Growth // Simplicity // Minimalism

Word on the street is we're relocating. Moving to a new city. But it's kind of an old city since we were both born and raised there - Austin, here we come.

Jeremy and I just recently found a place to live, deep in the heart of it all, on West Annie St. near S. Congress Ave. Our new place is approx. 400 sq ft.

Say what...? Currently we are living in almost 800 sq ft, and we moved here because our previous place was too small (649 sq ft). I'm excited about the new space - we knew it was the place for us - but it means that we have to get rid of a.lot.of.stuff. 

Since I've been reading a lot of blogs about simplifying and Jeremy reading about the minimalist movement, we aren't at a loss for ideas on storage in a tiny place. That doesn't make this process any easier, though.

Here's how we've been evaluating everything we own...

1. Essential to Life: This is an item that we would have a very hard time functioning without - something we use regularly, probably daily. (cups, plates, etc)
2. Non-Essential but Useful: Great example of this is the lemon squeezer (thank-you, whoever invented that!) We could definitely survive without it, but why chunk it when it's useful? These items get to be out only if there's room after all of the 1's.
3. Not Right Now: Things like our Fiesta Ware that we love and use, but we have 12 place-settings. Someday we hope to be entertaining 12 people at once, but not right now. These are getting boxed up and put up high.
4. Get Rid of It! These are the items that are weighing down our lives, we never use them, they just take up space. Or items that just cannot fit into our tiny space (like our kitchen table, king-sized bed, extra pots and pans that we never touch)!

We literally took everything out of our kitchen cabinets and evaluated each item one-by-one. Then set it in the appropriate pile. Right now we are test-running with our 1's put back in the cabinet for us to use, and our 2's close by (they get to come along if our new kitchen has space).

We generally seem to agree on what needs to go and what we need to keep. Not 100% agreement, though, of course, because certain things are more sentimental to one of us than the other. So we are respecting that and having grace, while trusting that we have both committed to live simply, and that is going to mean giving up some things that are hard to let go of. 


This has actually been an extremely difficult process for me. I didn't realize how much comfort I get from my "stuff." Yet when I let go of items, I feel free, happier, lighter. So, I'm embracing the change, letting myself be sad for things, then let go of them... and remember that happiness doesn't come from them, and that life can be wonderful and enjoyable without tons and tons of stuff.

What I love the most about simple living is that it makes space in my life for things I really, really love - like quality time with people I care about. 


Simple Life = Happy Life.