In our 20 or so years together Destoni and I have lived in some small spaces, from a studio apartment to a self built tiny house in an old portable building, we've lived in smaller spaces longer than larger ones.
Our first apartment together was a 325 sq foot studio apartment on the southside of Jacksonville. Being young and not even married at the time we had very little to fill the space. A mattress on the floor, a sofa we had found somewhere were all that we really had for awhile. Living there wasn't the greatest but we did learn that smaller spaces are not too constrictive for us.
After we left the apartment we moved into the upstairs unit of a home that had been converted to have an upper and lower unit for rent. Our landlord was an older woman and she had a man that lived with her that took care of the maintenance stuff. The upstairs was a 2 bedroom with kitchen, bath, and living room, but only about 420 sq feet. We stayed here for about 2 years. The spare bedroom turned into a storage room for all the "stuff" we were stuffing into our lives. Even in small spaces clutter creeps and storage is valuable real estate.
We were offered the opportunity to move on to Destoni's parents property. Connected to but behind their garage they had a 10 x 36 foot portable building, the kind schools use as temporary classrooms. With their help we converted that space into a studio apartment. I think this is where we picked up the idea that we could build a home by ourselves. We had ripped the building down to the studs and rebuilt it and included a bathroom with shower/tub combo, toilet, sink, and a closet. Our living area was a studio set up with the kitchen, living room, and bedroom being open spaces with no walls between.
Living small for so long didn't stop us from accumulating a lot more stuff. With our current house (For Sale by the way) we have 1640 sq feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. We have rooms full of things that we either didn't use any longer or had never used so we are selling a lot of stuff on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. We grew tired of the large space, much of which we just filled with "stuff".
It is hard to leave this house though. It is our first home that we bought together. We had plans that never came to fruition and our outlook of life changed along the way.
Transitioning to our bus space, somewhere around 200 sq feet, we had to, and still have to, minimize the clutter and "stuff" we've collected over the years. We designed and built with simplicity and comfort in mind primarily and that doesn't leave a lot of room for useless things.
I think now knowing what we want out of our space and what kind of life we'd like to live, we know better how to utilize the space we have and not fill it in with useless junk or meaningless things.
We have built our own tiny home once and we are well on our way of completing the skoolie tiny home of our dreams. It has been an insightful journey and educational experience purging things to make way for the incredible future in front of us.
Learning what you want in a home is important. Living tiny requires a better understanding of your own wants and needs inside your space. The size of the space can also dictate your style and function. Some things we love about tiny homes is the endless customization and functionality concepts that goes into building one. There are incalculable ways to go about building your tiny space.
Thanks for reading and let us know what have you learned to let go of in your pursuit for downsizing?