The Smaller The Better!

Hey, I live in North America. I know the drill. The bigger the better. The bigger the better.

The bigger the better.

The bigger the better.

The bigger the better.

But this post is not going to argue whether bigger is better or not. Nope, today I'm talking about making smaller better instead.

One of the things that really bug me every day is: wasted space. Like, it really, really BUGS me!

Okay, confession time...I too live in a build-a-box! The second picture up there? Yeah, that's my neighbourhood. Well, not my exact neighbourhood (not even my exact continent...) but what difference does it make? They all LOOK THE SAME!

And since all these "homes" are mass produced, they are far from suiting the individuals who inhabit them and therefore, each and every one of these shells are shells, not homes. Because homes FIT the people who live within them. A home is an extension of one's self. Your home tells stories about your past. Your future. Your lifestyle.

A house simply doesn't. Of course, I'm sure there are happy examples of people who have transformed cookie cutter houses into homes that actually fit their lives and make them happy and stuff...I'm sure they are out there...somewhere... (this is coming after a futile google search) but in the meantime, I must  content myself with educating myself on how to make my own home smaller and better.

So, as I sai before, my home is a classic build-a-box in the suburbs. Very typical, very impersonal, very annoying. Of course, my parents have bought into the Canadian/American dream of having these kinds of houses so, yeah, here we are now. And it's really freaky how I can probably walk into any house on any street within a 10 kilometre radius and find my way through the house as if it is my own....because it certainly looks like mine! Look:

     

Fab, aren't they? And here's a typical floor plan too. There's often a living room, a family room (or den...), a kitchen, a linen closet, a pantry (if you're lucky), a couple of bedrooms, an ensuite for the master bedroom, a powder room, a laundry room, a dining room, a breakfast room, blah, blah, blahhhhh!

Did you catch that? There is a dining room AND a breakfast room. Now, I'm not sure about you but in my home and all the other homes that I've been to, everyone uses the breakfast room for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The dining room? Yeah....I can count on one hand the number of times that is used in a year (Christmas, birthdays, the odd dinner party). 

So why do we still insist on buying into these McMansion schemes? Surely, someone must have realized that buying all that House is not a one-time cost either. First you pay for the house, probably taking out a mortgage that'll keep you slaving for the next thirty, fifty, ninety odd years trying to pay it off, then you spend hours of your time cleaning all that extraneous space and to top it all off, you even pay taxes for every square inch you "own"--whether you use it or not! Point is, never, ever, EVER fool yourself thinking that space not used isn't continuously costing you.

So, if like me, you are sick and tired of all the SPACE people are wasting, let's celebrate a future where (hopefully) we can all ditch the more is more and bigger is better mentality and we can all make the most of every inch we have.

A story I find really inspiring is called The Mayonnaise Jar. It's about a professor that defies conventional modes of thinking to demonstrate to his students that there is always so much more you can fit into something that seems small at first sight. Along this mentality, IKEA (my lifelong love <3)

created the following Small Spaces, Small Ideas advertisement. In fact, I find IKEA truly motivating as they are always defying conventions to fit more and more into spaces the rest of us would overlook...plus it's all so pretty and fun!

IKEA Small Spaces, Small Ideas:

By the way, I think loft beds are the most amazing things in the world! Perfect for creating a specific sleeping zone in an area otherwise cluttered with life and work!

Another video I find amazing is a tour of Graham Hill's 420 square foot SoHo apartment (he's the founder of TreeHugger.com!) It's amazing to the point of ridiculousness that he fit soooo much into his tiny little apartment...if you can call it that:

Graham Hill's Amaaazing Home!

My heart failed when he pulled out that ginormous dining table! And that guest room--love the beds! Both of these videos definitely show small spaces at a bit of an extreme so I'm definitely not advocating that it's for everyone (especially not if you're claustrophobic) but why not apply some of that amazing small-space thinking to your home so that you don't have a dining room you use twice a year but also a library/study you use everyday. Or how about ditching that stuffy second living room for a highly functional space where everyone can be comfortable.

(I don't know about you, but when I think of second living rooms--"for guests only"--I think:

)

In general, I think people think they need way more space than they actually do. I remember Candice Olson (interior designer) once visited a food truck to see how a small team of chefs could work so efficiently in such a small space. It was quite enlightening as these people are able to whip up gourmet dishes in minutes for a line of customers without interfering with each other's work!

And there are so many other places to take inspiration from:

airplane bathrooms...

airplane galleys...

spaceships...

car interiors...

Overall, the benefits of smaller (or smarter) living just seem to make more sense:

-less space to pay for

-less space to clean after

-less harm to the environment

-more space to live in

-more money in your pocket

-and, oh yeah, you get the coolest home on the block!

So, all this is why I find that small spaces are so much more interesting than big ol' draughty, impersonal build-a-boxes. There is no need to toss out the build-a-box you may already have though! Just take a look around your home and note the places you haven't actually sat and enjoyed yourself in days, maybe weeks. Ask yourself why? Do you really need that room? Can't it serve multiple purposes? My one piece of advice to myself and everyone else is to just think outside of the box (outside the build-a-box!). Don't be trapped by the idea that you have to have a room solely dedicated to eating or doing laundry. See what else you could use a room for. Maybe you can have a laundry/crafting/sewing room whereas someone else might have a bathroom/laundry room and yet another person might have a dressing/laundry/bill-paying room. 

There really is no limit and no template because if it works for you, that's all that matter. Really. Just take charge of your home and make it work for you (not the other way around, please!) because smaller can be really, really much better!

--Sabbie

A Guide to Surviving a Fiery Apocalypse

Ok, so I'm pretty sure that that is, like, impossible but...

Come on! Is this what I have to look forward to in my old age? (like I said, it's impossible, sure, but something like it could potentially, maybe, perhaps happen!)

Obviously the exact fate of our planet is debatable but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, right?
I certainly try to be!

So, once a upon a time, over two whole years ago (!), while aimlessly browsing through a Chapters bookstore, I came across this lovely:

After somewhat sheepishly taking it to cash, smuggling it home and reading it in the dark hours of the night (I'm surrounded by vicious cynics! Ah!), I ended up LOVING this book!

It isn't another one of those dull-as-nails textbooks that just preach all these annoying ideas that you "must" go along with if you don't wish to suffer a most agonizing demise. No, this is a very accessible and easy-to-read and easy-to-understand dialogue, and you can actually have a lot of fun reading it!

Its a cute little pocketbook sort of sized thing, in full colour and fully illustrated (always a win!). You certainly don't have to read front-to-back, page-to-page either! There is a total of 77 skills (the author, David de Rothschild, insists these are skills you can learn and not just some ideals) and you can just flip around going along with whichever ones interest you. 

Here are some excerpts from the book:

And, of course, there is my favourite section:

Above:

"With a well-managed mutation program and a little luck from Mother Nature, you might be able to kickstart your personal genetic mutation. The results won't be perfect--you'll have to take the adaptations you get--but on an aggressive regimen of morning irradiation and afternoon mutagen shakes, you're sure to sprout something useful sooner or later." (The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook) 

Of course, some of Rothschild's ideas (all from the "If All Else Fails" section) are not actually meant as real advice but the rest of the skills he suggests you learn are, indeed, important and realistic steps to take in saving the planet. 

Yes, the "Put on a Sweater" part may seem silly but really, how many people do you know that are determined to blast the heat in their house (in Canada!) in the middle of January just so they can dress like they are living in Bermuda? Because I can give you a list!

So, yes, its a humorous, somewhat satirical read but I found that The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook was actually inspiring. In fact, I think it was the most climate-change relatedly inspiring thing to happen since Al Gore (...). Maybe it is the author's way of NOT talking in riddles and not talking down to the reader or maybe its that the book is like "polluters anonymous"--an accepting club for all of us earth sinners. A welcoming place to confess, learn, fix and move on.

Point is, books like these and people like this are what I think we need to get the masses moving towards actually protecting the earth. It's not about how much you do being compared with how much your neighbour does, nor is it about being hopeless in the face of "inevitable" self-destruction. 

Nope. It's about doing whatever you can, whenever you can and doing it at your own pace...but certainly doing it! Because if we don't, and all else fails...we might just have to grovel later and scramble to find other ways to survive.

May the best person win....kidding!

--Sabbie

I Love My Formaldehyde???

Hi there,

So nice to see you again! And welcome! How have you been? That's nice...care for a drink?

So what will it be?

How about a nice steaming mug of siloxane? Or a refreshing pitcher of cocamide?

Whaat? You mean to tell me you have NEVER heard of those two? Well!...Neither have I! But, apparently, we have both probably ingested it sometime over our lovely little lives! Mmmmm....

Okay, so there is a LOT of hullabaloo surrounding Green cosmetics and it can get annoying, I admit, to be repeatedly told that you applying your favourite lipstick is like you being dumped in a pond of cancer...or something. My point is, I was getting tired of hearing again and again how everything I use is trying to kill me and how I should shell out twice or thrice the money to pay for some sparkling new Green products that won't destroy my soul (just my wallet...) Hm, tempting...But then there were also a bunch of "authorities"telling us that many of these "organic" and "natural" products were fake!

It got confusing and old, so I decided, like many people, to just let it be. I would continue to buy whatever I liked because I liked it. And after all, look around! Everyone else is using the same products and they aren't all wheezing out chemicals through their eyeballs! My grandmother used whatever she wanted and she's still alive after almost ninety years! Why should I be the sucker to pay more for products when I really don't need to?!

Well, then came into my life this lovely little book:

Pretty, isn't it? Well, it scared the living daylights outta me!

And it changed my mind for the better: I have now made some serious efforts to get safer products. I didn't run out to Whole Foods and buy a sack of organic apples but I did start with lip balm and lipstick. I stopped using all those conventional, drugstore products because, the truth it, they ARE harmful. And, I decided, doubly so, because you put lipstick RIGHT onto you MOUTH. And we have all heard how much lipstick women ingest all the time, right?

So, anyways, a couple of weeks ago, my Sustainable Practices professor showed us a video called The Story of Stuff. It was good and I guess I would recommend it to everyone, but it can get a bit repetitive for some. What I really recommend you watch (right now!) is The Story of Cosmetics. That one was a real eye opener and got me thinking...

Ok, let's just establish that pretty much all the products you apply to yourself are treacherous,  poisonous, murderous fiends. Got that? Great!

According to the video, companies insist that the doses of harmful chemicals in their products (all very popular products that you and I have used!) are low enough to be harmless...Right! I remember reading this amazing book called Can You Get Hooked On Lip Balm? (by the way, yes, you can get hooked on lip balm!) and feeling that maybe I had become overly afraid of chemicals simply because I'd inadvertently jumped on the Green bandwagon. Hm, not so.

Think about it. According to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database, we use triclosan to wash our hands (Dial soaps), oxybenzone to melt polish off our nails (Sally Hansen Extra Strength Extra Fast Nail Polish Remover with Vitamin E) , methylisothiazolinone to wash our hair (Herbal Essences Tousle Me Softly Shampoo), we smooth tocopheryl acetate on our mouths (L'Oreal Colour Riche Lipstick in Blazing Lava), brush quaternium onto our lashes (Maybelline Great Lash Mascara), smear octinoxate under our arms (Secret Antiperspirant) and so and so on!

We use hundreds of products in our household all year long! Every one of us in North America! Then, after realizing this, I applied basic math skills to realize that, hey! These products add up, these toxins add up! Right in our bodies.

So doesn't that mean that those "harmless" doses of harmful chemicals are actually harmful after all! When one dose of formaldehyde becomes two, three, ten doses, well...yikes!

Really, think about it, is there really a safe dose of, say, LEAD? No! Of course not! Then why, according to CTV, does a product like Maybelline's Color Sensation in Pink Petal contain 7.19 ppm of lead (in case your wondering, that is NOT a good number)! I say, there simply can't be a safe dose of toxic chemicals!

So, next time you think of indulging in a "high-quality", prestigious $24 tube of Dior Addict lipstick, be aware that tests showed it contains actual lead in it. Come on! This isn't Ancient China, is it? Do you think there is a safe dose of lead? No, really, do you think you should go and ingest some lead?

Here,

Indulge yourself, I'll wait...

Really, would you eat that? I didn't think so. So why would you put it right on your mouth so it can be absorbed into your bloodstream and trickle into all your food and drink, and every time you smack your lips, you can bet that you ingested some lead...why? Why would anyone do that?

If cosmetics companies were this clear on those nasty ingredients that they put in our cosmetics, then maybe we'd stop buying them. Then maybe the companies would realize that, hmmm, maybe they ought to stop trying to kill us off via their shampoos, lipsticks, deodorants, baby lotions, hand soaps, hair gels, etc, etc...

So, I suggest you check out the amazing Skin Deep database (click that link and you just might save your life!) and search your favourite products that you apply everyday and then, maybe, we can all work on reducing the number of chemical cocktails we consume all day, everyday!

Cheers,

Sabbie

Shocking Revelations and Confusing Monstrosities

Hi there! 

And so begins a blog solely dedicated to a little class known as Sustainable Practices. Well, welcome and stay if you dare. You might find that you care...(eek, sorry! I couldn't stop myself).

Alright, so being part of the twentieth century means being surrounded by talk of, well, "the climate", "the environment", "the poor Mother Earth", "rising sea levels", "melting glaciers", "species on the brink of extinction", etc...

In no way would I ever dismiss these very REAL concerns but...well, it can be hard knowing what to believe. And even harder to figure out what it all means for YOU.

http://www.climatechangefacts.info/ClimateChangeImages/PolarBearsCooking.gif

Pretty sure that's not happening up north...

I remember being INTRODUCED to climate change and global warming and...all of that! I was in grade four and it was my first real Big Girl Project (you know, one with real Research and stuff). I did a report on endangered Giant Pandas and it was my first time realizing that animals can actually RUN OUT!

And then came middle school where, suddenly, we (the kids of today) were shocked to tears when our teachers drilled into us:

-All the animals, bugs, grass and clouds are going to DIE.
-The earth is going to burst into flames.
-We are all going to die. Horribly.
-And it is AAALLL our fault.

Hm, I guess I went into hippie mode and for a few years I was all Greenpeace this, PETA that, recycle everything, and oh, hey, did you watch that Al Gore documentary?

Ah, Al Gore...

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/al-gore-cccp-carbon-credit-card-global-warming.jpg

Well, thank you Al! You turned me from a fan girl to a...lost... lost soul. Suddenly, it seemed saying the word "global w#@ming" was silly and paranoid. Everyone seemed to be shrugging it off as a hoax.

Ever since then, the global warming scene sorta cooled down for us all (by all, I mean my peers and the people that surround me) and people seemed to become a bit skeptical of what they really believed. That's when it all got so confusing for me that I actually stopped caring and trying to keep up with it all. 

Me.  My image as a treehugger quickly morphed into one of indifference.

Meh. All that aside, what I am trying to say (and I expect many can relate to this) is that I want a better world. I want to know what is going on and if something is wrong. I want to do something.

But what I want most of all? I want to know what is for real and what isn't. Who do I believe? Why? 

It is so hard to get the information I want! And it is even harder--impossibly so--to get it all...STRAIGHT!

There is so much mumbo jumbo, it seems, that it is hard to sift through all of that and get cold, hard facts. 

http://tcktcktck.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/confused-climate-guy-600.jpg

Ugh. I don't know when, or even if, that confusing mess is ever going to change, but here I am trying to make sense of it all. And exploring how it connects to interior design. And how to do it all Fuchsia style!

Happy recycling,

Sabbie

P.S. I never stopped recycling. Never!