After moving into the tiny house I find my material inventory overflowing. Yesterday I threw out a washed out and ill fitting sweatshirt, as well as the wife-beater merch the teacher gave out for the yoga retreat. It gives me a special kind of pleasure throwing away old and ugly stuff.

I’m stumped by people who are just the opposite. V is like that, she holds on to everything and her home is packed. I said to her “I have everything I need, except a stool” (I love sitting on stools). She said “I have two, but I only use one, you can take the spare one but I want it back”. I said OK but when I saw it… It was a low quality, badly painted and plain ugly stool. I struggled to find words: “nevermind it’s too ugly, I can’t believe you want it back” would have been the honest answer, instead I stress tested it and V. got nervous, as if a flimsy stool was something you would want at home.

In the end I said thanks and took it home. I contemplated the ugly stool and thought I was capricious by making a problem out of it. I can’t have this magnitude of ugly in my home! I must paint it. But considering materials and time, it’s more cost/time-effective to buy one secondhand. Still, the value is retained because I’d return it in better conditions than when I borrowed it.

Many of my designer friends have a neurotic relationship towards ugliness. They can’t tolerate it. I think I have the same kind of predisposition, but a lot more tolerance to it. My mother is… how would I put it… baroque, impractical and messy, so I’m trained for it.

The functionality, however, is unimpaired by its ugliness. I sit down in the middle of the kitchen and from there I can reach the counter, the table, the drying rack and the stairs, and to move things from one place to the other I simply swivel on my rear. The height is just right for my size, my knees bend at a 90deg angle and it feels great for meditation.

Now I just have to buy white paint and a brush. However, at the end of this project I’ll be left with a can of paint and brush that I don’t need. I must throw that away too.