A little over one year ago, I was interviewed by CBS SmartPlanet on the topic of living with less. The time was exciting for minimalism. Tammy Strobel’s story was in the New York Times, MSNBC, and the Today Show. Everett Bogue was featured on the CBS Nightly News. Courtney Carver’s Project 333 was about to hit the AP. Dave Bruno’s 100-Thing Challenge was in final edits. Each of us were cheering for one another. And I was excited to play a small part in the promotion of the counter-cultural lifestyle.
At the time of my interview, we were visiting family in Nebraska. I can remember sitting on their back porch in the humid August morning answering Christina Hernandez’s questions about living with less. At one point she asked, “What has been the toughest place for you to apply minimalism?” And as good interviews typically do, it pressed me to further define minimalism in my life. My answer went like this:
[There are] two things I want to take the next step on minimally speaking. We bought our house five years ago and embraced this minimalist lifestyle two years ago. I want to live in a smaller home and haven’t been able to take that step yet. I don’t think it’s a sentimental attachment. It’s just a logistical issue of selling and buying and moving. We still have two cars. As part of that suburban mindset, my wife takes the kids to school and runs them around all day. I work on the other side of town. How do we logistically go down to one car? Those aren’t sentimental attachments, but they are steps I want to take.
It was the first time I had verbally articulated those two desires. It was no small coincidence that the two biggest investments in my life (both financially and strategically speaking) were the two that had become the most difficult. They were going to require the most emotional energy to complete. After all, it’s one thing to clean out your garage – it’s something completely different to reduce the number of vehicles in your garage and/or change garages completely.
But subtly, over the past four months, we have accomplished both goals in our lives.
We have been living with one car for the past three months. And we just put our signatures on the purchase of a new, smaller home this past weekend. We moved in on Saturday.
As I have mentioned previously, our family recently moved from Vermont to Arizona and with it, came the process of selling an old home and buying a new one. The housing markets are markably different between the two regions and we could have easily embraced a massive upgrade because of the move. But even in a world where large homes are often considered the greatest symbols of worldly success, we never considered buying a larger home… instead, we looked forward to purchasing a smaller one.
This excitement was based on a number of reasons rarely considered in today’s market (or mentioned by realtors). Downsizing your home has many benefits…
- Less burdensome mortgage payments.
- Less maintenance.
- Less furniture/decorations/housewares to purchase.
- Less cleaning time.
- Less environmental impact.
- Less opportunity to accumulate.
- Less financial risk.
We still had a number of criteria that we searched for in our new minimalist home. Smaller was not the only goal – it still had to function in a way that fits our young family and promotes our values. Our final list of nonnegotiables consisted of 3 bedrooms, dining room/family room sufficient for entertaining, space for housing overnight guests, pleasant outdoors, quality school district, lovely neighborhood, and high craftsmanship. Needless to stay, we were overjoyed to find one that fit our criteria exactly.
Ultimately, through the process, we reduced our home size from over 2,200 sq. feet to less than 1,600 sq. feet (and 4-levels to 1-level). But more importantly, we reduced our mortgage payments by almost 50%, we selected quality over quantity (always a wise decision), we removed anxiety inherent in burdensome monthly payments, and we have fallen in love with every square inch of our new home.
And minimalism made it all possible. Once again, we have found more joy in living with less than we had in living with more.
Now, how we do get this message back into the mainstream media?
Lonny Salberg says
Excellent. We have seven children and have happily lived in 1700 sq ft, too. And in 16 years of marriage we have never had two cars, save for the first few months of marriage before someone stole mine (and yes, I’m still looking for that person). Because it actually *was* my father’s (and previously grandfather’s) Oldsmobile. I kid you not.
There have been a number of years we have had no car (including now). Not super-convenient (depends on where you live), but even when people try to give us a car, we are very careful not to just accept. I won’t belabor car-free lifestyles here (plenty of other places online devoted to that and a biking/ped lifestyle), but suffice to say we are almost always more content. Even if I had a million bucks lying around, a car and a big home would be last on my list. I think an iPad2 might be first – for the children of course (ahem!).
The key to a small home is having enough outdoor expansion area. Honestly, we could live in 800 square feet if we had a nice wrap-around porch or swinging love seats outdoors. Sitting inside is a downer. Having recently moved from Florida to Colorado, I think a smaller home presents a smaller expenditure on heating and/or cooling. It’s not that I’m cheap; it’s that I’d prefer to spend money on something else – anything else – than enriching the power companies.
It’s also nice not to have to wonder where your own children are even when they are inside your own home. We recently checked out a home that had more corners and hallways than the catacombs of Europe. It was “small”, but you couldn’t hear or see 90% of the home from any given position. Some people might call that privacy, but I think privacy is what you have away from society – not within your own family. (Well, to a degree… my wife still thinks I’m nuts for wanting to remove bedroom doors and just have a true open floor plan).
Megyn @ Minimalist Mommi says
Congratulations! We’re in 1200 sq. ft. for 4 people, and it seems like not enough and too much. Are you in one of the track homes (aka they all look the same and have miniscule backyards)? I know a lot of the north valley is either really old or brand new. I’m interested to see how one car goes living in this big city! We want to go down to one too, but are trying to figure out logistics since we pretty much have to drive everywhere. I’m also interested to see what you think of the school district up there (assuming your kids are going to public school). As a valley native, we East Valley people don’t have the greatest picture of your new neck of the woods, so I can’t wait for you to help me paint a better picture of it!
Annie says
Congrats! Katie and I moved from a 720 s.f. two bedroom mobile home to a 500 s.f. one bedroom house. The utilities are significantly less than we were paying. I sleep on a futon on the living room floor while katie gets the bedroom to herself. We love it!
We have always had just one vehicle but I would love to arrange my life and eliminate it at some point. In rural America I ‘m not sure how or when that will come about, especially with a kid at home.
Be proud! You have made a wonderful accomplishment!
Keira says
Congratulations! I hope you don’t/didn’t have any problems selling your previous house.
My partner and I downsized to a 600 sq ft. 1-bedroom apartment and love it. When we were searching we looked for a place that had a lot of light, space to find privacy when we need “alone time”, a quiet community, and a way to let the outside in through balconies and French doors. It’s wonderful here.
Tammy says
My 7 year old and I went from a spacious 1200 sq ft apartment to a 1 level 700 sq ft home three months ago. We love it! No basement, nothing in the full finished attic, and my storage consists of 4 bins of “stuff”. I can always find what I’m looking for because I have only what we need. Simple to keep clean and I feel at ease there. And I can always find my cat!! :)
Amy says
I too dream of a smaller house, now that we have been in our “forever” house for nearly 7 years. Downsizing in our town is just not realistic as the housing market around here has been slow for years. To compensate I am slowly working things down to be as low-maintenance as possible where we are. Even if we could downsize via relocation, I don’t think we could go too much smaller. We rented a lake cabin this summer for a week ~600 ft2 with the five of us and two dogs. My husband got twitchy by day 2 – he would not be happy without some space that is just his own.
By the way, has anyone ever written much about minimizing the yard work? It seems there’s no shortage of advice for paring back stuff inside the house, but nothing about outdoor spaces. Our yard seems to be a black hole of time and money, but has to be maintained to ensure “curb appeal”.
AlaskAnna says
Have you considered turning your yard into something useful, such as a garden to grow food?
Living the Balanced Life says
That is great Joshua! You live in a house about the size of mine now! (1750 sq ft) All of our children have moved out now and our house seems big. The timing is not right because of the market, but I foresee the day we sell (or maybe rent it out) and rent a small apartment in town.
Right now we have 2 cars and a motorcycle. We live in the country and for years it was most convenient to have multiple cars as there were no other options for transportation. I long for the day we can rid ourselves of another vehicle. The one we need to rid ourselves of is a 1966 mustang that has seen better days. We are at a catch 22 place with it because we want to sell it but it needs some work. Hoping hubby will be able to make the break within the next year!
And of course, moving into town would cause us to drive less as well and make one car more feasible.
I am not sure about how to get the media to see this, as well as the people. With housing prices as they are, people are able to buy more house than they need. Oh that they would actually only buy the basics and not stretch themselves so thin!
Bernice
sharle kinnear says
In the past ten years I have downsized from nearly 3000 sq.ft to 1200 sq ft, plus divesting myself of a second home. Granted, it was easier as my children grew up and left home, but it was still very hard to get rid of all the stuff one accumulates in 65 years of living. I still work daily to winnow and refine my possessions – discarding the no-loner-needed and no-longer-loved “dustables” and sticking to a one-in one-out rule. As long as I stay out of stores and off the etail websites, I do pretty well. But it is a constant struggle to keep reminding myself that I have enough – more than enough – and that a new (fill in the blank) will not make me happier. We do have two vehicles since we lead very different lives and are often traveling. But at least I drive a Prius!
j dan says
Awesome! It is so nice to have the smaller house payment!
When we moved recently, our realtor refused at first to show us anything smaller than 2,000sqft. We are now happily living in a 1,300 sqft, 4 bedroom home… more than enough space for us, the kids & the drums :)
Catherine says
Congratulations! Do you live walking distance to things to help with the 1 car situation?
We are 1 car and 1000 sq feet (+bonus room in basement) for a family of 3. Wouldn’t have it any other way. :)