Small Living Journal

Since I am about 85% downsized and already living a pretty simple lifestyle, I have chosen to talk more about a couple of my biggest past obstacles and my solutions to them in hopes they will also help others to simplify their lives in those areas:

First, a little from my background…

Although in the beginning I was never quite sure why I was so attracted to the idea of uncluttering my life, I am quite sure now that it had everything to do with building a mortgage-free Tiny House to live my retirement years in! Up until the last year when I first heard about the Tiny House Movement, I just wanted to live very simply. When I was in the Air Force I only had a single duffel bag and a large footlocker that carried everything I owned or needed for 8 years! I loved that kind of simplicity and after doing it for that long I knew it was do-able! However, it was not without costs!! Military life was not always an easy way of living. For me, it meant a single tiny room with a set of bunk beds, a desk and 2 lockers in the noisy barracks with a roommate who was often not of my choosing, the less-than-private community bathroom, the nearby chow hall for most of my not-always-so-tasty meals (when i wasn’t engaging in my then staple diet of drinking beer or California wine and eating pizza, chicken wings & subs) and the nomad life of rarely knowing when I would be moving on to the next place – all the stuff I have no interest in dealing with at this stage of my life!! While it became a lifestyle I no longer wanted to endure, that transition into civilian life was very difficult for me. I was leaving behind my close knit family that I could trust my life with… I loved living within walking distance of work… I loved that everything I really needed was right on the base in a community where prices were affordable – like the base exchange (a smaller, cheaper version of Walmart)… mostly free work/hobby shops (like woodworking, the auto shop and ceramics, etc) with access to all their work areas, tools and machines…I was used to the military ways… and I loved the simplicity. It took me a few years to adjust, but in the meantime I started accumulating ’stuff’ I thought I had missed. Now if I wanted to work on my hobbies, I had to invest in my own tools and have a place big enough to work on them. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was surrounded by lots of debt & clutter. Although back then there wasn’t really a term for it, I knew I felt boxed in with too much stuff!! Luckily, a few years later I was introduced to clutter, what it meant and how to deal with it… a then fairly new concept in the early 1990’s.

For the most part, this whole simple living procedure has been very cleansing for me. It took many moves, but once I got started, the process of every move meant a fresh new start with a lot less. I began to realize what was important and what wasn’t. Of course, the beginning was tough, especially when at least 2 of the moves were real estate turnovers and not my idea. I couldn’t seem to get settled in anywhere and I still struggled with what was important enough to keep lugging around with me and what wasn’t. Moving now is much harder than military life because they used to do all the work for me.

As you can see, the steps towards my Simple Life Endeavor have been a long and trying process. If you are just starting your Journey of Simple Living, you need to also understand that by stretching this process over a period of years, it was much easier for me to start letting go of the ‘things’ in my life that no longer served me any purpose. Each little step made the next step easier. The key was to keep on keepin’ on!!

Before I start though, I must tell you that everything I have let go of in my life so far, I have never missed for a second!! That fear alone was the single biggest mental obstacle that kept me locked into not moving forward in the earlier years of implementing my Simple Living Plan.

I have only chosen the 2 biggest obstacles I have faced in order to cut down on the size of this article. Here they are:

DEBT

Obstacle:

This has been, by far, the biggest obstacle I have encountered in my quest to ‘lighten up’! While I was in that ’stuff’ culture, I accumulated a lot of debt. I can’t even remember some of the stuff on those credit cards, but at the time I was sure I just had to have them! As for the stuff I do remember, I don’t have most of it anymore. Impulse buying was one of the most unfulfilling habits I had and now that I finally had the room for all the clutter, I became overwhelmed with it. I began to call it Financing Unnecessary Clutter Karma!! And the acronym for that is what I said every time I opened my monthly credit card bills!! With each purchase, of whatever it was, the void I was trying to fill inside just got bigger. And with that, it made things more stressful with payments, maintenance and clutter. I longed for that simple military lifestyle without the government control. It took me awhile to discover that my ‘void’ needed to be filled from within. Thankfully, that was about the time I got into Shirley MacLaine’s works and the mantra…”Go Within or Go Without!”. I have now come to love just “BEING” (one of my alternate versions of doing nothing!)…a state of mind which only requires quietly finding the forgotten peace and tranquilty within myself and my simple surroundings. And it’s FREE

Solutions:

• I moved very close to my job to save gas, insurance costs, maintenance and wear & tear on my car…have access to public transportation if I wanted to take advantage of it…have easy and close by access to almost anything…end the wear & tear on my body, mind and spirit from the stress of driving 2 hours a day!

• I moved to a smaller apartment in which heat & hot water were included in my rent, a huge savings here in Upstate NY with our cold, harsh winters and the costs of fuel!! Little did I know that the new place was going to be one of the best places I have ever lived and the rent alone was cheaper than the apartment before it!

• I got rid of my land line phone in favor of a simple pay-as-you-go cell phone plan. I don’t talk on the phone much so that part was pretty easy…and inexpensive.

• I stopped watching those shopping channels!!

• I changed to a cheaper internet provider.

• I got rid of costly cable bills in favor of renting DVD’s from Netflix and online access to local news & weather.

• I stopped all my magazines, book clubs and newspapers.

• I simplified my eating habits.

• I started drinking mostly water.

• I take day trips with a picnic lunch rather than vacations that cost alot of money in lodging, food & travel expense.   

• I CUT UP ALL THE CREDIT CARDS!!!

BOOKS

Obstacle:

I think the hardest things for me to downsize have been my books! I had lots of them!! I was sure I would never be able to part with any of them. I am a real lover of books, but let’s face it, moving books around often requires alot of muscle power and sweating! It seems no matter what size the box is, it is still pretty heavy. Most of my books were information & technical books which are usually larger. I found that alot of the information in those was outdated by new and improved technology. All books spend most of their time on shelves…untouched and taking up space…sometimes for years! Slowly and painstakingly I have been able to let go of 95% of them. Here’s how…

Solutions:

• I rarely read a novel more than once so the novels were the first to go…I mostly gave those away. I then started going to the local library or searching & reserving novels online that can be delivered from anywhere within the US Library System to my library for me to pick up and check out. I can even renew my books online if I haven’t finished them or can’t get to the library by the time they are due back. My library card is free!

• It didn’t take long to realize that as much as I didn’t cook, the cookbooks would not do me any good!! I wrote down my favorite recipes (a pretty short list by the way!!). Then I used my computer to type them up and store them on a standard word processing recipe card template in my Recipe file. Mostly now if I want a recipe I search online for it, print it out and then throw it away or store it on my computer when I am done using it.

• Nearly 80% of my books were arts, crafts & hobby instruction books. I slowly started to eliminate those by deciding which activities I would actually commit to. Happily I found alot of them would be more expensive in supplies and take up alot more room than I was willing to accept, so those books were the next to go! I found that selling them on Amazon was fairly profitable because alot of them were brand new. I made up my mind that I could always check out (from my library), rent, borrow, buy or download instruction books & videos if I changed my mind and wanted to take up something I no longer had those particular books for. By doing it this way, I was able to easily and effortlessly let those go. And guess what? So far, I have never missed any of them

• Investing in the Kindle 2 from Amazon is a very smart idea. It will hold over 1500 books, is small and easily portable. This is, by far, the easiest & lightest box of books I will ever be carrying again! I have been lucky enough to find most of my favorite info & reference books that I use on a regular basis in Kindle format for roughly $10 each and delivered in seconds to my Kindle 2 via cyberspace…without an internet connection! Some of those books cost over $60 in the hardback, space-raping, heavyweight version!!

• I started reading the local newspaper online instead of buying one…some of the more popular newspapers can also be subscribed to on the Kindle and delivered before the news stand copy comes out!

• I download free audio books available at my local library website to listen to on my mp3 player or with my laptop software (available at the library’s website). Although the list isn’t all that big, it continues to grow.

THE HARDEST OBSTACLES COMING UP

The hardest obstacle I have yet to face is giving up all the space I have acquired by downsizing. I love all the open & unused space. Even though my apartment is small, it still allows for healthy air circulation and positive flowing energy. It allows me room to move around freely and it leaves plenty of room to do Yoga or my (mostly small & portable) Artwork in either the living room or bedroom. Since the heat is included in my rent, I am no longer (directly) paying to heat all that unused space. My little cat, Bandit, can still run and play inside and we have a place to store his litter box.

The solution to this might be to design my Tiny House to be one large rectangular room with no interior walls, 8′ – 10′ high outside walls, a loft, lots of windows, a larger wood stove for heating & air conditioner for cooling and maybe a couple of support beams if necessary. Then build a small, simple, one-room Tiny House for my Yoga and Art Studio right next door…something similar to the Shed Cluster Concept that Michael Janzen mentioned on his Tiny House Design site back in May 2009.

I will find it really hard to give up the central location I am in. Although it is not very compatible with the way I want to live (the peace and quiet nature stuff), I am loving the conveniences. Everything is just around the corner…the grocery stores, small education centers, my medical, dental and optical facilities, Bandit’s pet hospital…stuff that is not always easy to get to or as inexpensive in a country atmosphere.

Then there is the question of whether or not (at retirement age) I will forgo power from the grid in favor of using solar or wind power. Do I want the maintenance it may require? Will the initial cost be worth it for me? Is it going to be easier for me to just pay the price rather than endure the hassle? These are questions I must answer after I have honestly studied these power alternatives.

ABSOLUTE NO NO’S!!

In closing I would like to mention a couple of things that (right now) I refuse to forgo:

• A Real Flushing Toilet

I find the alternatives unacceptable to me at this point in my life! Of course this means a septic tank and a lot less freedom to move my Tiny House around the property. By then though, maybe something will come up that I am willing to accept…like some kind of RV or other portable plumbing system.

• Running Water

• A Bathtub

These 2 things really go hand-in-hand because surely I am not willing to haul water and heat it for one of my favorite luxuries…A NICE HOT RELAXING BATH

Designing small spaces for multiple people is a design challenge I’ve not focused on in great detail on Tiny House Design. It has however been the focus of my own future home plans and the core requirement of a design concept I hope to turn into a book called The Tiny Simple House.

In this article I’ll describe some ways of thinking about people living in small spaces that should help you more effectively approach the design of an existing or new small space.

Getting Everyone On The Same Page

Many of the smallest houses you see are built for one person and after a careful inspection it’s pretty easy to imagine how one person could live in less than 100 square feet. But as you can imagine choosing to live more simply and owning fewer possessions is required for this kind of extreme downsizing.

The first challenge of creating a tiny living space for multiple people is to get buy-in from everyone on choosing to live a frugal lifestyle. Compared to overcoming the actual design challenges this initial human challenge is by far the most difficult.

I suspect it’s our consumer culture that has conditioned us to think of a certain set of things as normal so unlearning what we’ve learned is the hardest part. For example, choosing to eliminate most of our possessions and keeping only the things we use regularly is a very hard step for most people to take. Even for those of us who have made the commitment find it difficult to make the time to finally get rid of all the extra stuff. Getting an entire family to rally around this and choose to downsize and simplify is rare.

My best suggestion in this area is to remember that all people change slowly and that the ultimate goal for downsizing usually includes creating more time to spend with your family and friends. Be patient and move forward and don’t leave anyone behind.

Take A User-Centered Design Approach

When you begin noodling over making a small space more efficient for multiple people it’s fairly common to assume one of the following two ideas:

• If one person can live in 100 square feet then four people can live in 400 square feet.
• Four people can live in less than 400 square feet because some efficiencies are found like shared bathrooms and kitchens.

I’m going to suggest coming at this design challenge from a different direction. You see you can’t simply make assumptions like these because different people have different needs and use their homes in different ways. For example a couple with jobs outside the home will have different needs than a couple that lives and works at home. Assuming that the same amount of space will serve these different needs equally would be a mistake.

Instead focus on the specific needs of the individual people today and projected into the future. Then while determining the spaces needed to meet these requirements and keep in mind that the real goal is to end up with a space that meets everyone’s needs while not overtaxing any one person. In other words strike a balance between too much and too little space so that the home truly provides value instead of costing too much time, money or energy.

Here are a few things that people often do together. These activities can often be served by shared spaces:

• Gathering
• Cooking
• Eating
• Entertaining

Here are a few things that people sometimes do as a group, but usually require private or dedicated space.

• Sleeping
• Bathing
• Study Time
• Work Time
• Private Time

Considering the needs of the occupants first will always give you a firm foundation to build solutions. Most of us like to think about the solutions first because it’s more fun but doing so will often distract us from the real end goal. When you start with actual user needs you end up building only the things the users need.

You might even want to use the Pareto principal, also known as the 80-20 rule, to help guide your decisions. This simple rule says that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. So instead of building 100% of a house to fulfill 100% of the functionality, build 20% of the house and get 80% of the functionality. This is a pretty smart approach because we usually only use a small portion of a large home’s functionality but it will always costs at least 100% or our time, money, and energy. So some functions might need to be left out of the design because their value doesn’t offset their cost.

Tips for Small Space Design

Once you have your priorities and people in mind applying some of these common small space design techniques will help you achieve more from less.

1. Think like a boat builder not a home builder

When we think of our living spaces in the context of a traditional home it’s easy to jump to common solutions like 10′ by 12′ bedrooms with walk-in closets. Instead think like a boat builder who must pack a lot of function into every tiny space.

2. Design bathrooms for multi-person use by dividing functional areas

Instead of designing bathrooms to contain everything consider breaking it into functional areas like a separate sink area, sink & toilet, and shower/tub. These individual spaces may take up a little more space than a single bathroom but they allow more people to use the individual spaces simultaneously.

3. Create built-in multi-functional furniture

Keep spaces open and clear by using built-in furniture and storage. This is an especially useful technique for bedrooms, hallways, and kitchens. Some common solutions are beds that can be hidden away, desks and tables that fold-out, cabinets that conceal possessions, and even cabinets that pivot and divide spaces. You could carry this to an extreme too by creating a single open space and then dividing it with floor to ceiling built-in cabinets.

4. Use your vertical space

Every cubic inch of a home must be heated and cooled so why not use it all when it makes sense. Beds with lofts above them can make fun rooms for kids and floor to ceiling built-in cabinets can provide enormous functionality.

5. Reduce transition spaces like hallways

This seems obvious and isn’t really easy to do. The best place to start is to build off a single open area and have rooms open directly to the larger space. You can also get more use out of hallways by lining walls with functional built-ins, concealed appliances, bathroom sinks, and so on.

6. Open up spaces and use subtle transitions

Subtle transitions help define the division between spaces but is more about fooling the eye than aesthetics. Spaces can be made to look longer, wider, and taller by creating visual progressions through any space. But when you close those spaces forming separate rooms you loose the optical illusion so its best to keep spaces open. Also use continuous flooring treatments.

7. Use high ceilings and draw the eye up.

It’s amazing what an extra foot of ceiling height can do to make a space feel larger. If you’re stuck with the ceiling height you have try raising your window coverings up to the ceiling and avoid cutting your walls visually in half with things like wainscoting. You might even try painting your walls one color 3/4 of the way up and then painting the top 1/4 and the ceiling a brighter color. Also be sure to point light fixtures up.

8. Use light solid colors and let the sun shine in

Light always makes small spaces feel bigger. Lighter colored your walls mean you’ll need fewer windows and artificial lighting. Busy patterns will make a space appear cluttered.

9. Include outdoor space in your design

The exterior of a home is often forgotten while you’re focused on making the inside feel bigger. The final product will be much more successful if you consider all your spaces inside and out. Think of the space outside as another room and open the house up to them visually. You’ll be able to achieve the same effects as you can with visual progressions inside the house.

10. Use simple window treatments

Your exterior windows and doors can help you make your space feel bigger. Avoid heavy, thick, and dark window coverings.

11. Reduce clutter, collections, and possessions

This is actually the first step that all of us can do right now to make out homes feel more spacious. I left it for last so that it would be left in your mind most vividly. Eliminating clutter and organizing what we already have will make any space feel bigger and help the occupants feel better.

For more articles on tiny spaces for families see these articles:

• Tiny Paris Apartment for 4 + Dog
• Is Living in Small Spaces Cruel To Children?
• Tiny House with Moving Walls – part 1, part2, part3, part4

I invite you to follow me on Twitter, and visit my design blog, Tiny House Design.

Portland Cottage Heaven, Photo by Tammy

Our future plans aren’t set in stone and that is perfectly okay with us. The world is changing quickly and flexibility is an important quality. Especially, in a time of economic woes. Being able to move or change plans quickly can open the door to unforeseen opportunities.

Since our plans are loose and flexible, we’ve crafted a few guidelines for a bright future:

1. Living Small. Since downsizing, we’ve discovered that less is more. Rather than devoting large sums of life energy and money toward a traditional home or huge apartment, we will purchase a tiny house in the next year or two. In the meantime, we will continue our downsizing process and living in small apartments. Taking a pass on the traditional American dream and creating our own beautiful home is the best option for us. Living small will propel us toward financial independence and free up our time to spend with friends and family.

2. Staying Carfree & Debt Free. For us, a large part of living small means staying carfree and debt free. Ever since we sold our car and paid off our debt, a huge burden has been lifted from our shoulders. Without debt we are free to make choices that bring us happiness.

3. New Opportunities & Growth. I’ve been thinking about starting my own tiny business for the last few months and have been working on a master plan. Within the next year, I hope to launch a tiny business that will bring in a small supplemental income. Any extra money that is made in this venture will be put in savings. There are many goals I’d like to work on, like growing as a writer and photographer, spending quality time with friends/family and enjoying the outdoors.

Portland Cottage Heaven Flowers, Photo by Tammy

4. Loving Life. Finally, I want to live life to the fullest. I know this sounds cheesy, but I think a lot of people engage in activities that don’t make them happy. As Gary Vanderchuck pointed out, during South by South West:

Live your life and do what you love. People worry about stupid shit.

Gary’s comment made me laugh out loud and reflect on the number of times I’ve fretted away about trivial things. Changing my perspective and devoting my life energy toward projects that make a difference in the world have changed me for the better.

During his talk, Gary emphasized the importance of loving yourself, embracing what you do well, and not waiting to make things happen. For me this message is about simplicity. Pursuing your passion shouldn’t be so difficult. But so many people are stuck in jobs they hate and are incredibility unhappy.

Our time on the planet is limited and I want my future choices and plans to be good ones. Above all, we want to pursue happiness; not more stuff.

What about you? Has downsizing affected how you foresee the future?

For more information about simple living, check out my blog: RowdyKittens or follow me on Twitter.

Part of living a smaller lifestyle, means living in an area with accessible services, restaurants, cultural activities and more. With this in mind, my partner (Logan) and I found a perfect tiny home to meet our needs.

Below are a few reasons why we love our home so much:

1. A tiny apartment fits my needs. Living in a 400 square foot apartment has streamlined my life. Less stuff, less cleaning and a 30 percent decrease in rent has lowered my stress levels, improved my health and saved an enormous amount of time. My extra time is now spent with friends, hobbies, and Logan.

Feel free to take a tour of the tiny apartment:

2. Work is within walking distance. I’ve been commuting to various jobs for the last 6 years. While we lived in Davis, Logan had the luxury of commuting by bike everyday. Needless to say, I was a little jealous.

Moving closer to my job in Sacramento meant less stress and worry over commuting time. Even if my work days are stressful, I know my commute home will be easy. A walk home in the fresh air helps me unwind. It’s the perfect way to end a work day.

3. Public transportation is accessible. My main method of transportation is by bike. But it’s good to have options. Sacramento has an accessible bus system, light rail and I’m only 1 mile from the Amtrak station!

4. The community is walkable and bikable. Mid-town is close to amazing restaurants, the park, city pools, the YMCA, the Sacramento co-op, a farmer’s market and the American River Trail. Additionally, the Second Saturday Art Walk is available for free every month!

5. Closing thoughts. Our little home is beautiful and when I reflect on the fortunate state of our lives, I am incredibly grateful. Simple living has given me the tools to remove the unnecessary, define my values and pursue happiness.

For more information about simple living, check out my blog: RowdyKittens.

It’s true and I hate to admit it – I have become a product of the ‘stuff’ society. It’s shameful but I am fighting back!

I don’t exactly live in what would be considered a tiny house. At 28 by 32 feet, my current home has an 896 square foot footprint and 1100 square feet with the upstairs included. Even though it’s not tiny, it is quite a bit smaller than the current 2400 square foot average. I look at this as simply a bump in the road; I come from small house roots (grew up in 600 sq. ft; college life in 300 sq. ft) and my wife and I don’t plan on going any bigger than our current house. We do have one problem though…too much stuff! I have often asked myself what I can do about all of our positions but there are so many that I simply didn’t know where to start. Then I had an idea – why not start small!!

I like to think of myself as “mainstream small”. That is, I look for ways to scale down that are very doable for not only myself but also for the general public. For example, a family of 4 could not very easily live in 80 square feet but could quite easily “electronify” their files. This simple act could easily free up space to make living more comfortable, to eliminate the necessity of upgrading to a larger house, and could even spur on the movement to a smaller home! This is one small step that I have taken to downsize my life.

What started as a dare/challenge/New Year’s resolution at work has now become a way of life. As a person with approximately 64 cubic feet of filing space (yeah – it’s a lot), I became the resident librarian of my office. I didn’t really mind this as I am a natural packrat and actually feel good being surrounded by stuff. What was always problematic was having to wade through all of the stuff to find what I really wanted.

Going “paperless”, although initially time consuming, is one of the easier tasks that anyone can do to live smaller. All anyone with a computer needs to get started is a scanner, which can be purchased here (if it is a tiny-living model that interests you!) Once in your home, anyone can easily convert bulky paper files into ‘no-space-needed’ e-files.

After 3 months on-and-off work, I can now say that I have cut my paper files in half and am still going strong! Every free moment that I have at work is spent scanning a few documents. I am determined not to stop until I have a full e-filing system!

After seeing the results at work, I have taken my motivation home. I have begun scanning documents that I have kept in filing cabinets for years. Many of these documents are related to taxes and so are critical to keep for at least 5 years. I also tend to keep the stubs of bills that I might need a history of (student loans, auto and home loan info, etc.). What’s great about e-filing is that there is no paperwork to take up space! Much to my wife’s delight, my packrat ways are now taking up much less space.

One note of caution…be sure to back up files!!!