Have you ever just wanted to downsize?

[AlexNPeytonsMom]

and simplify EVEry aspect of your life? From what you own, to the house you live in, to the activities?

We were up by my Dh's parents and family this weekend and I LOVE IT THERE!! I've been feeling the pull for awhile to simplify what we have and the way our life is. Its just simpler up there.

Chandi

[3Gs4Me]

That is why we live in a 1300 sq. foot home when we could afford larger and only have about half of the belongings we had just a couple of years ago. Simplifying big time has always been a big draw for me and the process to downsize seemed really simple and comfortable.

[xt]

Heck, yes. It's part of why I'm doing all this trimming in the money dept. I want DH to be able to simplify his work life, and for us to simplify a lot of other aspects (house, belongings).

[Sandi]

It was a week in a hotel recently that got me motivated. I felt SO rejuvenated after having *one* pot, four plates, four cups, etc. that I went through and really started scaling back on what we have.

In the new house, it's going to continue. My biggest change is that I'm ONLY keeping out what the girls are actively wearing for a week. Anything else gets stored. If we "need" something, we can get it out of the bins in the garage where they'll be neatly marked and sorted by size.

I have three outfits for each girl out right now, one jacket, three pairs of undies, and two sets of jammies. It's awesome

[AngelaJ]

Yes. We stayed in a condo on vacation a couple of years ago, and it was so freeing to discover that we really didn't need all the stuff we think we do. It definitely inspired a massive declutter when we got home. Unfortunately everything I decluttered made its way to the attic, so now I am in the process of bringing that down a box at a time and sorting through it. Ideally, I will have yard sale with the "toss" stuff, but I am so overwhelmed at the thought of that, I'm really procrastinating it.

So, yes, I really want to declutter the stuff and my life. Even though we are low-income, it just amazes me the stuff we seem to "collect". And we only have 2 small store cards that we charge on, then pay off, so we are not buying things we can't afford. I digress.

Declutter, yes, must declutter.......

[AlexNPeytonsMom]

I am going to start with "spring" cleaning. I just need to get rid of clutter. I odn't want it, and I hate cleaning it.

Our house is 1600Sq. Upstairs and downstairs. Could go smaller I suppose, but we have 4 kids. That idea scares me a bit.

How is everyone's Husband reacting?
Chandi

[ScatteredCuriosities]

I would LOVE living the simple life.
Small house.......only belongings that we need or love, love, love.

Unfortunately, DH is soooo not on board. He grew up with a packrat and shopaholic and he tends to lean toward both of those traits.
We've had several arguments about decluttering. We are deep in debt and struggling to pay our bills each month, but he refuses to move to a smaller home or do anything really to live more simply. It's a constant struggle for us.

[Linda]

yes that is why me moved to NZ and dh has the job that he has. we love simple.

[mamabear]

Same here. That's how we ended up in Vermont. Now I have found big tradeoffs for us - just that the things that are more complex now are basic survival things like keeping the fire going, taking care of the animals, buying basic necessities like food and clothing, and dealing with weather and the maintenance of a large piece of land. And things like advocating hard to get the school to be more progressive and open-minded and responsive to the community. BUT - and here is the big thing - we prefer dealing with these types of things, they are very rooted in place and time, they are not consumerist or focused on appearance, and they are meaningful to us. Compared to shuttling the kids to multiple sports and classes, dh working two jobs, or bleaching the driveway - for US what we're doing is far preferable to the suburban and consumer-focused way we were living before. (Even just doing the minimum needed to "pass" as somewhat normal in that type of society, because we couldn't/wouldn't afford to do more than that.)

It's a big part of why we are here - and thanks. At the end of winter, slammed with snowstorm after snowstorm this spring, I really needed a reminder of why I did downsize, LOL!

Oh and I have so far to go - I only downsized my stuff into storage and out of our main living space. While this is great I have to spend the spring/early summer going through everything yet again and really dumpstering or donating most of it. I can't wait, yet I dread it at the same time. You know? And then I have to comb through the main house yet again to get rid of another batch, because it seems to build. However since we have been doing the not buying (or trying to :P) I have noticed a difference in how much stuff we have around. Yes we've splurged on a "big thing" or two like the Vitamix, but I'm not buying excess books or toys or little things, and I find those things really add up around the house.

Oh and my dh loves it. He won't always get involved or help but when he does I notice I get rid of a lot more - I hold onto stuff because I *think* he wants it but he's like "oh, pitch it!" LOL.

[xt]

Lauren - you had me falling out of my chair, laughing, with "bleaching the driveway." I can't believe some of the BS I have to do to live in a stupid subdivision with an uptight HOA. Luckily, our neighborhood is way more lax than others around here, but I sooooo want out of this.

p.s. - DH used Tracey's pressure washer to do our driveway (and it turned out we could use pretty much just straight water, which was nice). He got bored toward the end, and bleached "I xt" on a huge section. It's still there.

[mamabear]

LMAO!!! I love it. Yeah...we were in a laidback (and shady! as in treed!) subdivision and the gunk that would build up on the driveway was so bad we had to do something just to keep from slipping in slime!

The craziest part is, right next door was our relatively cool neighbor (GM of the Cheesecake Factory, made good money!) with his huge pressure washer, every woodworking tool you could imagine, every gadget and fun thing you could want for any task around the house or yard. But it was taboo to ask even him, our "friend," to borrow anything, yk? Just crazy to think about all these garages facing each other and the street, all with their duplicate weed trimmers, lawn mowers, pressure washers, circular saws, etc etc etc - when we could have shared resources and consumed *so* much less. Never mind actually relaxing about some of the "look" of the place...

Anyway it made us so much more uncomfortable. More uncomfortable even than when we get all relaxed about living in the woods and go out on the porch in undies for one second to grab a piece of wood or something and that happens to be the EXACT second the plow truck is driving by, or the minute that the UPS guy is pulling into the driveway... ROFL!