LIVING SMALL by Laura Fenton

For the last three years, I have run an ‘ask me anything’ newsletter for my birthday. Last week I gave paid subscribers a chance to ask me their pressing questions about living small. I also offered readers 20-percent off of an annual subscription, which expires on August 22nd. Below you will find the latest installment of this annual tradition. I always enjoy receiving your questions and trying to answer them as honestly and helpfully as I can. I hope that you enjoy reading my replies.

For the last three years, I have published an ‘ask me anything’-style newsletter in August to coincide with my birthday. It’s now officially an annual tradition; here’s last year’s Q&A, 2024’s edition, and 2023’s installment. Once again, I am giving paid subscribers a chance to ask me questions. Sometimes these questions are purely practical, like someone who wants to know how I store seasonal bedding. Other times the queries are more big picture.

“40+ Yard Sales!” the advertisement in the local paper boasted of the community yard sale last weekend. The idea was that everyone in the neighborhood where we own a vacation home would have yard sales on the same day. Dozens of households registered to be on the map of sales. The organizers placed the ad promoting the big day and made official signs pointing the way.

Today’s newsletter landed a little later than usual, but that is on-theme with this week’s topic. In recent days, my work life has been busy, my spouse away, my childcare interrupted. I spent considerable time wrapping presents and baking cake. And there have been other unexpected hurdles (more on that below). In short, it’s been the usual glorious mess of being human. Last night we took my son to see his first real concert.

My family is on the cusp of our birthday season. Over the course of a couple weeks in August, my son, my nieces, my nephew, my mother, and I all have birthdays (there’s a cousins and an uncle in August too). I must confess I have begun to dread it. Some people don’t enjoy their birthdays because they dislike getting older. For others, their birthdate is tangled up with sad memories. Neither of these is my problem. Somehow I’ve lost the knack for birthday celebrating. I fail at joyful gift giving.

Welcome to Small Talk, a new series for all LIVING SMALL subscribers. In this monthly column, I’m talking to design pros about how to make the most of a small-er space with a real-life budget. First up is Oakland-based interior designer Chloe Warner, founder of the firm Redmond Aldrich (@redmondaldrichdesign). I chose Chloe to kick off the series after reading the introduction to her recently published book This Must Be The Place: Homes With Atmosphere.

I recently attended an inspiring online lecture hosted by the Less Lawn More Life Challenge by Brad Lancaster, the author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands series. I was surprised at how inspiring I found it. Lancaster’s suggestions felt doable and didn’t require huge investment. His enthusiasm and expertise were infectious.

It seems hard to believe that the heatwave that engulfed the Northeast was only last week. We were lucky to be outside of the city for the worst of it, but it was so hot everywhere up and down the region. While the heat melted my brain in the moment, it also inspired an essay that needs a little more time to come together. So I thought I’d write about one of the most popular topics I cover here on Living Small: Organizing.

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the most lovely birthday dinner party. At one point the conversation turned towards electrification. I lamented that in our current political climate the media was not writing enough about homeowners making the switch.1 “Yeah, but lots of people are doing it anyway,” my dinner companion replied. “The technology is just better.” He was right, the technology is better.

A quick note: I took the paywall off this post from last year, in case any of you need to bolster your resolved not to shop Prime Day “deals.” When I off-handedly mentioned that I’d only recently begun shopping at Trader Joe’s, many of you expressed your surprise. It’s not that I didn’t like Trader Joe’s before now; rather I have never lived in convenient proximity to a TJ’s, and it never seemed worth making a special trip the way it does for my quarterly Costco trips.