Our space in becoming
It is so interesting to observe how our space is transforming. Before I relocated to Denmark, I knew that my partner and I would not continue on the same extreme minimalist path that I was dwelling. We would practise minimalism though, and also continue to practise ecological living. The difference between my previous mode of living and the current one, in terms of objects, is that we will have a few pieces of furniture and some useful objects (such as a cutting board) that I never invited into my space because I knew I would be moving again soon. At this point it feels that we can live with a little bit more things. For example, my partner brought some chairs home. He's had them for a long time.
My partner knows about this autoethnography and he used to read it until I asked him not to. I felt that knowing that he reads it would make my writing less raw and authentic. Jokingly, he said that he was hoping that I don't blame him for us living with furniture now. Living with some furniture after months of me practising furniture-free living is a joint decision, not his own or my own. We decided to have the chairs he already owned, a cloth rack, a bench, a table, and a bed frame. Sleeping on the floor is only comfortable for me, so we agreed on a different solution. Having a table would allow both of us to work from home and invite fellow humans in. A bench and a cloth rack will help us organise our space better. It's two of us in a small studio apartment, and currently most of our items are on the floor. Having them elsewhere will help us keep this small space clean. I still prefer to sit on the floor, and I use the chairs to hang and put things on.
It feels good to have larger packages of things like salt and oil, something I avoided buying because I knew I'd be leaving at some point soon. When we were in Sweden, in a small store that sells handmade soaps, I thought we could get several of them as we would be using them in our home for many months to come. It also feels good to be able to buy bread from a bakery. I would rarely buy it because I was living on my own, and a loaf of bread would be too big for me.
This space is beginning to feel more like a home rather than a temporary accommodation.