make pate and found out it is delicious! (Seriously, I hate liver, but if one simply adds enough butter and garlic, it's pretty good.)
Sadly, when cooking time came around, we were all disappointed. The birds were all tough and stringy. The solution? Cook them all in crock pot and can all the meat. So that is what I did. I lined one of my counter tops with my large but short crock pots and cooked them. When they were done, I pulled the meat off the bones and put it in a reused ice cream pail and put it in the fridge. Then I took the bones and put them in tall crock pots, added water, and let that cook for a day or so to make delicious stock. I continued this process until all the chickens were cooked.
Once they were all cooked, it was canning day. My canner holds 20 pints at once. This held most of the chicken. In all I got 24 pints of chicken ready to eat. Then I canned the stock. On it's own, it looked pretty anemic so I decided to cook it until it reduced to about 50% of what I started with. Now it looks so much better.
Why do I mention this in post about clutter? Well, most people couldn't do what I did because they only have one or two crock pots. I have 13. That seems ridiculous to most people. Not to me. I use them. I do have two that are the same size, but most vary in size and shape. They also vary in cooking temps. I even have small owns that I use as air fresheners.
At this moment, I am cooking chicken bones in a tall, green vintage crock pot to make stock. In a tall white one I have a pork bone cooking also to make stock. In a shorter white crock pot, I have a (nitrate and nitrite free) ham cooking for dinner. In an oblong silver crock pot I got as a wedding gift, I have two beef bones cooking to make bone marrow custard (I have never made this recipe and am very excited about it). And a tiny one giving off the smell of Thieves Oil.
It might be trendy right now to downsize and purge, but I will stick to having all the things I (and my friends) need.
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