Minimalist Cabin Home Tour – Kalin

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Kalin, who has kindly offered to share some images of her beautiful home with us:

What square footage do you have in your home?

We live in a redwood cabin, built in the 1920’s, in a rural area of northern California. It has 1,300 sq. ft of living space. We have no basement or garage.

How many people live in your home?

There are six of us. My husband and I, and our 4 kids (ages 6, 4, 2, and baby) and our Standard Poodle.

What was your motivation for embracing simplicity in your life?

The larger our family became, the more stuff we had. Two years ago we sold our house in Michigan and moved to California. We moved into a short-term leased house, then another (a mere 600 sq. ft) and now the cabin. In 12 months we lived in 4 houses. I resented having so many things to move so many times. Moving often forced us to pare down big things like furniture and un-useful things like fancy dinner plates.
I recently realized that procrastination was the root of my recent clutter problems. I found myself saying “I’ll fold those towels when the baby is napping” or “I’ll do the dishes tonight” and then so much would build up during the day that doing all those things after the kids went to bed became impossible to complete. I am working at sticking to routines. For example, I do one load of laundry per day. Every evening I put in a load and every evening I put the clothes away.

How has minimizing your possessions made your life better?

Having fewer things to care for, clean, and put away means I have less to do in the evening and am getting to bed sooner (and that is really helpful since I am up frequently at night with our new baby). Since we have fewer toys, my kids are playing outside more than they are inside. More outside time means my house stays tidier and cleaner.

What was your biggest challenge in the middle of decluttering?

My biggest challenge is finding a new home for the things we no longer need. The nearest donation center is a far drive from our house, so making frequent trips there to drop off items isn’t easy. I’ve had some luck putting out boxes marked “Free” on our rural road, and also posting larger items (like furniture) on our local Nextdoor.com email list.

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Everyone’s way of embracing minimalism is different and that is very important to remember.
When you are thinking about becoming minimalist, the whole point of it is to keep true to your authentic self. What is important to you, the things you enjoy and the life you want to live. I’m excited to share some real life examples of what minimalism looks like in different homes around the world.