Family of 9 Minimal Home Tour

foreign [Music] I'm standing on the front porch of our home we have a family of nine almost ten and one of the ways that I have been able to stay on top of this home is minimizing more and more over the years really becoming familiar with what can go so that in every situation I can't have a mess that can get Beyond me it's my number one way for staying on top of the housework here so I want to take you on a tour I'm going to share with you some spaces I don't usually share like inside drawers and closets and just show you how we stay organized with seven kids what that looks like what we could improve on and what my habits are that have gotten here so let's go in first space I'm going to take you in is the kitchen we're gonna go into the kids room the living room all of that we live in a 20 Hebrew Foods I believe it's 2400 square foot home I don't know if that counts the mud room but anyways I'm going to take you on all of it let's start here in the office slash Pantry area this is probably one of the least minimalist spots and you know minimalism really I don't know if I could possibly be defined as a minimalist in any way what I really mean is getting rid of everything in this house that doesn't serve a purpose and just keeping it as lean as possible while still working for our family there is definitely some stuff that could still go but I do feel we have it at a pretty good place and this will depend family to family on the capacity so whatever we had less kids or if you have kids who are more naturally organized that is definitely a thing then you probably can stand to have more things without feeling like you are constantly cleaning up whereas if it's a struggle for your family and you feel like just staying on top of keeping the house tidy is a constant thing and you just can never go on top of it that's when you know that you have too much stuff your home does not have to be that way no matter how many kids you have I'm truly convinced of that just over the last several years basically on how it used to feel to keep this place clean it in order and then how it feels now after implementing some of these habits it makes me know that it just doesn't actually have to be that way even if you have a large family so this side here I have kids games these are not super organized again there are probably some that could go but this feels manageable I don't feel like I'm constantly cleaning up games now if I ever do feel like I'm constantly cleaning up games that's when I know that a lot of these have to go this top cabinet is mostly empty the top shelf has nothing on it the bottom shelf has one basket it has kids headphones and tablets that we don't let them have last time we used the tablet and headphones that are in there is when we are going on our trip to Hawaii and so we had a long airplane ride but I like to keep that pretty much out of reach I don't have any plans to put anything in that top one and that's okay I don't have to fill up every space this middle section here is office so computers cameras various things that go with my business shipping supplies packing tape envelopes stamps all that kind of stuff it doesn't look super organized right now and there are a few things that need to go off the bottom but at least I know what's in there foreign bottom is stuff that's charging always a robot vacuum and so it's always a little bit of a mess next to that that's pretty much it it's it's open other than that bottom on this side is two printers paper and extra ink okay the far cabinet here I have flour sugar various baking items I have baking dishes some of my larger ones I don't get into a ton this makes sense because it's close to the kitchen and so it's more Pantry space and then I also reclaimed the top shelf for cake decorating stuff we have muffin liners up there so just that kind of stuff that like I could hardly reach it arguably that could probably go if I was a true minimalist but the great thing about it is kids can't get into it and get it out so it doesn't really cause much harm the problem is whenever you have a lot of things that a lot of people get a hold of and then having to constantly Shuffle things back to where they belong all right I'm taking a break for my home tour to tell you about today's video sponsor Birch living Birch is a natural and organic mattress company it's very important to me I started doing some research on this several years ago to make the space where me and my family sleeps one that doesn't have off-gassing which happens in the conventional manufacturing of mattress and Mattress products because we spend so much time of our lives asleep for adults that's a third of Our Lives for babies and kids that's even more and Birch is a company that I know I can trust with the materials that they have in their mattresses we have three in our home queen size that is the Lux and then and in the Boys Room two of the regular Birch mattresses for their twin size beds unlike synthetic mattresses the wool news mattresses make it hypoallergenic it's allergen and mildew resistant I know that the mattress I'm sleeping on is made with natural and organic material Source straight from nature which are both comfortable and durable it's free from polyurethane Foams doesn't release dangerous emissions in the air and best of all super comfortable now the Luxe mattress is comprised of eight different layers of organic cashmere organic wool organic cotton and 100 natural latex the best part about all of this is birch delivers mattresses right to your door for free in the U.S it comes rolled up in a box and it's super easy to set up Birch offers a 100 night sleep trial and a 25-year warranty so you can be confident that you are getting the most comfortable mattress that will last you for a really long time I love my Birch mattress and I think you would too if you are looking for a new bed check out Birch living they are offering farmhouse on Boon viewers 20 off plus two free Eco rest pillows with my link birchliving.com forward slash Farmhouse it'll also be linked in the description box below this here this cabinet is where we keep spices glasses to drink out of I also keep supplements that I'm currently taking in here in a basket and then in the bottom area I have more pots and pans which is really nice because it's really close to the stove on the top I have a picnic basket that I keep additional supplements or medicines that we don't use often some first State stuff up there as well obviously this cabinet there's a lot in it that could go harder for me to get rid of things like plates because for my job I do a lot of food photography and so there are random things in here that I wouldn't otherwise keep and then I have these drawers here next to the stove the top one just has various kitchen utensils that I have potholders foil parchment that kind of thing Ziploc I use these Non-Stop and I'm glad they're next to the stove then I keep bowls strainers and funnels down here all things I use all the time with a lot of these drawers in here my goal is that everything fits without having to shuffle it I recently got rid of a whole bunch of Bowls because I couldn't fit things in it anymore that to me is when something becomes a problem and so I just get it down to the bare necessities right to keep cleaning products in here and then this drawer is a mess but we don't really fold it's just all of our stuff to wash and dry dishes and then we also throw water bottles in here then we have silverware cup measures my baking drawer and our Pyrex drawer this is where I store grains coconut oil bulk honey and then we have the pantry which I've shown on my channel thousands of times not really thousands but a lot I have my mannequin baskets for sourdough milk jars because we have a dairy cow a little bit of food storage which Luke and I got to thinking these freeze-dried eggs should probably be stored in that top cabinet above the games Behind These doors we have our espresso machine food stocked up in here and then these bottom cabinet doors here have some of my lesser used appliances like ice cream maker blender the things that I use but not every single day I put things back like my instant pot it's currently out for making yogurt but I will put that back I've done quite a bit of eliminating in the pantry so like for example I had a bread maker that I used to develop a sourdough bread machine bread recipe but then after showing people how to do that after writing the recipe I found that in for me personally I would rather use my vanity baskets and Dutch oven so I gave that to my sister and she absolutely loves making bread in the bread machine so I'm constantly reevaluating what goes in there the goal is that everything that I have fits down there I don't want anything in the basement I don't want anything in a super high hard to reach cabinets unless I plan to use it very rarely but these things that I constantly swap out on the countertop to use on a regular basis like the instant pot the blender the toaster I keep there all right let's head out of the kitchen and move into the main level bathroom this bathroom has a lot of functions it is a laundry room it has a tub it's the guest bathroom and it's the bathroom that everyone in this house uses most often so I have to keep things pretty minimal so it doesn't get out of control this is also where I always do my hair my makeup now this vanity was converted from an antique dresser and the top doesn't have any storage because it's a sink base but then we converted the bottom two drawers to have a lot of storage it really helped when I started putting organizers in there so I just have it by hair stuff teeth stuff like extra toothpaste a spot with body stuff face stuff deodorant and essential oils so that's highly organized and it actually works pretty well for us now this closet here we just have diapers that's there's a whole basket of diapers and wipes because we use this washer as a changing table that was Luke's idea and it works great and then we have cow rags in a basket which that just means all the rags that we designate for cleaning the cow before milking and then I have a basket of towels that is actually overflowing so that should get reduced down but what happens in our house is people don't really bring towels to the other bathrooms until they're about to go take a shower or Bath And so there's very few towels in the other bathrooms which we have four total and they kind of just all get housed here so that's just an issue of getting them shuffled throughout that we don't usually do because they come out of the laundry they go in here and I have a few extra laundry products stored up here like extra bleach OxiClean extra detergent and then extra shampoo and conditioner because this is where I wash my hair right over here in this bathtub and I keep shampoo and conditioner on the windowsill since this is also Luke's main bathroom he keeps stuff in those baskets I'm not going to show you all of that it's like his contact stuff razors those are his baskets actually one of them is light bulbs kind of random but it's just the spot we've always kept light bulbs so one basket's light bulbs the others are Luke's stuff let's talk about kid spaces this is where the most dramatic difference has happened for me I remember whenever I was first a mom I had one little girl and then two little girls and we had all the toys whether it was from thrift shops or Christmas or the baby shower once those two little girls could start getting toys out for themselves I found that I was spending a half hour an hour tidying every single day at least and as the years of motherhood ticked by I noticed that the kids didn't really do a whole lot of meaningful play with most of their toys they actually just got them out and they would lose pieces and then I would stress myself out over trying to match back up all the pieces so if you have a toy that has seven eight pieces to it getting those all back together was something I constantly did and then I noticed the child wasn't even really playing with it so I started to think why on Earth am I spending all of my time stressing about a toy that they don't even care about and that's where I've landed and so I do have these spaces very very minimal and I know for some of you you're going to think too minimal but those of you who have a lot of kids and you feel like it's just constant chaos and mess I'm here to tell you that this makes all the difference so in these rooms we have Legos that's one thing the kids meaningfully interact with what I love about Legos is you can lose a Lego or two and the whole set's not ruined so it's not one of those toys where you spend all of this time stressing out having all the pieces because if you don't have all the pieces they can't play the toy anymore Legos and duplos aren't that way and my kids can play with them for hours everybody's personality is different so this might not be the case for you maybe your kids don't love Legos but there's something else with the same parameters like you don't have to keep every last piece in order for it to be useful they actually engage with the toy they use their imagination with it that is what happens with Legos I have all of my boys are interested in Legos but I have my oldest boy he doesn't even necessarily need the sets he just comes up with robots and vehicles and all kinds of scenes with these Legos so I won't part with them even though there are a lot of pieces we love Legos because they actually use them I'm not against having toys and cleaning up after my kids and teaching them to clean up after themselves I just only want to keep it if they actually play with it in a meaningful way and that is the case with Legos I also have a sewing machine in this room because that same sign he loves to sew some of my kids hardly play with toys at all I have three more boys in this area here who don't play with any of these things very often it's mostly just the one who does they spend most of their time outside as long as it's not extremely cold and the main benefit to them is these rooms are really easy to keep clean we have two beds in each room two quilts a rug and then just a few toys a bookshelf because we do like to read books and that's another place where in some ways I feel like we could eliminate the thing with the books is if you cannot drive yourself crazy with wanting to keep them perfectly organized and you can just say hey go put away all your books and they're on the Shelf maybe not in the perfect way or by category if you can get over that then books are actually really easy to have because the kids can clean them up so easy it's very straightforward I do always say finds out you know that kind of instruction but even if not if they're just on the bookshelves the room feels clean to me now if that ever becomes an issue where I feel like I'm cleaning up books too often I've toyed around with the idea of minimizing on that a bit but it is really nice to have a collection of books another thing that we're very minimal about in our home is Kid Clothing each kid has definitely less than 10 outfits per kid I can fit each child's wardrobe except the girls which they can manage things completely on their own because they're older in one one drawer per kid or in a lot of cases I have one large drawer for their clothes and then one small drawer for jammies and undies per kid so there aren't Endless Options I switch clothes out seasonally so that way a child can't really grab something that is the wrong thing for them to grab I try to make it to where the outfits will work for most occasions this is how we stay on top of laundry too I never have an overwhelming mountain of laundry and that's just because we don't have enough clothes for that to happen which of course if you're a once a week laundry person that wouldn't work for me we do laundry every day and it's just a whole lot easier to majorly minimize the clothes we don't have closets here in this house and so having just a small drawer or a basket per kit works great for us the other boy space has even less as far as toys go than the other one that's just because of how it's used the boys who sleep here mostly like to play outside and with other things it just has a rug a couple couches because there's a couch in here that we need to get rid of and I haven't quite figured out what I want to do with it but it's actually really nice for reading to them at night two beds and two quilts and a dresser it's very easy to vacuum clean the floors because there's just not much clutter I brought this trunk from downstairs it used to serve as our coffee table I brought it up here but again it's not filled with anything because at the moment I am good with having storage options that aren't currently utilized I know that there'll be something we'll want to put in there but at the moment that's just not how this room needs to function all we have in this closet is cat food cat litter litter bags couple towels cleaning supplies some extra light bulbs for the lights in here then we have some empty shelves too and I'm fine with lots of empty shelves I don't want to fill everything up in this house my goal is just the least things people can get out the easier it is to clean it all back up same in the shower lots of empty shelves just the basics this entire thing is just empty the other one has two brushes and this one's just empty I was just looking at this dresser and I noticed that two drawers were all the way empty yes this is a very repaired drawer these two are empty this whole site is empty and then we have his art stuff up here and then these four have clothes in them so this kid particularly is a uniform kid he just wears the same things over and over now also remember there's clothes in the laundry for all of these kids because of the way we do our laundry system here in our house that is always the case because we have so few clothes we oftentimes put everything in the washer the dryer and then into the basket for the appropriate room the baskets that sit on the top of the dryer and a lot of times we live out of those so I would say their most worn clothes actually hardly ever make it up to the dressers so if you think how does this kid have any clothes he does they're just probably in the laundry he's wearing them then he has a few things in these four drawers here hey I don't really remember what's in this dresser so we're gonna figure this out together and these are these moments where I think do I need to declutter what's in here because whatever's in here I haven't seen in a long time actually hold on I think a lot of this is homeschool materials because whenever we do homeschool we get some kids on this desk and then one of the desks that's in the boys room here and so we do keep homeschool supplies in there I'm gonna see what all is in there okay yeah homeschool books Maps okay this has a random felt thing I have a spot for that so it's going with me colored pencil this carbon monoxide detector I think I just needed one of that in whatever it's winter I have a spot for that so that's going I do have a spot for that as well so that's now empty and then this just has an empty Arc pad and trash so I guess it just has homeschool supplies and what I like about this is I now have two empty drawers for at the start of the homeschool season to fill with fresh new things thank you okay this room here just a rug crib he has clothes in here and here this drawer I'm leaving open because I think I'm gonna move Theodore's clothes in here when the baby comes and then extra crib sheets and mattress protectors and then this room gets a bookshelf where a lot of books go not just kids books we have three bookshelves in this house and I'm not super organized about what goes where that's one of those things that I could let drive me crazy and there's times I've been tempted to like I'm gonna overhaul all of this but I've settled on if books are on the bookshelf then I don't really care where they are there's not too many places to look if you're looking for a particular book you only really have to look in three spots and I'm good with that I also keep diapers in here and then I keep our family books I've done family yearbooks and the kids love looking at them in here so they're separate from the other books this room has a toy box just a few random toys not super organized it's just whatever makes its way up here goes in this toy box whatever toys make their way all the way upstairs go here and that's the extent of it and then this last room it's managed by older kids and so for the most part I never step foot in here occasionally we do what I call a mom clean where I help them decide what they need to keep if they feel like the room is overwhelming and hard to keep clean we have big plans to redo stuff in this room one of my kids wants to add a lot of color so we have plans it's just a matter of actually executing it to make this room a lot more exciting the whole goal is that you can keep this room clean even if you only have five minutes a day or 30 minutes a week that's the goal it can't get out of control I'm gonna pick up my fines here get them all put away now this cabinet here I have reorganized many times it stays decent I haven't organized it in a while now it houses our craft supplies and then a few other random things like batteries glue tape scissors things of that nature now this little dresser in the entryway is something we added recently and we instantly filled the top drawer with wood stove things like gloves and this little broom that Luke uses to clean off the front and then a little Hatchet because he makes pieces of kindling in the winter and then he also has a weight thing there so it's just a couple of random Luke items and then the bottom drawer is empty I think it functions pretty well because it's right next to the wood stove we needed a spot to put things there maybe in the winter we'll put gloves and hats or something in the bottom drawer but we mostly use the mud room for that so I'm again good with having the options but it being empty a lot of our house looks very full and decorated which is how I like my house to look but just because there are so many Furniture pieces and art doesn't mean that I need to shove everything full of items bottom of the craft cabinet has sewing machines and extra fabric and then I keep a few toy Baskets at the base of the stairs this is for any random toy that makes its way downstairs so there are just a few collection points around the house one being in the nursery room and then one at the bottom of the steps so I can easily stash things on both levels our Farmhouse has one and only closet it is a long weird awkward closet at the bottom of the steps because it curves around and actually goes underneath the steps over the years I've tried stashing a lot of things in here and it's just so not accessible that it's not really worth doing that because I can't get to anything so it has become a closet to hang extra coats bags and purses which we don't have a ton of and then vacuum carpet cleaner Hardwood floor scrubber just cleaning stuff like that and extra diapers and then if there's a few pillows in there as well but that's the extent of it I did a video somewhat recently it was probably like six months ago no no where I cleaned the entire thing out because I realized that if something got shoved all the way to the back of that closet it might as well not exist because it's just way too hard to get to so I try to just keep things up toward the front this cabinet here is where I store extra quilts blankets in the bottom two drawers there are sheets and then I also keep sheets at the foot of my bed so that's where we keep all that extra stuff I do have two baskets for Legos downstairs or these are actually duplos the younger boys really like to play with duplo's they use them a ton I like keeping them on the main level because they make their way everywhere outside they play them on the trampoline this way I can easily put them back the top drawer of this it's kind of random but it became my currently not using electronic things like baby monitors because I still plan to use them and I have a couple of other other cameras and things that I need to set back up that I used to have set up I'm just not ready to get rid of them because I actually still really want to use them and then over here in the living room I just briefly showed you a very messy looking spot but I actually really like having it all collected together it's my kids Bible studies and Awana books that's where they go on a little shelf and hook and then I have this armoire we bought it from the previous owner of this house I keep homeschool supplies and then in the top drawer there I had some curtain accessories that go with the curtains in this room I do have a couple random things in there that I just don't know where to put but I'm not ready to get rid of I try not to keep too much of that stuff but there is always a little bit of it and then we have our downstairs bookshelf which is the top shelves of the hutch to the hutch used to be for this was actually a dining room when we first moved in that's what the original owners had it we lived with that for a couple years and we had china up there and then I thought oh no now that I'm making in the living room we probably need to get rid of it and I instead decided to make it a bookshelf and I really like it as a bookshelf in this room so that way I have a place on the bottom level to stash books again so I'm not constantly running upstairs for the things that we like to keep I like to have somewhere to put them on both levels do you spy my half finished curtain project I actually recently posted on a local Facebook page to find someone who wants to finish it up for me I feel that I was a little too ambitious thinking I could get all eight of those panels done in any time frame that is soon so I'm calling in reinforcements on my curtain project I finished three panels loved how they turned out and then lost all motivation for the rest I want to say I don't have the time but really I'm just not currently finding the time that's the honest truth okay this is our mud room this room is a work horse I've shared a ton I organize it on here we have bins for everybody's shoes we have mine and Luke's shoes on the bottom drawers we have life jackets in there and then bins at the top my daughter recently relabeled them so that there's a talbin a swimsuit bin a random other swim stuff like goggles sunscreen that kind of stuff we re-evaluate this room a lot because we use it so much that we really need it to function and there's just only so minimal you can be with a family of nine almost ten when it comes to shoes and coats and hats so we do the seasonal swap out so that way right now it's swim gear and then in the winter it is the coats the hats and all of that stuff on the very top bin the non-seasonal stuff and I also do have a bin in the basement for the non-seasonal stuff kind of random but I have a hair and makeup bin under the bed it has ponytail holders Clips blow dryer straightener brushes this is just a spa that I started a while ago I guess you get creative when there's just not that much space so we don't have a big bathroom closet or any closets really for that matter and so I have lots of baskets storing things and then I just try to keep things really minimal speaking of that this side of the armoire is where I keep all of my clothes and Luke keeps his on the right and then he also has the blue dresser just because honestly he has more clothes than me I really like being minimal I like to reach in and just have a few things so I also do swap things out I have a bin under the bed that has my winter clothes I have a basket that has Theodore's clothes and then I have another basket with the clothes for the newborn so under the bed becomes one of my favorite storage places from my seasonal clothes and then there's even a few dresses in there that I didn't think I'd wear this summer because I'm so pregnant but I think that I will wear next summer so it has off season stuff as well as dresses for next year and that's the extent of my clothes I don't have any other clothes goes down to the basement I have the two bottom drawers of the armoire the one side of the armor which I showed you and then this bin and I just get rid of things I don't like because to me it is more worth it to pass them along and not have to worry about having a messy room I do have this basket full of baby carriers and it's a little excessive the other day I was looking through it thinking okay there's a ring sling there is a woven wrap there is this beautiful carrier by Sakura Bloom I was looking through them trying to give them a really critical eye and I couldn't even think of one to get rid of so I'm just going to keep them it's going to be this overflowing basket because I like baby wraps again this is random but the top drawer of my nightstand has headphones and then all of the magazines that farmhouse on Boon has been featured in I don't know why I started putting them there but I did and that's just what we're sticking with I don't want to put them down in the basement because I think at one point I did have them in the basement and our basement's not a place you want to store a lot of stuff because because it can get a little bit moist in there and we have a dehumidifier running but I've had things that I've really wanted to keep that have gotten damaged and so I prefer to store what I can if it's important to me upstairs now Luke has a basket on his side and I'm not going to open his door because I think it's just shoved full of books the bottom basket looks empty so I'm like maybe I should just put more baby wraps over there it's it looks like it's up for grabs I have no idea if this home tour is going to be perceived as actually a minimal home tour thinking about putting minimalish on the thumbnail because I again I really see the value in minimalism I see how having less possessions in inventory to care for throughout your home makes your life literally better and that is what I strive for there's always going to be more things that we have in here that make their way in that for whatever reason thought was a good idea to bring in that I'm going to need to declutter but it is a constant goal of mine you may have noticed whenever I was doing the mud room tour that there was a trash bag by the back door there's always a trash bag by the back door to bring up to the local thrift shop because even though this is my goal you know you convince yourself that certain things would be necessary and you bring them in and then realize that you actually would rather have the space in your home and it's a constant reevaluation I will say that the more you declutter and minimize and simplify your space the less money you spend on random things because you start to just realize that you don't want to store it and more than just what I like this item you think do I want to store this item do I want to shuffle things around to accommodate this item dust it care for it there's always something you have to do for each thing in your home it's a constant process but worth striving for well as always thank you so much for watching if you're brand new and you like homemaking content I make a lot of it here so I'd love to have you following along thank you so much for stopping by our farmhouse foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Farmhouse on Boone

Views: 280,296

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Id: 5slnHqMG22Q

Length: 32min 33sec (1953 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 21 2023