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?
Aaron says
Ride my bike to work daily. Best shape of my life, more time when I get home to not worry about when I will exercise because it happened on my way to and from work. Living simple has many rewards. And frees your mind of unncessary burdens. Have enjoyed your blog since June.
Rachel says
Yes, how do we get more people to see how freeing living in a smaller home is? I wonder that all the time. I write a blog and try and get the message out that way. And we live relatively small (now renting an 800 sq ft flat for a family of 3) so I hope we’re an example to other families we know. I guess that’s the way to start. Be the change and hope it manifests in those around you.
So I expect to see a lot of minimalist chatter in AZ now that you’ve moved there. =)
Lisa @ Just here. Just now. says
Congrats! We slashed our square footage in half last year (and eliminated our mortgage completely) and it has been one of the best decisions we have ever made. It feels great to actually USE all of the space we have, and I love having an excuse for why we can’t bring tons more stuff into the house. The only problem now is that I’m totally ready to go smaller…. : )
Thanks for the great post!
Teri says
As a professional organizer, I too have noticed how difficult it is to get people to accept the idea of minimalism. They seem to understand that they have too much stuff, and it weighs them down. But there’s always an excuse to not take that next step. It’s not laziness. It’s fear. When you pull away all the stuff and you’re left with nothing but yourself and the people around you, you now have to define yourself and your relationships with something deeper. People are afraid to go there, because maintaining healthy relationships and living a balanced life takes more courage than hiding behind their stuff. What they don’t yet understand is how much more fulfilling it is. I haven’t figured out how to sell that yet.
Congrats on your new home.
Dave Bruno says
Congratulations. It is inspiring to watch your life of minimalism “grow.” As for the mainstream media, don’t go after their attention. They’re too finicky. Besides, they pay attention to the people that lots of other people are paying attention to. So just keep inspiring lots of people.
Marty says
SLOWLY. This message should be introduced to the mainstream media slowly. Anything that burns too brightly too quickly is just as quickly extinguished and forgotten. Plus, slowly returning to and revisiting the concept is the way to make it stick in the big cloud-mind.
Mike | Homeless On Wheels says
Welcome to Arizona, Joshua. Enjoy the delightful winter weather, and brace yourself for next summer’s electric bills. Your choice of a (relatively) smaller house will certainly help in that respect.
Clare says
Congratulations! Thank you for blessing and inspiring us all with your journey :)
Cathy says
Congratulations on the move and finding what works for you! Though we are in the process of minimizing, we would still like a slightly larger home when we move (dare I admit that?)…mainly a family room. Overall, our family of seven does fairly well in our 1260 sq ft but a little more space would be nice as the children grow and acquire hobbies and musical instruments.
tina lemna says
Congratulations! We went from 3500 sq ft to 1000 sq. Ft. 2 years ago and couldn’t be happier. Also just sold Tim’s jeep so we are a one car family. So freeing! I’m 52 years old and wish I had embraced this lifestyle years ago.