Metanoia

Even though putting architectural dreams to paper is intriguing, the reality it is a long aways off for us.  But that doesn't mean that the exercise of "Containing Yourself" is for naught. For me, it is being thrifty, thoughtful and unconventional in re-utilizing things in a way that furthers one's life.

Keeping such notions in mind, when I look at buildings, many times I think about the construction methods or the utility of a layout.  When I see architectural plans for residential housing, I contrast it to the anticipated lifestyle and think about how I would modify it.

These Containing Yourself thoughts are not relegated to the future, but also the here and now.  I have been know to collect some "Future Clutters", odds and ends that I believe will be useful for some future project.

For instance, when we switched out a dying refrigerator, I felt compelled to save the crisper drawers, the glass shelves and the plastic door shelves.  The glass shelf can be overlayed on the stove to temporarily expend counter space in what we affectionately call our current "One Butt Kitchen" with limited counter space. The Crisper Bin will serve well as a container when using the immersion Sous Vide cooker.  And I am toying with incorporating the door shelves as part of a vertical garden.

When the neighbor sought to flip the adjacent townhome, he replaced the security door. Initially, I thought that the glass on that door would be a good replacement for our broken pane, but it didn't quite fit. But I realized that if it were raised by some cinder blocks, it would make for a sturdy table for container gardening, especially with Earth Boxes (or Global Buckets).

My metanoia is to consciously incorporate the lessons of Containing Yourself of  thriftiness, ingenuity, and unconventionality to improve my life today, without being overwrought or too clever by half.