A comfortable place to grow old

When we first moved into our home we made quite a few changes. We pulled up carpets, built a new kitchen, added another bedroom and bathroom and built verandahs front and back. Fences went up. We also put in gardens and a chook house and Hanno got a big shed to house his tools, garden equipment and any future cars our sons might have. We, although we didn't know it at the time, were getting ready to live more simply and our house and land were evolving with us.

Our standard brick house was built in the 1980s and while it kept us warm and dry, there was something wrong that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Later on I realised that our house didn't suit the type of people we were. I wanted a productive home and our house just wanted us to sit back and take it easy. When we moved here we had a lot of junk we needed to store but then we decluttered and decided to stop shopping for junk and that made quite a difference. It gave us more space.

The thing that made the biggest difference though, and it didn't require us to spend a cent, was to repurpose the new spaces to suit the way we lived. I needed cupboards for my stockpile and preserving jars. I needed space to store ingredients for soap and laundry liquid and space to sew and mend. By moving things around, decluttering and thinking in a more mindful and organised way, all those spaces, and more, were created. Our evolution had begun.

I couldn't remember my mother or grandmother needing to store anything that was surplus to their needs. However, I remembered that when the seasons changed, mum would store away either the winter or summer clothes were weren't using.  In those days people didn't have extra money or credit cards so there was not much junk using valuable space in cupboards and rooms. After decluttering and stopping mindless shopping, our junk problem was resolved and we had space for everything we had. I also changed a few things in the kitchen and laundry because they were quite difficult to work in. Those changes made a difference to how I worked and how I felt about working. It started to feel good, I was beginning to see a purpose.

We all have different circumstances and expectations but all of us can benefit from changing our living space to suit how we live. For instance, if you do a lot of sewing, you should have a space to store your equipment and fabrics; if you write or paint, you should have a quiet space to do it; if you bake a lot, have all your ingredients and equipment close to where you work. Outside, your mower and garden tools will serve you well if they're stored in a space out of the weather and close to a work bench were you can carry out maintenance.

I guess the obvious and easy change for us was to create garden beds and build a chook house. That change alone, while not costing the earth, equipped us to produce fresh food right in our backyard. There are many changes you might make, you just have to look at the space around you in a creative way and with a focus on sustainability.

Out in the back yard, along with the gardens and chickens, you could think about water tanks or barrels. If you don't have the finances for that now, it might be something worth saving for if your climate is fairly dry, if you get all your annual rain in a few months, or if you have a vegetable garden. And even if you don't have the money for big tanks right now, see if you can set up a system whereby you collect rainwater when it rains. In addition to the 15,000 litres of rainwater we store here in two tanks, we have a couple of 200 litre tubs that, when full, can keep our garden going for a week. We just fill the watering cans or buckets from the tubs and transfer the water to the garden. It's more work than hosing, but we don't mind carting our harvested water the short distance. Make sure you set up your collector tanks close to where it will be used. Mosquitoes take about 10 - 14 days, depending on the type, to go from egg to mosquito. Harvesting the water within a ten day period will kill the larvae before they fully develop. Or, you could just scoop the larvae out with a fine fish net.

I think one of the downsides of many modern homes is the lack of cupboard space. Think creatively about your cupboards, if you have a big cupboard near your kitchen, or in the laundry or garage, that may suit your stockpile better than what is currently in it. Move pots and pans, baking supplies, tea and coffee making supplies close to where they're used. Organising your kitchen well will save you a lot of time and effort. It just takes an hour or so to think about how you work in your kitchen and then moving things closer to where they're needed.

Never forget to make changes with you and your family in mind, so make a space to sit with your tea and coffee. That space might also serve well as the place you talk quietly with your partner, read to the children, write letters, knit or stitch. You need a space like this just as you need a place to store your linens or groceries. Make the house suit you, not the other way around.

Modifying your home like this will make life easier. Make changes that suit the type of family you are. Your home is your biggest financial asset and one of the key tools you have to help you live according to your values, to raise your family in a safe and wholesome place and the one place where you can reinvent yourself and become a productive gardener, a committed sewer and knitter, a fermenter, baker, country cook or anything else you heart desires. Making a few adjustments to make it work as it should and have it accommodate the activities of your family, will make living easier. There will be some changes that cost money, just do them as the money becomes available, but many changes will cost only the effort you put in to make them happen.

When our modifications started working for us it changed the way we used our house and helped us change the way we live. Eventually I would write in my Down to Earth book: "I guess you would say we're retired but we still work almost every day, making bread, jams, relish, and soap, cooking from scratch, growing vegetables, recycling and mending what we use in our home. We aim to live productive lives ... we're pleased to be homebodies, finding satisfaction in our simple home and excitement and adventure in a backyard full of fruit, vegetables, chicken and wildlife. Rhythms, seasons and daylight rather than clocks, calendars and investment portfolios guide our days. We are in a fortunate position to be able to live this way and we both find it very satisfying to be active at this stage of life and feel enriched by what we do."  The way we live now came from all those early changes we made to make our home an easier place to work in and a comfortable place to grow old.

If you haven't modified spaces in your home yet, if you don't feel that your home really suits you, work out what you can do and start changing your life.  Take it slow and make some small steps. It really is a great kick start and it might be the thing you need to set you on track to a slower, simpler life.

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