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Partly because I still live at home (and there are three of us, soon-to-be-four, living in one room) and partly because I just like small things, I've become a bit obsessed with making the most of small spaces. I look around this house I grew up in and wonder how and why it never seemed as cramped when I was younger. We just recently had a tiny birthday celebration for my son with a total of 5 guests invited and the sitting room seemed tiny. My birthday parties used to be much bigger and it never seemed small then. My mum used to be able to get a double pushchair down the passageway whilst I have trouble getting my single one down it.

 It could be my perspective on things now that I'm older and more aware of things like this. Or it just could be that as time has gone on, we have collected a lot more things we really have no use for. Whichever it is, I look around and find so many things which don't maximise space at all. I also keep um-ing and ah-ing about whether I should take my dad up on the offer of his much bigger room before the baby arrives or whether to just stay put and re-organise it furniture.

Inspiration has come unexpectedly in a TV programme called George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, which follows people who turn tiny spaces into liveable, workable spaces. And this talk I found on TED by Graham Hill called Less Stuff, More Happiness is also good for thought.  I watch it every now and then and go on a big clear out of things I do not need. I feel the need to clear out now. I'm going to calling it nesting.