Come tour our minimalist house for our family! We live in a sweet, bright little cottage in rural New Zealand. Our family of five (almost six) is really happy in this home. Although our space is limited (particularly coming from our native American paradigm), we believe small spaces can be a big blessing, and we feel the space has cultivated intentional relationships in our home.
If you’re looking at downsizing with your family, or you are just seeking inspiration for how to set up a small space, I hope this post is helpful for you!
I’ve broken down our home by each room and tried to explain how we make each room function for us. Since we homeschool and I stay home with the kiddos, we spend a LOT of time in this space. I truly believe that home should be a safe haven for the whole family.
And I have loved the journey of fine-tuning our space to best accommodate our family’s needs. My biggest encouragement is to disregard external expectations of what a home should be, and let your own individual family and their needs guide your curation of your home.
Let me know in the comments below if there is anything that would be helpful for you to see a future post on! Happy home making.
The Living/Common Space:
This is the living, dining, entry, play area of the house. It’s light and bright and we try to maximize as much open space as we can. This post walks you through each corner and wall of the room.
The Kitchen + Household Command Station + Homeschool Hub:
Our kitchen is an efficiently designed, compact little space which works hard for our family! We do a lot of homeschooling at the kitchen counter, and I spend the majority of my time in this room.
The Bathroom + Utility Room:
Our (only) bathroom is a high traffic, small space. We try to keep it streamlined and as minimal as possible. It has a toilet, a shower, a washing machine, and a sink, along with some very useful shelves.
The Primary Bedroom:
The Primary Bedroom in our (rented) cottage is full of creative storage solutions that make our life efficient and organized. I try to keep the color palette soft and simple, since there is a lot of open shelves that could become distracting. The result is that my husband’s and my bedroom serves as both a restful place to relax as well as a place to focus and work during certain times of the day or week.
The Kid’s Shared Bedroom:
Our three children (currently ages 6, almost 4, and 20 months) share a small bedroom. We work to keep it tidy, and clutter and toys to a minimum. Although there are challenges to having three small kids in one bedroom, it works for our family, and I think we all benefit greatly from the intentionality we put in to this system thriving.
The Sleepout (A Bonus/Guest Room/Multi-purpose Work Room):
Our sleepout (detached cabin) off the side of our deck is a bonus room that works as a “flexible space.” It’s used for storage, a guest room, and an office. We use it a LOT, and having it as an option to meet a variety of needs helps us live in a small space comfortably.
Hey Dani, I have really enjoyed your home tour posts. Thanks for sharing in so much detail! Although I have fewer kids and more square feet than you, my family also lives in a small space. I’ve loved the strategic (and perpetual) challenge of making our home beautiful and functional for the needs of the season. It’s fun to see how others do that too and glean some new ideas. Thanks again!
Hi Erin! I’m so glad you found the house tour posts. Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it! They were a lot of fun to put together, and certainly helped me articulate some of my priorities. Keeping the house the way that I want it to be is certainly an ongoing process, but it’s definitely one that brings me joy! Best of luck as you work with what you’ve got to make it what you want!