We live in a quaint home. It is large for us (and most of the world) at 1400 square feet but the American dream~it is rather quaint. We have just one main living space in the house, our family room, which is naturally where our family spends most of the time.
Often I will come in and find the boys have moved furniture around to create more space in that room. Actually, every piece of furniture, including the couch, has felt pads attached to the feet for easy moving by the boys.
This large floor space allows them to use their creativity all the more. Forts are made, games are played, marble mazes are constructed, and yoga dvd's are used for yoga time.
The longer we live in this home and utilize this space I firmly believe that having less has created a much more "full life" experience for all of us. It allows us freedom to move through our home with ease and when necessary~ create space in an instant.
And just as quickly as they can deconstruct the room, they put it back together. In fact, over time I have taught them how to straighten the family room themselves. Nearly each time we leave the house, it is their responsibility to make sure that the room is looking nice (not only does this help me out in the obvious way but it also gives me a few extra minutes to get ready without them begging to get out the door). They LOVE this job. They take pride in laying the quilts over the furniture~ rolling up the yoga mats~ putting away toys. Canaan's new idea is to put one magazine, from our stack of magazines, onto each piece of furniture so it looks like a bookstore (his words).
Although I typically would not drape a quilt over the entire chair or lay all of our magazines out on display it is so heartwarming to see them take care of our home along with Mike and I.
Now if I could just get them to put their clothes away in their drawer..hmm.....