Tiny Living Experiment

With our family going from six to four, and the reality that the years seem to tick by very quickly, it won't be long before my husband and I find it's just the two of us. Weeeelllll, sort of, since we also share our home with 12 animals.  This last bit of information is what makes the post title so humorous, or interesting to say the least.

If you've followed this blog, then you know that we have been working on reducing and simplifying for the last two years.  With family members moving on to their own next adventure, and the fact that I'm obsessed with HGTV's Tiny Living, I kept thinking about how much unused space there was in our home.  With almost 3000 sq. feet of living space, Ken and I sat down to figure out how much we actually "lived" in.  We figure the number is right around 1200 sq. ft.  The other element to consider is the last few years we have homeschooled, so being in the ideal school district, which happens to NOT be within any walkable town, leaves us in an area that no longer makes sense for our family.  This also plays into our reducing aspect, and since we have to drive everywhere, it's wasteful to what we are striving for.

So, you see where this is going, right?  Ken has come around to the prospect of putting the house up for sale and downsizing.  We love our home, the bungalow style, the quiet neighborhood and, of course, our amazing neighbors, but we are ready for change, and by change I mean drastically downsizing.  The yoga studio right next to the house is about 500 sq. ft., and public yoga classes are coming to an end, so it led to an "aha" moment for me.  That is, to test out just how tiny we could go by ALL of us living in the studio space, and leaving the main house easier to keep clean.

The girls and I were super excited to test this out, making things nice and homey.  Before you think we are crazy, well we are, but anyway, our oldest took three of the fur babies to live with her so that helped.   Are you wondering about Ken?  When we told Ken our great idea he gave the blank, expressionless, stare.  I asked him didn't he think it was a great plan?!  His words?... "we agreed on reducing, you didn't say anything about any fucking tiny living!"  I couldn't help but chuckle a little at his response.

Needless to say, Ken will be spending most of his time in the main house, that's okay, with this many bodies in 500 sq. ft. I can't say that I blame him, and I don't want him to end up losing his mind (well, that may have already happened).

Yesterday the girls and I spent the entire day moving things over to the smaller space, making it functional.  So far, here is the verdict...

• We still have way too much stuff!
• Come nighttime, the girls were still excited and had a hard time falling asleep.
• I was tired and slept fairly well (*see lower bullet point to understand the word fairly).  
• While exploring the new grounds, one of the cats jumped on the kitchenette area, slid across it, knocking off the coaster and breaking it - apparently they are helping us with reducing.
• The cats adjusted quickly, and happily slept through the night on their kitty condos - expect for when they decided they all needed to use their kitty bathroom, which in 500 sq. ft. needs to be taken care of immediately, even if it's a 3am and again at 4 am.  I guess I should be grateful they use their litter boxes...right?
• The dogs are kind of thinking "what the hell?" - they'll be happier with the extra walks.
• Our oldest has said she won't be visiting, oh that one, she is so much like her dad :).
• We haven't seen Ken since yesterday - this actually may be working out in his favor at this point.
• The girls have realized they can't sleep in, smaller space means you hear everything, so when mom and the dogs wake up at 6:30am, so do you ;).  

This was just Day 1.  I will be sure to keep sharing our experience, maybe I'll even be able to get a video or two.  Wish us well, as we'll either bond from this, or their may be casualties.