Small Space Guru

I've been thinking a lot recently about consumption and space. I've already tackled the consumption discussion in the closet blog earlier but I haven't talked about space. I often hear people say, "I need more space" or "we don't have enough storage." Watch any home improvement reality show and you will know what I mean. Unless you live in large cities and are forced to learn how to use your tiny space wisely, most people don't even realize how much they can do with the space they have. Michael and I switched office spaces about a year ago and so far it has been just that: office/craft. Michael left his giant easel in the space for painting but he never really used it. Yesterday he removed the easel. Since this office space is just off the living room, I get to stare at it daily while watching tv or chillin on the sofa. This means my brain is constantly looking at this space and thinking "this could be so much more."

This morning I was planning on adding meditation into my life. I suck at it. My mind never rests. Yet so many people I know or have watched in various shows and movies swear by meditation and how it has changed their life. So what do I do? I google meditation for beginners. This gem of a website popped up. It lists 7 keys to meditation. #1: Find a special place for meditation. Here is where I get back to the first topic. As soon as I read this my office space popped into my head. meditation doesn't need to take up a lot of space and now that Michaels easel is gone I have the perfect spot!

Thus begun my 25 minute couch sit, staring at my space and how to add a meditation space. I couldn't stop there. I really want to use my space wisely. I always struggle to do yoga in the living room because Michael also uses this space. Boom! I finally did it. I had the plan in my head of how to make my office and office, meditation space and workout space. And all of this is easily in the space that is smaller than many Americans spare bedroom. Thus begins my trip to IKEA.

The meditation space was easy to add since it sat in a small corner near my balcony door. Here you can see the before and after. The cushions were actually half of a POÄNG chair cushion so it was 50% off ($10/10€ each). For all of you who don't frequent IKEA, you need to visit the AS-IS or scratch and dent area by the cash lanes first! You can usually find some old store displays or slightly damaged furniture for a great discount. In following with the meditation space rules, i added a candle. Also, I made some aromatherapy room spray to spray in the space to help me relax ( i seriously need anything possible to try and make this damn meditation work

Now adding the workout space took some thinking outside the box. Well, I lied. But i think most people wouldn't know that you can get desk legs with wheels on them. And since I had a file cabinet that was already on wheels and the same height as desk legs, it saved me money from having to buy 2 additional legs and it allowed me to free up wall space from where the filing cabinet normally sits. These wheels and filing cabinet on my desk enabled me to do 2 things: Move the desk out of the way when I want to workout and create a storage bin/space for my workout gear. The desk legs were $10/10€ each and the storage bin for my workout things was $6/6€.

This means that I managed to turn my office into a flexible space for 3 different activities for under $60/60€ and it was done in less than a day. I think it is time that all of us start looking at our spaces differently instead of thinking we don't have enough of it.

#tidyingup #minimalist #IKEA #organization