Closets

Any closet is a walk-in closet if you try hard enough.” (Steve Connelly)
“I like my money right where I can see it... hanging in my closet.” (Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw)

We toured a sample modular home today. After much thought, Ed and I decided that the original modular home he designed would have to be scrapped, because, as a 2-story house, it would not be conducive to our lifestyle as we age. So now we're back to square one on our plans, and are settling for a simple 1-story ranch.

In the last year, we have seen and discussed many house plans, and in each one, our first thoughts were usually, "It's too small." They certainly are too small for our current accumulation of furniture and other stuff. Yet we insist we are downsizing and simplifying! Such a paradox. We finally agreed that we were determined to build a much smaller house and would just have to make do.

It's the closet space that surveys insist people are most interested in. It seems nobody every has enough closet space. After years of living in parsonages with teeny tiny closets, Ed and I made sure this Victorian addition had a huge walk-in closet. It is so big that, before the rods, etc., were hung, the tax assessor thought it was another room.

Our new house will have much smaller closets. The question we had to finally ask ourselves is this: Are the closets too small, or do we have too many clothes?

We manage to do a great job at filling up whatever space we are given. We never thought we could have filled up this 3-story Victorian, but we managed. Now we have to un-fill.

I think it is a worthy plan to embrace the smaller closets as a starting point. If something doesn't fit in that closet, it is too much. It's not needed. The overflow will have to go. (That has a good rhythm for a mantra.)

The same way we filled up to capacity, we will have to empty to capacity. More selling, more giving away, more letting go.

Closets have much to teach us.