One of my favorite Louise Hay affirmations.
We found a place to live!
Our little family is safe and comfortably moved into a new place. There’s still a lot of sorting and unpacking and reorganizing to do, but it’s all under control.
Thank you for the kind thoughts and wishes that helped create the happy situation we find ourselves in.
Our project for the next week is to downsize again. We’re pretty good at whittling down the extras of life at this point. We’re a good team, though, so I’m not too worried.
In fact, Dave and I have put our teamwork skills to the test over the last 7 years together. We’ve done a little of everything– starting business, closing businesses, running companies, working at the same place, designing, decorating, dieting, exercising, traveling, competitions, learning, etc.
Despite all that we’ve learned about each other through each of those things, I can still say with confidence– nothing taught us about each other more than downsizing together.
Only 3 years ago, we lived in a completely-packed 1800 square foot apartment. We were considering a storage unit for some of our things that we didn’t need access to all the time. Our bedroom alone was 600 square feet.
Today, our bedroom is roughly 100 square feet and our bathroom and kitchen goods could fit in a small duffel bag.
Every month, we learn to live with less and less stuff.
Recently I was inspired by the stories of people who live in really small houses– from 80 to 150 square feet. Some of these homes are in bustling countries, and some are just in the middle of acres of pasture in rural America.
Many of the tiny house blogs and books talk about decorating and dealing with living in a tiny space on a day-to-day basis, but I didn’t read too much about downsizing. To me, that’s the kicker.
We find ourselves having really strange discussions in stores– about how big a duvet will be when folded up, and whether or not we can stand on our chairs. We pick up everything before we buy it to make sure we can lift it easily. We bargain and trade for normally incomparable material goods, like how I’d rather have a landing pad for keys and coats than a second desk. We are creative– a shelf is also a table and a whiteboard.
Everything about downsizing– from the initial throwing away of everything, to the slow repurchasing of versatile items is an experience that delves really deeply into what makes us feel safe and comfortable in our space. It makes us ask ourselves and discuss what material items we think are needed to create the sorts of lives we want to live.
In other words, if you want to truly know someone– what they truly value, how much their childhood effected them, the role their careers or hobbies play in their life– help them throw away most of their stuff.
Have you ever whittled down your life? Would you be able to live in a 128 square foot home? What do you think the best way to really know someone is?
