Super Brief Update On Downsizing
Sorry it’s been a little quiet here over the last week. If you’ve been around the 100 Thing Challenge blog for a while or follow on Facebook or Twitter, you might recall that our family has been attempting to downsize our house. Well, the showings have been kicking up a notch and we’ve actually received an offer. We’re in the process of working it out, making sure that it’s right for everyone involved. You never know how these things will work out. I’m not holding my breath, though I am holding out hope.
Unlike some minimalists, we’re not downsizing simply for the sake of living in a smaller place. My own personal preference is to be in larger spaces that are less filled. Our primary motivation is thinking ahead. We want to dramatically cut our expenses. Leanne is ready to get back to graduate school and it will not be long before our daughters head off to college. Some sacrifice now, we think, will pay off later, and not just financially.
Having said all that and having sounded like a dispassionate simple living yogi, the place we’re looking to move into feels way small. There have been a few tears shed coming to grips with the reality of it. Not that we don’t want to; just that we realize the transition will not be trivial. Simple living, I think, isn’t always bliss.
In my humble opinion, run fast in the opposite direction from those advocates of minimalism who only speak positively and talk of how great your life will be once you’re living out of a backpack. A person’s soul follows him wherever he goes, be it a mansion or single family home or friend’s couch. Eventually every minimalist must look in the mirror. You aren’t going to see your stuff. You aren’t going to see your lack of stuff. You’re going to see you. The good and the bad. That’s what you have to deal with. And, if excessive consumption gets in the way of dealing with life honestly, so too minimalism can be a barrier to integrity. There are a lot of minimalists who are just as empty on the inside as they are on the outside.
Make sure you use simple living to improve your character. Use simple living to extend grace to others. Don’t be afraid to grieve the losses that will come as a result of simple living. Enjoy the gains!
P.S. This turned out to not be a “super brief update,” so I’m not going to mention it right now, but I seriously have to describe a couple of the places we looked at the other day. HOLY MOLY! Shocking! It’s absolutely shocking how disgustingly messy some people live. Shocking!
Comments
Thanks for this post … and your honesty. Transition can be hard on anybody no matter what the goal is … so thank you. Congratulations on the offer on your house!
I hope that things work out with the offer.
Great post – I appreciate your honesty!
You should think twice before taking the time to comment on how disgusting some people keep their spaces. Many people are not great self carers and this is as much of a loss for them to live through as it is for you to be exposed to. Try to be considerate of the fact that some people simply haven’t gotten around to cleaning up their spaces and making their lives neater more and comfortable.
“Try to be considerate of the fact that some people simply haven’t gotten around to cleaning up their spaces and making their lives neater more and comfortable.”
for day to day living, maybe. but if you know your place is going to be seen for sale, you should tidy it up not only for the viewers, but so you get a better price- it’s a fact that messy houses sell more slowly and receive lower prices than those that are clean/emptied of clutter.
the more you know
We call that ‘pride-free living’ at our house. Not that we aren’t guilty of it sometimes–we are, when things get stressful and one or more of us gets to be feeling self-involved and low-energy–but it never feels very good. I don’t speak of pride in the ‘wow, come over and look at my amazing house’ kind of feeling, more a ‘wow, self, look at how your domain serves your own creative goals when it isn’t a pig’s wallow’. That said, I the dust bunnies are throwing a singles’ mixer in the hallway. Must find a broom.