I live in a tiny house with two 25-inch closets in my bedroom… one for clothes and one for utility stuff… other than my kitchen and bathroom cabinets… that’s all of my storage.
As you might imagine… I have spent countless hours arranging and rearranging my stuff to make it fit… it’s to the point that when I needed to do some caulking… I wouldn’t buy a caulk gun… because… where would I keep it after I used it… so I bought a little squirt tube instead… haven’t used it yet… hope it works and there isn’t any left-over… because… where would I put it..
So… I finally had my utility closet just the way I wanted it… it worked… and my little suitcase just fit under the bottom shelf… ready to grab at a moment’s notice… life was good…
Then… I temporarily lost my mind… and decided… I needed kittens… yes… plural… two little two-pounders… and so began the saga… where to put the litterbox… and the cat food… and all the things that it takes to care for meowing fluff balls…
Of course… the litterbox was the most troublesome… I tried putting it in the tiny bathroom… I couldn’t sit on the toilet without turning sideways… and my constitution didn’t work sideways… I tried putting it near my chair in the living area… but I could smell it… I tried changing litter brands which helped but didn’t fix the problem… I tried putting it near the front door in the living area… not only was it an eyesore… although it is covered… I could still smell it some…
And all this time… I knew… that the utility closet was the perfect place to keep it… there was room for the box… there was room for the scoop… there was room for the extra jug of litter… there was a shelf for the cat food… it would be the perfect spot… except… I would have to move some things around… including taking the suitcase to the loft… and I didn’t want to…
Well… Bertha let me smell the litterbox for a while… she walked around with a clothespin on her nose… until finally she couldn’t stand it and reminded me of a lesson, I learned a while back… when one thing changes… everything changes… change never takes place in a vacuum… I couldn’t expect to add kittens to a tiny house without making adjustments…
Then she reminded me of… my priorities… creating a space that is functional… calm… and pleasant… one that I love being in… one that doesn’t create excess…
So… what would it be… stressing over and smelling the litterbox every day… while the suitcase just hung out in closet… or climbing the steps to grab the suitcase when I occasionally wanted to go somewhere…
Well… you know the end of the story so I will save my words…
Jane
PS… be sure to grab a copy of Bertha-Size Your Life! and Becoming Bertha. Just click on her name and Bertha will take you straight to Amazon…
