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?
Suzanne says
Yea, I’m not alone in looking for solutions to a Life Lived Lighter!
2006 – 3278 SQ. FT. 2 story
2010 – 2800 SQ. FT. 3 story
2013 – 760 SQ. FT. – in a high rise, proved to be too small with only one bathroom.
2014 – 1890 SQ. FT. transition apartment from our “mistake”
2016 – 1646 SQ. FT. less than two miles from town and FEELS GREAT!
I shared all these numbers and moves to allow others to realize that sometimes going smaller is not a one step process. And it IS possible to go too small and regret the move. Although, we lost a lot of unnecessary baggage in our too small condo (a good thing) and loved every minute of our time there – except waiting for a bathroom!
I would not recommend as many moves as it took our family. I would recommend clarity of intent and desires for your life.
wendy says
I think this movement is still on the rise. I have no desire for my husband to be a slave chained to his desk so we can have a 4000 square foot McMansion that I have to constantly clean, decorate, and pick up all the clutter that accumulates. We are looking to downsize with 6 kids and live life for fun, not just to pay the mortgage. Thanks for the inspiration, we are going for it!
Anna Reid says
How many bathrooms?
LL says
Welcome to AZ! The key to these small one floor houses is the great porches, front and back. In the North, even with snow on the ground, we can sit outside in the sun all winter. Our doors are always open and we love the wildlife. It’s all about being outdoors. The house is a place to shower and hang your walking stick!
Tiffany C. says
We are about to move out of our 1,500 sqft. home, into a 1,200 sq ft. home, renting. There are 7 of us, my husband and I, and our 5 children ages 10 mos. – 8yrs. old. I loved your positive list of having a smaller home! Our move is out of necessity, but any move is an opportunity to purge. And I am excited to cleaning less! And pick up fewer toys! Thanks for the realistic, positive info.!
Christophe says
WOAH ! It was definitively the right time !
K Zhang says
I’m so happy I embraced minimalism while I’m young. I go to college now and don’t have a lot of stuff. Therefore I don’t have the problem of having to get rid of a house full of things. And I hope to keep it this way. Hopefully in the future, I can find someone who also embraces minimalism.
Rie says
We just recently moved from 3300 sq.ft to 2300 sq.ft. We have six children. This is a good size for us, and I honestly found the bigger house too much to take care of. We didn’t need it. The layout is what is important, and this smaller home actually suits our needs better because of the layout. We spent half as much on our smaller home than our last one. We are intentionally making our way to a mortgage free life, and I know we’ll never regret it. I’m enjoying your blog and books!
mike says
I feel sorry for you having moved to Arizona it is an awful place to live.
kate says
people are so stupid. relocating to arizona is not even close to the point of this discussion haha