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by Angie Kikstra
In this series, we will pull back the curtain on lovely homes within our community and give you all a Cozy Minimal Home Tour.
I want to showcase all the different types of homes within our community. Because I don’t feel only one home and decorating style is the poster child for the Cozy Minimalism movement.
I would love to inspire those of you that don’t have (or want) a social media influencer home.
Our community has a wide range of homey homes that feel good for the people that live there. Homes that tell a story.
I believe it’s important to show people homes that are curated, real-life homes. I feel like having a normal home should be normal.
These are those Cozy Minimal Home Stories
Imagine this, taking a quiet moment every morning with your coffee before the rest of your young family wakes up.
Calming and preparing yourself in silence before the day begins.
Gazing around your home, and instead of seeing an overwhelming mess or a bunch of to-do’s, you are simply reminded of moments, places and people you love. Your home fills you up instead of draining you.
You can exist in the quiet solitude of that morning coffee, loving your home, soaking in the fact that it perfectly reflects who you are as a family.
Your home beautifully tells your story – without the excess clutter.
In this article, you will meet Rose, a mom, wife, sister, daughter and friend that has curated a clutter-free home that is still warm and cozy.
Rose loves her alone time in the morning now, and it’s one of her favorite daily moments.
Where she can sit peacefully with her coffee and where she can get herself ready for everyone else before they wake up for the day.
This starkly contrasts how it was before she started her journey.
She would see a mess, which would feel overwhelming, but she felt she needed to find a system for her home and stuff.
Rose starts off our conversation by describing herself as a mother, but she also adds, “I’m a wife, sister, daughter, aunt and friend.” Rose has always felt like a “mother hen,” taking on a nurturing role with her siblings growing up (especially her brothers). Throughout our conversation, I kept hearing her repeat how a family was the most important.
Rose also loves frequenting thrift stores… and sources thrift store items before she looks at a retail store.
There is something beautiful about pieces she saved from the trash bin and renewed or the treasures she has found on her trips thrifting or uncovering at estate sales.
Her style is so beautifully curated that she will inspire you to create your own curated home.
Rose not only has a young family that she cares for, but she also runs an in-home family child care that brings three additional little ones during the work week. .
A functional home that is easy to keep tidy is necessary for this busy wife and mom.
"Home felt heavy when it was cluttered."
Clutter in the home caused Rose to feel stressed.
But trying to clean up and tidy day in and day out was draining.
It felt overwhelming.
It felt heavy.
When she first started, she had a storage unit with excess stuff for her and her husband – when the first baby was on the way, she started to question the extra storage for just the two of them and began her journey to living with “just enough.”
Kids come with stuff… and when she started having babies, it became essential to make a calm space and create organization solutions for all of the items that came with the first baby.
She quickly learned that she didn’t need too much stuff for them.
They just wanted her and time spent connecting over the mundane or creating memories together like trips to the park or the library – no new toy will ever replace that time spent.
“I felt like I didn’t have time to deal with the stuff. I don’t want to feel overwhelmed anymore by stuff.”
Before she started on her journey, she found that clutter was overwhelming there was zero joy in tidying up like there is now because there wasn’t a system. She had no time and energy to clean up the stuff but thrived with tidiness. “I felt like I didn’t have time to deal with the stuff. I don’t want ever to feel overwhelmed anymore by stuff” she tells me with conviction.
Things aren’t being shifted around from the counters to the table, they are being put away.
More importantly, she’s constantly reassessing if the items actually belong in their home and life anymore.
“It’s an ongoing process,” she says “It’s not something that you do once. It’s an evolution as your family grows and changes over time.”
“Motherhood is a lot. I didn’t want to be consumed by my house. I wanted the freedom to have more time and do the things that mattered.”
Rose feels a lovely sense of balance with “comfort and clutter-free” in her home.
She doesn’t feel like she is super minimalistic, and she also doesn’t feel like she is a hoarder.
For Rose, pursuing a cozy minimal home isn’t about aesthetics or trying to be perfect. It’s about a home that supports her and her well-being.
She gets overwhelmed when her place is cluttered; it drains her and can affect her emotional and psychological well-being.
“A cluttered and disorganized home has caused stress and emotionally drained me. Having a cozy minimal home has freed up time, peace, and happiness.”
Creating a cozy minimal home has also made her less anxious overall. She also said toodle-loo to feeling constantly overwhelmed with mess and managing stuff.
Messes still do happen, and that is ok. It’s easier for her to do something about messes that inevitably pop up.
She loves looking at a mess and thinking, “I can clean that up by the time this song is done!”.
“My husband will sometimes come upstairs after he is done with work, and he’ll see me frazzled and ask if I’m ok, and I’ll say, “Things are a little chaotic, things are a little messy, I just need to catch up.”
That catch-up doesn’t feel overwhelming.
“Motherhood is a lot. I didn’t want to be consumed by my house. I wanted the freedom to have a little more time and do what mattered.”
It’s given her boys a nice clean, and safe space to be in, and she takes pride in that.
“We are the gatekeepers to what comes into our home.” she says, “I’ve learned to be ok with saying no to items.”
And if she is out shopping and finds something that she is considering for their home, she says, “I am already making a mental space in my house of where an item will go before I bring it in.”
Rose lives in a 2100 sq foot bi-level (roughly 1050 square feet on each floor).
Admittedly, this home style wasn’t her ideal choice when they were looking for a new home, but she has learned to love her home as it is now. She is at a point in her life where she wants to be content and grateful for what she has now, and she feels very blessed to have a home that they purchased.
One of her struggles at first was not feeling like her home was Instagram-worthy in her own mind, she would see beautiful homes created using brand-new store-bought items. It seemed like it was the opposite of her curated and unique style, using items that she sourced over time.
I think this is something many of us struggle with because we see so many of these perfectly styled show homes on social media. When we put our phone down and look around, we often feel like our home doesn’t live up to that standard.
She has since learned to find contentment and gratitude in what she owns and beauty in the home as it is now… not as she envisions it when it’s “perfect.”
Rose initially shared her home in our Cozy Minimalist Community Group on Facebook, which she was initially nervous about because she didn’t 100% think that her home was “share-worthy” as she put it.
She worried “that maybe it wasn’t truly a cozy minimalist home.”
Her decor and furniture have been curated through thrifting or gifting over time.
The comments were so much fun to watch roll in:
“Why does this look so clean and lovely yet inviting and warm?”
“This looks so homey and welcoming.”
“Wow! That is beautifully designed! Inspiring for sure!”
One of my hopes for you, reading this, is that our movement Cozy Minimalism will help you see how perfect your homes can be with your unique style and step outside of the trends. The same trends that their sole purpose is to keep you feeling like your home is inadequate, so you feel compelled to buy new things (that don’t make you happy, but they line the pockets of the people pushing the trends).
Rose describes her cozy minimal home as clean, simple, warm and inviting. She doesn’t want what she owns to get lost in the clutter. If it’s on display, it means it is special, and she only wants to highlight those items in her home.
Rose has a lot of systems in place to help her maintain their family home easily; most of them revolve around allowing her family to take responsibility for their own things in the main living areas.
She has a basket on the counter where she can put items left out on surfaces, and her husband can then put them away when he has time. This has been extra helpful since newspapers have been found on the counter. She doesn’t know if they have been read, so she places them in the basket, and her husband can read them or toss them. She simply reminds him to go through the basket every once and a while.
“We all live here, and I can’t do it all. I’m doing them a disservice if I do it all.”
As a mom of three boys, she values teaching them how to keep house and contribute. “We all live here, and I can’t do it all. I’m doing them a disservice if I do it all.”
Rose knows that as her kids grow, things will change – and that’s ok. Nothing has to stay the same; their family home will grow and change with them. Especially now as the older two are beginning to come home with their stuff from school and sports, and they have begun collecting their own items.
She’s trying to teach them how to manage their stuff rather than managing it for them. In a sense, she is focusing on more empowerment.
She wants to respect their choices for their items rather than tell them they need to let go of things. She never wants to have to toss their stuff out and wants to teach them how to manage their things. This is a valuable step for her and many moms, teaching kids to manage their own stuff and take responsibility for their environment.
She also has a wonderful group of church ladies she can post her donations, who will pick them up right from her home. Making the outflow of her clutter a simple task has helped maintain this lifestyle.
The journey has been a process, and she feels like she is still in the process – even 10 years into the journey.
It was initially spurred by moving seven times within seven years… and when she moved, she wasn’t interested in moving all the stuff when it wasn’t needed or loved.
“It takes time to get to where you want to be with creating a home.”
Home isn’t something you can go out and buy at a store, it’s something that is curated over time.
One misconception with Cozy Minimalism she would love to change is that just because we are minimalists and just because we don’t have a lot of clutter doesn’t mean that we walk into other people’s homes and judge them.
She has fully embraced my concept “To Each Their Home” and understands that everyone lives their own way in their own home… no judgment from the outside.
Rose has an essential rule for her sentimental stuff: If it is valuable enough to keep, she will display it in her home.
“Either I deal with this stuff or someone else will… and I want to make that decision. I want to make that choice.”
Initially, she felt guilt for getting rid of things in her home that had been there for a long time.
Rose recounts one specific grouping that was especially hard for her, gifts from her grandma that had crocheted all these beautiful doll dresses every year for her birthday.
18 handmade doll dresses.
It was such a heartfelt gift that she loved when she was younger and was able to play with the dolls.
However, as she grew up, she stopped playing with the dolls, and they sat in a box and never saw the light of day.
She kept the most sentimental one and displayed it in her home.
“And besides that,” she says, “other things connect me to my Grandma in my home.”
There is a grouping of recipes that she has framed in her kitchen that reminds her of her great grandma and grandma every time she glances at them when she walks by.
According to Rose, this is one of her least favorite rooms within her home, but she has still infused some emotional connection points to help her love it more.
Having a clutter-free space also helped her enjoy it more.
Adding the handwritten recipe cards from her great-grandmother and grandma on display helps her emotionally connect with the space and reminds her of meals she enjoyed with those special women in her life.
The dining room is connected to the kitchen, so I am including it here.
The dining table was built by Rose’s father for her wedding, and she was able to spray paint the chairs black to help with design cohesion.
The artwork on the wall represents where they started their journey together as a family and also where they currently live.
This was the first room that Rose tackled for a renovation, and she didn’t think she would go that far with the renovation.
You can do little things in your home to make a significant impact.
It started with a change in a mirror, then the light, then the painted cabinet and then a willing husband that made her vision come to light with paint, the board and batten, and a new countertop.
I love how she pulled together the colors with a runner instead of those matchy-matchy fuzzy bathroom rugs (I’m not passing judgment because I own those too, lol)
By adding a functional decor grouping, she can make the tissue paper look pretty in a group with hand soap.
Functional decor groupings help you keep the essentials and everyday use items out but help elevate them to make them pretty.
I always say, “If it’s going to be out, it might as well be pretty!”
Adding the hamper beside the toilet also helps with adding texture to the room.
The guest bedroom was a fun space for Rose because this is their first owned home and the first place they had a dedicated space for guests to come and stay if needed.
Everything in this room has been purchased second-hand or gifted except the mattress and box spring. Everything has a reason for being in this room; it has to have meaning.
The end table is a cigar cabinet from the early 1900s that she gifted her husband on their first wedding anniversary.
The trunk at the end of the bed was from an auction her husband attended. .
A cigar box on the ledge below the window was a gift her brother brought home while he spent time in Romania.
The wall art was a gift from Rose’s husband because she loves birds. Even the blankets were thrifted.
She has the boys sleeping upstairs in a simple bedroom and their own toys in a dedicated play space downstairs.
Two Sock Monkeys sit on display. One was handmade by her grandmother and the other was gifted by her mother after her first son was born. She read in a decorating magazine that a larger rug would make the room feel bigger, so she sourced this rug from another room in their home, and it worked perfectly for the boy’s room. This is the beauty of having a whole home color plan; you can use items in many rooms of your home.
Her goal with the bedroom was to be soothing and very simplified. The boys have a playroom in the basement to collect their treasures and toys – leaving the bedroom as a place for sleeping and winding down.
The basket of books is helpful for an evening read before bed.
The two dressers were sourced from second-hand places, and she painted them to match the decor.
The artwork on the wall above both beds is also significant. With pictures of the boys above their beds and word art that helps remind them that family is everything.
Two chess boards have been added to the walls.
So often, those of us with minimalist homes feel judged because they seem to think that we force our children into this lifestyle or make them live with nothing.
Rose has a special place for the boys downstairs that is their play area, and they have all of their collections and things they have started to accumulate.
This isn’t about forcing her boys into this lifestyle but more so guiding them to be mindful of what they own and why they own it.
Rose will gently nudge the older boys to look at what they own items and encourage them to let go once the items start getting unmanageable or overwhelming.
She is committed to teaching them how to manage their stuff mindfully rather than doing it for them.
The play space for her in-home family child care area is on the main floor of her bi-level, and she has beautifully styled this space with items she has purchased and curated over time.
Curating a sanctuary within your home is crucial. Having a place to end your day in a calm and relaxing way is essential. And waking up in a room that isn’t full of “to-do’s” is also calming. Rose beautifully demonstrates that a pretty room doesn’t have to be with a matching bedroom set or brand-new items.
The pieces in this room feel like they have been curated over lifetimes, and each of the items has a special meaning or story behind it. There is so much beauty in the imperfectness of a carefully curated home, every line, shape or scratch tells a story.
Rose says, “I’ve been known to go to Target too, but I don’t purchase all my items there. It doesn’t look like my home came out of a showroom.”
Taking it beyond the furniture basics, if you can create emotional connection points in your bedroom to remind you of your love for your spouse as Rose did, you will make your space feel like it’s your own.
More importantly, you will be reminded of the special bond between each other as you glance at the decor.
Above the bed in her and her husband’s bedroom is a framed note he wrote to her on the day he proposed.
It simply states, “Rose – Sweetheart, I love you so much. I love you forever.”
That note should have made you audibly say “Awwwww!”
What a beautiful reminder of that day, and their wedding day in the photo beside it, all serving to remind them of their love story.
I hope this cozy minimal home tour has given you some inspiration for your real-life home. It may have sparked you to look at your curated space as beautiful.
Take note if you’ve ever felt too sentimental to be a minimalist.
Being a minimalist doesn’t mean that you have to live out of a backpack.
You can release the excess and find your own level of enough and choose to keep the most sentimental items in your home. Incorporate those beautiful sentimental items into your home decor. Give them a place of honour in your home and showcase those precious memories, don’t stuff them in a box.cozy
