What’s It Like To Downsize?

Consider it or not, we’ve lived in our new home for over six months now. Half a yr! So we thought this could be a very good time to examine in on a few of the objectives we had for transferring and downsizing to see what has met and exceeded our expectations – together with detailing a few of the largest challenges we’ve encountered alongside the way in which.

That is going to be lengthy & detailed, as a result of it appears like there’s loads of floor to cowl, and whereas this rundown will likely be fairly particular to our state of affairs, I feel it’ll nonetheless provide you with a very good window into the realities of downsizing that you may additionally encounter for those who had been to go for it. And sure, it consists of cash particulars. And a chart. You already know I really like charts.

To Recap, Why Did We Transfer?

We’ve acquired a radical clarification of our causes for transferring from Virginia to Florida in this submit from February. However the gist, as we stated again then, was that we needed to “reside with much less and be exterior extra.”

For years we’ve been working in direction of paring down and proudly owning much less stuff (so many podcast eps about that!) and the entire obvious perks of downsizing actually appealed to us, like spending much less cash on belongings you don’t want (and fewer cash heating & cooling an area you don’t use). Devoting much less time to cleansing, organizing, & sustaining a home and people aforementioned surplus belongings can be one thing that basically sounded good to us (as individuals who have most likely devoted 20 stable days of our lives to “cleansing up the storage” over the past 15 years).

Not solely did we downsize from our 3,150 sq. foot dwelling in Richmond, VA to this 1,400 sq. foot dwelling in Florida, however we additionally bought our seashore home and duplex rental properties in Cape Charles, VA – mainly going from 4 bigger properties (as a result of the duplex was technically two adjoined properties) all the way down to 1 a lot smaller dwelling.

As a reminder, not solely was our final home greater than twice as large as our present dwelling, it additionally had 14 rooms (our new dwelling has 6), and round 10 closets (our new dwelling has 2.5 thanks to 1 that has our HVAC system taking on practically half of it). Not included in that 14-room complete, our final dwelling additionally had a full-sized walk-up attic (that’s simply Sherry’s previous “basket part” pictured under)…

… in addition to a big shed and a spacious two-car storage that at one level had been all full of things – a lot of which we not often and typically by no means touched (besides to lastly donate them within the later levels of our downsizing journey).

Clearly, we may’ve downsized with out relocating to an entire new state. However to attain that “be exterior extra” a part of our purpose, we needed our one smaller home to even be in a hotter location. Ideally, one which was near a seashore, and usually extra walkable to outlets/eating places/parks, and many others. That’s why we landed on Florida (after many spring break journeys there, in addition to a visit to Costa Rica which led to our children closely campaigning to maneuver there as a result of they love the seashore & heat climate as a lot as we do). Once more, there’s extra element on this submit about our large choice to maneuver if you would like it.

Spoiler alert: relating to our purpose of “residing with much less and being exterior extra,” we’ve checked off each of these containers, and we see every day reminders that this transfer was such an excellent selection for our household. Which makes us extraordinarily grateful. Nothing was straightforward about this large life change (paring down a lot virtually appears like coaching for an Olympic occasion, it’s extraordinarily bodily work but in addition a ton of psychological work – and we did it in the course of a worldwide pandemic). Nevertheless it’s has been SO WORTH IT.

We’re grateful to get up right here on daily basis (all of us, together with the children are recognized to say “I nonetheless can’t consider we reside right here!”). And Burger is likely to be the happiest canine on this planet, as a consequence of an excessive love of laying within the solar and trying (however by no means even coming near succeeding) to catch lizards. What’s that they are saying? The joys of the hunt?

So it’s protected to say that all of us actually love the change and are so grateful that we went for it. However I can’t stress sufficient that there was nothing straightforward about making this large life change to get thus far (our present satisfaction meant SO MUCH WORK main as much as that), so we should have actually needed this large change as a way to do the entire issues it entailed! Together with becoming all of our worldly possessions into one 16′ pod that we despatched all the way down to our new home in Florida.

In different phrases, I don’t assume many individuals blink their eyes and discover themselves majorly downsized and residing with much less – it felt like a extremely big life pivot to us, that took loads of intentional (and onerous) work. So for those who’re there in that not-fun zone proper now, I’m right here to let you know, once we got here out on the opposite aspect, it felt wonderful and nonetheless does. The novelty hasn’t worn off in half a yr, and won’t put on off ever. Price all the hassle after which some.

In the event you’re studying this, and also you’re like “I would like particular particulars about what you probably did to downsize a lot” – we’ve a bunch of podcasts & posts filled with particular info, like:

We even have some podcast interviews from additional again with others who downsized, which majorly impressed us as effectively, like this one that includes Dana Miller, entitled: In Pursuit of Shopping for Much less & Doing Extra and this one that includes Shavonda Gardner, entitled What’s It Actually Like To Downsize?

In order that’s the reply to the “how did you really downsize?” query – now let’s dive into how residing with much less and being exterior extra over these final 6 months has really felt (and a few particular, quantifiable advantages that downsizing very clearly introduced into our lives).

Having Much less Area

Spending final summer season in our 1,800 sq. foot seashore home gave us plenty of confidence about residing full-time in a smaller dwelling. However I’d be mendacity if I stated the information of the pandemic (which got here a couple of month after we made the choice to maneuver) didn’t shake our confidence slightly. We hadn’t deliberate on working and education from this smaller dwelling. We hadn’t envisioned cooking at dwelling greater than ever within the smallest kitchen we’d ever owned. And we had deliberate on including a second toilet to this dwelling immediately (however have since determined to place that on maintain, as a result of loads of what we assumed could be ache factors on this smaller home really weren’t!)

Alongside that theme of anticipating one factor, however really experiencing one other factor totally… regardless of the curveballs, we haven’t felt the pressure of residing in much less sq. footage actually in any respect (other than two challenges I’ll get into later within the submit). What we’ve discovered is that so long as we’ve acquired a room or a spot for a specific perform, it hasn’t been tremendous necessary how giant that room is.

For instance, we might have a laundry closet as an alternative of a laundry room now, however on the finish of the day, we nonetheless have a spot to do laundry. Identical goes for areas to sleep, prepare dinner, work, lounge, and many others. All of our main features are checked off right here, so we don’t really feel majorly impacted by having much less house.

We additionally don’t really feel practically as “on prime of each other” as we typically feared we would. I feel an enormous a part of that is because of the format of our home, like having the household room on a separate degree and having the children’ bedrooms on the other finish of the home from ours. We had checked out some bigger homes round right here that, looking back, would’ve been rather more irritating to reside with due to their ground plan – particularly with everybody within the household at dwelling all day/on daily basis each working and doing education.

As an example, a one-level home down the road from us had the bedrooms positioned at every nook of a central, open residing space. I feel it could’ve supplied little sound barrier or privateness between the TV/kitchen space and every bed room – and if Sherry had a Zoom name for work & the children had at-home studying happening on the similar time, the sound doubtless would have carried from actually any house into some other.

Truly we’ve three ideas we’d supply for anybody fascinated with ground planning for smaller house residing. Clearly these are extremely private and all of it is dependent upon how your loved ones will use an area, however we’ve discovered that these three issues made all of the distinction for us:

Structure Tip #1: It’s nice in case your two largest rooms may be designated for everybody to make use of and share as a household (our upstairs household room is the biggest, adopted by our downstairs kitchen/eating/sitting space). Had we made the upstairs room into our bed room, we might’ve been claiming the biggest room in the home as our personal private spot to sleep, which simply doesn’t really feel environment friendly in any respect in a smaller dwelling (our bedrooms are the smallest three rooms in the home, apart from the toilet, which works very well for us).

Structure Tip #2: It’s additionally nice if these two giant household areas aren’t proper subsequent to one another. I do know open-concept is all the craze, however we’ve discovered it invaluable that these two shared areas are in numerous areas of the home as a result of it helps us all to not really feel on prime of one another (and it retains sound from carrying an excessive amount of). The youngsters can watch TV upstairs within the household room whereas Sherry and I work on one thing downstairs, or one baby can take an at-home-learning take a look at on the kitchen desk whereas the opposite works on a undertaking upstairs on the homework/artwork desk (it’s key that they will’t hear or see one another, which could not have been the case if our solely two “shared” household areas had been basically conjoined).

Structure Tip #3: We’ve cherished having our bed room on one aspect of the home whereas our children bedrooms are on the opposite aspect. We’re nonetheless all sleeping on the identical ground of the home (one thing all of us needed), however we aren’t on prime of one another. Though our final home was a lot bigger, we had been quite a bit nearer to our children bedrooms there (all of our bed room doorways led out to the identical central hallway) so it’s a pleasant change to not fear that we’ll get up the children whereas scream-laughing at some random TikTok video at 11pm. It’s additionally very nice that the kitchen/eating/sitting room is really within the coronary heart of the house (it’s actually within the center), which we like quite a bit. All of us discover ourselves drawn to that house all through the day, so it’s good to have it centrally positioned.

The opposite factor that has helped this home really feel extra spacious for us is the beneficiant quantity of out of doors “rooms” that we’ve. Like our huge entrance porch and upstairs deck, which give a ton of further house to flee to. I usually take my laptop computer out to the desk on the upstairs deck to do some work or make some calls, and I’ve to let you know, I’ve by no means had a greater workplace view. Talking of the outside…

Spending Extra Time Exterior

It’ll be onerous to articulate what a optimistic change this has been to our every day lives, however I’m so glad we made being exterior one in every of our objectives with this transfer. We knew we had been selecting a location with a local weather that will encourage us to spend extra time outdoor (even in November we’re getting largely 70ºF days) however I don’t assume we anticipated that the panorama would additionally draw us exterior as a lot because it does right here.

Not solely do we’ve the seashore just some blocks away (it’s a three-minute stroll), we’ve additionally acquired plenty of wooded trails and paved pathways round us too – all of which give us entry to parks, playgrounds, outlets, eating places, different neighborhoods, and many others. So we’ve LOTS of excellent excuses to get some recent air.

We’ve positively included so many extra outside actions into our habits than once we lived within the suburbs of Richmond. Sherry has been capable of set up a every day strolling routine that features varied wooded trails and strolling alongside the seashore. I squeeze in a run, stroll, and even an occasional paddleboard most early mornings. We now have a weekend biking routine with the children, and so they spend nearly each break between college classes out within the yard working round or hanging out collectively on the tree swing. And except it’s raining, most evenings we attempt to slot in some type of household stroll. And, in fact, we’ve the seashore just some blocks away.

One different perk to a lot outside residing has been attending to know our neighbors and making mates with individuals who reside close to us every time we’re out and about. Household walks have led to us assembly different households with children the identical age as our personal who will all attend college collectively as soon as they return in individual. We’re so grateful that even throughout a pandemic, because of having this outside life-style, we’ve been capable of meet so many new individuals (who we will’t wait to have over for dinner when issues are safer). In a yr the place recent air has turn out to be much more necessary to our collective well being and sanity, it has been so useful.

Proudly owning Much less Stuff

We had already been having fun with the advantages (I virtually stated “thrill” there, ha!) of paring down and decluttering for a number of years now, so we didn’t actually count on any surprises, however one factor we’ve each observed is that we don’t actually lose stuff right here. Like if we’re in search of a sure piece of clothes or software or toy, we all know precisely the place to seek out it.

There are most likely two causes for this, and one is only a perform of transferring. Since we’ve packed, unpacked, and arranged each single factor we personal, our reminiscence of the place issues are is fairly recent.

The second factor is that having much less house means fewer spots that issues could possibly be and fewer junk to sift by means of whenever you’re looking for one thing. In our final home, we had cleansing stuff upstairs within the bogs, but in addition downstairs underneath the kitchen sink. Right here’s it’s all underneath the kitchen sink. In our final home, video games had been unfold out between our bonus room, our front room, and even the children’ rooms. Now they’re all in our household room.

There was a cause for having issues unfold out in that home (typically you don’t wish to go all the way down to the kitchen to get the cleansing spray you want for the upstairs toilet) however I feel a part of it was only a normal tendency to fill the house you’ve. Empty toilet cupboard? Let’s put an additional bottle of cleaner in there! That home had so many cupboards and closets (our kitchen alone had 51 cupboards, versus the 12 that we’ve right here). So once we had these storage areas in all corners of our home, we stuffed them with issues. And over time it turned tougher to recollect what was the place.

Possibly we’ll be singing a distinct tune in a number of months as time has fogged our reminiscence of unpacking & organizing inside an inch of our lives (that’s actually an enormous a part of downsizing: discovering a sensible spot for every thing). However for now, it actually appears like having much less house to unfold issues out & stash additional stuff is holding us much more organized. Plus, with out plenty of spare house to retailer issues, it forces us to be actually considerate about what we’re shopping for and including to our belongings.

Spending Much less Cash

Let’s speak cash! A number of individuals downsize for monetary causes, and so they had been actually an element for us too. We’ve all the time thought-about ourselves to be fairly frugal, however there have been moments over the past couple of years the place we didn’t really feel that means. Significantly once we had been within the midst of renovating the duplex, furnishing the seashore home, and paying for insurance coverage, utilities, and taxes for 4 completely different properties (bear in mind, the duplex = two hooked up homes). Life all of the sudden felt very filled with payments!

So an enormous a part of what helped promote us each on the thought of downsizing was that we may reduce down on our payments and put a cease to paying for all of this house that wasn’t getting used on a regular basis. We talked all concerning the large cash query everybody was asking us again in Might on the podcast (the cash aspect of promoting three homes and downsizing to 1 smaller dwelling), however simply final week I crunched another numbers for the primary time and it was sort of mind-blowing. So I needed to speak about three different areas that we’re seeing an enormous distinction: utilities, landscaping, and fuel (like for our automobile).

Utilities

Let’s begin with some utility invoice prices as a result of they’re a few of the most evident financial savings that individuals search after they downsize. Have in mind, these numbers symbolize going from paying to warmth/cool/have lights on/have water/have web for 7,000 sq. toes (throughout 4 homes) to all of these issues in simply 1,400 sq. toes (our present home), so that they’re additional dramatic, and certain much more than you may see going from one home to 1 smaller home. This downsizing factor actually made an enormous quantifiable distinction for us:

Merely put, you possibly can see that going from 7,000 to 1,400 sq. toes will doubtless save us about $7,750 a yr on simply these three utility payments alone.

Landscaping

Along with decreasing our inside house, we additionally reduce down large time on the outside areas that we’ve to take care of. Our lot in Richmond was slightly underneath an acre of land, and we spent an entire bunch of time & cash mowing, seeding, fertilizing, irrigating, mulching, & leaf-blowing it annually. We did mainly all of it ourselves for a few years, however over the past couple of years began hiring out sure duties (like having somebody mow it whereas we spent the summer season in Cape Charles so it didn’t flip right into a jungle).

In flip, we additionally needed to pay somebody to mow the yards at our seashore home and duplex every time we weren’t there to maintain that ourselves. Very similar to payments, it felt just like the mowing by no means stopped. And the mulching, the seeding, and the leaf blowing. In truth, final yr we spent about $3,750 on garden care alone throughout all 4 homes (that additionally features a few large leaf pickups together with all that mowing, and an enormous supply of mulch that we’d get yearly for our varied backyard beds together with grass seed to reseed issues ourselves within the fall, and many others).

Right here in Florida, we’ve spent $0 on garden companies as a result of, effectively, WE HAVE NO LAWN. It’s a a lot smaller lot – about 10% of the dimensions of our Richmond home – and it’s primarily only a layer of pine needles, which is widespread in our neighborhood, together with loads of native crops (extra on that right here). So whereas we’ve spent some cash on new plantings, tree trimming, and recent pine needles, it’s nowhere near the continuing cash we had been shelling out to take care of three yards again in Virginia.

Simply to get a tough thought, whenever you add that $3,750 yard care financial savings to our utility financial savings of $7,750, we’re already as much as $11,500 in annual financial savings! So even for those who take $1,500 out of that for varied start-up yard stuff right here (the tree trimming we’ve had completed, some crops we added, and a few pine straw we thickened in some areas), that’s nonetheless an enormous distinction in cash going out the door ($10,000 {dollars}! yearly!!). Plus a lot of these issues gained’t be annual bills (like our preliminary landscaping and tree-maintenance).

Fuel

This one is much less about having downsized and extra about the place we downsized to. As I discussed above, we sought out a spot that was extraordinarily walkable in order that we may attain outlets, eating places, parks, and the seashore with out getting in our automobile. We lucked out find a spot that met that standards and, other than large journeys to the grocery retailer (for extra luggage than we may carry dwelling), or longer journeys to an enormous field retailer (like Goal), we’ve tons of stuff we will get to on foot or by bike.

Transferring additionally eradicated the necessity to drive back-and-forth between our home in Richmond and our seashore homes in Cape Charles. Spherical journey that was about 300 miles, which added as much as about 5 hours complete – and $30 in tolls every time! Throughout the heaviest elements of our renovations had been doing that journey 2 to 4 instances per 30 days. So between that and our common driving round city, we spent over $3,250 in fuel & tolls in 2019.

For comparability, within the final six months we’ve solely spent $310 on fuel. In half a yr! That calculates out to round $620 for the yr, which results in an approximate financial savings of round $2,600 yearly. We notice a few of this diminished driving can be attributable to the coronavirus, so it’s not an ideal comparability to 2019. I do know plenty of us have reduce on our regular driving habits due to issues like distant working, fewer in-person errands, canceling journey, and many others – however regardless of the trigger, it feels good to go for days with out entering into our automobile. Plus it brings our approximate annual financial savings to $12,600 throughout these three classes! That’s $126,000 each ten years!

A Fast Cash Disclaimer

I’ll wrap up this cash part with a fast disclaimer that this transfer isn’t saving us cash in each side of life, since there may be some hidden prices which will really go up whenever you transfer. One factor that has ended up being costlier right here is meals (oh how we miss Aldi!) and likewise our property tax charge. Now, we’re nonetheless saving cash in general property tax funds as a result of we made such a dramatic discount in property, however the financial savings aren’t as a lot as if we’d stayed in Virginia. So don’t all the time assume that simply since you’re downsizing that your whole prices – like meals, property taxes, HOA charges, transportation prices, and many others – will go down, particularly for those who’re transferring to a totally new space.

So, What Are The Challenges Of Downsizing?

Earlier I stated there have been two issues about downsizing that I’d characterize as challenges, not as a result of they’re insurmountable (they’re not) however just because they require some lively work and a spotlight on an ongoing foundation. However like… so do plenty of different worthwhile issues (children, relationships, crops, possibly crystals? Don’t you must speak properly to these?). So neither of this stuff are deal-breakers within the least – and so they’re each issues that you simply utterly regulate to over time, however I’m all the time a fan of being thorough (therefore how lengthy this submit has turn out to be). So right here we go:

#1. Bulk Storage Area Is Nonexistent

When you’ve simply the house that you simply use and wish – it’s nice! You don’t spend time heating and cooling a room you don’t use, or cash filling it with furnishings that you simply by no means sit on (like our not often used eating room in our final home that largely simply turned a holding space for stuff we needed to carry to the duplex or seashore home – or issues that we needed to donate). That being stated, in our a lot smaller dwelling with out additional rooms… there may be zero house to dump issues that you simply wish to take care of later.

I’m not gonna lie. Typically you simply need a visitor room or a storage to place stuff that you simply wish to repair up or donate or type later, and that isn’t attainable right here. In our final home I additionally talked about that we had a big two-car storage, an enormous walk-up attic (seen under – it was GIANT!), in addition to a big, indifferent shed. All of which had been filled with issues at one level. FULL OF THEM.

By comparability, our present home has no storage (we acquired used to not having one on the seashore home, which gave us the boldness to forgo one right here), no actual usable attic house (we’ve an entry door within the ceiling of our laundry closet, however it’s largely simply insulation and a few plumbing & heating programs up there), and one small hooked up shed (seen under).

Are we making it work? Emphatic and resolute sure. Was it one thing to get used to after having all of these aforementioned drop zones for a few years? Yup. For positive.

Our downsized variety of instruments are saved out within the shed for instance – no downside! However I don’t assume both of us realized how a lot we used these bulk storage areas for issues like “additional furnishings we wish to redo” or “leftover undertaking provides.” Or you recognize, simply house the place one thing could possibly be shoved out of sight when company had been coming over (our storage was usually an enormous holding space for stuff like that).

Together with utilizing that small shed that you simply see above for instruments, we will additionally retailer some leftover undertaking supplies within the shed, however we’re compelled to in a short time donate or use or return no matter doesn’t match – which, once more, is definitely a very good factor, however it’s not all the time the straightforward/lazy factor. And typically after a protracted sweaty undertaking, it’s good to get to toss issues into the nook of the storage and chill out on the sofa… which simply can’t occur right here.

The intense aspect of this example is that it has saved us actually “sincere” about what we purchase or carry into the home as a result of it, effectively, actually needs to be introduced into the home. Previously, we would’ve scooped up some extraneous furnishings or a random decor merchandise that we wish to “save” at a yard sale or from a sale rack with a plan to “repair it up ultimately” or “discover a place for it someplace.” And that’s how our storage and our attic turned a Monica’s Closet of types that we had been usually too embarrassed to point out anybody. This image is tame BTW, as a result of we by no means had the urge to snap any photographs when it was insanely far gone (I’m wondering why?).

In some ways, we’re actually appreciating the required thoughtfulness that this limitation has imposed on us. We’re glad that we don’t must dedicate weekends to periodic “storage cleanouts” or fear about discovering time to arrange that yard sale we desperately have to host (typically that dragged on for years and we ultimately donated every thing anyway).

It does imply we’re going to must be artistic when it comes time to, say, tackle an enormous renovation like our kitchen (the place are the entire new cupboards or home equipment gonna go after they’re delivered?). However we determine that individuals renovate in all types of locations, together with small metropolis flats, so we’ll be capable of determine one thing out when the time comes. We already painted our kitchen cupboards, which offset all of these cooking objects into different areas (primarily our bed room) and it actually wasn’t that unhealthy. I prefer to assume that we’ve means much less on this home, so offsetting any of it gained’t be as unhealthy, as a result of we’ve pared again a lot already.

#2 – It’s Fixed Maintenance

That is extraordinarily associated to the final problem we listed, however it bears mentioning that you simply don’t simply downsize as soon as and also you’re completed. It’s a relentless factor that you simply keep, usually with just some minutes a day, however it’s one thing to pay attention to. It’s a selection you make, after which proceed to maintain making since you don’t need your home to turn out to be overrun with issues that get in the lifestyle life.

It’s a phenomenon that we lovingly name “rapid processing” – one thing comes into the home, and it wants a spot to go. Instantly. As a result of as we beforehand talked about, there’s no “put all of the random issues to be handled later right here” zone. The excellent news is that it doesn’t take tons of time each now and again (just like the previous storage clean-up concern) as a result of issues by no means get that unhealthy, however there may be actually a mandatory maintenance on daily basis to remain on prime of muddle and additional stuff. Even a pile of mail that is available in – you’re like… let’s take care of this proper now!

It’s really a extremely good money-saving answer – as a result of it heads off these “don’t-really-need-it” purchases, however even on a a lot smaller scale, it has modified the way in which we expect and do issues. We store for dwelling objects (each as large as a chunk of furnishings or as small as a vase) a lot much less – just about except we’ve a necessity for one thing, we don’t simply seize something as a result of it’s cute – even when it’s just a bit vase or an ornamental field. Sherry used to slip by means of the checkout line at Goal with issues like that on a regular basis within the days of getting ten million built-ins.

Even the act of filling this half of our storage cupboard with varied unused dwelling accents like vases and bowls and candles prompted Sherry to say “don’t want any extra of those like ever.”

So simply seeing your limitations and figuring out the quantity of house you’ve for one thing may be superbly releasing (and might prevent cash!) so long as you embrace it as an alternative of making an attempt to maintain amassing issues and shoving extra issues right into a finite house (which is truthfully what acquired us into the entire we-need-to-downsize mess within the first place).

One other instance is that we’ve really modified our strategies for sure issues. Whereas our final home’s eating room or storage would refill with donations over time after which we’d lastly get them completed as soon as the room was packed to the brim, now we put donations behind our automobile in a bag, and anytime we’re out working errands we drop them off as an alternative of ever having them build-up at dwelling. This isn’t actually a nasty factor in any respect – in lots of circumstances it feels higher, however it does contain type of an “lively position” in staying up to the mark, versus placing issues off for some future date whenever you really really feel like coping with them. So it’s simply one thing to pay attention to I feel.

In the end, these two challenges are simply part of adjusting to a totally new mind-set & residing – and in some ways they’re good issues – they only take a certain quantity of apply, self-discipline, and maintenance, so I needed to verify I discussed them.

We’re additionally nonetheless planning so as to add a small indifferent visitor studio in our yard that may double as a workspace if we ever want a quieter spot than the remainder of the home can supply us – plus we’re hoping so as to add a pleasant large closet in there for extra storage (Sherry has been speaking about hanging large white skeletons from our second-floor deck, and that closet may make all of her Halloween-decorating desires come true).

In abstract, downsizing has been an overwhelmingly optimistic change for our household. We all know it’s not for everybody, however it feels actually good to make use of and recognize the house that we’ve. In our final home we’d go days with out coming into our eating room, bonus room, visitor bed room, or again porch (besides possibly to scrub them, ha!). However right here there may be actually no house that goes to waste.

A yr in the past I’d’ve advised you that 1,400 sq. toes (and one toilet) was simply too small for us (we had been focusing on extra like 1,800 or 1,900 and solely entertained this home as a result of the format felt so spacious) however now we really feel prefer it’s nearly good. Even in one of many weirdest years any of us have ever skilled (2020).

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