Minimalish?

     
I had a couple Germans over some time back, and at some point in the visit mentioned my "really small kitchen." I got a couple weird looks. Small? What do you mean? This isn't a small kitchen.

Here's our kitchen:

Cute, right? See that tall cabinet at the far left of the photo? The top half is our fridge and the bottom half is our freezer. Well, to be totally accurate, one-third of the freezer portion is actually non-freezer shelving for our cookie sheets and the like. This, I am told, is a standard German fridge. Tiny, right? But you know what? I have never once felt inconvenienced.

When I think about it, what was my weird, mumbled, half apology for my "small" kitchen? This is my perfect sized kitchen. I cook in it every day, I bake on the weekends, and it all goes off without a hitch. Why did I ever think I needed more?

Would you also like to see our dryer? We have two, actually. Here is our spring-summer-fall dryer:

And here is our winter dryer:

We had to buy our own laundry appliances when we moved here, and it seemed silly to buy a dryer. We're not here forever, we reasoned. We'll just have to go through the hassle of selling it when we move. If we really need one we can buy it later... let's just see what happens without one. 

You know what? It's no problem! Shouldn't it be a problem with two kids and all their dirty-kneed pants? Hanging probably takes longer than tossing a pile into a machine, but we don't mind so far. Will there come a day when we mind? Do kids use even MORE laundry as they get older? I ask myself questions like these every day. How much do we need? What can we do without? What will we need in the future? Can we lean towards minimalism now and get bitten in the butt later?

Here are some things I would, ideally, never have in my possession:

A car
A house
A yard

I think about these three things every day, I kid you not. Not having any of them brings me so much joy, but at a certain point all three seem inevitable. (Woe is me, right?) Not to bore you with details, but we see ourselves living closer to family at some point, and "family" is in a place where cars are not optional. Houses too, it seems, if you want to live near other families / near good schools, etc. Tiny house in a nice neighborhood? One car and dedication to cycling? Tiny front yard full of ivy / perennials? It's a puzzle we could solve.

Something to think about, I guess.