Over the winter our little cabin kind of turned into more of a storage space than a home. We brought R’s inversion table for his back out from storage so the weather wouldn’t compromise it, and it sat in our living room (ha, I say that like we have different “rooms”), for months. And yes, he definitely used it, but it takes up a lot of precious space. So now that the weather is warmer, we moved it into the greenhouse, and at the same time, tackled a bunch of indoor storage projects.

We have now built a bench:

A dresser:

A duck ramp:

And a little project I’ve been wanting to do since way back when we were still in Utah: the tearing apart of the ottoman!

“I like boxes. Meow.”

(Obviously all of these projects have the added benefit of entertaining the cat as well.)

The ottoman has been this subject of contention at times. It’s big and takes up a lot of space. And it’s totally useless except for the fact you can sit on it. So I had this idea, like a year ago, to cut it open and build a box inside of it to store stuff. And last week we made that dream a reality! I put some random stuff in it at first, but now I’ve changed it and it stores ALL of our camping gear. Tents, sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, hiking pack. Just that opened up so much space in our storage loft, that we were able to get a bunch of boxes out of our storage space in town. And we don’t feel cluttered! There’s still quite a bit of space in the storage loft; I went through 3 boxes of books (thrift store’d a whole box, sent some as gifts, and the rest fit in our already-up shelving) and most of our junk is out of our storage space in town (a few big things are left). Oh does it feel good to get rid of stuff. You should try it. Spring cleaning!

Before.

After!

The bench has provided not only more sitting space for when we have visitors, but also more storage. You literally CAN NOT have too much storage in a tiny house. The dresser serves the same purpose, now instead of random piles of clothing upstairs, there’s actually a place to put them. Our sleeping loft looks, and feels, more and more like a bedroom now.

Stretch those wings!

The duck ramp was this kind of small random project. I had some bird mat material that had just been sitting around and I want things to have a purpose! So we added a piece of plywood as a ramp to the roof of her duck house, I attached bird mat to all of it, and we’ve now increased her square footage! Also, the way the sun comes up in the morning, she can get on top of her house and get into the sun earlier in the day. It’s pretty adorable to look out the window and see her chilling in the sun on top of her house, preening her feathers and soaking up the warmth.

Getting more and more comfy here at the ranch!