Downsizing

[DaffodilDreams]

I've posted before about the possibility of moving to MI. If we do so, we will be significantly downsizing. We live in 2600 sq ft of space now. The cottage we will rent is 850 sq ft (including the basement) with an unfinished utility area behind the finished part of the basement. The upper area is 550 sq ft; the basement is 300 sq ft. It's right on the lake. There is one bathroom, and a tiny kitchen. The basement area would have to be multi-purpose school/play/sleep. There is one other bedroom and a living room. A large deck wraps around the cottage.

 

We're a family of 3, and we need to simplify our lives. Are we crazy to consider such small living quarters? Has anyone else on here downsized this much? If so, what becomes important and what do you let go? Am I wrong in thinking I can pull furniture away from the walls and cover most of the wall space with bookshelves so we at least don't have to purge the books? What would you keep for kitchen stuff? I love to bake but hate cooking "real food". Of course I do cook meals, but I'm not that great at the real food kind of thing so most of our regular meals are pretty simple.

 

We would need two beds, and I'd love to keep our current kitchen table to use as the school table (getting rid of our current school table), and try to keep our dining table to use as the kitchen table in the new place, but I'm not sure that's realistic. I know the guest room stuff will need to go.

 

I could ramble on and on, so I better just close here. Hoping someone has been there, done this and has much wisdom to pass on.

 

Thanks!

[Wheres Toto]

We currently live in 750 square feet with no basement and a detached, garage that is not rodent or spider proof.

 

Our biggest issues:

-Storage is the top of the list. There is no place to put anything (only 2 small closets in the whole house). Having to keep some things out of reach of little hands makes this even worse. Even if you minimize there will be things that you need to have places for.

 

-Most of my books are in the garage in plastic bins because the wall space is very limited. Our living room has an archway and 4 doorways coming off it. Add in a fireplace and a heat/ac vent that can't be blocked and our useable wall space is very limited - something you may want to check in the new house. We currently have bookcases in front of two windows surrounding the fireplace. We removed the back from the top half so light still shines through.

 

-We minimized what we could in the kitchen and store a lot of other stuff on top of the cabinets. We have an open soffit which does provide quite a bit more room. I too love to bake but hate to cook. DH cooks dinner daily but I rarely bake due to a complete lack of space to work. We have one 3 foot section of countertop and that's it.

 

-Our dining room is really a section of the kitchen. We bought a nook type table with a wrap-around bench that has storage in the benches and a backless bench for the outside. This table has to serve as eating table, working table, computer table, and everything else that needs a table larger than 2x3. This results in us usually not being able to eat at it since it's covered in stuff.

 

-If any of the rooms have cathedral ceilings, skylights or a lot of windows it will make it seem much bigger. Having a lot of light helps me to deal with the lack of space. Although, the more windows, the less wall space.

 

-Shelves high up toward the ceiling can help a lot. We've done this in every room possible but if you have particularly low ceilings it will limit what you can do. One of our bedrooms, the ceiling is only 6 foot so there is less we can do with it.

 

-We have a small laundry closet just big enough for the washer/dryer off the kitchen. We put a bunch of wire baskets and narrow shelves along the walls to store canned goods and cleaning supplies. I spend one day a week doing laundry so that the rest of the time I can store things on the washer and dryer. On laundry day, that stuff all sits on the back bench to my dining set.

 

One thing to think about is how much time you will be able to spend outside. We are in NJ so we can spend a lot of time outside 8-9 months of the year and limited time the other 3-4 months. In MI, the long winters may have you going insane if you are cooped up in the house.

 

Good Luck in your decision. Depending on your reasons for downsizing you may find it a viable option. I briefly lived in 450 square feet but it was just me and oldest dd and it was VERY BRIEF.

[RoughCollie]

We moved last year to a house that is about 1600 s.f., from a 2800 s.f. house. We have 6 adult-sized people in our family.

 

I had a lot of kitchen stuff, and I ruthlessly went through it and took only what I had actually used within the previous year. I took only the pots & pans I needed, and no duplicate utensils and other items. I did not take anything that was unnecessary to daily life -- there would have been no point unless I wanted to rent storage space.

 

I purged the china, crystal and silver. If I hadn't used it in a year, I did not take it. I gave way 75% of it.

 

I measured the rooms and took only the furniture that would fit into them, making sure there was enough seating in each to accommodate the entire family and walking paths through the rooms.

 

In our house, each kids' bedroom has one twin bed, one night stand, one chest of drawers, and one bookcase. The rooms have just enough room to walk in them; the furniture is crammed in there. Our bedroom holds our bed, one chest of drawers, and two nightstands and there is barely room to walk around the bed.

 

So, we left behind all the bookcases that used to be in the bedrooms, and all the desks, desk chairs, and triple dressers.

 

We left behind the contents of our living room: the usual furniture, plus 16 bookcases that lined the walls.

 

We left behind the contents of our school and our play room: 2 large tables, 4 bookcases, 8 chairs, 1 desk, 2 full-sized keyboards.

 

We took the den furniture, which included a desk and chair.

 

We took the dining room furniture: table w/leaves, 6 chairs, china cabinet. I had another china cabinet which we left behind.

 

I ruthlessly purged our holiday decorations. The new house will not hold a huge 10'-12' Christmas tree, so we didn't need a lot of that. My children are not youngsters, so we didn't need the holiday stuff that is guaranteed to delight the little ones.

 

We did not take any of our camping gear, the bicycles, the lawn mower and yard tools, the croquet set, and so forth. I also left behind my wallpapering and painting tools, gardening implements and pots, potting soil and additives.

 

We did not take at least 5,000 books because we had to leave about 25 bookcases behind. I made sure that the bookcases we took fit in the rooms, and that the books we took would not overflow the bookcases.

 

We did not take many of the children's toys. I kept the Playmobil, some of DD's beloved dinosaur collection and some of the Legos. I took only the board games we currently play.

 

I did not take any homeschool books or supplies unless we use them currently or will use them in the near future. We did take a large box of picture books that the kids did not want to part with (fond memories).

 

I did not take any of DH's clothing that was too small for him to currently wear. Even the clothes he can currently wear were purged because he had enough sweaters and ties for 6 people. I did not take any of my clothes that were not in my current size, except for a two cashmere sweaters that I hope to be able to wear someday.

 

The kids decided for themselves what they wanted to take, and except for the baseball card collection, each kid had one box of stuff (teenagers' stuff is small) plus one 7' x 3' bookcase worth of books.

 

I took the curtains and draperies that would actually fit the windows here. The hardware and blinds we had were for much wider windows, so we didn't take that. I did not take my fabric collection.

 

We took our dog's very large crate, which he loves, but I can't fit it into the house.

 

I was relieved that I did not bring too much stuff to fit into this small house -- I thought I had been too ruthless, but now I think I was not ruthless enough.

 

RC

Edited August 4, 2010 by RoughCollie

[m0mmaBuck]

I've posted before about the possibility of moving to MI. If we do so, we will be significantly downsizing. We live in 2600 sq ft of space now. The cottage we will rent is 850 sq ft (including the basement) with an unfinished utility area behind the finished part of the basement. The upper area is 550 sq ft; the basement is 300 sq ft. It's right on the lake. There is one bathroom, and a tiny kitchen. The basement area would have to be multi-purpose school/play/sleep. There is one other bedroom and a living room. A large deck wraps around the cottage.

 

We're a family of 3, and we need to simplify our lives. Are we crazy to consider such small living quarters? Has anyone else on here downsized this much? If so, what becomes important and what do you let go? Am I wrong in thinking I can pull furniture away from the walls and cover most of the wall space with bookshelves so we at least don't have to purge the books? What would you keep for kitchen stuff? I love to bake but hate cooking "real food". Of course I do cook meals, but I'm not that great at the real food kind of thing so most of our regular meals are pretty simple.

 

We would need two beds, and I'd love to keep our current kitchen table to use as the school table (getting rid of our current school table), and try to keep our dining table to use as the kitchen table in the new place, but I'm not sure that's realistic. I know the guest room stuff will need to go.

 

I could ramble on and on, so I better just close here. Hoping someone has been there, done this and has much wisdom to pass on.

 

Thanks!

 

Well, I am not attached to material things so take this for what it's worth. I would sell EVERYTHING in our current house save what we could fit into our two vehicles so that I didn't have to pay to move it and simply buy whatever we needed to make the new place "home" when we got there. At most, I would consider renting a small U-hall that I could pull behind our Suburban if there were some larger things we just couldn't bear to part with. But that's me. And I don't have anything in this house that I'm attached to beyond the people in it and a few boxes worth of photo albums and such.

[elegantlion]

I've posted before about the possibility of moving to MI. If we do so, we will be significantly downsizing. We live in 2600 sq ft of space now. The cottage we will rent is 850 sq ft (including the basement) with an unfinished utility area behind the finished part of the basement. The upper area is 550 sq ft; the basement is 300 sq ft. It's right on the lake. There is one bathroom, and a tiny kitchen. The basement area would have to be multi-purpose school/play/sleep. There is one other bedroom and a living room. A large deck wraps around the cottage.

 

We're a family of 3, and we need to simplify our lives. Are we crazy to consider such small living quarters? Has anyone else on here downsized this much? If so, what becomes important and what do you let go? Am I wrong in thinking I can pull furniture away from the walls and cover most of the wall space with bookshelves so we at least don't have to purge the books? What would you keep for kitchen stuff? I love to bake but hate cooking "real food". Of course I do cook meals, but I'm not that great at the real food kind of thing so most of our regular meals are pretty simple.

 

We would need two beds, and I'd love to keep our current kitchen table to use as the school table (getting rid of our current school table), and try to keep our dining table to use as the kitchen table in the new place, but I'm not sure that's realistic. I know the guest room stuff will need to go.

 

I could ramble on and on, so I better just close here. Hoping someone has been there, done this and has much wisdom to pass on.

 

Thanks!

 

Our previous home was 1100 sf plus a basement and I loved it. We're currently in a larger home and we're going to be downsizing in the near future too. We have about 2000sf and I was actually surprised to find it's almost too much for us.

 

In our previous home we utilized lots of vertical storage. Let's see if I can list some of other things we did (a good refresher for me too)

 

 

 

• took doors off of closets and hung curtains over the doorway, saves floor space to open

• underbed boxes

• everything has to serve a purpose, no "just because it's pretty" decor that takes up floor space

• don't move anything that you can easily replace once moved (I'm currently in the why move clothes hangers phase)

• bookcases are your best friend. Why hang a picture when you can put a bookcase in the same place?

• two sets of sheets for each bed, minimal bath towels

• downsize to necessary kitchen items

• hooks on the wall are great for all kinds of uses

• a high shelf around a child's room can be used for those seldom used toys and stuffed animals

• work to find systems of organization for everything

• photo boxes can look pretty on a shelf, even if they hold unorganized stuff

• if you store school stuff in binders, try using book rings instead, they take up less space

• purge on a regular basis. No letting mail and papers pile up, make a recycling pile

• buy paper sleeves for DVD and CDs and get rid of all the plastic cases

 

 

HTH

[....]

Um...good luck! We have 6 humans, 3 dogs, a gecko and a cornsnake living in about 1000 square feet of house. Yeah, it's fun. :tongue_smilie: It feels like we're living in a simulated space station environment. We can't leave the house, because it's 107 degrees outside...everyone just floats around the small space of a house, bumping into each other...even the dogs.

 

:D

 

Good times. :cheers2: Good times.

[gingersmom]

People in New York city raise entire families in apartments that small.

 

You would be amazed at all the "stuff" you do not need/want.

 

If you do not have a space to store some stuff (garage) maybe rent a storage space.

[....]

People in New York city raise entire families in apartments that small.

 

You would be amazed at all the "stuff" you do not need/want.

 

:iagree: This is very true. Also, nowadays...people feel bad for living like that, but 50 years ago, houses were a lot smaller than they are now. People also had huge families. My great grandparents had like 8 kids. And I'm sure they lived in a smaller house. I don't think there was any "keeping up with the Joneses" back then.

Edited August 5, 2010 by starrbuck12

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

We are planning on moving from about 4000 square feet that is stuffed to the gills to about 800 square feet if we are lucky:D The cost of square feet in our new location is much, much higher needless to say;)

 

Our plan is to get rid of about 80% of our stuff. Can you say pack rat city:D? We hope to use a lot of creative ideas like IKEA:001_smile:

[RobinF]

I think you can do it. We live in 1900 sq and are a family of 6 we do school at home and dh has a home office. Storage is a must. I would suggest looking at Ikea to get some ideas of how to maximize space. I think they even have some interactive things you can use to set up spaces.

 

Do you need two tables? Can you do school at the kitchen table? How often will you have guests? We decided that we were better off with a school room than a guest bedroom. When we have guests we give up our room and sleep in the boys room with them.

 

For cooking I would keep the basics. You need a good med sized sauce pan and a larger pan for soups and pastas and then a good skillet. I love my stoneware so I would keep that but I could make do with one baking sheet and one 9x13 pan in a pinch.

 

A lot depends on your lifestyle but I do think for a family of 3 it is doable. We lived in a 1400 sq ft apartment when we were a family of 5 and before that a 1200 sq ft house.

[Sherry in OH]

Clear the furniture from one of the rooms in your current house. Use painter's tape to outline a 300 square foot area. Can you fit a bed, the table, clothes, toys, and school supplies in that space? Use newspaper or cardboard cutouts to represent furniture. Would a loft bed be an option?

 

Outline your other rooms as well. Then purge. Anything you don't use or don't like needs to go.

[DaffodilDreams]

Thank you all for your encouragement and ideas. And, yes, for those naysayers, I've had my moments of doubt for sure. We love the idea of taping off the room dimensions and doing a trial run. Thank you to the poster who suggested it. Luckily, our current living room is 650 sq ft so we have plenty of space to do that. Yes, our entire new home wouldn't be much bigger than our current living room. :001_huh: That sent me into a panic attack this morning when that comparison hit home.

[elegantlion]

Also look at the size of your furniture. In our previous home we had a regular sofa, two chairs and moderate sized coffee and end table. In this house we got new coffee and end tables and honestly they're huge. Thankfully we still have the smaller pieces, we'll be able to use them when we move. The giant tables are going.

[Renee in NC]

Well, I am not attached to material things so take this for what it's worth. I would sell EVERYTHING in our current house save what we could fit into our two vehicles so that I didn't have to pay to move it and simply buy whatever we needed to make the new place "home" when we got there. At most, I would consider renting a small U-hall that I could pull behind our Suburban if there were some larger things we just couldn't bear to part with. But that's me. And I don't have anything in this house that I'm attached to beyond the people in it and a few boxes worth of photo albums and such.

 

This is what we will do if we have to move again long distance.

[Melinda in VT]

Am I wrong in thinking I can pull furniture away from the walls and cover most of the wall space with bookshelves so we at least don't have to purge the books?

 

As much as I love books, for a downsizing this significant, I would not exempt books from purging.

 

Seven years ago, we moved (family of 5) to 950 sq ft. Then we added a kid. I purged several times over the years, trying to make myself satisfied with the size of the house. As much as I love books, I was happiest when we had some blank wall space that wasn't covered with book shelves.

 

Another thought: How dry is the basement? How much natural light does it get? I've seen a wide variety of basements over the years. Some are liveable. Others, not.

[meet me in paris]

We just moved from 3000 sq ft to 1400. It's doable.

 

We purged... a lot. Craig's List was a good friend a few months ago, and we unloaded *thousands* of pounds of stuff. It felt great. I do miss having a separate school room, and I miss having a nice round game table since we are game-playing people around here. But the truth is that life goes on and there's not much in the way of "stuff" that I miss at all.

 

All I can say is use height to your advantage! Get TALL pieces that hold lots of stuff. Use risers for your bed frame so that storage boxes will fit underneath. Get storage systems and build them into your closets to organize what you have. Only keep things in the kitchen that do double-duty... a gadget that only has one function will just get in your way and take up space.

 

Waterfront homes tend to have lots of windows, which is a curse and a blessing. It makes the home feel so much bigger, and the views are lovely, but it makes furniture placement (and bookshelf placement!) a nightmare. Take that into consideration when you're planning where everything might go.

 

We're so glad we dumped everything that we did. Our lives feel simpler already, and we're determined not to start collecting again. Downsizing is a long process... moving helps, but it still won't happen immediately. Most of it happens in your head, and it seems like you're already there. :)

[Blueridge]

I just ordered a new Ikea catalog, which might have some wonderful storage ideas for you.

[....]

Also...another thing to think about...our utility bills are a small fraction of what our friends pay (with the 3,000 square foot-two-story house). He said the electricity to run the AC is about 3-4x the cost of what we pay for our electricity.

 

That's one good thing! :lol: I also realized that I should stop posting when I'm sleepy...:glare:

[meena]

Our family of 5 downgraded from 2700 sq ft to a little over 1000 sq ft. We don't have a garage or basement, but we do have a fairly large shed in our backyard that houses some of our excess inventory.

 

We have learned to make the most of our space through creative storage. Our sons' beds (from IKEA) have storage space under the mattresses. We store extra sheets, pillows, blankets in there. The children's beds are on risers so that we can store items underneath. We took the sliding doors off all of the closets to make the space totally accessible. Dressers are pushed into the closet area, the clothes bar is installed closer to the ceiling so clothes can hang without touching the dresser. The plan is to hang curtains where the doors used to be for a cleaner look, but we haven't done that yet. We converted our bedroom closet into an office nook and use his and her wardrobes as our closet space instead. We installed shelving (also from IKEA) in our small laundry room over the front loading washer/dryer. We use that room to store pantry items, towels, dog supplies, larger kitchen items that are used as often (waffle maker, crockpot, etc.). We have lots of bookshelves--along two walls in our living room and one wall of our dining area.

 

I enjoy cooking but I know what tools I need to get the job done, so I don't keep gadgets I won't use regularly. I do have a KitchenAid mixer that I keep on the counter, and a small toaster oven and coffeemaker that DH keeps out. All other small appliances (blender, Foreman grill, air popper) go in one of the cabinets. We installed an island in the kitchen which houses baking pans, oven mitts, kids' dishes, and storage bags/foil.

 

My best advice is to have a designated place for everything you plan to keep. If you can't figure out how to store it, then it has to go. I still have a hard time following that advice :blush: We are cramped at times, and DH especially gets a bit claustrophobic when things pile up (school projects, my paperwork, laundry, whatever). At such times we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that we save a lot of $$, as our house payment, taxes, insurance, utilities, and so forth are dramatically lower.

[DaffodilDreams]

As much as I love books, for a downsizing this significant, I would not exempt books from purging.

 

Seven years ago, we moved (family of 5) to 950 sq ft. Then we added a kid. I purged several times over the years, trying to make myself satisfied with the size of the house. As much as I love books, I was happiest when we had some blank wall space that wasn't covered with book shelves.

 

Another thought: How dry is the basement? How much natural light does it get? I've seen a wide variety of basements over the years. Some are liveable. Others, not.

 

Okay, if 6 of you can fit in 950 sq ft., we should certainly be able to handle 850 for the three of us!

 

As for the books, okay, I'll admit there are SOME that could be purged that wouldn't make me ill to think of getting rid of, but we have plenty I'd like to keep. Thanks for the push to rethink this. Maybe we won't leave with ALL of them! : )

 

The basement is dry and finished (except for the utility area), and light enters via sliding glass doors.

[DaffodilDreams]

Our family of 5 downgraded from 2700 sq ft to a little over 1000 sq ft. We don't have a garage or basement, but we do have a fairly large shed in our backyard that houses some of our excess inventory.

 

We have learned to make the most of our space through creative storage. Our sons' beds (from IKEA) have storage space under the mattresses. We store extra sheets, pillows, blankets in there. The children's beds are on risers so that we can store items underneath. We took the sliding doors off all of the closets to make the space totally accessible. Dressers are pushed into the closet area, the clothes bar is installed closer to the ceiling so clothes can hang without touching the dresser. The plan is to hang curtains where the doors used to be for a cleaner look, but we haven't done that yet. We converted our bedroom closet into an office nook and use his and her wardrobes as our closet space instead. We installed shelving (also from IKEA) in our small laundry room over the front loading washer/dryer. We use that room to store pantry items, towels, dog supplies, larger kitchen items that are used as often (waffle maker, crockpot, etc.). We have lots of bookshelves--along two walls in our living room and one wall of our dining area.

 

I enjoy cooking but I know what tools I need to get the job done, so I don't keep gadgets I won't use regularly. I do have a KitchenAid mixer that I keep on the counter, and a small toaster oven and coffeemaker that DH keeps out. All other small appliances (blender, Foreman grill, air popper) go in one of the cabinets. We installed an island in the kitchen which houses baking pans, oven mitts, kids' dishes, and storage bags/foil.

 

My best advice is to have a designated place for everything you plan to keep. If you can't figure out how to store it, then it has to go. I still have a hard time following that advice :blush: We are cramped at times, and DH especially gets a bit claustrophobic when things pile up (school projects, my paperwork, laundry, whatever). At such times we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that we save a lot of $$, as our house payment, taxes, insurance, utilities, and so forth are dramatically lower.

 

So many posters have mentioned IKEA, and we will definitely look into that. We would have one about 3 hrs away, so that's doable. I've been in IKEA once and LOVED it! I'm looking forward to being w/in an easy drive of one of their stores.

 

One of the main reasons for doing this would be the mega savings that you mentioned toward the end of your post. We really need this now. The economy has hurt my husband's business terribly. Another reason is to be near dh's family.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and advice. I love the idea of the shelves over the laundry area. I'm sure that would help us out a lot. I was wondering what I'd do without my pantry. And I think we'll have to borrow the wardrobe idea, too.

[DaffodilDreams]

Also...another thing to think about...our utility bills are a small fraction of what our friends pay (with the 3,000 square foot-two-story house). He said the electricity to run the AC is about 3-4x the cost of what we pay for our electricity.

 

That's one good thing! :lol: I also realized that I should stop posting when I'm sleepy...:glare:

 

Yes! We are soooooooooooooo looking forward to that perk!

[DaffodilDreams]

We just moved from 3000 sq ft to 1400. It's doable.

 

We purged... a lot. Craig's List was a good friend a few months ago, and we unloaded *thousands* of pounds of stuff. It felt great. I do miss having a separate school room, and I miss having a nice round game table since we are game-playing people around here. But the truth is that life goes on and there's not much in the way of "stuff" that I miss at all.

 

All I can say is use height to your advantage! Get TALL pieces that hold lots of stuff. Use risers for your bed frame so that storage boxes will fit underneath. Get storage systems and build them into your closets to organize what you have. Only keep things in the kitchen that do double-duty... a gadget that only has one function will just get in your way and take up space.

 

Waterfront homes tend to have lots of windows, which is a curse and a blessing. It makes the home feel so much bigger, and the views are lovely, but it makes furniture placement (and bookshelf placement!) a nightmare. Take that into consideration when you're planning where everything might go.

 

We're so glad we dumped everything that we did. Our lives feel simpler already, and we're determined not to start collecting again. Downsizing is a long process... moving helps, but it still won't happen immediately. Most of it happens in your head, and it seems like you're already there. :)

 

Ugh! Thanks for mentioning the window thing. I hadn't thought that far ahead. Luckily some of our book shelves are module and can be configured around windows, but not all of them. We have three large book cases that can't be reconfigured.

[scrapbookbuzz]

I'm so glad you posted your question; I've garnered alot of great ideas from the responses!:D

 

We live in a townhouse that's roughly 1400sf. When we moved in we were a family of 3 and now we are a family of 4. I've been thinking for a few years now that we need a bigger house; we do only have 2 bedrooms, after all, and I have one girl and one boy! But now, having read these posts, I think we'll survive, esp. if we figure out how to finagle our space a little better. :tongue_smilie:

 

You all have some great ideas!

[Guest Mommy Rachel]

You can do it!! We moved this year. My husband plans were to buy a lot of land and live in a 500 sq ft house he built himself (there are 4 of us) ...( we didn't get to do this but still looking for land to build a small getaway house that eventually we would live in). Google small house plans or living in a small house, You will be amazed at what people can live in. Being able to live on the land and not leave such a large footprint is amazing and rewarding to those people. My dad often reminds me his family of 9 lived in a 3 room house. All the kids slept in the same room and life was grand. We are spoiled today and have to much room and space and stuff....I have found when we moved from small apartment to a larger house it just gave us permission to fill space with things that are unnecessary to live and learn. You can do it!! I am encouraging myself too. Good luck...let us know how it goes.!!

[Robyn]

Our family of 5 lives in an 800 sq ft+basement storage, city apartment with no yard(though we're a couple blocks from a park).

 

I am a relentless purger, partly because of our limited space, but also because my mother is a pack rat/borderline hoarder and I cannot stand, well, "stuff".

 

I do love books, but I just keep an assortment of young children's books (because they are read over and over) and books we need long-term for school. We have a terrific library network and most of what I need I can get on loan.

 

I am big fan of Ikea products. The kids toys all sort into bins or shelves. I sort mail and file/toss ASAP. The only thing I really hang onto is clothes. With 3 boys, I can't justify repurchasing, so I sort hand-me-downs into storage bins and label and stack them in the basement.

 

I think the key to living in a small space is staying organized, and everyone getting a chance to be alone when they need it. My two older boys share a room, but my 11 year old knows he can tell me to keep his brother out of there for awhile if he needs to decompress.

[DaffodilDreams]

You can do it!! We moved this year. My husband plans were to buy a lot of land and live in a 500 sq ft house he built himself (there are 4 of us) ...( we didn't get to do this but still looking for land to build a small getaway house that eventually we would live in). Google small house plans or living in a small house, You will be amazed at what people can live in. Being able to live on the land and not leave such a large footprint is amazing and rewarding to those people. My dad often reminds me his family of 9 lived in a 3 room house. All the kids slept in the same room and life was grand. We are spoiled today and have to much room and space and stuff....I have found when we moved from small apartment to a larger house it just gave us permission to fill space with things that are unnecessary to live and learn. You can do it!! I am encouraging myself too. Good luck...let us know how it goes.!!

 

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the pep talk! I'll google those phrases and see what comes up. Hopefully things will transpire in the direction of this move, but it might take awhile. A few things have to happen here first, but it does feel like our hearts are already in MI.

[DaffodilDreams]

Our family of 5 lives in an 800 sq ft+basement storage, city apartment with no yard(though we're a couple blocks from a park).

 

I am a relentless purger, partly because of our limited space, but also because my mother is a pack rat/borderline hoarder and I cannot stand, well, "stuff".

 

I do love books, but I just keep an assortment of young children's books (because they are read over and over) and books we need long-term for school. We have a terrific library network and most of what I need I can get on loan.

 

I am big fan of Ikea products. The kids toys all sort into bins or shelves. I sort mail and file/toss ASAP. The only thing I really hang onto is clothes. With 3 boys, I can't justify repurchasing, so I sort hand-me-downs into storage bins and label and stack them in the basement.

 

I think the key to living in a small space is staying organized, and everyone getting a chance to be alone when they need it. My two older boys share a room, but my 11 year old knows he can tell me to keep his brother out of there for awhile if he needs to decompress.

 

Robyn, thank you for sharing the details of how you guys make it work. My dd and I will be the ones who need alone time. Dh cannot get enough of people. I guess in nice weather, I could go sit by myself for awhile at the lake's edge. Winter could pose a problem. Maybe solitary time could be spent at the library while dh spends time with dd. Two introverts and one extrovert in small living quarters - that should make for a fun experiment! :lol:

[RobinF]

Robyn, thank you for sharing the details of how you guys make it work. My dd and I will be the ones who need alone time. Dh cannot get enough of people. I guess in nice weather, I could go sit by myself for awhile at the lake's edge. Winter could pose a problem. Maybe solitary time could be spent at the library while dh spends time with dd. Two introverts and one extrovert in small living quarters - that should make for a fun experiment! :lol:

 

One idea for your dd is to make her bed a hidaway. I can't remember the blog I saw it on but basically they put lightweight curtains (I think) around the bed and there children could pull them closed to have privacy. They used it because they had dc that shared a room and this way they could read at night without disturbing the other. They had a small bulletin board on the wall and a light inside the "tent". IKEA (again) makes a system that you could use for something like this.

 

Also if you go to their website their new catalog is available.

[Dobela]

We moved to a house with much smaller closets and I purged all that I had for my kids and myself. Not only did it help, my laundry reduced because I wasn't waiting so long between loads and I couldn't let mountains of laundry build. I also stopped buy clothing far in advance -like at the end of summer for next summer. One, I never had an occassion where all the clothes I bought actually fit during the next season. Two, they took up precious closet space. Now I buy mostly thru consignment stores at the beginning of the season. And, if something is outgrown before the season is over, I take it ASAP to the consignment shop/thrift store or a friend who can use it. I don't store it.

[joannqn]

Luckily, our current living room is 650 sq ft so we have plenty of space to do that. Yes, our entire new home wouldn't be much bigger than our current living room.

 

This cracked me up. You're living room is the size of my living room, dining room, and school room put together. I can't imagine that much space.

 

As much as I love books, for a downsizing this significant, I would not exempt books from purging.

 

:iagree:

 

We have one 3ft by 6ft bookshelf that holds all of our curriculum, reference books, and preschool books, and DH has one small bookshelf by his desk. We keep a library basket rather than buying books.

 

With a small space, you either find out what you really need and get rid of the rest, or your home is over-run with stuff. For example, in our kitchen...We don't have an electric frying pan or griddle, coffee maker, toaster oven, indoor grill, Kitchen Aid, popcorn popper, or roasting pan. Dh does have an espresso machine and I have a bread machine but they are kept plugged in on a shelf in the pantry because we don't have enough counter space to keep stuff out. We have a regular toaster or use the broiler. We have a hand mixer only. Popcorn is popped in the microwave which sits on top of our fridge for lack of space (you can pop regular kernels in the microwave). I roast chicken in a casserole dish and, I throw a cooling rack on top of my cake pan when I cook a roast. The only wisk I own is the one that goes with my hand mixer. I use it on the mixer and by hand. I have no china, crystal, serving dishes, or serving utensils. The list goes on. The only time I have issue is when I need more than one stock pot.

 

Other rooms have similar lists of what one can live without.

 

We have a 1250 square foot house with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. There are 6 people, a medium/large dog, and 4 cats sharing the space.