How I Downsized with Kids
Moving sucks. Going through everything you own, cleaning it — because moving makes you realize that your house is not clean — packing it, hauling it, opening it, reorganizing it, then going back to the old house and cleaning that… We wanted to move for months but the process is so daunting, we stayed where we were uncomfortably living. In our journey, we were minimizing already, and being forced to move got us to do what we wanted to do but were dragging our feet on. Even in our excitement to be moving on, it isn’t fun.
We wanted things in the move: to downsize, to have a great yard, better neighborhood, and schools. All but one of our kids are old enough to pack their own belongings, so the guideline was — if you don’t want to pack it, haul it and unpack it, get rid of it. They had watched my process of minimizing for months and they understood that I got rid of about 70% of what I owned, some of which was sentimental. Even with the decisions that were difficult, letting go felt amazing.
We got a great neighborhood and yard, backing up to BLM land. Much better school district. And we downsized. If I include the garage in square footage — and I do because we use it — we went from 2800 square feet to 2000 square feet. Our current home is 1704 square feet with a 300 square foot garage. That may seem large, but we do have ten kids living with us. 12 people. We have four bedrooms — ours, 4 boys, 3 girls, 3 girls. There are 2 bathrooms. The kid’s bathroom has a single sink. Our laundry room is a closet in the only short hallway in the home — a home with no wasted space, but great closets. Great closets and an amazing kitchen/dining/living room where we spend most of our time. It’s a home that is easy to notice if it’s cluttered, but also easy to clean up. Downsizing 800 square feet means that there aren’t places to hide things. We have been very intentional in how we set things up. It also meant that space looks more full so minimizing (as we knew it would be) is an ongoing journey.
The kids have a certain amount of space. Sharing a room means that they are sharing the space they have — which my kids have always done. Once they had gone through things at the old house — and they were amazing at donating — what remained needed to have a place to go. The volume of stuff we donated AFTER moving has been more than I had anticipated. I’m proud of my kids for streamlining what is important to them. I believe with kids first you lead by example. Then you encourage them, walk them through the process of downsizing. Through it all, you do things that make everyone happy. Trips to the park, a baseball game, a surprise dinner out — all the things our kids have been asking us for — more of our time. Boom…that’s how I downsized with kids. Really, when the important things get done, minimizing doesn’t seem so hard.
Originally published at https://www.momof18.com.
Jenn is Mom of 18, Transformational Coach for Christian women, host of At A Crossroads with The Naked Podcaster, Author, Runner, Minimalist, & Healthy Lifestyle Advocate
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