* There’s a balance between keeping things that reinforce who you are & want to be (whether joyful, confident, etc.), strict necessity, utility, & preparedness (years of fires & smoke, and pandemic lockdowns taught us this), and efficiency & resiliency.
* “Spark joy” is not the answer
Things “spark joy” that you don’t need, clutter space that could be more usable.
Things don’t “spark joy” necessary for living (medkits, tools, taxes), resiliency (spare parts, supplies), energy efficiency.
* Minimalism is not the answer (you both miss things and being prepared helps survive emergencies, reduce risks, reduce market/shopping dependencies)
* Simplifying is useful and is essential for a good home design & user experience both for you and guests
* Not accessing so many of your things for weeks helps question the need for most of those things, and having them turned inside out in piles reveals their full extent (and their context among so many other things) more clearly.
* Painting the inside of your home is like moving in again, everything you own ends up packed (mostly in boxes) & piled in the middle of every room.
* Rooms can look beautiful when empty (except for the piles in the middle obviously)
* The usefulness (even need) of the ability to “live” (sleep, eat, work) in any room (not counting bathrooms), and designing each room accordingly, optimized for its primary purpose, yet adaptable, modular, multipurpose.
Day before Thanksgiving 2019 my hot water heater broke, kicking off a cascade of forking paths still unfolding. For every repair I chose bold options, renovating thru 2020 lockdowns (another story). Most recently, painting the inside of my flat revealed:
Last times cont’d (&prev: https://tantek.com/t5B_1)
Mar 12
* inside DMV &
* (canceled) race pickup https://tantek.com/t55_2
Mar 13
* race prep https://tantek.com/t55_3
Mar 14 (1y ago today)
* ran 50mi https://twitter.com/t/status/1239494459802386433 (https://tantek.com/t55b1) & https://tantek.com/t55h2
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