I’m delighted to announce I’ve become a regular contributor to the design website, Houzz.com. Houzz was my number one resource while we were rebuilding.
I’m working on a series about minimalism and decluttering, which will amuse long time readers who know how hard home keeping has been for me. My definition of minimalism is having what you love, but not a bit more than what you can maintain. If you haven’t read my first post yet, I’d love for you to check it out below:
Years ago, when my children were little and our home was awash in toys, laundry and papers—to name the top three categories of stuff I found overwhelming— from time to time, when I was feeling exhausted and entirely beleaguered, I would imagine our house burning down. I really only wanted to lose the laundry room, the playroom, a closet or two and several cupboards, but I knew with fire you can’t be so choosy and I found the idea of a cleanly wiped slate intoxicating.
Of course I was imagining the absolute best house fire, where all the mess was (poof!) gone and insurance immediately handed us a big, fat check to start over soberly and responsibly, without Legos and stuffed animals….
To read the rest, please check out my article on Houzz.com.
As always, thank you.
Hi Alison,
My name is Jess, I am a Blogger from Australia and an avid reader of the fabulous Houzz website. I received a link to your article all about Minimalism and the “Minimalist Mentality” last week via my “Houzz Weekly Update” email. I clicked through and I found your story incredibly fascinating, moving, inspiring, so well-written and somewhat captivating. It inspired me to undertake a number of my own sorting, de-cluttering and organising projects, and I wrote a blog post about tossing out my huge magazine collection, which I was inspired to do after reading your story. I have also written another post directly relating to your article on Houzz with a few links to your wonderful Blog that I have stumbled accross. Hope this is OK.
I haven’t had the chance to read any of your Blog posts as yet, but look so forward to sitting down with my iPad after work tonight to read all about your journey.
You can check out my blog and my recent posts (inspired by you!) at http://www.cocoandarchie.blogspot.com
Thanks again for sharing your incredibly brave life.
All the Best!
Jess
Hi Alison,
I found your blog through your Houzz article. I could not believe it when I read that you lost your home to a fire. We did too!
Our children and I were sleeping. My husband {a senior pastor at the time was away on a prayer retreat}. By God’s miraculous grace all our kids and I were able to get out and we had about a minute to spare because the house kind of combusted as we turned to look at it. We were living in Durango, CO at the time and it was 15 degrees out! I have not read about many others who have lost their home to a fire so your words just touched something deep in me. It was an extremely difficult season. Thank you.
I am a blogger, also, writing mostly about the orphan, adoption and large families {we have 12 treasures – 9 adopted from around the world.} Living simply {decluttering} is close to my heart and years ago I named my blog appropriately: A Place Called Simplicity
Anyway, thank you. I love Houzz as we are in the midst of mini-remodeling our home that we just bought in Phoenix. Since we have so much in common, I had to write and tell you personally. Thank you and bless you!! ~Linny S.
PS The box of old letters between you and your husband made me smile. I found our old letters years ago. ugh.
Hi Jess, Thank you so much for posting about my article. I sooo get the magazine collections. When I was thinking about rebuilding one of my first thoughts was, “I’m set; I’ve been collecting images for years!” Yeah, they all burned. : ) Houzz came to the rescue and was huge in helping me figure out the look we wanted and convey that to the architect and builder.
Thank you again!
Linny, that “Ugh.” said it all.
Isn’t it astonishing how fast fire moves? How long ago was your fire? I so understand “extremely difficult season.” The trauma of the fire and losing everything is just the beginning isn’t it? It’s a peculiar and arduous experience.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I’ll check out your blog.
Awww, you left me a comment. Our fire was January 2009.
We had been striving to living simply for many years. Eighteen months prior to the fire, we had been in the midst of a bringing home another treasure so we had had a yard sale and sold every.single.thing we could to help fund him coming home. This was huge for me, as I was so wrought with “Sentimental Attachment Disorder” {haha, just made that up!}. But I prayed and said, “This is all just stuff. I want that little guy home!” I hung on to only a very few most treasured possessions.
The interesting thing was that, less than 18 months after that yard sale, we lost all those few most treasured possessions.
I still ponder that from time to time.
Anyway, less than four weeks before our fire I had landed with yet two more treasures, this time from Uganda and so their bonding and true attachment was my top priority, yet we had to sift through the mess…ugh. ugh. ugh. We rebuilt on almost the same place the house had been – we couldn’t wait to be “settled” and have life normal.
The church we pastored graciously allowed my husband a few weeks off, as I was very “fragile”, having run with the kids for our lives. Such a nightmare.
I look back on that season and know that it was ONLY God’s amazing grace and strength that saw us through. I am so grateful to be a few years out, living in another city, with an entirely different perspective on earthly ‘things’. I still miss my photo albums tremendously.
Hi, Alison,
I, too, read the Houzz article about “decluttering” and found just the motivation I needed! After 30 years of collecting and living in the same house, I needed inspiration and rationale – a kick in the butt!
Naturally I clicked the link to your blog, and was moved by your story of living through a devastating house fire. My mother lived through such a fire when she was a young teenager living in the family ranch house, and because every “treasure” perished, she learned at a young age to not falsely value possessions. To this day at the age of nearly 91, she still follows the rules the fire taught her, and her memories are rich still. Positive strength!
Thank you for telling me about your mother. After our fire I wondered how it would affect my children—in many ways—but especially regarding their possessions. Each of them seems to hold less tightly to things. I’m praying they know that we are home for each other.