Guest post by Amanda from Raising Gentlemen
About three years ago, my husband and I decided to build a home. Sounds simple enough right? After agonizing over colors, finishes, materials, and umpteen trips to the big box home improvement stores we ended up with a beautiful 3,500 square foot home that was falling apart.
Yep, you read that correctly. Our brand new home needed over $100,000 in repairs. Our general contractor had cut corners throughout the entire process of building the house and in doing so had left us with a home that looked beautiful, but wouldn’t stay that way for long.
We legally battled with our contractor for two years and ended up being forced to say goodbye to our lovely home and downsize into something smaller. We were blessed to find a place that was in our budget and that was actually owned by my parents. The only problem with the house was that it was about a fourth of the size of the home we had built and filled up with our stuff!
I began the task of packing to move and it was right around this time that I found out I was pregnant with our 3rd child. I was then faced with the reality that we would have a family of five in a two-bedroom, 850-square foot home.
How was I going to make this work? Where would we put all of our things?
Mission: Simplify
As I started going through everything we had accumulated over the five years my husband and I had been married, I was amazed to find that we had boxes in our basement that had never been unpacked, full of items that we thought we couldn’t live without. This to me seemed wasteful and it was then, after opening that third box that had been sitting untouched for almost two years, that I started a mission to simplify our lives.
This was my rule: If we hadn’t used something in a year, it was donated or sold. The only exceptions to this rule were pictures and a few mementos that held a special meaning to us, like the guitar played by my husband’s late grandfather.
Did I have to let some things go that I loved? Yes. Was it the end of the world? No. After all, they are just things. And while I did love those three sets of curtains, there were not that many windows in our new home so they were lovingly donated to our local Goodwill.
Our Lives Are Not Wrapped Up in the Things We Own
When moving day arrived, we were able to fit our once 3,500-square foot lives into 850-square feet — with room to spare for our upcoming addition to the family. Throughout this whole process, my husband I learned a valuable lesson: our lives are not wrapped up in the things that we own, but instead in the people that we surround ourselves with. Our family has grown and enjoyed the simple pleasure of being together in a home filled with love, not clutter.
Amanda is a 26-year-old, stay-at-home-mom to three little boys (ages 4, 2, and 4 months). She and her husband are high school sweethearts and have been married for six years. He is a public school teacher, just as she was before staying home with her children. Visit her blog, Raising Gentlemen.
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We are preparing to downsize in 2 weeks with our next move. This move wasn’t by choice, though – the house we currently rent is being “given back to the bank” (a long story!), so we are being forced out. We can’t afford to buy, so we found a 2 BR/2BA (1500 sq. ft.) condo to rent.
Right now, we are renting a 4 BR/1 BA house. In reality, we don’t need all the space we have now. And what I’m most excited about is having 2 bathrooms and having the laundry right in the main hallway in our unit (instead of in the basement)!
We will no doubt have to get creative, especially as we won’t have any storage space. But I am looking forward to less space to clean – and I’m all about simplifying!
Great story!!
If all your money was gone tomorrow, what would you be worth? I try to live by that saying.
I can’t agree more. “our lives are not wrapped up in things we own”
I have been wanting to down size my home for about a year now. I’m just tired of cleaning. More land- less house, then I could have a bigger garden, yeah
Amen.
Clutter’s Last Stand by Don Aslett is a hilarious read if you get the chance! You might can find it at the public library. He has a tip to take a picture of the things you can’t stand to part with! After moving with the military six times in ten years, my husband still jokes with me about all the high school trophies and 20-30 coffee cups that we took pictures of and then “released!”
Pictures take a lot less space than stuff!
A wonderful post.
I sometimes feel our family of six is “cramped” in our 1385 square foot home. It is certainly the smallest home of all of our friends. Our four children are split 2/2 for bedrooms (soon to move to 3/1 this summer). They’re happy!
I would like to find a way to fit a table in the kitchen we can all eat around … honestly, that is the only thing I would change about our home (upon reflecting and reading these wonderful comments!)
Michelle
I enjoyed reading this post and I am sorry you had to go thru’ that ordeal with your house contractor. Shame, shame on that contractor (and others like him). My family and I live in a modest house and are in the process of doing some remodeling just to “customize” it a bit. I love my property and location so we don’t consider moving. As for getting rid of “things”, I am with you completely. I have semi-joked with my family and friends that I do not want a bigger house since 1.) there will be more room to fill with “clutter”…and when I mean clutter, I refer to things that I just don’t need; and 2.) I do not want a bigger mortgage payment. As I get older, I am in the mode of getting rid of things – not throwing them away in the garbage but passing them on to others could put them to use. I teach Dave Ramsey’s FPU class and I always share with my students that people can get rid of at least 50% of what they have in their homes and still be quite alright. Plus, this would eliminate most of the debt that folks get themselves into. If you really think about it, how much stuff do you really use each day, each week, etc.? One usually uses the same things over and over. More folks in our society need to focus on those important things which life is really about. Smiles to you!
Wow, this is a great post… we are short selling our home and moving in to a one bedroom home… we have three little kids but we want financial freedom, freedom from all the stuff and more time and money to enjoy our lives together… we currently live in a three bedroom home, not huge but comfortable and plenty or storage for our multitude of {stuff}. In order to afford to live here, since we are in s. california, we moved to the suburbs, great but it means over an hour commute for my hubby plus a huge gas and fastrack price tag just to commute…. We own a small cottage back in the city and had been contemplating the idea of moving in there, although most everyone we know things we are crazy. Just the thought of living mortage free for a while seems to make it not-so-crazy. I also think that this will help us learn to live without all the stuff we have accumulated during the 6 yrs. we have lived here. Im not going to lie and say this was an easy move, but it makes sense and we really would like to spend more time together and get our lives back on track. Our kids are still very young, so they don’t really mind moving into a tiny place. we are sacrificing some of our privacy since they will share the only bedroom and my hubby and I will be without, BUT its only temporary and I think it will bring us closer. This is the house we moved into when we were newlyweds 13 yrs. ago, it was a blessing then and I feel it will be a blessing once again. thanks for sharing all of your inspiring ideas, I hope mine helps someone else too.
Blessings! Cris
.. I meant.. Thanks for sharing all of your inspiring stories! (sorry its late now).
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