For the past 12 years, it’s been my job (and my joy!) to help folks live comfortably and confidently in — and with — a smaller footprint. I started my “rightsized” design & consulting business because I’m passionate about smaller space living, communal living, and multigenerational living. I explore ways in which such arrangements — as well as repurposing, borrowing + sharing, and repairing — can positively impact everyone’s one shared home: this extraordinary planet.
RESOURCES
You can find more of my work via:
🗞️ My newsletter: Rightsizing
📝 My blog: The Tiny Canal Cottage
📖 My book: Small Space Style
🎙️ I also share tips via workshops, public speaking engagements, podcast interviews, and editorial and news outlets.
NON-PROFIT
♻️ I work weekly with nonprofits and organizations dedicated to protecting and restoring natural environments, strengthening circular economies, and building equitable communities. 📚 I’m also an advocate of public libraries, and happen to be married to the most delightful library worker.
📍LOCATIONS
🏡 My family lives in a 900 sqft guest house in the southeastern USA. Our multigenerational setup consists of 2 grandparents, 2 parents, 2 kids, and 3 rescue pups.
🌿 There’s also a 114 sqft greenhouse on this land, which is the studio for my business.
🥐 We’re the co-stewards of an old <800 sqft farmhouse in France, where we sometimes live communally with our closest friends (9 people total), and hope to one day retire. Together we’re doing a slow and very tight budget restoration of that residence. You can follow along on the unhurried adventure via @tinyfrenchfarmhouse .
🛶 Visuals of SoCal are sprinkled through my work because my family & business rented a <400 sqft cottage for 10 years by the Venice Canals in Los Angeles, where we shared outdoor spaces and responsibilities with our tiny house neighbors.
Whether you’ve been on this journey with us for 12 years or 12 hours, I appreciate it. It matters to us that you allot precious time to explore what I share here, while also cheering us on. There are so many ways to live this life. This is our way. Thank you for being here with us.
#smallspaceliving #sustainablehome
Small space tip: ignore the typical design rules, as they often don’t apply. Living in — and with — a smaller footprint involves lots of creativity, and particular consideration regarding not only what you put in your space, but also how you navigate within it. This audio clip is from the latest episode of the @betterhomesandgardens podcast, in which I had the pleasure of chatting with @melanieberliet about the joys and hurdles of living more mindfully in a world that urges us to consume, consume, consume. We discussed life in the guest cottage, the @tinyfrenchfarmhouse , greenhouse, and Venice. It was such a pleasure! (Episode link in my bio and on my blog. And, as always, you can explore more via my book, Small Space Style.
Podcast: @betterhomesandgardens
Host: @melanieberliet
Producer: @thejlm
There are so many ways to live this life.
My family lives in a little guest house we designed as part of a multigenerational setup in the US, but we are also slowly restoring and adapting a @tinyfrenchfarmhouse on a tight budget with our nearest and dearest friends. It’ll take years to turn that into the home we envision for our future, and that’s okay. Most home projects don’t happen quickly or with massive budgets, despite what we often see online. Good things take time to grow. 🌱
#homerestoration #cottagelife
This wasn’t a big makeover… but it is a big help.
When you open this app and see elaborate walk-in pantries, room-sized closets, decorative DIYs crafted with heaps of new materials, and more gadgets and smart appliances than you ever knew existed, just remember: It’s okay to move slowly and keep things simple, smaller and more sustainable. And the little things are every bit as worthy of savoring, sharing and enjoying for years.
♻️ We stumbled upon this plain, discarded shelf and knew that its potential exceeded its diminutive footprint. So we salvaged it, sanded + stained + painted it, then outfitted the frame with a remnant raw hem curtain and a couple of thrifted mini shelves. 🫙📚🥣 🌿 Now it’s a compact spot for spices, nesting mixing bowls, our recipe tin, cookbooks, a tiffin, our nutrition logs, propagated herbs, and larger jars of pantry staples.
Not a major makeover. But a major help for our family as we spend increasing time in the kitchen.
We rarely need more space or new things. We just need to (re)imagine clever solutions for the space we have, and to create new possibilities for preloved pieces.
#reuse #diystorage #cottagekitchen #smallspaceliving
📏 Even a few inches on the front or sides of furnishings can often be put to practical, space-saving uses. Here, I used a thrifted towel bar & secondhand curtain clips to turn the front of our porch table into a rack for our multigenerational household’s garden + work gloves. 🧤 Now the gloves are no longer stuffed in an overcrowded drawer, plus the kiddos can easily reach them. Moments like this seem minor when viewed on their own, but they add up to help us fully use and better enjoy our compact house for the long run.
❌ Let’s not be fooled into thinking we need mass produced organizers from big retailers to beautify and maximize our smaller interiors. We can create clever, character-filled solutions by reusing simple items we already have at home, and by choosing used goods when we feel the desire to switch things up a bit.
Note: Sharing tips about interiors feels absurd these days, but I genuinely believe it can serve a worthwhile purpose when done mindfully. Embracing smaller spaces, repurposing, choosing local + handmade + secondhand, and sharing / borrowing resources are all ways to look out for each other and for our one shared home. 🌍🌏🌎
#diystorage #thriftedhome #storagesolutions #smallspaceliving #gardenhack
Hot tip: When you live in a multigenerational home and no one can agree on the type of food to share for any given celebration, get together and collectively bake THE MOST BASIC cake recipe possible. Like 5 unfussy ingredients that everyone in the household likes. 🍯 Then top the thing off with flowers and serve with simple, herb-infused water, because — FACT — plants make EVERYTHING better. 🌼🌿 And I find that the best celebrations of caregiving (as parents, as partners, as friends, as children, as neighbors, and as co-stewards of the earth,) are the ones during which we can just BE, and relish getting together without fussing over the details.
🌸 Garden supplies, small batch candles, green spinning Susan, handmade glassware, and edible flower decorating kit were gifted from @shopterrain , who have kindly supported our mission of growing food for our multigenerational household and local community. 🍅🥬 Remember: there’s enough for everyone when we all share. 🌏🌍🌎
#multigenerationalliving #smallspaceliving #communalliving #cottagegarden
Small space living naturally encourages us to explore the world beyond our walls, and invites us to share & engage more with our local communities.
Even though my family *really* loves being at the house, it’s getting outdoors and participating in our local organizations and activities that makes us feel like we’re home. We’re all neighbors. 🌏🌍🌎 Let’s act accordingly.
“Moral clarity is not the same thing as naïveté. It is naive to give up, when every tenth of a degree of warming we prevent, every centimeter of sea level rise we avoid, every species we save, and every increasingly unnatural disaster we avert all matter so very much.” - @ayanaeliza
#smallspaceliving #multigenerationalliving #landconservation
🧩 I love how living in smaller, multitasking spaces encourages us to nurture our imaginations. And thankfully we can get creative simply by avoiding new, mass produced “storage solutions.” Instead, we can choose to craft clever (and delightfully imperfect) household designs by using upcycled, secondhand and repaired items. ♻️
🍋 For example: I found this well-worn produce stand at a local salvage & thrift shop. I cleaned it, lightly sanded down the rough patches, adapted the wood tone with leftover stain, and removed the top display panel. With the help of some zip ties, I turned two levels into grow shelves for seedlings, making this a vertical grow station. 🌱 The wheels help us roll the cart into sunny spots, or out of the way when this particular zone at the living room windows becomes my office 5 days per week. This DIY garden station is helping us with our goal of growing food not just for our multigenerational household, but for community in need of fresh organic produce as well.
💭 Remember: we usually don’t need more space. We simply need more creativity.
💌 More examples of multitasking rooms like this, plus collections of secondhand items for smaller spaces, can be found via “Rightsizing” (linked in my profile).
Note: Sharing tips about interiors feels absurd these days, but I genuinely believe it can serve a worthwhile purpose when done mindfully. Embracing smaller spaces, repurposing, choosing local + handmade + secondhand, and sharing / borrowing resources are all ways to look out for each other and for our one shared home. 🌍🌏🌎
#smallspaceliving #thriftedhome #storagehack #smallgarden #diygarden
We usually don’t need a bigger home, nor do we need newly manufactured, mass produced storage solutions. Instead, we can get creative within the space we have, and uncover clever uses for thrifted, restored and repurposed pieces.
Here, we put a 1.5” sliver of wall to use in the bedroom with a secondhand + repaired folding valet rack, providing me with a hint of adaptable storage to complement my 28” wide wardrobe. Minor moments like these add up to help us remain inspired by and comfortable in our smaller home for the long run.
More examples like this — plus collections of vintage & secondhand items for smaller spaces — can be found via “Rightsizing” (linked in my profile).
Note: Sharing tips about interiors feels absurd these days, but I genuinely believe it can serve a worthwhile purpose when done mindfully. Embracing smaller spaces, repurposing, choosing local + handmade + secondhand, and sharing / borrowing resources are all ways to look out for each other and for our one shared home. 🌍🌏🌎
#smallspaceliving #closethack #diystorage #thriftedhome #storagehack
We’re reminding ourselves that’s it’s not only okay to move a bit slower — it feels healthier for our household.
Drying the textiles and dishware in the sun. Growing food for ourselves and community. Powering down devices and tuning into the bird song. Reminding each other to care for ourselves so we can better show up for one other and for community.
A common thread through all of this is our solar powered @veluxusa Skylight Systems, which have optional screens and built-in shades for comfort and energy efficiency. With these venting skylights we can welcome in the cricket chorus, invite the sunlight for the plants and drying, and diffuse the harsher rays for energy efficiency and comfort.
Design influences our lives in so many ways — many of which have ripple effects beyond our walls. This is why I believe that mindful home decisions truly matter.
#veluxusa #veluxpartner #veluxpartner #veluxskylights
Here’s to all of the ways that smaller space living sparks creativity, and naturally encourages us to explore the world beyond our walls and engage more with our local communities.
Here are some unremarkable (but oh so remarkable!) moments showing just that. Because not everything needs to be a grand reveal, a how-to, an announcement or a makeover to be worthy of sharing. The little things are important to savor and celebrate, too. Especially these days.
#smallspaceliving #repurposedhomedecor #upcycledhomedecor #cottageliving
Bland bins and plastic “organizers” from mega retailers begone. ❌ Instead, let’s craft our own flexible (and sometimes strange) storage solutions by looking around at what we’ve already got, and leaning into whatever space we have.
As you can see here, we even put 2.5 inches of wall space between windows to helpful use with a branch, two salvaged curtain brackets, and some antique measuring cups. The end result provides us with an additional layer of usable space in front of our kitchen windows for items such as produce, spare taper candles, seed packets, tea towels, damp laundry on hangers, and more. This sort of idea can take shape through endless permutations, providing helpful storage solutions for items like art supplies, toiletries, jewelry, etc. And as our tastes or storage needs change in the future, we can simply reuse these items elsewhere in our home. ♻️ While ideas like this looks minor when viewed on their own, these moments add up to help us better enjoy our compact space for the long run.
Note: Sharing tips about interiors feels absurd these days, but I believe it can serve a worthwhile purpose when done mindfully. Embracing smaller spaces, repurposing, choosing local + handmade + secondhand, and sharing / borrowing resources are all ways to look out for each other our one shared home. 🌏🌍🌎
#storagehacks #smallspaceliving #smallkitchen #secondhandhome #diyhomedecor
