in our dining room by Amy Highton of Modern Nest Photography

And just like that, the whole summer passed without another blog post. I hope you were able to slow down a bit or get away and spend time with friends and family. I found myself starting a new job, full-time, after many years of contract and freelance work. What an adjustment to say the least! Also funny to find myself fully -employed again while everyone is doing the Great Resign or at least that’s what the news is telling me everyone is doing.

I wanted to grow my skillset and work on a team again so have joined an Interior Design Firm on the procurement side of things. I also wanted to get my weekends and evenings back as being self-employed means it can be hard having boundaries or leaving work at “work”. It’s still new but so far I am happy with the change. This transition meant prioritizing family when not working so something had to give and it was 600squarefeetandababy.

With a little bit of time and space I’ve been reflecting on all of the small space consults over the past year and gathering some themes from them I hope to share over the coming months. I love love loved connecting one-on-one about your homes of varying sizes in cities all over North America. And the more I talked to you the more I realized that small space challenges were similar across home sizes, from 500 square feet to 1500 square feet. Some of the bigger themes that arose were:

We could all have fewer things in our spaces. We all, including me could have less things. Often removing a piece of furniture, clearing half a closet or emptying a drawer is the best thing we can do to feel good about our space again.
Only store what is necessary. Adding storage costs money, energy and time and it’s only worth it if it is for things we use constantly. We still need to know what we are storing and why.
Reduce visual clutter. Somehow I fell into taking photos of our space to share the story of living small comfortably as a family. But I have found it the quickest way to know if the space is working. Take out your phone and take a picture of your rooms. How does it feel ? Are there too many things on the wall? What are your eyes drawn to? A photo can see things our eyes can’t.
Love what you have. I firmly believe that in a small space you should aim to love everything in it. Your furniture, lighting, accessories, we don’t have many of them in a small space so we should truly love what we have or it’s better not to have it. I know this is lofty goal but it doesn’t mean spending money. It can mean hand-me downs, second-hand, buy nothing groups but you should LOVE it. Slowly over-time replacing what you have to only be what you love. Removing what doesn’t work or inspire.
Consider giving up the biggest bedroom to your kid(s). I think I’m going to save this one for it’s own blog post as this is something I pitch regularly ;).

I’m going to do some round ups of furniture, lighting and accessories that frequently come up in coming posts. Some round ups that are top of mind are bunk beds, plug-in wall sconces, shoe storage, sideboards, plug-in pendant lights…. I can keep going. Let me know what else I’ve missed. Thanks for hanging in here. Despite all the shifts in the world and our personal life I still feel passionately about living with less in a smaller space and am grateful for the opportunity to share it all here.

A Year of Small Space Consults