ON LIVING SMALLER

When Joseph and I first were married, we moved right into a little dream house. The rooms were not particularly large, but there were three bedrooms with three moderately sized closets. Each closet was stuffed to the point of overflowing, and the two extra rooms were completely furnished. We had the ideal space to meet our needs and fit our things.

When I was pregnant our priorities changed, and we moved from there to a one bedroom garage apartment to save more money. Storage was limited, and we had to sell furniture and donate 50% of our things just to make the space livable, and to make room for a baby.

And guess what? I can't even recall most of the things we gave up.

We learned our lesson, and when searching for our current apartment we opted for less square footage than we thought we would need. This forced us once again to downsize our clothing to fit an even smaller closet, and our kitchen items to fit a kitchen half the size of the last, and we sold almost all our furniture, swapping only some of it for small scale items that we loved. Once again, we got rid of about half of the things we owned.

I don't miss those things either.

Waste not, want not - it's true. But that also applies to wasted space. Don't spend money buying or renting real estate for your unnecessary and unloved things. Instead make money off those items, or give them away so that someone who needs them can love them. A smaller space will prevent you from buying new things as well. Your wallets will be fatter, your home will be neater, and you won't look back.

more on downsizing:
surprising benefits of smaller living
could you live in 100 sq ft?
10 of the smallest homes in the world

photo found here.