Small house living; four daughters in one bedroom

When we first moved into our house, we had only one son and two daughters. After three miscarriages, we were able to have a duplicate family; another two daughters followed by one son! Bunk beds are the friends of families.

As our daughters got older and 'bigger', the older daughters could no longer have the top bunks; the weight limits on the wooden bunk beds disallowed that. Neither of them wanted to be crammed into lower bunks. The only solution was to try to arrange the beds so that the older two were side by side and the younger two were in the bunks. It was not easy. There is almost NO floor space in that room. We removed the closet doors and replaced them with home made curtains (Walmart cheap sheets are wonderful for home sewing projects!) We found a large dresser (road side pick up!!) that the younger two could use and, as stated in the earlier post, the older girls' dresser is in the hallway outside their door. The older daughters use the closet; the younger girls share space in their younger brother's closet down the hall.

Picture 1: the bed that is right as one enters their bedroom.

Picture 2: the closet 'door' right beside the bed from picture 1

Picture 3: this bed has less than two feet between it and the bed next to it from picture 1

Picture 4: the bunk beds are tight against the bed in picture 3. There is only a small 'path' to get to the lower bunk. The daughter in the top bunk has to climb over her sisters' beds to get to hers.

The girls are still able to decorate a portion of the walls to personalize the room. We found inexpensive shelves at thrift stores and they hold knick knacks for the various collections. There have been a few paint changes over the years and right now, two opposite walls are green and the other two opposite walls are a mocha colour; compromise is necessary with four girls in one bedroom! Each bed has an orange blanket; it's a favorite colour for three of the daughters. (one daughter compromised) I had originally wanted all four bed covers to 'match' the room colours but we're really hoping the two adult daughters can move out soonly so they chose bed comforters that will go well with their own designs when they finally get homes of their own!

Small house living: upstairs hallway

I'll try to make sense of this hallway in this post. Upstairs, we have one main bathroom and three bedrooms. Just to the left of our bathroom is a closet I chose to use mainly for linens. (makes sense, right?) It holds the expected towels, sheets, and blankets, but I use it for bedrolls as well. The tippy top shelf is really too high for me to use so that's where we store less-used toiletries and light bulbs. I'm not sure when it became the place to store light bulbs, but, in a smallish house, you do what you have to do. The towels shown are for my older two daughters; they don't have towel bars in the bathroom either so their towels have hung outside on the hallway wall for 12 years. (okay, I wash them regularly) I find they don't make the wall moist or moldy.

In the next post, I'll show how crammed my four daughters are in the one bedroom. When all four girls were moved in together, it became necessary to move a dresser out of the cramped quarters. We tucked it at the top of the stairs just outside the bathroom door. I painted it a coordinating colour with the stair way and it works as a 'horizontal surface' for the older daughters' perfumes and nail polish bottles. The

This is what we affectionately call the 'games closet'. It's right outside two other bedroom doors just down the hall way. In this closet, we store primarily games (duh!) and puzzles but also a few craft supplies and photo albums (from the days of paper pictures) There is a healthy stack of gift bags on that top shelf; we're really big on reusing gift bags! When we first moved in, I kept the kids' school books up here but that was too tedious for them to have to run upstairs every time they changed subjects. The lower shelves hold Lego blocks and Barbie dolls though those toys are very seldom played anymore.

Small house living: bathrooms

Believe it or not, my half bathroom off the back door is almost too small to get any photos in there! I chose to show how we store toiletries in there. I bought this metal stand at a yard sale probably 18 years ago. I've spray painted it once (just this past summer, as a matter of fact) and it's done very well for holding the few hand towels, toilet paper, and hair care products we couldn't fit anywhere else in a small bathroom. It tucks in right beside the sink. In the lower part of the photo, you can just see the corner of the hamper I stuck under the sink. I think I paid a dollar for that at a yard sale 12 years ago.

This little lovely is in my upstairs bathroom. It's a road-side find. We spray painted it white and it fits in so nicely to my perriwinkle blue bathroom. I can stack up a whole lot of toilet paper on that lower shelf and my little plant is doing nicely under the window.

These photos show the storage we have in our main bathroom. Both of them were second hand finds we painted and installed ourselves. There is a wealth of storage space in both cabinets. Hubby purchased matching hardware for them 12 years ago when he did a bathroom makeover. The mirrored cabinet over the sink is very helpful for hiding all sorts of messes! In the cabinet that's over the toilet, we mainly store shampoos and conditioners; we have a lot of heads to wash in this house!
When hubby redid the bathroom, he didn't have sufficient funds for matching towel bars. He didn't want to 'make do' so he didn't get any! But, at the time, I had six kids who needed places to dry their towels! I found this over-the-door 'rack' and figured I'd use it till we had the finances to get nice towel bars in the bathroom. Well, 12 years later, and we're still using the door rack! These are the three youngest kids' towels. Somebody gave me a pretty doilie many years ago and I wasn't sure where to use it; I tacked it on the top rack 'just because'.

Small house living; storing boots, coats, and shoes

Well, this post could better be titled "How I use our back hallway"! We have a half bath off the back door; a wonderful invention when you have small children! Our back door opens to a large courtyard and, over the years, little neighbour kids know they can slip into our back door and easily use our bathroom rather than run home to their own! It means less mess all through the house on the sandbox days; oh, how thankful I was for that bathroom sink just off the back door! I hang our small hand broom and dust bin behind the back door; they are out of the way and handy for a quick clean up. The large broom used to hang on a 3M hook many years ago, but I got tired of replacing broken hooks and patching drywall from a kid grabbing the broom at a wrong angle tearing holes in the wall.

We use vertical space for storage of the kids' boots, shoes, hats, purses, and coats. There are lots of hooks for them to choose from. We purchased shoe racks that have seen plenty of boots and shoes over the 20 plus years we've lived here. It's not rocket science but I thought I'd share the arrangement anyway.

Two daughters were at work when I snapped this photo; that's why there's so much empty space; their work shoes usually sit on the top rack. You can't see it here, but there are hooks above both shoe racks.

This is where our younger three keep their boots and shoes.

Small house living: the kitchen

An internet friend wants to compile a list of links to small house living and it sounded like a fun project.

Hubby and I moved into our three bedroom townhouse in March 1991. We had three small children and the house was plenty big for all of us. Nine years later, we had three more children and the house was a wee bit more crowded but we made it work. Son #1 has moved out so there are only seven of us in our house. I'm pretty sure the area of our house is 1200 square feet which includes a second floor and a basement.


We have very little counter top space. I had to be judicious with what I allow to sit on there!
In fact, I have to be really choosy with how I stash things inside the cupboards; we're really cramped for storage in this room. I use a crock for holding my large utensils. Not only does it free up the precious little drawer space I have, it is handy dandy for grabbing a stir spoon or a knife when I need them quickly.
When I got married 30 years ago, I determined that all my small appliances would be white or 'cream' coloured. It makes things look uniform and clean, I think. I have a toaster oven, a blender, a KitchenAid mixer, and a food processor sitting on my cupboards; all white and all used weekly if not daily. When canning season is in full swing, I simply move the appliances off my counter tops and stash them on the other side of the room to allow space for my cooling jars. I am able to roll out pie crusts and pizza crusts on either my kitchen counter or table top; the fact that I have very little space has not really hindered me or my daughters from baking or cooking for large groups. Did the reader note what is NOT on my counter top? I never cared much for cannisters on display so they are tucked inside a cabinet. I tried to take a picture of them but, in small house reality, I simply could not get a good picture since there isn't sufficient room for me to squeeze in front of the cabinets and snap a good photo!

My pots and pans are crammed into one cupboard right beside the stove. They are hardy pots. .

The next photo shows my dishes cupboard. I wanted to show off my idea for displaying family photos and drawings but not cluttering up the kitchen fridge or wall space. I tape the odd photo on the insides of my cabinet doors. It makes me smile when I reach for the dishes and it reminds me to pray for family and friends when I see their faces.

My husband designed this corner shelf for my daughters. They usually put up a miniture winter village in our kitchen and, as their collection grew, their need for more 'real estate' did. He put these shelves up for them and I get to use them the rest of the year for my pretty tea sets. It's a win/win!

Even though we have a cramped kitchen, when a kind neighbour offered their piano to us, we gladly squished it on an inside kitchen wall. Hubby put hinges on the piano bench so we can store a few music books in there; very handy and a good idea for making room in small spaces.

We homeschool in our kitchen too. I have made it my policy for the 21 years to buy as little as possible and 'make do'. Right now, only my youngest two are still homeschooling. But, this is about the same amount of text books and notebooks we'd have on hand when we schooled three at a time.

The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews

I'll be perfectly honest; I did not want to enjoy this book from Thomas Nelson. This was the third book I'd chosen to review for their Book Sneeze web site and I was completely prepared to be bored or disappointed by the novel.

The author had me in the first chapter! He admitted in the foreward that the book was all true. He inserted himself into the early part of the story and then took the reader back several years to the southern coastline of the United States during World War II.

I'm a sucker for war stories since my father in law was a tank commander in the European conflict.

The story set back in the 1940's flows effortlessly and kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to know how on earth it fit in with the beginning chapter of the book. When he wrapped up all the loose strings, the ending was completely satisfying and believeable. I guess it had to be believeable since the author attests that his book is all based on facts and first-hand accounts of those involved.

The beauty of the lessons learned about grace and love is very satisfying. I highly recommend the novel.

John Bunyan by Kevin Belmonte

There is no disputing that the book The Pilgrim's Progress is remarkable and ageless. The author of this small biography shares parts from the book as he shares the similarities between Christian and the real life of John Bunyan. Belmonte drew many of his facts from a previously published biography and gives plenty of credit to the author. He shares some background into what England was like during the life of John Bunyan, which in turn, tells us a bit more about how incredible it is that Bunyan came to a saving knowledge of Christ and a boldness to share the gospel with others.
The book, however, was incredibly boring to me. Whole chapters were devoted to minute details about the literature of the day, small pamplets that were easily afforded by a tinker's family such as the Bunyans. So often the author seemed to go on 'rabbit trails' as he grasped for more and more proof that Bunyan's work is remarkable and well-respected by important people over the years; something that was covered in the nine page prologue sufficiently.
I will admit to learning things about the life of John Bunyan having read this book but it took me two weeks to finish reading it. It's not that long of a book; it's just that boring of a treatment of the vague history of a truly godly saint.