The Rearranging Life
OK. So. Let me see how I can rearrange this. I bought something, unboxed it, and spent three hours rearranging the furniture and the things on the shelves so it could fit. Shopping may be casual, but living with it requires planning, and it didn't even take up any floor space.
I bought a TV. Nah. Nobody buys televisions. Sure, it could work as one, but I suspect most people buy monitors for streaming video. Since I moved into my tiny house, I've used my bigger, secondary computer monitor for videos on YouTube, Amazon Prime, the local library (Hoopla), etc. That was fine, but also a bit entrenched: staring at the screen for doing my 'work', then spending the evening staring at the same screen for my 'play'. I wanted something to watch from My Big Comfy Chair, no keyboard required.
I bought a monitor with a DVD player and speakers included - eventually. First, I shopped. Streaming may be fine, but I have a stack of DVDs (and VCR tapes, but they'll languish in storage temporarily). I like DVDs. No ads! No buffering! Less doubt about what is available. (Reminder to self: visit the local thrift shops for cheap used DVDs.) And I'll mention it again: No Ads! (Modern oxymoron: healthcare ads that use fear tactics that increase stress and anxieties. Have they listened to their own list of side effects? Ugh.)
(BTW The story of deciding an the preferred suite of electronics solutions was complicated by previous personal choices, but I’ll spare you that story, too. Chromebooks and old, gifted portable DVD players were involved.)
Shopping is fun! But shopping to find something that fits a tiny house is tedious. Ads emphasize bigger as better. My life requires each item to live in and amongst the rest of my items. Pretty pictures may try to sell a monitor, but I spent more time in the depths of details: size, power requirements, connector types, mounting requirements, and price, of course. The most popular purchases have the highest volumes and benefit from economies of scale, but niche products aren't so lucky. Simply incidentally, I found a monitor that isn't much larger than my computer's monitor, but it comes with a DVD player (which is harder to find in laptops, lately), speakers, and many of the features that enable it to be used in other tiny spaces: RVs and boats.
Great. Buy it. Get it delivered. Unbox it - and hit the hurdle of stacking boxes on my tiny floor space. Maneuvering around the cardboard was a bumpy dance. Thankfully, no plastic peanuts were involved. Clear some counterspace. Hook everything up, and, and - it didn't work.
I'll spare you the technical details, but one step of the learning process was that the discs have to go in backwards, possibly so the subcomponents can fit or because there was a design hiccup. But until it worked, the boxes stayed in case I had to return the unit. Which meant that, until a few days of emailed tech support produced a solution, I was continually reminded of having made a possibly bad purchase. As I alluded to, the problem(s) were resolved. Now, to properly install it.
Hmm. Too small to fit on the floor without getting brutally kicked. Putting it on my one table would be redundant, considering the office materials that are already there. Ah. I have a kitchen floor rack that was full as I unpacked originally but that is half empty after I built shelves and rearranged the kitchen. Rearranging happens. Half a shelf is all it needs, and just happens to be oriented towards My Big Comfy Chair.
Half a shelf is all it needs, but clearing that shelf meant moving a few things. Finding room for the DVDs meant rearranging the contents of an antique foot locker (WWI vintage?), finding places for some of those displaced items, and - Aha! Having a more capable component meant consolidating other items, getting inspired to find better places for folded furniture, and clearing some space.
Total elapsed times: shopping ~2 weeks, waiting for delivery ~3 days, troubleshooting equipment ~3 days, rearranging furniture and stuff ~3 hours, breaking down cardboard ~1 hour, hauling the cardboard to recycling TBD.
I've mentioned before that tiny house living is intentional living. Contrast this with purchase with life in a standard suburban home. No room constraints. Easy power and connection requirements, possibly wireless. Little or no interruption while unboxing and installation. If something gets in the way, shove it into another room or the garage. Take on the task at your leisure. Those are luxuries, and luxuries exist because they can feel luxurious, or their lack can feel onerous - even though these are all first-world problems.
Rearranging things is the norm in my tiny house life. Life is dynamic, and my things are part of that. Each thing must move with my awareness of the rest of the things. Vigilantly rearranging my life may seem like a very un-luxurious chore, but it enables the luxuries of a debt-free life with much less clutter, proportionally smaller chores, and a lot less waste.
Finally, I can watch that DVD set of the complete series of Sherlock, and there's my Pixar collection, and my uncommon copy of Dogma, and...I'll not bore you with the rest. Oh yeah, and I'm particularly looking forward to The Muppet Christmas Carol, White Christmas, and eventually Love Actually on New Years Eve. Life is good. Some rearranging may be necessary.