“Home is the nicest word there is.”
~Laura Ingalls Wilder
Living out of town would seem to offer the most conventional solution to the problem of how to live more simply. For one thing, you are more likely to be able to grow your own food and indulge in some effective foraging; country living is also more likely to provide you with those two blessed additions to life, ‘peace and quiet’. However, country living may give you some additional problems such as transport (especially if you have a job some distance away), isolation and greater energy costs. Towns and cities can provide a suitable home for those who wish to live simply, especially if your home has sufficient garden area to grow food or access to an allotment or shared growing space.
As far as the home goes, the most important thing is peace. Peace does not just mean lack of noise; it means lack of stress, lack of conflict and freedom to enjoy what you are doing. All of these things can be worked towards, but let’s start with noise. If you have children in your family, they will create some noise; this is how it should be. Children make some reasonable noise as they enjoy themselves and, unless it is at some antisocial time of night, or early morning when they might disturb neighbours, let a reasonable degree of noise alone. However, you may be producing other noise which is layered on top of natural family noise and may encourage everyone to raise their voices. Sometimes people are actually eating together with television and washing machine and dishwasher all noising away in the same room!
You could try to work for the bulk of your day without music, without radio and especially without television. Use these things when you ‘want’ to use them, but avoid using them as background noise; in fact avoid using anything as background noise. Try to make your home a place of simple quiet. It is sad that so many people use devices like radio and television to cover up the noise from other peoples' electronic entertainment, and some even use noise to stop themselves thinking! You might like to consider moving radios and televisions out of rooms used for eating and sleeping in or getting rid of them and doing without them altogether. Avoid using washing machines and dishwashers when the family is gathered together; to make it a more peaceful time all-round. Most devices have timers and you can easily arrange for the noise to be happening when you are out of the house.
If you need personal time without noise and distraction and find it difficult to establish, then do try to get up early in the morning before others can disturb you. For many, it is the only way. Noisy neighbours are a menace, and you may well want to consider moving house if the problem is not solvable by negotiation.
Above all, your home should be as stress-free as possible. Do your personal best to avoid arguing and shouting at children or partners. The home is a very important place where you and your family live together, so every effort must be taken to find ways around problems that do not involve direct, and energy sapping conflict .The Hebrew word ‘Shalom’ is often translated simply as ‘peace’ but it does mean more, including the concepts completeness, prosperity, and welfare; use the word often in your home and try hard to work towards its full meaning.
"If you have an important decision to make, or you find yourself in circumstances where you know not what is best to do or answer, spend at least one night in meditation. You will not be sorry."
Amish ~ Rules of a Godly Life
Whether you rent your home or buy, you have some choice in where you live. For most people the restricting factor is money. Whatever your income, think carefully about where you want to live and what you want to do with your life that involves the home. Never buy as an investment. We live in uncertain times and houses are for living in, not for trading. However, if you like your home and you like your area, chances are you won’t have any problems when the property eventually goes back on the market. If your home is too big then downsize; if your home is too far from your work, then consider moving closer; if you want to live in the country then do it! Where there is a will there is a way. It may involve other deep life changes, but it will be worth it! If none of these solutions are acceptable then you will have to make the most of your current situations, whatever the drawbacks.
Consider carefully how rooms are allocated within your house; most of us inherit room use from the people who lived there before, but you can be fairly radical in what you do. For instance, if you have three children in three bedrooms, why not look at two of them sharing and the third room being changed into a study area which they can all take advantage of? Look at how you and your family spend their time and make sure the usage of rooms matches this. If you have an underused room, consider changing its function to something more useful, and above all, don’t fix and fit things that don’t need fixing and fitting, free standing furniture is much more adaptable to new positions and even new functions. You can move it around as circumstances change.
“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
~ Maya Angelou
(C) Ray Lovegrove 2015 2022
