If you live in a small apartment

amother

Sapphire

Wed, Feb 28 2024, 12:12 am

My upbringing was one of "histapkut bamuat" and that's how I live my life. While I'm no minimalist making do with two skirts, three shirts and one sweater, I have nowhere near the volume of "stuff" house dwellers seem to think they need. My washer is in my kitchen and a petite 24 inches wide, I have no dryer, no standalone freezer, one set of fleishik dishes and flatware serves for every day and Shabbos and YT, I purposely bought Corelle because it's thin and doesn't take up much space, our beds are all hi risers or bunk beds or both, and the sofa is sofabed for guests.

As soon as my youngest kid outgrows something, physically or intellectually, it goes out. I don't have the luxury of saving stuff for a hypothetical future Ben Zkunim or grandchild. I have to live in the here and now. It's OK--the Cat in the Hat and Goodnight Moon are still in print and if need be we'll buy new copies for our grandchildren, who will anyway deserve new.

My children don't suffer by having two toy trucks and not an entire fleet, or twenty books and not the 100 plus that the average 4- year-old possesses. We borrow from the library. NYC has a massive library system.

We purge often. That includes children's games and toys. We have one small cabinet for toys and when it's full, that's it. If we get something new, something old goes out to make room for it.

Everything has to justify its existence or it goes out. I've learned not to accept freebies I don't need, to give them away immediately if I do succumb to the yetzer hara, and not to acquire items that have but a single use. Everything has to be versatile and multipurpose, or, if single-purpose, it has to be in constant use. We have fewer clothes and wash more often.

I stay away from things that are purely decorative. They have to be not just usable but useful to me. A decorative jello mold is pretty on the wall but useful only if you serve molded jello desserts. I don't make jello.

We don't have massive furniture. We keep space in mind when buying furniture and look for simple lines, a smaller footprint and a design that doesn't waste space. No coffee table, magazine rack, or table lamps, all of which waste precious square footage. Every stick of furniture has to justify in usefulness the space it occupies.

The less you have, the easier it is to find it, clean it, and keep it neat. Excess stuff, be it ever so pretty and neatly arranged, is still clutter.

Our apt isn't big but it doesn't look cramped. I don't allow it to.