Handmade Homes

This is the story of a single mother who built her own home. It's small, but it makes more sense for them than anything you'll find in the suburbs. Her story inspires me more each time I watch it. It always reminds me that things really don't need to be so complicated.

Living in my current apartment has been a great lesson in living with less. I've always had a lot of stuff, partly because I'm sentimental and have inherited a lot of things from family, but also because I am an artist with no studio. I have all sorts of art supplies in so many disciplines, and it really adds up. My last apartment was three times the size of this tiny place, so it was easy to lose track of what I had and not notice the excess, because there was enough room for it all.

When I moved in to this apartment with less than 500 square feet, I left about half of my possessions behind. Now I'm continually revising everything, in every part of the house, getting closer to living more efficiently. It's not about paring it down to bare necessities and fitting it all into a car to leave at any moment. I'm not that person. I just realized there were so many things I could do without. It's very comforting to know now exactly what I have. The number of unseen and forgotten items has diminished greatly during the process. I decided there were a few things I would have a lot of and would devote time and energy to taking care of - particularly books, clothes, records, plants, and art supplies - and that freed me up to feel comfortable letting go of things in other categories. After the majority of that process was completed, I began revising my "keep" categories so even those are more easily stored and enjoyed.

I'm also a big, big fan of handmade homes, especially small ones made of recycled and salvaged materials. Kirsten Dirksen created this video and her YouTube channel has a lot of other videos and full length documentaries about people living in more intentional and sustainable ways.

The Moon to Moon blog is one of my very favorite places for visual inspiration of handmade homes. There's a whole section on them which is updated regularly.

Don't be afraid to do things differently.

<3 Nico