And The Great Reorganization/Downsizing Continues

I’ve been determined to make the renovation to 256 as low to no-cost as possible.  In the process, I’ve realized that I have a lot of storage areas that I haven’t used very effectively.  Canisters and vintage containers abound, mostly empty.  Now they are for show, and as they say in the Navy, stowage.  For example, the large tin you see on the upper left with the Dutch children holds a lot of stuff.

One of my first steps has been reorganizing in the kitchen.  We’re back eating in there on an old enamel table from the 30’s with a drawer to store the silverware with an oil lamp sitting on a lap quilt on top.  Love it.

Here’s my reorganized spice area, inside my $99 Goodwill Hoosier cabinet that I saw on line for $2,500.  The little “risers” that give me twice as much room in the back were once part of a kindergarten play set used at the 1920’s school across the street.  When the school closed, the city was going to tear it down.  My neighborhood banded together, Sun Trust Bank bought it, and now it is an elderly apartment building.  I grabbed some of the wooden play sets and the kindergarten cubbies off the big junk pile.  The old wooden refrigerator from a kitchen play area in one classroom holds towels in my downstairs bathroom.

Here’s a little “office area” where we also brew coffee.  The red and blue wooden boxes on the bottom are the kindergarten cubbies.  I like to think of all the gold stars and red smiley faces on the purple mimeographed papers that were returned to students in them.

Here is the area where we will divide the house into an upstairs/downstairs apartment situation.  The stairwell will be covered with a wall and the upstairs person will use the door you see with the ladder in front of it.  Only the ladder will be on our side of the house, then.  We will continue to use the front door.

I felt myself being so fascinated reading blog after website about tiny homes and downsizing, not knowing why.  God was preparing me and I can’t wait to see what He does next.