We used to live in a 1400 sq. foot house. Three bedrooms, two baths. Then we added 2 kids to our household over the course of 4 years. We both work from home and started homeschooling our children, and after our home offices ended up in our master bedroom we decided it would be wise to move into a larger space.
Last year we moved into a 1900 square foot house. Four bedrooms and two and a half baths. It also had 2 living areas, so we turned one into a school room/play room/mom’s office.
I’ve never felt completely settled here. Many friends who came to visit would “ohh” and “ahh” over the new place, asking if we would eventually buy it. But I knew that we wouldn’t be there a long time. I attributed it to not knowing if our friends (who own the house) would put it back on the market after a year.
Over the course of this last year God has been effecting big changes in my heart. I’ve read and studied about money and possessions, what a Godly view should be on these two important subjects, and the pressure in our culture to have more, more, more. It is true that we live unlike most of the rest of the world, who subsist on about $2/day and live in homes about as big as our living room. I have gone through a major shift in how I view my money, spend my money, and have even purged a lot of my “stuff.”
Now we are getting ready to move again. Partly because we want to be in a different area of town (downtown to be exact) and partly because we want to be in a place that is more cost effective for our budget. We don’t want such a large percentage of our money to go toward rent. We knew that in order to accomplish these goals we would need to downsize. God has been working on me in that area too.
When we first started looking at homes for rent in the downtown area there were mostly 3 bedroom homes, and some had 2 bathrooms. Well, okay, I thought, we’ll go back to a 3 bedroom home and find some space to put our offices again. We can be creative. Then the search morphed as we realized that many of the downtown homes are old homes and only have 1 bathroom. Deep breath. Think it through. Okay, okay. We can look at homes that have 1 bathroom. We’ll make it work. One of the members of the family doesn’t use a toilet yet anyway.
The search continued. And it went something like this. Well I guess I would remember to duck every time I went up the stairs so that I don’t bang my head on this giant piece of concrete hanging down from the ceiling. Sure, I’m not bothered by that growling and barking German Shepherd in the back neighbor’s yard that is trying to eat my children through the chain link fence. No, no, we don’t mind the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke.
I have been on my knees in prayer so many times over these last few months, asking God for the right place and peace when we found it. Alas, last week we stumbled upon the cutest house, right in a prime neighborhood (read: walking distance to the beach, our favorite hiking hill, the library and our favorite coffee shop). It was perfect. What’s that? Two bedrooms. We can’t fit into a two bedroom house. We both have desks we NEED for work. Our kids NEED separate rooms. We need, we need, we need.
Do I truly desire to downsize, to live simply, or am I just in love with the idea of it? After some soul-searching, I know that this is the right thing to do. That peace I prayed for? I have it. I found the house on a Wednesday morning and called the property management office ASAP. We couldn’t get in to see the house until that following Monday afternoon. Yet in those 5 days I virtually stopped looking. We had to move in less than a month, we hadn’t even seen inside this house yet, and somehow I felt that peace I had prayed for.
Long story short, we looked at the house and fell in love, quirks and all. It’s an older home, which always comes with quirks. Probably the most funny one is that the washer and dryer are in the second bedroom. The kids’ bedroom. I know, I know, that is strange and it took me a bit to come to terms with it. We might eventually look into relocating it into the garage, but for now it will stay. I am sure that one day we’ll look back as a family and laugh about how the kids had to sleep in the laundry room!
So over the last 2 weeks we have been getting of stuff. Most of the time it feels freeing. Sometimes I freak out. But we’re moving in to a 1000 sq. foot (if that) house real soon, so like it or not, things HAVE to go. I will be writing more over the next few weeks about the process and giving some recommendations for how to go about downsizing. I truly am looking forward to this next great (albeit small) adventure! And what started out as a function of wanting to move downtown and therefore coming to terms with a smaller house size has truly become a journey in simplifying and trying to focus on things that truly matter.
