Shipwrecked: 2) Repurposing for the Needs of Your New Life

You've been shipwrecked on a deserted island. You've assessed your resources and are now looking at them, and thinking about the life you want to live on this "island" that is your home.

The thing is, you furnished your island for a different world, one with much coming and going. A large dining room for big gatherings with friends and family. Not too much in the kitchen, because you eat out often.

Should you rearrange things now to better suit your purposes? You can do that, you know. Accepting that we may be living almost exclusively on this "deserted island" opens us up to rearranging things to suit the reality we're living in now.

For instance, in our house we are cooking far more than we used to, and trying to limit our trips to the grocery store, so we're going to empty some shelves in a closet near the kitchen for storing staples. We have a dining room, used only for special occasions with extended family. We have a loft that had been a playroom, but much of what's up there has been long outgrown by our kids. So here are our resources, now what are our needs and wants?

Our needs and wants are different now. It will be insufferably hot soon, and exercising outside holds little appeal. Repurposing the loft as an exercise room appeals to all of us. Between the five of us now living here, we've got an exercise bike, some exercise bands, weights, and a yoga mat. We can make this into a space that we will want to go to.

I'm a pastor, now turned Zoomevangelist. I need a corner where I can do my filming, so we're looking around for a good place for that. And all of us are expressing a wish for a quiet corner where we're still in a common area, for things like doing jigsaw puzzles and crafts. That unused dining room might be just the thing, both for the filming and the quiet table.

Are there any projects around the house that you've been putting off for a while, that would now make a big difference in your day to day life? Can you do them now? My partner fixed a miniblind in the room that I'm now using as an office, and it's made a world of difference, being able to raise it all the way during the day (and completely cover the window at night - I was feeling like I was on stage for my neighbors!)

How can you turn your space into a home created for living through a pandemic?

Tomorrow: Shipwrecked: 3) Create a Covenant

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