6 ML | March /April 2014

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MLfroM the editor

For the past six years, my husband and i lived in a 3,000-square-foot house. When we bought it, we didn’t have enough furniture to fill the rooms, and had closets and cupboards to spare. So we bought a dining set, sofas, coffee tables and consoles, until each room looked well-furnished and welcoming. and as the years passed, the drawers began to overflow, and a collection of old chairs, computers, bedspreads and suitcases began to accumulate in the basement.

on weekends, i’d wander through the house, looking in drawers and climbing through the crawlspace, trying to figure out what all this stuff was. it felt oppressive and i wanted it out.

So one day we found a perfect little bungalow on a street lined with old silver maples, put our house on the market the very next afternoon, and soon found ourselves confronted with a pile of boxes and our 3,000 square feet of stuff—and only 1,800 square feet in which to put it.

The process of paring down our belongings was painful for me. (I’ll go to great lengths to find a creative use for an old sock rather than throw it away.) We gave up the guest bedroom, my home office and our exercise room. We gave away an entire kitchen’s worth of dishes, glassware and cutlery, a second refrigerator, a closet full of clothing and a parking spot for our second car. as much as i had wanted the change, i struggled with making it.

it’s not always rosy now either. i grumble when i have to empty out an entire drawer in our new, smaller kitchen to get to the baking sheets buried at the bottom, and i’ve caught myself gazing long-ingly at my neighbor’s two-car garage. but it also feels really great to live in just the spaces we need, and to use the good dishes and our favorite towels because that’s all we have. in fact, i’ve found it liberating to live comfortably and happily among some constraints.

that’s the magic of the homes featured in this issue, too. they may be small, but the essentials are all there—and they’re smartly designed, comfortable, beautiful and even luxurious. i hope you enjoy them.

christine deorio editor in chiefcdeorio@mountainliving.com

my small- space story