Posted on 07/10/2009 11:21:34 AM PDT by ChocChipCookie
Life has been a little too cozy for me lately. Too cozy in the sense that I have been living in about 500 square feet for the past two months. No, we're not hunkered down in a bomb shelter nor has a hurricane hit the Phoenix area recently. Rather, it's a large home improvement project that has caused me to become a refugee in my own home. Basically, I live in a bunker with windows.
Trying to maintain some level of quality to our lives in spite of cramped quarters and numerous inconveniences is something many of you have experienced. When families suddenly find themselves staying with relatives after a natural disaster hits their area, or having to make do in a small hotel room until they can return home, or even finding temporary refuge in a homeless shelter, well, life gets awfully cozy!
Living with four dogs, a cat, two turtles, two kids and a husband in this small area has taught me a few things that may come in handy someday if you find yourself living in extra-cozy circumstances.
The well-being of each family member comes first. At first, our living situation was one big slumber party with all of us sleeping on living room couches. After a couple of weeks, though, signs of stress began to set in. Even in an emergency or an evacuation, there are creative ways of handling stress.
* Keep an eye out for symptoms of stress. I discovered that my husband gets very fatigued when he's under a lot of stress. My daughter begins to need extra alone time, and my son needs more physical activity and socialization than usual. I need mental breaks via a good book or a knitting project.
* Minimize stress by looking for ways to meet those stress symptoms unique to each family member. My husband is working out the Y more often, and when he needs a nap, I just cover him up with a warm blanket and tiptoe away. I purchased some scrapbooking supplies for my daughter to give her a creative outlet she can enjoy in solitude, and my son is active in a swim team. I've rediscovered knitting and have a stack of books ready to be opened and devoured. When it comes to stress, one solution doesn’t fit all.
* Now more than ever, give yourself permission to be completely goofy. My kids and I have discovered the simple pleasure of taking pictures of each other making the most outrageous faces we can think of. I hope neither kid ever posts these on flickr.com, but they provide a lot of laughs. Choose activities that make you happy and put a smile on your face. Someday you’ll look back on this hardship and laugh, so you may as well start laughing now!
* If you have pets, you'll have to work around predator-prey relationships! Our cat drools at the sight of our turtles, the dogs would love to corner the cat, and the cat would love to dig her claws into our dogs. Round and round they go, and it's mostly my job to keep everybody alive and healthy!
As The Mom, you have the greatest influence as to whether your living situation deteriorates into a war zone or becomes a favorite memory of your family. Here are a few ground rules TheSurvivalMom established, and they seem to be working for us in keeping everyone sane and our living space in order.
* Routine is a must. Wake up at a decent hour each morning, have a specific day and time for mundane chores, set aside times for reading and watching TV. When too many hours run together without any structure, boredom and frustration set in. A simple routine is better than none.
* Have something to look forward to every day, even if it's just watching a M*A*S*H re-run! Sometimes it's the small things that give us energy to get through a rough day.
* Don't overdo the TV or computer. Short stints can be stress-breakers, but too much actually adds to fatigue and boredom.
* Less is more. I'm reminded of that truth each time I pull a load of laundry from the dryer. A well-planned week's worth of clothing is easier to manage than a large, haphazard assortment. Fewer toys, fewer books, and fewer shoes equals fewer things misplaced. Tell yourself you're going for a 'zen' look.
A source of either peace or unrelenting frustration is your physical surroundings. Wherever you’re toughing it out, it’s more important than ever to pay attention to your living space.
* Orderliness is the other must! The less you have, the easier this will be. Even if you have to organize your belongings in cardboard boxes, at least everything will have a designated place.
* This time period can be a great time for de-cluttering and ridding your home of unnecessary junk. When you discover just how little you truly need, you also discover that your wants aren't as numerous, either. Get used to sharing a bathroom with a crowd! A hike to an outhouse would be worse, so I'm grateful for what we have! Life is more pleasant for everyone with a great product from Bath & Body Works. Don't laugh! One squirt of their Concentrated Room Spray, and our bathroom is fresh for hours.
* Don't underestimate the power of comfort food. If you're able to cook or bake in your living situation, try out new recipes and make old family favorites. Making a batch of snickerdoodles is inexpensive but provides a fun family activity and a great snack to boot. Items most often lost: shoes and important pieces of paper. Two pairs of shoes per person and an organizational accordian file have helped fix these two bugaboos.
Expect frustration. Expect to get irritated with those closest to you, and expect to cry. Spending time with other people in small, enclosed areas will do that to a person! Be sure to take care of yourself and pay careful attention to your stress level. If possible, have a small space that is just yours or a scheduled time each week to escape for an hour or two. If you give yourself plenty of oxygen first (think airplane emergency instructions), you’ll have more of you to give your family.
Soon, I'll be living in even less square footage as we finish this home improvement project. I'll have to figure out how to take care of my family without access to a kitchen. Oy vay! Watch for a related blog entry in another three or four weeks! Soon our floors will be finished, and our house will be designer-perfect. Until then, I pray and cope!
In the meantime, do be safe and prepared wherever life takes you. Planning ahead and taking steps to be prepared for uncertain times are never wasted efforts.
However, it induces claustrophobia real quick. It is about 10 by 12.
I left the hatch off and in a week it had collected all manner of frog life.
My family’s home in the Detroit suburbs came with a “bomb shelter” under the garage. It was refitted into a rec room in the early 1970s, though.
Good thing, too.
It leaked like a sieve.
Prolly not good with fallout-contaminated water.
Get rid of the animals!!!!
We live in a very tiny house, and we still manage to enjoy our critters.
For your ping list. :o)
however, you do have something to look forward too (your new house). so that should keep your spirits relatively high. just keep your physical activity level high. during the summer that shouldn't be too hard.
and remember the old Chinese proverb: no man who wakes up before sunrise 360 days a year will fail to make his family rich.
- Choose your fundamental mindset. Will you be happy, generous, can-do? or whiny, critical, and annoyed? Sure we as humans span these emotions, but one set will be our dominant mental state.
- Variation => clutter. Pack everything away, then dig out only what you need - and do so only after convincing yourself you _need_ it, and nothing else will do, then stash whatever else it may be replacing/overlapping.
- “Better is the enemy of good” - Russian proverb. Product X may be better than product Y, but is the transition, overhead, cost, and space really worth it? An awful lot of resources can be blown by constant re-evaluating everything (as our Madison Avenue culture demands); being content with less gives more resources to that which really should be improved or enjoyed.
Not an option. They’re family.
Ping to read later
Riding out a hurricane, we found that radio is good and TV is bad. National Public Radio is actually pretty good over the long haul.
Confucius didn't own a tv or have internet.
I wouldn’t say mine are quite ‘family’, but they’re definitely on par with a favorite chair or an extremely useful cooking utensil...
So when does that guy actually go to bed that he can get up pre-sunrise every day? Presumably the aphorism pre-dates the eternal daylight of electric lights.
so he could go to bed by 10-11pm i would think. the saying is from hundreds of years ago. i assumed they just DVR'd all their favorite shows and watched them at a later date.
11PM means 6 hours of sleep each night. Dunno about him, but after 5 days of that my body sez “yer not getting up until I get 8 hours”.
Without strong lights (candles and campfires don’t measure up), the “up before sunrise” admonishment is matched with a “you can stop when you can’t see your work anymore” allowance. The guy could actually get a good night’s sleep (even if he didn’t have any time for his DVRed shows).
Ya see? There ya have it..
I have never really had a relationship with animals, other than as a food source. There's the difference between me and thee. And please, no one write and tell me how they could NEVER trust anyone who doesn't like dogs, or cats, or whatever.
Just never owned one, never really had a reason for 'em.
Could I learn to love 'em? Well, my older brother had a beautiful Golden Lab that passed recently and THAT dog was the best dog I have ever known, but it wasn't mine.
Thanks Cookie. When I lived in the Bay Area, we were renting a 700 SqFt. appartment. It was me, my ex, my daughter and oldest son. Did it for about a year and a half.
Excellent info. as always.
Lived in foxholes, sea containers, conex’s, adobe homes, sandbag bunkers, hootch’s made from old budweiser beer cans, cabins in Canookistan and tents for near 24 years off and on in military or in a barracks room that was 16x16 w/ 3 other troops. Stress .......nah !......:o)
Stay safe Cookie !! Good Read !
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