PORCH PONDERINGS

A Cluttered Room

Dec 3. National Roof Over Your Head Day!
Tell us about the favorite room in your home.

I guess my favorite ‘room’ is my home. I love my entire home. It is small, so every room is my favorite. We’ve been remodeling this small place to more reflect the period it was built, the turn of the 20th century. The previous owner tried hard to make the place more modern, so we’ve been undoing what she did. Not everything, mind you, just the woodwork and putting in decent windows. That type of renovation.

Virginia Woolf had a theory that women needed a ‘room of their own’. She wrote an essay with that title arguing that women needed a place of their own, financial freedom and the ability to be their own person. It was written in 1929, an era when women were still considered under the thumb, so to speak, of the men in their lives.

Per the Internet: “Woolf argues that a woman needs financial freedom so as to be able to control her own space and life—to be unhindered by interruptions and sacrifices—in order to gain intellectual freedom and therefore be able to write.”

I think of the current rage of ‘She Sheds’. Those seem like an off-shoot of this idea. Space for women just to be themselves. If men can have those ‘man caves’, why not ‘She Sheds’!

That reflects the current trend of everyone having their own private spaces in their homes. Huge homes with huge rooms, huge closets, every one has their own bathroom, everyone has another ‘play’ space. Ever watch those home improvement shows? Some of the closets are larger than my current bedroom.

When I watch those shows, my first thought is “Who is cleaning all those bathrooms and bedrooms?” But then I thought, well, if they can afford those huge houses, then they can afford house cleaners.

I grew up sharing a very small bedroom with my sister. There were five people in my family and we had one small bathroom. That was an adventure. It took some scheduling to make sure everyone got to school and work on time. But somehow we made it work.

But one of the things you learn living in a small house is how to get along with each other. You are stuck with each other. You have to make it work.

That reminds me of when hubby and I lived full-time in our 30 foot RV. We had only known each other about 3 years, weren’t yet married. We traveled for a few years, working at some jobs, and ended up in Montana. You find out soon how to get along with your partner in a tiny space. You live on top of each other, you work next to each other, you are together 24 hours a day. Culture shock for us both.

So, my favorite room? My brain.