Living simply in small spaces.

In our new home, there is one very large bedroom, one medium and one very small. Initially the very large room housed all 3 girls (it easily fits 1 full sized bed and 2 twin beds), I reside in the medium sized room and the tiny room remained empty until the little ladies could decide who would get to room alone. 

As the room had atrocious wood paneling on the bottom half of the walls, I could see why it might not have been attractive to any of them. Whoever created faux wood paneling should be ashamed. It is such an ugly, uninviting decor. 

Anyhow, I decided to redo the room, which basically meant to paint over the paneling. Unfortunately, I have had to paint over wood paneling before, and it is a pain in the tush. Requiring oil-based primer and using an itty bitty paint brush to fill in every-single-stinking crevice. 

I did not take a before picture... but here is a 'during', after I primed the paneling:

After letting the single coat of primer dry for a full 24 hours, I had to apply THREE more coats of my yellow paint to get a nice full coverage.

From there, I framed a piece of artwork that Annika had painted, put up some high shelves for storage in this small space, added a bulletin board, curtains and bed spread from Goodwill... and Annika was very excited to move in:

And she loves it! She loves her small space. And I love that it makes life so much easier on our path to simplicity. I have watched my children getting overwhelmed when asked to clean their room in our old home (their current home with daddy) as, when you have more space, you have more stuff, more clutter, more more MORE. And, while we utilize every bit of spec in our small home (Check out this cute crate I put next to her bed as a bedside 'table'):

...we still do not have room for messes. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Annika can clean her room top to bottom in 10 minutes tops. We use baskets on her shelves, underbed plastic totes and wooden crates to store her stuff. It's cozy, comfortable and simple for her. I asked if she'd like to trade for the bigger room now and she said, "No way!" 

My girls are slowly learning that they do not need a lot of things. We actually have a lot of fun in our time together, crafts, games (a lot of games) sewing, lots of time outdoors, reading. Here is a night in my house after dinner:

Lots of things that just don't take up resources... or space in a tiny home.