View Full Version : Radical Downsizing & Happiness
My partner and I downsized from a combined 3,900 sq. ft. + combined 400 sq. ft. of storage units to 1,100 sq. ft. in 2009. We auctioned, donated and discarded furniture, household items and clothing to accomplish this feat.
We will be relocating again in April and will be renting an 829 sq. ft. loft unit. This prompted us to find alternate homes for a table, an upholstered leather chair and an ottoman (we gave them to a neighbor) and a loveseat (it will go nicely in my partner's new office) and to consider downsizing further.
I have found that the less stuff I have, the happier I am. I'm curious about others who have downsized radically and their experiences with it.
yup. same. went from 1300 sq ft to 500 sq ft. we are doing quite well with very little. I like it. In fact I feel that we have too much right now. I need to do a declutter. And I need some shelves so that I can have a more organized closet. I want to put DS's toys in there, so that they are not always in the lounge (which is open to our bedroom, where DS sleeps, and so it distracts him), and then also have a place for his books (which are currently put away in drawers, so while he has access, he "forgets" where they are, and so spends less time "reading." shelves where all of his things are would be awesome.
DH and I did the same a year ago last November, when we moved across country to Florida into a smaller apartment than our 1,300 sq.ft. house. We got rid of one car, a ton of junk, and auctioned off all our furniture and a few items of clothing. Then we moved to Israel last month, to a modestly furnished apartment. Before doing that, we auctioned off nearly every item of the "new" second-hand furniture we'd bought to furnish the Florida apartment. Our remaining personal possessions (clothes, books, art, etc.) went into a 200 cubic foot "lift," which is currently near Spain somewhere and should get to us in Israel in a week or two. We each came to Israel with two suitcases and a carry-on bag each, and that's it.
I have to say, though, that I really miss most of what is in that lift! I miss it for practical reasons: I can't cook much or bake at all with the limited supplies I have. I am under-clothed for the weather, because it has been much colder here than I thought it would be, so I'm physically uncomfortable. I can't relax by doing any of my crafting activities (paper making, painting and jewelry-making). I don't have my music, so I can't rehearse. We don't have any of our sacred objects with us (too delicate to just stuff in a suitcase), etc. I miss our art because it reminds me of happy times and people I love, and because the walls are bare and stark without anything on them (except for a few weird pieces the landlords have up, including a very large and strange photograph of a power plant in Haifa!). It's tedious to have to keep washing the same clothes over and over again, as well as tedious to keep wearing the same outfits over and over.
All in all, I predict that we downsized to pretty much the right level, and the stuff we still have will be stuff we will continue to use, love, and appreciate. We've gone through the downsize-for-a-move thing twice in two years, so now we know how easy it is to accumulate and waste money buying duplicates of things. I think we're pretty much cured of that habit! Also, having less of everything makes everything easier to find, clean, maintain, or refill if necessary. I find my life much more conscious, much more deliberate, and much more satisfying because of having virtually no clutter. I still have to be vigilant, though, about letting crap build up! We've only been here a month and the paper is flooding in already!
Yes, I downsized from having a three-bedroom house last year to a one-bedroom apartment. I gave away practically all my furniture, about 3/4 of my books, and a ton of household items. It was really liberating.
I downsized further at the beginning of this year to a smaller one-bedroom apartment. The size is just right for me, especially since I'm either at school or outside much of the time. I did give away a few more books and some clothing that didn't fit anymore before this move. A few things went into storage. I only have things in this apartment that I actually use often, or really like.
I do have some things in storage. Some of them - like my loom and my weaving supplies - I do want to keep, because I know I'll want to start weaving again. Some things (like household and hobby stuff I had in the last apartment and never used) I need to reevaluate as I have time this year, and either donate them or sell them. Ideally, I'd get rid of the storage unit, if I can find a way to fit the things I know I'll definitely use again into the limited storage I have here. And yeah, there's a definite cost associated with the storage. And in moving crap around.
Well, we're upsizing as DH and I are moving in with Mom later this year (Dad passed away and she doesn't want to live alone. Our house is too small for the additional four dogs and she lives in the country). Even though she has ample storage space and has urged me to bring anything and everyting I want from my own house (we've lived there 20+ years, so we've accumulated some stuff), I'm using this as an opportunity to really declutter.
Funny, I have less stuff now as a homeowner than I had when I rented. As a renter I would find things and think they would be great to use when I had a house some day. So I dragged these items around, year after year. Since I've been in my house, almost 8 years now, I found most of the things I carried around I don't want to use or had no need for so for the last several years I've been getting rid of it all.
I really prefer not having many possessions and continually dream about a 12 X 12 space. Until then I'll have to be satisfied with my empty rooms, cabinets and drawers.
HumboldtGurl
2-3-12, 3:16pm
Congrats on freeing yourself of stuff!
Ahhh, my favorite topic.
DH and I went from almost 4,000 sq. ft. in the house that held our home and business, to a 24' fifth wheel trailer when we decided to hit the road in 2007. We sold or gave away nearly everything we owned and it was so amazing to see how much junk we had accumulated after just 10 years of being together.
Although we have a small cabin in Colorado now (small meaning just under 1k sq ft) where we keep a few pieces of furniture and stuff, we continue living in our RV most of the year (the cabin is at 8500' and not a lot of fun for us this time of year!). Whenever we are at the cabin, it's nice, but I do feel the weight of those possessions and eventually we'll sell that off and only own the RV as a home.
Here's the funny thing: when we first hit the road it was only supposed to be for a year. So we put some things in storage. While they were stored away, I couldn't even remember half of what was in there. Of those possessions stored in our cabin, I don't miss them at all while we're out living in the RV. Stuff is so overrated!
I find my life much more conscious, much more deliberate, and much more satisfying because of having virtually no clutter.
Living more consciously and deliberately appeals to me greatly, as does having virtually no clutter. Thanks to everyone for sharing!
Here's the funny thing: when we first hit the road it was only supposed to be for a year. So we put some things in storage. While they were stored away, I couldn't even remember half of what was in there. Of those possessions stored in our cabin, I don't miss them at all while we're out living in the RV. Stuff is so overrated!
I noticed the same thing when we moved into our house years ago. We had to do extensive renovations for a few years, so we never bothered to unpack some of our boxes. Once we finally got to unpacking them, we ended up getting rid of 95% of the stuff.
When we moved from our apartment to our home 10 years ago we got rid of two pick-up truck loads worth of stuff. Just donated it all to the Boy Scouts for their annual yard sale. We moved into our home we still had a ton of furniture, books and so on. We eventually pared it down more and got rid of about 500 books, our tv, DVDs, CDs, large bookcases etc... We also gained some things like a bedroom furniture for the guest room (which is used for weeks at a time by my mom, age 84, when she looses power in the winter), furniture for my art studio which is located in the finished room of my basement.
My home (about 1200 sq ft) as a ton of storage and most of it is empty. I like it that way. Gives me a sense of peace. Nothing nicer than opening a kitchen cabinet or closet and being able to actually see everything in it because it's not jammed with stuff but is neat and organzied.
I haven't moved to a smaller place, largely because the housing market here is beyond sluggish, but I am decluttering like mad. I actually feel a sense of physical relief when I get rid of things, especially furniture. I like lots of open space and no clutter, including knick-knacks and other decorations.
I can relate to so much of what I'm reading here. It's so refreshing to connect with others who feel similarly about decluttering. I am truly happier with less stuff than more stuff and I prefer to have things I really use and enjoy than a bunch of stuff I don't need and/or don't use.
We haven't downsized, but we have decluttered a ton since we moved in here a few years ago. Possibly a literal ton of stuff.
We took over the house I grew up in and got rid of an entire basement full of stuff and then some. Then Dad moved back in with us and we got rid of another big round of stuff. Then Dad decided to get rid of his storage locker and we got rid of yet another big round of stuff. In that sense I guess we did downsize because we combined households with Dad, eliminating the 800 sq ft apartment he had and the 10x10 (?) storage unit.
Even though we don't have a small house, we have eight people here, so per person we have just over 300 square feet of space. It feels about right for us.
When I had to move out of my rented condo for three weeks in December, I only had 17 (18 gallon size) plastic tubs of stuff, in addition to several crates of last minute bathroom/kitchen stuff, and two trash bags with bulky bedding. Four tubs of kitchen stuff was left in my kitchen, which was stuffed with my furniture. I only have a double bed, a small couch, an easy chair, a wooden chest at the foot of my bed (was my toy box when I was a kid), a small folding kitchen table with two chairs, two bar stools for the breakfast bar (left here by the landlord), an end table, and a wooden stool I use as a bedside table. Don't need a dresser as there are lower shelves in my BR walk-in closet I use with several canvas bin for smaller clothing items. I almost forgot I have a small bookcase.
I had more books and papers when I moved than clothes! A large part of that was books/papers for my theological education program, for which I just have to do 11 essay questions on a take home exam and I am done. Then there are the 4-5 large books for the US customs broker exam (April 2) I'm spending all my time studying for. The theological related papers will be pitched (I have digital copies) and some of the books given away. The broker exam materials will go to work for reference there. That will be a good amount of stuff gone.
My current level of minimalism - I got rid of TONS of stuff before I had to do the temporary move-out - feels very good. I've stopped bringing in a lot of stuff. This winter, all I bought clothes wise were items I needed - a good pair of boots, two pairs of shoes (exact same) to replace a worn out pair, now discontinued, an outfit of a cardigan, pants, and t-shirt, but all go with other items, and get worn very frequently. I will have to buy more items this spring/summer, but only because I've worn things out!
Maxamillion
2-4-12, 3:47pm
I haven't done a major downsizing but I did do a pretty major decluttering back in late summer. I had a yard sale and what didn't sell, I took to Goodwill (had enough stuff to fill up my truck). That was pretty good for me considering how much trouble I have parting with stuff. It felt fantastic, like a weight lifting off my shoulders. I still have too much for the one-bedroom apartment that I'm living in, but gradually am getting rid of more things.
HumboldtGurl
2-4-12, 5:34pm
I noticed the same thing when we moved into our house years ago. We had to do extensive renovations for a few years, so we never bothered to unpack some of our boxes. Once we finally got to unpacking them, we ended up getting rid of 95% of the stuff.
Oh funny, that's exactly what we did when we finally got our storage unit cleared out.
I couldn't believe the stuff I thought was important to save, like books! Eight flippin' boxes! I was so disgusted at myself for paying to store them, along with a lot of career clothes I'll never wear again if I can help it and an extra set of dishes. Seriously dumb to pay to store the stuff for two years, but live and learn right?
RCWRTR. Would love to hear from you Re: any updates you may have. :)
We've never downsized, but I definitely lean towards minimalism, wherever possible. Organization and neatness, are two things that have always had a soothing effect on me. IMO, a cluttered home, equates to a cluttered mind/life.
We're actually in the process of upsizing just a bit. Its because we are building a house in an area that still has somewhat antiquated notions of everyone's house being up to "minimum standards". Trick is that other than that one architectural requirement the area is exactly what we want so we decided to just deal with it. The interesting part is that we will be moving far less into the new house than we had before. We've made a very conscious effort to declutter and only bring things into the house that fit the do we use them, do we find them beautiful or do they make us happy criteria. We're not strict about it because sometimes you're just not sure until you're there. We're also not minimalists at all and so don't want the new place to feel like an empty barn. We've even picked out a few new things for the house that we've always like the look of. That said, it has been very liberating and somewhat gratifying to give away piles and piles of stuff. I'm not sure if happier is exactly the way I would describe it, but certainly lighter which doesn't hurt at all!
We have begun the process of sorting, packing, donating and discarding items. We have been making weekly donations to two local church charity shops. I have printed off copies of the floorplan and have been working on final furniture placement planning for our new loft. I am thrilled to have large walk-in closets and much more cabinetry and counter space in my new kitchen. I am planning how to utilize these most effectively.
I scheduled the moving crew for mid-April after gettng estimates, checking references, etc.
I have done some shopping. I purchased some much needed new bed linens, bath towels, washcloths and hand towels for the kitchen and bathroom with a 35% OFF coupon (on top of January White Sale prices) for the new place. I plan to use the worn and weary old towels, washcloths and hand towels for cleaning, washing cars, grooming pets, etc. I only purchased 1 piece of furniture for our new place, to make existing furniture work well for the new space. I chose a beautiful Amish-made tiger maple Windsor chair. Since we will be foregoing a sofa and loveseat in our next place, we really needed more than just 2 chairs (1 upholstered chair and 1 ladderback chair w/ arms) and an ottoman for seating in the great room area. I expect to get many years of use from all 3 chairs and think that chairs are much more practical as an investment, as I will surely be able to use them in our next home. I confess to one indulgence: I bought a ventless fireplace for the great room. I got the floor model at a deep discount and was able to touch up two tiny scratches using wood stain and a colored wax stick made for retouching furniture. You can't even see where it was scratched! I justified this purchase, as I wanted a second source of heat in the event of power failures, but it doesn't hurt that it will make the great room a bit cozier/add ambiance.
I've never really downsized my principle residence, but a couple of times I've lived for months on one suitcase and absolutely LOVED it.
The first time was when my son worked on a movie in St. Louis, and he got called to arrive on set weeks earlier than expected. I had no time to plan, so I just threw stuff in a middle-sized suitcase (what you would use for maybe a week on the road), and figured I'd have my DH ship stuff out later. I never asked him to ship out anything--finding I really had all I needed for me AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN in this one suitcase. It was great.
The second time was last year, when I went to a "poustinia" (small cabin/cottage for reflection and prayer) for six weeks. Again, I brought the bare minimum of clothing and personal items. It fit into one wheelie that you could bring on a plane and one plastic tub of my work needs/files, my favorite books, one set of sheets, two towels, and some condiments and grains that I didn't feel like having to purchase all over again when I got there. I felt so at peace in that place--for many reasons I'm sure, but lack of clutter has to be up there with them.
In both situations, I vowed to go home and get rid of at least 75% of my stuff, but it hasn't happened yet. Just laziness, I think.
I'm decluttering again this weekend. Gotta find another piece of immigration paperwork. I had it all together, but I think it got shifted in the one trunk. Always a good time to declutter. :D
Sounds like you are right on track, RCWRTR, and the walk-in closets you mention make me sooo jealous! As does the loft. One of my longtime dreams has always been to have a loft (with large expansive windows) where I could set-up a sewing/sitting room. A couple of bookcases along with some comfy lounge-type seating, and I'd be set! Always so much fun hearing from those (like yourself) who are making moves.
One of my favorite things about our new place is the French doors w/ transoms, high ceilings and lots of windows. The bedrooms and bathrooms are defined spaces, but the remainder of the loft is open-concept. Books always figure prominently in my homes.
6 years ago we made the decision to downsize home, cars, life, hubby quit work and we moved to our vacation home up north. It was exactly one year of planning, organizing, lists, lists and more lists. It was a possible mid life crisis for hubby??? A total change of life to say the least. It did not work for us at that given time in life. A wonderful place to vacation, ended up being not a great place to live. We referred to it as watching the river flow by days. SO many things took a place in the reason this event did not work for us. We actually over budgeted/planned to far out into the future and I personally think that was the killer of the plan. We learned a great deal from the event and overall glad we tried it. It was kinda like a diet when you restrict yourself of the foods you love, you turn around and eat more! Three months into the life changing event my hubby said he was Rotting in paradise. He hopped a plane to NYC, then to Turkey and got back into the rat race faster then before. We are now at a happy medium and more realistic on what works for us. We occasionally talk about how and where we want to live, but no more 100 % total changes.
I orginally downsized from a 1400 sf 3/2 house in SoCal to an approx. 800 sf 2/2 cabin about 100 miles away (and 7,000 ft up) in a 4 season ski/lake/mountain resort town. Cost about 1/4 of what I sold my place for and enabled me to quit work at age 42. Like ctg492, the area - while a great beautiful vacation spot and a very sports active community (something I need wherever I live) - ended up not being a great place to live permanently for a variety of reason - mostly too small of a town and too difficult to get anywhere because of mountain roads, snow, etc... So I have since downsized to nothing - a rental part of the year and travel the other part. Will buy another place eventually "somewhere" but it will be most likely a very small condo or house. Would love to rent all my life but may not be the wisest thing financially in the long run.
we just did another declutter!
it's really important to do this on a regular basis, because MY GOD stuff just sneaks in. :D So, we are doing well overall.
I think that my next plan is to start moving toward a 'zero waste' home (http://zerowastehome.blogspot.co.nz).
Right now, most of our 'trash' is recycling. Then, about every 3rd or 4th week, we put out our trash, which is pretty much 100% compostable stuff. So, we want to get compost going.
I'm going to have a two-part composting process. First, we'll have a bokashi bin for meat, bones, etc. We will likely need 1-2 bins, because they do have to ferment a bit once one is full (about a month from what I can gather) before putting those materials in the normal compost.
Then, we're going to have an aerating compost bin (which is designed for our sort of urban setting) for the remainder of our kitchen waste. The bin is expensive, but apparently the city is trying to support more composting, and we can get a coupon! So, I applied for that and we are saving up for the bin.
FRom there, our recycling bin really only goes out once a month (it's one of those big trash-can ones), because we actually do not create that much waste.
Our recycling will further reduce by using paper as part of our dry material for the compost bin. I have been reading up on basically tearing up paper, cardboard egg cartons, and card board boxes to use as dry, carbon material (like grass clippings) to facilitate the process. This is great!
We have a lot of glass bottles right now -- many of which will be recycled -- but many more will be reused. I'm looking to reduce the amount of plastic in the home -- and so we'll be using these green glass olive oil bottles for our shampoo, dish soap, and laundry soap going forward. I will be keeping the very large laundry soap container (washed out) as a carrying can to get water from the local spring, and then transition it over to glass bottles that fit well into our fridge door.
Here are some bathroom disposables that we need to find/figure out: 1. compostable floss; 2. compostable tooth brushes; 3. compostable ear buds; 4. tooth powder; 5. deodorant without packaging (deoderant stones are out, he doesn't care for them. powders apparently aren't his favorite, and I can't figure it out. . .).
In the kitchen, we do really well overall. Our primary kitchen waste is the packaging from the fish that we purchase. As fas as we can tell, it's not recyclable. So that would be two "bags" a week. Actually, our trash-trash consists of two fish bags a week plus some cotton ear buds and floss. When our toothbrushes die, those also go in the trash -- which is why I want to move to the compostable ones. But not much else is not recycled or compostable (most of our trash is compostable).
Not sure what to do about those fish bags.
In our living room and bedroom, no trash coming from there -- so that's good stuff. We do have "office paper" that is being recycled regularly through that for notes, and then recycled in the recycling bin now, but hopefully into the compost once we get that online.
ah, and pens. what to do about pens?
I think that, overall, we are doing quite well -- and we are happy with this process. DH and I once again debated paying for a parking space vs busing in most days (save 1-2), and ultimately decided that bussing is still more cost effective. Once DS is in school (slightly out of town -- about a 40 minute drive from the house), then we'll likely get one because it will likely be thus: drive me into town, I get out of the car with a good 20 minute walk left to go; DH drives DS into school, drives back into town and parks; we work, and we go and pick up the kid together, and head home.
This makes much more sense than using the bus and the car, and will save money THEN, but wouldn't save money NOW. And, DH is thinking that we might carpool 1-2 kids from our area as well -- which might bring in some $ to offset gas and also, since we're doing it anyway, make it more eco-friendly for fellow families who send their kids to school there.
Anyway, looks like we are doing very well overall, and I'm excited about the prospect of developing more zero-waste or really, reducing waste, practices. . . and continuing to "live small." :D
Zoebird, I have tried the Bokashi buckets and found them a real pain for a couple of reasons. We gave up after one bucket and then its replacement both quit within 6 weeks. The problem was the little tap which you have to use a lot just kept busting - they seem to be made of inferior material. Plus, it was not without smell, even using it as the instructions laid out.
We actually found it much simpler to use either a worm farm (for things that could go in) or to dig a hole and bury things (like meat/bones) that couldn't go in to the worm farm. Much cleaner and broke down quicker. Also, to use the Bokashi buckets, you have to buy the mixture to help it break down - definitely not a cheap way to go and we found the earth delt with it all much quicker, cleaner and cheaper.
Good luck with setting up the systems - I'm still trying to get ours to all fit together!
we have no place where we can bury it, or I would. Our entire yard would be dug up and buried with a week's worth of meat. So, that isn't feasible for us.
the bokashi bins here don't have taps. they have a bucket inside a bucket, and the inside bucket has holes and works like a strainer. Then you drain off the bokashi liquor into another container.
it's not a perfect system because you are dependent on the starter, but it's at least an option for those of us who don't have a lot of yard in which to bury the bones. :)
I'm trying to downsize from what most people would already consider a pretty downsized life: I live in a studio apartment (about 450 sq. ft.) and the furniture I own would easily fit into a van. This week I sorted through my remaining books and will be giving them to friends or to the library book sale. I rarely buy books unless I can't get them from the library, but during the past few years I've accumulated a few dozen in spite of myself. Now that I've read them all (in some cases more than once), it's time to set them free in the wild. In future I hope to confine myself to having no more than 10 or 12 at a time.
My ultimate goal is what I call "duffel bag living" (after a remark someone once made to me that he was happiest when he was in the army and all his worldly possessions fit into a duffel bag). I suppose this is my version of the "100 thing challenge," although I don't believe in setting numbers on such things -- for some, the 100 thing challenge might involve owning 250 things; in my case it might end up being less. We'll see.
We are in the process of building a house and are living in a rented townhouse of about 1150 sq.ft. right now, which is about 20% of our old house. Most of our stuff is in storage, but we are seriously negotiating with each other regarding how much we want to take out and how much we want to just give away. The 1150 sq.ft. is plenty of space. The only difficulty is that we don't have any real spot for teen DD to go with her friends to just hang out. The living room is the only social/public space. She will be off to college in 2 years so not really worried about it long term, it would just be nice for now. The interesting part for us right now is that the house we are building all of a sudden feels huge after seeing how easy it is to live in the townhouse. The new house is on a prime lot in a very desirable neighborhood so we've had several calls out of the blue asking if we would be interested in selling. We're thinking we might be. Life is a moving target!
I'm trying to downsize from what most people would already consider a pretty downsized life: I live in a studio apartment (about 450 sq. ft.) and the furniture I own would easily fit into a van. This week I sorted through my remaining books and will be giving them to friends or to the library book sale. I rarely buy books unless I can't get them from the library, but during the past few years I've accumulated a few dozen in spite of myself. Now that I've read them all (in some cases more than once), it's time to set them free in the wild. In future I hope to confine myself to having no more than 10 or 12 at a time.
My ultimate goal is what I call "duffel bag living" (after a remark someone once made to me that he was happiest when he was in the army and all his worldly possessions fit into a duffel bag). I suppose this is my version of the "100 thing challenge," although I don't believe in setting numbers on such things -- for some, the 100 thing challenge might involve owning 250 things; in my case it might end up being less. We'll see.
A person after my own heart!! I too live a pretty minimalist life and own very few things. I love living "small" and was also happiest when I was in the coast guard with all my earthly possessions fitting into a small locker or duffle bag. I got rid of ALL my books years ago and find that whatever I need, the library has it. I also don't have home internet (too addictive to me) so use the giant libray in the beautiful park near my home. I use thier free wi-fi, borrow books, DVDs, Cd, and use many of their services - all of which are free or low cost and allow me to view/read everything I want without having to clutter up my living space with "stuff". I can bike or walk everywhere if I want, and try to, but do have a vehicle. Living small rocks!!
... Books always figure prominently in my homes.We too!
We radically downsized in 2006 and 2007. We went on a sabbatical 6 week vacation in 2006 in our Truck Camper. We had been living in a single family home with just two people, thinking that we would stay in the home for our entire lives. But we found that we had become couch potatoes, not doing all the things that we had enjoyed when we first met: Hiking, biking, camping etc.
On the way back home from our trip, we stopped at a National Park called Prince William Forest Park, in Triangle VA. They were looking for a volunteer that would work in the visitor center. If the person worked 32 hours, the RV site was free. The utilities were included. It did not take us long to figure out that this was what I should do while my husband kept working at his job. So on the very last hour of the very last day of the sabbatical, we came home and put our house on the market within a month of that sabbatical.
We lived in a 2,400 square foot home and we would be moving to a .... 24 square foot home!
No furniture as the RV has the furniture. We were moving into our Truck Camper. We had an utility trailer for our garage stuff, but it was not for living space. We sold all of the furniture gave away tons of stuff (donating gave us a large write off as I kept pictures of everything and figured out estimates on the prices of stuff), sold on Ebay, Craigslist, Amazon and Half.com. We had a large estate sale, and even sold off food and vitamins, cleaning products and toiletries! I sold the house by not having a realtor "list" the home but got it sold with a buyer's agent. It took only 3 months to sell back in 2007.
We moved into our RV in May 2007 on the day that we closed on the house. We managed to live in that RV for 2.5 years! First in Prince William Forest Park, then a private Campground, then DH retired from his job and I started to work for the federal government as a Park Ranger and we moved to Cape Hatteras National Seashore. That summer was extremely buggy and we found 24 square feet was not enough when there were two people and only a dinette (two seats and one table) or the bed to sit upon. We moved up a little in size, now in an RV that is ~ 240 square feet. So a dinette and a couch! Plus bedroom kitchen and a garage! We now live in a fifth wheel toyhauler (which means there is a garage for the last 11 feet in the back.) Sometimes we call it the mud room, but still it is a great place for the two motorcycles.
We do not have furniture like we did at the house, and we have less "stuff" but we enjoy what we have and are happy. I still work with the NPS, as a park ranger at Grand Canyon National Park. Hopefully we will never have the same amount of stuff ever again.
Wow! That's impressive, Laura.
dat is super awesome, omg!
i think about rv living all the time now!
Tussiemussies
6-8-12, 2:14am
Laura, what an interesting life you are living. I've thought of being a park ranger many times. Glad for you that you are able to do it and live comfortably in your RV. : ))
I lived for years being able to take everything I had to a new home base in a single pick up load. Marriage & kids changed that. We ended up in what most would consider a McMansion. No regrets, it just was what it was. Two of three kids are now on their own, the big house is sold and we are going to spend the summer as townhouse renters and renovators of a 800 sq.ft. ranch house. We get a little more excited to move into it with every passing day! I'd love to try Laura's RV lifestyle, at least for part of the year, but we have a lot of family around our area so want to keep the home base. Different strokes I guess.
Over the past couple of years I have been trying to move in to the home I purchased and am living with my boyfriend out in the country. He has a lot of posessions.. antiques etc.. I have a lot of stuff.
My mother died back in 2010 and I am an only child and she bordered on pack ratidom. I still have a huge barn in KY that I have been slowly trying to get through... as time permits.
We have had a lot of delays, illness etc.. and I had a fairly successful yardsale last weekend.
However, I have a ton TON of clothes and books and ... boxes and boxes and boxes of photograpsh.. I am a photographer and geneologist so I have a ton of that kind of material that isn't easy to just sell or dump. I hope that some day soon I will be able to continue to scan and sort.. I have a lot of my mother's old papers and ephemera that I want to slowly enjoy going through.. .but right now, they are in tupperware containers.. those things are not easy to get rid of ...
but other stuff... I am ready to let go of and have. I have donated TONS of clothes already and continue to cull that.. WE have about 2,000 square feet, but no basement... and my bf has a storage garage about 20 minutes away. I have been so stressed about owning all this stuff. I am selling certain things and getting newer more practical stuff. (Like selling an older dresser that sticks and getting a newer one that won't be such a pain).
It is a thoughtful process and I realise I hate useless stuff. I like practical, sturdy reliable quality stuff..
My mother was a doctor and had the traditional marriage back in teh 60's.. all the nice furniture (which I sold back to my stepfather). all the 60's old fashioned artwork, the silver set, the china, the this the that.. her clothes.. My stepfather still has the majority of their library but I have old TIME LIFE "collections" of the classics, of this and that.. thigns that every "proper" educated house had to have (my mum LOVED to subscribe to these things... and while they are nice.. I just don't have room!!)
I am 45.. and I am radically altering what is truly practical and meaningful. It is more and more of a pain to move it.. it holds you back, stresses you out about worrying about if it is going to get ruined.. etc...
I am learning to just take photographs of a lot of it.. for memories and then getting rid of it!!
and furthermore.. as an only child with NO children ... I have to realize I have NO ONE to leave my stuff too automatically.. so I might as well find homes for them NOW rather than holding on to them ...
I hear ya. My MIL died three years ago, and my BIL still lives in the same house, but he hasn't packed, sold, or moved her stuff--she had tons of Hummel and Royal Doulton figurines, Edinburgh crystal, different sets of china, etc. etc. It just seems daunting. We don't know how we'll ever get anything for these figurines which were so popular a few decades ago. No one collects them now. She used to actually worry about what would happen to these things when she died.. can you believe it? Like who cares when you're dead! But people had a different mindset then.
I get overwhelmed also when faced with "stuff," so I know how my BIL feels, but at the same time, at some point he/we are going to have to tackle it! It does make you realize that a great gift you can give your next of kin is an easy-to-dump estate. My own mother's personal belongings fit into one Goodwill bag and one cardboard box when my DB and I packed up her very lean estate.
Having now lived in our 829 sq. ft. rental since April 2012, my partner and I are currently in the midst of building a home. We began the process in January 2013 and will settle on our new home in October. Our new home will have a total of 1,419 sq. ft. of finished space, a garage, a full basement and a partial attic. The floor plan is very efficient, it has abundant storage space, closets, a large pantry, etc.
Because of zoning requirements for style, minimum square footage, etc., we opted to build a 1.5-story duplex home, rather than a single home. We could have gone with a smaller townhome or single home, but neither of these options offered the first floor amenities we desired.
Our new home will have a first floor master suite and first floor laundry, which were important to us, as we intend to stay in the home for many years. There will be a grand total of 27 homes on small lots in our new community, which consists of 4 townhomes, 7 duplexes and 9 single homes. The entire community is surrounded by preserved farmland, so we have a gorgeous view of rolling hills and open spaces, but don't have to maintain it!
We really went all out customizing our kitchen, adding plenty of extra cabinetry, both with and without drawers, and opting for taller cabinets. We added a full walkout bay window with tall windows in our formal dining room. We plan to use the bay area as a morning room and a reading nook. Our formal living room is a bright, open space with a vaulted ceiling, patio doors and tall windows. We intend to use it as a gathering area, but it will also function as my office. My partner will use one bedroom on the 2nd floor as his office and another bedroom upstairs will function as a den/guest room.
We will use our Amish-made cherry gate leg table in the formal dining room. I like the design of our gate leg table, as it gives us the option of positioning it along a wall like a buffet, with just one leaf raised, with both leaves raised or keeping both leaves in the down position when it's just the two of us at home. We added a 9 foot long serving ledge in our kitchen, which, along with the Amish-made cherry bar stools I ordered, will provide additional seating options.
Our home will have a lovely front porch overlooking preserved farmland and we will have a large, composite deck at the rear of our home. Our home is separated from our neighbors by a rear-facing garage, which is accessed via a service alley to the rear of our duplex and creates a courtyard effect, so we will have a fair amount of privacy.
Because the floor plan offers us great flexibility and all of the furniture we have selected, with the exception of our bed, can be used in any room of our new home, we thing 1,419 sq. ft. with a full basement and partial attic will work well for us now, and in retirement, without being more house than we need or want.
It's funny how a home of 1,419 sq. ft. sounds HUGE to us now after living in 829 sq. ft. for little more than a year and how crazy living in 829 sq. ft. initially sounded to us when we first considered downsizing to it. What I've learned throughout this process is that I need enough possessions to live comfortably, but not so many that I feel owned by them. I need a space that functions well and I want to live in a beautiful space. Home ownership has its advantages and disadvantages. For us, long-term, home ownership is the right choice, as was building a modest, eco-friendly, new home rather than purchasing a larger existing home with the right features or a smaller new or existing home with the wrong features.
try2bfrugal
7-18-13, 11:31am
We would like to downsize and move to a less expensive area a bit further out of town since we only work at home these days. Plus we want a smaller and newer house so it will be easy to clean and have less expensive repair and utility bills.
We have been decluttering for almost a year and have gotten rid of a ton of stuff. It is bizarre how much is gone and we haven't missed anything. I wish I had the money back for all the consumer items we bought that we ended up giving away or selling at a deep discount. But it is what it is. At least I learned the lesson now.
Our next step is to downsize to a smaller house.
Once the kids are launched, phase two will probably mean keeping a small condo in a low cost of living area of the U.S. and living in furnished apartments in other countries for months at a time looking for potential retirement spots to live in at least part of the year. I am ready for an adventure and most of this stuff is going to have to go before that can happen.
Caelidh, welcome to the forums!
You'll see there's a bunch of people here who are in the middle of or have completed a sizable downsizing. At least from what I've read here, no one has regretted doing that. DW and I had some downsizing to do when we combined households; we're going through another wave of it now that DD has settled into her own home and stuff we were holding for her is no longer wanted. Yup, the less stuff, the better. Good luck. It can be a tough process on some people; it can be joyful to live with less.
Once the kids are launched, phase two will probably mean keeping a small condo in a low cost of living area of the U.S. and living in furnished apartments in other countries for months at a time looking for potential retirement spots to live in at least part of the year. I am ready for an adventure and most of this stuff is going to have to go before that can happen. This has been my plan as well once I no longer have a dog or sis can pet sit long term - or just do it somewhere I can bring the dog. I really wanted to get rid of the house and then do the backpack around the world staying in hostels while travelling and rented apts longer term in between. Then buy a small condo after I was done and had a better idea where I wanted to live. However, now I will probably just do it like you plan to as I've found it's much easier to do that kind of thing with a home base to come back to.
You might be interested in a book called "Cashing in on the American Dream: How to retire at 35" by Paul and Vickie Terhorst. They basicly got rid of everything and have spent years - decades now - being perpetual travellers all over the world. Living in lovely rented places for a fraction of the cost of a similar place in the US. They are now settled home owners - in Argentina I believe - but have a website about their life. You can Google Paul terhorst for info.
gimmethesimplelife
7-19-13, 6:27am
I remember once when I was in college I moved off campus to a sweet deal - $217.50 a month for my own bedroom and all utils included (back in 1989), and that was a good deal even then. I looked over the apartment with my roommate and it seemed so big with nothing in it - a 750 SF apt. Bring in all my junk even as a college student, and all of my roommate's junk and 750 SF sure did look a lot smaller. There is something about walking through empty uncluttered space that is so calming for me - but I have not quite been able to recreate that in my own life. I get rid of stuff slowly and almost unwillingly but sure do feel better once I ship out something I don't need to someone who bought it online and can hopefully use it. Or when I give a box away to charity. I know this is going to sound bizarre but when I used to visit Tucson often back in 2005 and 2006, I would take a day and go down to Nogales and always bought Mexican shampoo. I had way too much of it and it felt great to pass it off to a homeless shelter that could really use it. I do like to feel good somehow about giving up and getting rid of things - even if it is just putting an end table out on the street for someone to pick up for free. I did this once and within three minutes someone stopped, picked it up, smiled, and put it in their truck. I felt really good about that. Rob
When I was married we lived in a large 3500 sq ft house; but when I got divorced in 1979, except for one smaller house, I have lived in small spaces. First, in apartments and then when I bought my first condo - it was 890 sq ft. My current townhome is under 1300 sq ft. I have always liked living small. It may be a carry over from childhood when middle class homes were very small. Small is beautiful.
Polliwog, I could have written that post! When I got divorced I moved out of a 3400-square-foot townhouse -- to an efficiency apartment that was maybe 400 square feet. I did have some stuff parked at other people's houses in anticipation of moving back to a house. But the "tiny" apartment was small enough that I was not tempted to cocoon myself away from life. The house I bought has 1100 square feet on the main floor and about 700 square feet downstairs that I don't use except as storage and for the washer/dryer/furnace/water heater, so it's almost like an 1100-square-foot house. And it's just fine. I have a hard time imagining why I thought we'd need/want 3400 square feet....
try2bfrugal
7-20-13, 2:10am
DH and I lived in a 700 sq foot flat when we were younger. It had a kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom and formal dining room, and we didn't even use the formal dining room. We had a shared yard (we didn't have to take care of it) but we didn't use it much. We rode our bikes and walked around instead.
I don't think having more stuff and a bigger place to put it has made me any happier. I would like to get back to the freedom of having so little stuff we could pack and move over a weekend.
SteveinMN
7-20-13, 10:11am
I would like to get back to the freedom of having so little stuff we could pack and move over a weekend.
Moving. Now that does not make me happy....
I would like to get back to the freedom of having so little stuff we could pack and move over a weekend.
When I moved out of my tiny NYC apartment I learned that even a 250 sq foot space can have a crapload of stuff in it... The people I was subleasing the apartment to, however, were able to move in a couple of hours. They literally only had some clothes, a few pieces of furniture, and just enough kitchen stuff to cook and eat. I was amazed that a couple who had been together for years and years could manage to own so few things.
We just moved across the city from a 650 to a 600 squ ft apt. Approximayely ... I dont remember exactly. Used our jeep instead of a truck. I think it took about 6 trips. We had about 15-20 totes, loveseat, lazyboy, bakers rack, bed, 2 bikes, about 6-8 smaller pieces of furniture, and some tools and camping supp. Basically badicay unpacked in ad day, and fully settled a few days later. I love minimalism.
happystuff
7-21-13, 5:01pm
My dream is to do this!!!! I'm still working on decluttering and simply can't get over how I can get rid of so much stuff and still have so much stuff left! I have set myself a deadline... when youngest graduates from high school - clock is now ticking - LOL.
Thanks for these threads as they are so motivational for me and give me so much hope that I can do this!!!
Ahh The Simple Name
10-12-13, 4:16pm
another similar happy story ...
How It All Began. . .Two years ago, I started on an adventure in living more happily with much less – quite by accident! Since then, I’ve found that simple living has much to recommend it. Here’s my tale:
In September, 2011, my husband Rich and I put our 9-room, 4-1/2-bedroom, 2-1/2-bathroom house in Walpole, Massachusetts on the market because we wanted to downsize. What we really wanted was to not have to take care of so much property, pay to heat it, etc. Our plan was to buy a much smaller house in a neighboring town and remain there, hopefully happily, for the rest of our lives. We had a lot of stuff, especially because we’d been together for about 40 years and because I had been in the antiques business.
In December, we sold our house to a lovely young couple, put almost all of our furnishings and belongings into storage in our moving company’s warehouse, and moved to a very small one-bedroom apartment, also in Walpole. Before moving day, I had to decide exactly what we would need until we moved again into another house because the moving company’s warehouse insurance policy only allows for their own staff to be there.
You might expect that we would feel cramped going from such a large space to such a small one, but we didn’t. For one thing, I discovered I loved having our computer in the same room as our TV. When we lived in our house, we had our computer upstairs (where I spent a lot of time in the evenings) and the TV downstairs (where my husband liked to be) in the family room. It was a lonely arrangement. When we moved to the apartment, we had to have the computer and the TV in the same room. In fact, the main room served as living room, bedroom, dining room, and computer room. Rich and I loved it because we now were spending so much time, happily, in the same room.
to finish reading, and to see photos, please click on this link: http://www.ahhthesimplelife.com/living-more-happily-with-much-less/
Great story, Ahh The Simple Name! Thanks for sharing. :)
Moving. Now that does not make me happy....
I'm with you. Last week, my partner and I finally moved into the home we had built. It's exhausting, even when one has downsized considerably prior to moving.
SteveinMN
10-16-13, 5:08pm
Congratulations, RCWRTR! Enjoy the new place!
Cute pup in the avatar, BTW.
Thanks, SteveinMN. The pup is my chihuahua, Jasper. He's now 6 years old and is the best dog I've ever owned.
Ahh The Simple Name
11-19-13, 11:44am
My sister Michele wrote this post for our blog Ahh The Simple Life: http://www.ahhthesimplelife.com/living-more-happily-with-much-less/
I’m Living More Happily With Much Less!
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