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January 2, 2025 1:21 PM Subscribe
Formerly known as "Queen of Shitty Robots," YouTube's plucky "Inventor and breaker of things" Simone Giertz has been featured a lot on the blue, and deservedly so. Recently Simone invited YouTube channel Never Too Small to tour her exceedingly charming and efficiently laid out 630 square foot (58 square meter) house. Expect to observe loads of DIY, and delightful use of space.
I don't like that I am at this stage in my life where I have oil paintings of myself in my house, but I feel like this is an edge case and an exception.
What a fantastic quote! I would love to inspire someone to make an oil painting of me on spec, but also would be very overawed by it.
posted by ambrosen at 1:50 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]
What a fantastic quote! I would love to inspire someone to make an oil painting of me on spec, but also would be very overawed by it.
posted by ambrosen at 1:50 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]
That oil painting remark cracked me up.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:19 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:19 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
i'm in a 850 sqft studio apt and idk what magic she's done but it looks downright expansive compared to my space. inspiring.
posted by glonous keming at 4:03 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
posted by glonous keming at 4:03 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
Giertz is really creative and inventive, and I liked what she had to say about how her house inspires her. I feel much the same way about my 1130 sq. ft. 3 bedroom semi. Challenging yourself to find ways to make your house comfortable and attractive within the limitations of a small space and/or a small budget is so satisfying and exciting -- like your space is a design lab, and doors are opening in your mind.
posted by orange swan at 4:13 PM on January 2 [6 favorites]
posted by orange swan at 4:13 PM on January 2 [6 favorites]
She did live on a houseboat for some time, if I recall correctly.
posted by cobaltnine at 4:25 PM on January 2
posted by cobaltnine at 4:25 PM on January 2
Beautiful house! I partcularly like "Plamp" and that puzzle table is amazing. I wish we'd got to see more of the shop.
posted by signsofrain at 5:17 PM on January 2
posted by signsofrain at 5:17 PM on January 2
Oh god those steps are so unsafe
The "mechanical fruit bowl" is cute, though!
posted by praemunire at 5:22 PM on January 2
The "mechanical fruit bowl" is cute, though!
posted by praemunire at 5:22 PM on January 2
I love her space. Wish I could live in a little 700 sq foot place with just a cat. Sounds like heaven. Downsize, downsize!
Glonous keming, it's a very nice, well-proportioned space. But having a huge workshop makes a big difference. It's where you can put all that extra crap you still need but don't want in the house.
I love her puzzle table!
posted by BlueHorse at 6:28 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
Glonous keming, it's a very nice, well-proportioned space. But having a huge workshop makes a big difference. It's where you can put all that extra crap you still need but don't want in the house.
I love her puzzle table!
posted by BlueHorse at 6:28 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
Loved this! As a fellow small-space dweller (though I do feel compelled to point out that 600 sq ft for 1 human would be considered luxuriously excessive in many parts of the world), I really want to like Never Too Small the channel, but the spaces they feature often seem quite chic and their videos function more like thinly-veiled advertisements for the featured designers and architects instead of a source of actually useful inspiration for anyone who doesn't have the time and money to gut and rebuild their entire apartment, IMO. But this really does feel just like a nice, lived-in home that happens to have genuinely useful, creative stuff in it. Kind of want to build my own Plamp now.
posted by btfreek at 7:33 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
posted by btfreek at 7:33 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
Honestly I’m just glad she’s doing ok, all things considered. That she’s living in a cute space she likes is also good.
posted by mhoye at 8:28 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 8:28 PM on January 2 [2 favorites]
I still want to be her when I grow up. Ok, maybe that's a little silly, but I admire the attitude and creativity she brings to problems - even just with first identifying that it's a problem.
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:50 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:50 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]
I'm so jealous! (I live in a similarly sized space, plus one room, which is functionally useless just now*) and I love her space and aesthetic, and, man, I don't have a lot of stuff, but it just ... strews. All the clear surfaces in her place! I can never, ever have that. If I DO clear a surface, it's going to be extremely unclear in, I don't know, 30 minutes and counting? One: Not enough storage. So, a place for everything and everything in its place is fine, if there's a place for everything. Two: I'm apparently just a natural chaos magnet, no matter how hard I try to be serene and minimal.
We live in an apartment in a 1930s-ish house that really had pretty much no built in storage. So we have lovely high ceilings and great paned windows and french doors, but I have one after-build (ikea type) closet for clothes, and the other similar closet holds my husband's work stuff (equipment). In the kitchen, I have one drawer for silverware, one drawer for utensils, one drawer for tea towels, lesser used utensils, one spice drawer. It *seems* like it should work, but what it means in reality is that I have a jar of silverware (forks, spoons, etc.), a jar of knives (vegetable knives, steak knives; the big knives are on a magnetic strip on the wall), a cup of little spoons and forks, because they get used all the time and get lost in the larger silverware jar, and TWO jars of utensils (I use them all!) ... all on the counters.
Plus the electric kettle, the toaster, the espresso machine, the instant pot, the blender. All on the counters. Plus a cutting board. For the actual preparing of the foods. It seems so excessive when I type it out! But there is really no way for things to work in the kitchen with the space available (I have two very small cabinet shelves for all cups, mugs, glasses, tea cups, wine glasses, or cup-like objects; one long shelf for all plates, saucers, pasta bowl shaped things, and soup / cereal bowls stacked above that ... along with mandolin, hand vegetable chopper, items like that. Everything is stuffed! But I cook! If I could live in a kitchen with two cups, two plates, one pan, and a spork it would all be so much neater! I have no pantry, and no space for one if I'm also going to have pots and/or pans! So we have a bookshelf sort of thingy that will fit into the space just outside of the kitchen, for foodstuffs: rice, pasta, grains, cans, sugar, flour, cocoa ... you know, all the stuff to make food with. It looks so messy! That same hallway has a little freezer in it, because our little refrigerator has a teeny, tiny freezer. Which would be fine if we didn't have food that is frozen, and also ice cubes!
So that my terrible situation. I have a small space, would love, love, love to have beautiful clear surfaces, but I have things for which there are no spaces, and those things are the things of just daily living. I haven't even started on the bathroom ... no shelving or storage at all there. Nothing. Where do you even put your aspirin! (the answer is in a bowl on the kitchen table, of course. That's not an eyesore at all!) And no utility closet! And no laundry space! Storing cleaning stuff is a whole other big issue! I am absolutely not excessive, not a big collector, not a big hobbyist (because I can't, because no space), not a clothes horse, but I am not a natural minimalist no matter how hard I try. I still don't want to throw out my blankets, my zesting plane, my books, tea canisters, my vitamins, my deodorant, my oven mitt. So. The surfaces. They are not lovely and clear, and it makes me sad!
Every single time I stand up, I pick up a thing to put away ... somewhere. One single less thing on my desk or my kitchen table, or my coffee table. Put one thing away, throw one thing away. It's like chipping away at a mountain! 30 minutes later, two things are going to be back on whatever surface I just cleared of two inches of space! It's kind of like being haunted, except by scissors, and tissue boxes, and ink pens and throat lozenges instead of ghosts!
(* we had bed bugs. We don't now, but I'm so traumatized, I still have almost all my triple washed super high heat and super high dry-cycled clothes and towels and linens still bagged up. I mean ... it should be okay now. I should be able to put that stuff back away. But, like in a horror film, I just can't seem to face that body that should totally absolutely be quite dead now, but if I turn around it will rise from the bathtub with its stabby long knife and SKRRRREEEEE SKREEEEEE SKREEEEE sounds in the background, fade to black.)
posted by taz at 3:28 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]
We live in an apartment in a 1930s-ish house that really had pretty much no built in storage. So we have lovely high ceilings and great paned windows and french doors, but I have one after-build (ikea type) closet for clothes, and the other similar closet holds my husband's work stuff (equipment). In the kitchen, I have one drawer for silverware, one drawer for utensils, one drawer for tea towels, lesser used utensils, one spice drawer. It *seems* like it should work, but what it means in reality is that I have a jar of silverware (forks, spoons, etc.), a jar of knives (vegetable knives, steak knives; the big knives are on a magnetic strip on the wall), a cup of little spoons and forks, because they get used all the time and get lost in the larger silverware jar, and TWO jars of utensils (I use them all!) ... all on the counters.
Plus the electric kettle, the toaster, the espresso machine, the instant pot, the blender. All on the counters. Plus a cutting board. For the actual preparing of the foods. It seems so excessive when I type it out! But there is really no way for things to work in the kitchen with the space available (I have two very small cabinet shelves for all cups, mugs, glasses, tea cups, wine glasses, or cup-like objects; one long shelf for all plates, saucers, pasta bowl shaped things, and soup / cereal bowls stacked above that ... along with mandolin, hand vegetable chopper, items like that. Everything is stuffed! But I cook! If I could live in a kitchen with two cups, two plates, one pan, and a spork it would all be so much neater! I have no pantry, and no space for one if I'm also going to have pots and/or pans! So we have a bookshelf sort of thingy that will fit into the space just outside of the kitchen, for foodstuffs: rice, pasta, grains, cans, sugar, flour, cocoa ... you know, all the stuff to make food with. It looks so messy! That same hallway has a little freezer in it, because our little refrigerator has a teeny, tiny freezer. Which would be fine if we didn't have food that is frozen, and also ice cubes!
So that my terrible situation. I have a small space, would love, love, love to have beautiful clear surfaces, but I have things for which there are no spaces, and those things are the things of just daily living. I haven't even started on the bathroom ... no shelving or storage at all there. Nothing. Where do you even put your aspirin! (the answer is in a bowl on the kitchen table, of course. That's not an eyesore at all!) And no utility closet! And no laundry space! Storing cleaning stuff is a whole other big issue! I am absolutely not excessive, not a big collector, not a big hobbyist (because I can't, because no space), not a clothes horse, but I am not a natural minimalist no matter how hard I try. I still don't want to throw out my blankets, my zesting plane, my books, tea canisters, my vitamins, my deodorant, my oven mitt. So. The surfaces. They are not lovely and clear, and it makes me sad!
Every single time I stand up, I pick up a thing to put away ... somewhere. One single less thing on my desk or my kitchen table, or my coffee table. Put one thing away, throw one thing away. It's like chipping away at a mountain! 30 minutes later, two things are going to be back on whatever surface I just cleared of two inches of space! It's kind of like being haunted, except by scissors, and tissue boxes, and ink pens and throat lozenges instead of ghosts!
(* we had bed bugs. We don't now, but I'm so traumatized, I still have almost all my triple washed super high heat and super high dry-cycled clothes and towels and linens still bagged up. I mean ... it should be okay now. I should be able to put that stuff back away. But, like in a horror film, I just can't seem to face that body that should totally absolutely be quite dead now, but if I turn around it will rise from the bathtub with its stabby long knife and SKRRRREEEEE SKREEEEEE SKREEEEE sounds in the background, fade to black.)
posted by taz at 3:28 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]
BlueHorse: "having a huge workshop makes a big difference.'
definitely 100%. it's what i lack, so hobby materials just spill out all over everywhere, constantly. i was right there in taz's comment as well, nodding along sympathetically.
posted by glonous keming at 7:44 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]
definitely 100%. it's what i lack, so hobby materials just spill out all over everywhere, constantly. i was right there in taz's comment as well, nodding along sympathetically.
posted by glonous keming at 7:44 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]
So. The surfaces. They are not lovely and clear, and it makes me sad!
Why fight against your natural impulses (and the original design principles of the architect)? Minimalism is not the only way to have a beautiful home. In fact, I'd say that most people aren't up to minimalism, not merely because of the extra cleaning/organization requirements, but because the fewer objects you have out, the better they need to be to look good.
Giertz's "small space" home is roughly 20% bigger than mine. I don't have that much stuff, but there's no way I could store everything mostly out of sight.
posted by praemunire at 7:55 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]
Why fight against your natural impulses (and the original design principles of the architect)? Minimalism is not the only way to have a beautiful home. In fact, I'd say that most people aren't up to minimalism, not merely because of the extra cleaning/organization requirements, but because the fewer objects you have out, the better they need to be to look good.
Giertz's "small space" home is roughly 20% bigger than mine. I don't have that much stuff, but there's no way I could store everything mostly out of sight.
posted by praemunire at 7:55 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]
That was fun, but I was expecting more robots.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:03 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]
posted by hydrophonic at 9:03 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]
You guys are so hard on yourselves! I'm no minimalist - although I aspire to be- but I could clean up and hide stuff enough to make a video and make it look good. You're seeing one short *staged* snippet in her house life. It's a day that the bed's made, no dirty dishes in the sink, and the sewing table doesn't have fabric, pins, tape, thread, scissors, and button box strewn. There are no boots drying on paperbags by the back door, no raincoat hanging out to dry, no muddy rags laying ready to wipe dog's feet. The chew toys aren't laying around, she doesn't have the cat dish out up on a high spot away from the dogs.
You guys forgot to consider both the workshop AND that attic storage in the equation for keeping clutter down. If you want to look decluttered in a half hour, throw all your extra necessary living crap behind a lovely stained glass slide door and coyly say 'don't judge me' when you open the attic slider.
She's good at dedicated spaces with storage out of sight and watching that prodded me to change a bit of the mess on my computer table. I've got flossers, chap stick, nail clippers and file, magnifier, analgesic cream and little tube of hand lotion and sticky notes that were laying around. I put them all in a little basket (with a flip lid to hide stuff!) and took all the pencils and pens out of a tin can and stuck them in a spare decorative coffee cup. I can always take them out and wash the cup if I need it for company. Everything looked totally organized yesterday, and yet today there's the phone bill, a pencil, a to-do note, a tape measure, and chap stick laying out.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:43 AM on January 3 [5 favorites]
You guys forgot to consider both the workshop AND that attic storage in the equation for keeping clutter down. If you want to look decluttered in a half hour, throw all your extra necessary living crap behind a lovely stained glass slide door and coyly say 'don't judge me' when you open the attic slider.
She's good at dedicated spaces with storage out of sight and watching that prodded me to change a bit of the mess on my computer table. I've got flossers, chap stick, nail clippers and file, magnifier, analgesic cream and little tube of hand lotion and sticky notes that were laying around. I put them all in a little basket (with a flip lid to hide stuff!) and took all the pencils and pens out of a tin can and stuck them in a spare decorative coffee cup. I can always take them out and wash the cup if I need it for company. Everything looked totally organized yesterday, and yet today there's the phone bill, a pencil, a to-do note, a tape measure, and chap stick laying out.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:43 AM on January 3 [5 favorites]
Heh, BlueHorse, yes, it reminded me of when we used to do desk reveals in Metatalktails! So scary! I'm looking at my desk and I have hand cream and ear buds and medication and disinfectant wipes, and my water cup and my tea cup and my pencils/scissors cup, my tissues, my phone, my laptop, my mouse, my mouse pad, my pen tablet, a framed photo, a bottle of perfume. Also Altoids! Curiously strong!
posted by taz at 10:58 AM on January 3
posted by taz at 10:58 AM on January 3
After watching this it remained with me as I walked through my own space. It is so important to have a "fit" so minimalism and customization are essential, and yet her sense of humor shines through in the objects that break both of those rules (those giant scissors probably don't cut giant things). I suppose we could all be inspired by leaning into our constraints!
posted by Word_Salad at 1:31 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]
posted by Word_Salad at 1:31 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]
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