Most Americans live in houses that are too big. In 2014, the average size of a home built was 2,600 square feet. That’s too big. Period. We don’t need so much stuff and we don’t need a bigger place to house it all. There is magic in small spaces. Small spaces open you up to more opportunities and give you a place to breathe. Check out my favorite BIG reasons to live in a small home below. Continue reading
For over 2 years my husband, my dog and I have lived tiny. We went from living in a beautiful (and big-to-me) 1,200 square foot loft to a 188 square foot Airstream Sovereign. I’ve learned so many lessons during that time. Some of those lessons were expected and some of those lessons were totally unforeseen. Some of the lessons have been easy and some of them have been hard. But more than anything I’m thankful that I’ve learned them. Living tiny has made me a better person. So today I’m going to share just a few of the lessons I’ve learned by living tiny. I’m sure there are so many more lessons in store. Continue reading
I often talk about living small, but I don’t think I’ve ever defined it. I know many people talk about tiny living and the tiny house movement, but I don’t think that phrase is all-encompassing. It also seems that no one can agree on what constitutes “tiny.” I’ve seen measurements as small as 90 square feet up to 1,000 square feet. Living small, to me, is much less about the measurements and more about the lifestyle. Here’s what living small means to me:
Living below your means
Living small is first and foremost about living below your means. It’s looking at your budget and consciously renting or buying less than you can afford. It’s knowing that by sacrificing some physical room you open up other financial possibilities for yourself. It’s about more freedom.
Living with less stuff
Logistically, by living in a smaller house, you’ll have to live with less stuff. It’s physics or something! But it’s also about being aware of the things that you own. It’s knowing that things are just that… things. It’s knowing that the important things in life aren’t really things. The important things are people, experiences and happiness.
Make do and mend
Living small is also about making do with what you have. People who live small aren’t tempted by the biggest, shiniest new toy. They see potential in their old toys. They have a D.I.Y. attitude, and an entrepreneurial spirit. They know that they can put in the hard work and it will pay off.
Prioritizing your life
Living small is making intentional choices about what is important in your life. People who live small know that if they don’t prioritize their life, someone will prioritize it for them. By making a big, flashy house a priority, you intentionally or unintentionally give up some of your other priorities.
Living more life
People who live small know that by sacrificing space and things, they make more room in their life for life. With less mortgage payments, they can take that vacation they’ve always dreamed of. With less house maintenance, they can spend more time on beloved hobbies. And with more money they can work less and spend more time with family and friends.
Do you agree with my definition of “living small?” Do you live a small life? Would you like to share your house and story? Shoot me an email to be featured in a future blog post!
love,
melanie
I’m starting a new feature on ye olde blog and I hope that you’ll enjoy it too! One of my goals this year is to read more and I need a bit of motivation. That’s why I’m starting a book club. Each month I’ll announce the book that we are going to read. (I’ll also take suggestions!) And then I’ll read it (I hope you will too) and we’ll discuss it. Easy enough?
Since this is “A Small Life” Book Club I’m thinking the books will center around minimalism, living small and life-changing adventures! The first book we’ll be reading is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing* by Marie Kondo. You can check it out from your local library or purchase it on Amazon using the link above.
I’ve heard great things about this book. In fact, people are starting to use the author’s last name as a verb to mean tidying up. Too bad my last name is hard to pronounce or I’d totally try to make that into a thing meaning “small living.” We’ll discuss this book on April 1st. I hope you’ll join me!
love,
melanie
*Affiliate link.
I am so pumped about this post! I love to see how families make living small work for them. Today we’ve got Nick Peterson from Livin’ Lightly. Nick, his wife, and two young children live, travel and work from an Airstream! Take it away, Nick…
Hello! We are the Peterson family! My wife and two kids (daughter 3 years and son 5 months) live, travel and work in our 1966 Airstream Overlander. We’ve been living small full-time for the past two years.
For us tiny living was never about the space. (At least not entirely.) We chose to live small so that we can live large in other areas of our life. Life’s all about trade-offs.
Pre-Airstream the daily grind consisted of work, paying bills then we tried to squeeze in some family, friends and fun. After the birth of our daughter we began to rethink our existence and intentionally plan our life.
For us this meant trading a steady income + benefits, larger living space for portability, time with family and pursing work we love.
In preparation for this transition we buckled down and cut all unnecessary spending, got on a strict budget, paid off our debt and saved. We purged and sold all our stuff, bought a vintage Airstream and a big truck to pull it. We worked to build versatile and largely passive income streams to pay the bills.
Now we have the time, and ironically space to share life as a family, the freedom to travel and explore and pursue what matters to us most.
Here’s to living the small space large life dream!
Aren’t they just the cutest?! You can read more about Nick and his family on their blog, Livin’ Lightly or on IG: livinlightly. And remember, If you want to submit your own Small Life, email me asmalllifemelanie @ gmail dot com.
love,
melanie
Do you live in a small house, in an Airstream or in a bus? Have you recently downsized your life? Do you live “unconventionally?” Do people often question your sanity? Just kidding about that last one, but I want to hear from you!
I am currently taking submissions for a new column that will feature people from around the world who embody the meaning of “living small.”
A Small Life is read by thousands of readers each day and could be a great opportunity to get your business/house/bus/life/Instagram/etc. seen!
Please send submissions to asmalllifemelanie at gmail.com. Submissions should include at least 4 photos (jpg or jpeg) that are at least 540 pixels wide. Also, please include why you embody living small. If chosen, I will contact you with further instructions.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
love,
melanie
There are times when the Airstream feels a little cramped. Luckily George and I didn’t grow up in big houses, but when we visit friends or family and then come back to our 188 square feet, it can feel a bit cramped.
One day we’ll have a bit more room (just a bit!). George will be able to stretch out his art stuff, Bambi can run around the house like the wild, little dog she is and I can spread out all the veggies I could ever want to chop, but until then when it feels a little cramped, we go outside. Going outside is a blessing when the weather is nice. I immediately feel better when I step outside and take a minute to just enjoy nature. But when that chill in the air comes back and the air smells like snow, there will be no more going outside for long periods of time. So I’m trying to soak it up while I still can.
Friday I was feeling a little cramped and it was so insanely pretty outside, so we ate dinner off paper plates and sat in little fold out chairs. Our setup wasn’t fancy or even very pretty, but it was enjoyable.
Whenever we do get new, small digs I hope we’re right smack dab in the middle of nature. I really think it’s the way humans were meant to live.
Viva la country life!
love,
melanie
Remember how I told ya’ll living small was the answer? Well, when I meant small, I meant 31 feet of small!
This weekend George and I picked up our new-to-us home. We will live in this 1978 Airstream Sovereign for the next year to save money and get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Is it an extreme scheme? Yes. Do I like to rhyme? Yes.
But seriously, folks, sometimes extreme schemes are necessary to make extreme changes. And you know what? I feel unusually calm about our plan– and I’m never calm about anything. I think this crazy ideas is actually going to work. By cutting out our major expense, rent, we will be able to save the majority of our paychecks. We will also cut out our water bill, (we’ll be using well water) and cut down on the electric bill.
We paid $5,000 for this beauty and we are planning on putting about $1,000 worth of renovations into her. We have already sold a bunch of unnecessary stuff to make up for the initial costs and in the next few weeks, we plan on selling a lot more at flea markets and online.
We will truly be living small and testing our ability to distinguish want from need. And of course, I’ll be posting our progress along the way.
Have you ever schemed up an extreme idea to save money? Did your plan work? I want to hear about it in the comments!
love and airstreams,
melanie
Terrified, excited, nervous, relieved– these past few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotion. My new job will force us to move and it has forced George and I to have long car-ride and late-night talks about our future.
Through those talks we’ve often discussed that world is not as it once was. I was told, we both were, that when we got out out of college the world would be waiting for us. As college graduates, no matter our major, someone would want us. They would pay us well. We would have healthy 401(k)s and retirement plans and we would soon be ready to buy a house. It’s the dream that our blue-collar parents did not easily achieve.
And as we are learning, it is not a dream we will easily achieve either. The world is not as it once was. An undergraduate education does not equate job safety– nor does a graduate education. The job prospects in 2008 when I got out of school were abysmal– especially so for an English major and an Art major.
We hid out for a while in underemployment and in our parents’ houses. Then I hid out in graduate school where I was lucky enough to get a couple of assistantships, internships and a few very small scholarships. After a very long job search, George got an elementary school teaching position. We were thankful. And we were happy.
But our happiness was short-lived. We were again fearful when I graduated from my graduate program in 2011. The constant thought of how difficult my job search was in 2008 loomed in the background. I worried daily and we lived off canned soup and saltines. (Ultimately, our diet combined with the stress of looming unemployment made me very sick, but that is a story for another time.)
I applied to over 100 jobs and out of those 100 applications, I got one interview for a job at a small, rural community college. One job interview. But by some miracle, I got it. Again, I was thankful and relieved, but the job was in a rural area, hours away from any of our family and friends.
We were sad to leave the place that we had made our home for the past two years. We lived in a tiny, old apartment– only 400 square feet, but the rent was affordable, the area was walkable, and it was clean.
Moving to a rural area was hard for me. I still struggle to find fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store and it is a 30 minute drive to the nearest Wal-Mart. Our rental choices in the area were slim and out of the two apartments available, we chose the more expensive choice because it was safe and didn’t have mold. Throughout it all, we made the best choices out of limited options.
During the time we’ve lived here, we’ve had some of the best and hardest times of our lives. Most importantly, we got married! But throughout the entire planning process, we struggled with the finances of a wedding. Ultimately, we made it out unscathed by being incredibly realistic with ourselves and I am so proud that we made that choice. But we ended up depleting our meager savings in the process.
We are also incredibly grateful to have very little debt. George and I worked throughout the time we were in school. (At one point, I had 3 jobs; it was kind of insane.) We got some scholarship help and our very middle class families helped us too. We know that we are incredibly lucky. And we know that we are better off than the majority of graduates.
Despite all of our luck and hard work, we still can’t get ahead. We still live paycheck to paycheck. If our rent and other bills stay the same, we won’t be able to buy a house in the foreseeable future. George will never be able to pursue his art full-time. We won’t be able to afford a vacation or adopt a dog. We won’t get out of the cycle.
But we think we may have found a way to get ahead. To lead the life we want to lead, debt-free. And the answer is to live small.
For the next year, George and I will live smaller than we’ve ever lived before. Our budget will be smaller and our house will be much smaller (more details on this later!). But our bravery, our bravery will be big.
Have you ever had to take drastic measures to get out of the debt or break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle? I genuinely want to start an honest conversation about this in the comments.
living small but loving large,
melanie