Bed-wearing finale

Well, the bed-wearing experimentation is now concluded.

I found that – as Buzzfloyd identified might be the case (see comment threads), clothes were inadequate insulation – they don’t provide the heat-trap air-spaces needed to stay warm at night. I looked up Bedouin solutions, and I'm not surprised they need a caravan of camels to get from place to place.

Also – and on the Facebook discussion threads my friend Rachel the hermit identified this – there was an issue about blankets coming apart and so me getting cold. One night the sheepskin and crocheted blanket got rucked up with each other and the whole thing was hard and uncomfortable.

But I still couldn’t countenance the thought of such bulky bedding to store, and wanted my space clear and plain.

So I dispensed with the sheepskins (they are normally occupied as seat pads on hard benches in the living rooms) . . .

. . . and with the too-small plaid blanket – repurposing it into making a fishing chair into an armchair in the living room (fishing chairs are comfy, portable and lend themselves to storing conveniently, but are visually hideous).

I incorporated a nice wooden chest from elsewhere (it was our Alice’s for a lot of years, then mine, then more recently it has stored the Badger’s sports gear, but that tucked into his t-shirt drawer okay), which still leaves enough floor space to lie down and sleep at night. 

The chest stores my shearling/velvet blanket, my crocheted blanket and my sleeping bag, and the cushion sits on the top. This gives the perfect combo for a good night’s sleep. My hot water bottle doesn’t go cold early, and I can just wear whatever thickness of night clothes the weather requires. Also it’s an easy bed kit to trundle between Komorebi and the big house or take camping or whatever. Nothing else needed. Excellent. Sorted.

I measured that little room of mine, by the way. Its dimensions are 5' 10" (that's 69 inches, or 175cm) by 8' 4" (that's 100 inches or 255cm). It looks quite spacious, doesn't it, once the storage is thought through and the possessions kept under stringent limits. Big and enough and small enough for peace and comfort.

I’ve been thinking about minimalism and simplicity and the difference between them, about possessions and making mental inventories and rationales thereof, and I’m planning to write about that to sort my thoughts out.

I’ve also been thinking about the channeling of personal energy – energy fields, boundaries, what nourishes energy and what saps it – and if I can get those thoughts into coherent order I’ll post about that too.

But I thought you might like to know about the bedding. Bed-wearing: it didn’t work. The sleeping bag arrangement would also allow for sleeping without clothes as strongly recommended by a couple of friends on one of the threads. I took note that this is a healthy thing to do.

I’d like to write about clothes too – because finding the right clothing is, in my experience, not easy. Once one has the right versatile and dignified comfy things that fit properly and don’t shout loudly or develop personal agendas more assertive than my own, they are to be treasured indeed.