Minimalism Through Multi-Purpose Living

There was a time when, as early humans, we had no homes. We travelled with large mammals and big cats, essentially moving with the food chain. We set up camps, later with fire, but no permanent homes. The earliest evidence of building dwellings or more permanent housing dates back to the Upper Paleolithic period, around 40,000 to 15,000 years ago. We did that by putting together structures with mammoth bones, inhabiting caves, mostly using wood too.

Homes as we know came later, and with them, home-keeping.

Over time, home-keeping has grown more complex with machinery, digitisation (think smart homes), interior trends, environmental concerns, and the desire to remove harmful substances. We increasingly work outside our homes, but our homes demand more of our attention. This is a problem.

Returning to an easy way of home-keeping

How can we return to a simpler, less time-consuming way of managing our homes? The most effective step is decluttering. Most people hate the word, the thought of doing that and just distance themselves from the idea all together. Please, read on, because this article is for declutter lovers and haters.

At Handmade Luxury Home, we’ve done our decluttering (we love it, albeit we understand it isn’t easy) and we highly recommend it. But we are compassionate too. We can’t return to prehistoric times. We have homes, families, and possessions we value for sentimental and practical reasons. So, what’s the next best thing to prehistoric minimalism?

The answer: owning fewer possessions. But how?

Start by organising Marie Kondo-style: group similar items together—tools with tools, kitchenware in the kitchen, sweaters in one place, trousers in another, books on shelves. This makes decluttering easier.

Next, declutter. Use rules like: “Discard anything unused in the past year.” Donate to charity or offer items for free on giveaway platforms (and meet kind people along the way).

After decluttering, look for single-use items that could be replaced with multi-functional alternatives. For example:

Trade a woollen blanket, tablecloth, and wall tapestry for one quilt. As Marga, a quilt lover and maker, notes: “At the end of its long, loved life, it could even serve as a play blanket for a family dog.” (Though she specialises in repairing and upgrading quilts, so this may never happen.)

Chopsticks are a multi-purpose tool. Common in Asia, their versatility surprise those used to spoons and forks. While I never mastered them as Asians do, I used them often in the kitchen—but also, to support young plant stalks.

Other multi-functional items include:

• Dutch oven: for bread, pasta, cakes, sauces, and more.

• Mason jars: for liquids, storage, vases, sprouting plants, etc.

• Castile soap: for body, home, cleaning, hair, lunchboxes, handwashing.

• Wooden stool: for sitting, as a step, or a plant stand.

• Sarong: as a backpack, throw, tapestry, towel, cover-up, hat, or room blind. (I once arrived in Asia with my suitcase en route to Africa. A kind colleague gave me a sarong, which I used as clothing, a scarf, a top, and a shawl until my luggage arrived.)

• Tenugui towel: kitchen and body towel, gift wrap, decoration, headscarf, or table runner.

• One-cup warmer: keeps drinks warm, protects against flies, and camouflages your coffee mug -which is majorly important when your husband steals zips from your coffee.

• Art cards: for correspondence, gifts, notebook embellishments, or small framed decor.

Fumio Sasaki, in his journey into extreme minimalism, writes about using one washing liquid (likely Castile soap) and a set of tenugui towels for himself and his studio. It’s enough, as long as you do your laundry at the right temperatures.

When possessions cost you time; scale them down and replace them with multi functional -preferable artisan- objects.

Multi-functional tools help us manage our homes without losing warmth or comfort.

The right towel, the right soap, the right quilt, or the perfect one-cup warmer—these choices not only reduce clutter but also simplify life.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer