Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details.
Today, Megan and Jeff tell us how they were inspired by the tiny house movement, and share details on how they’re downsizing their living space as well as their possessions.
Megan and Jeff write:
In December of 2013, we found ourselves looking for a simpler life. We had a 1600 square foot house that had been full of people for exactly 1 weekend of the 3 years we had lived there. We had, however, somehow managed to fill that space with things. Megan moved to Vegas 5 years before with just suitcases to her name, and Jeff had been moving the same boxes from place to place without opening them for years. Somehow we had both managed to let the things accumulate and take over our resources: not just the money to acquire and house them, but also the time spent repairing, cleaning, and keeping track of things. While looking for (& not finding) simpler living situations for ourselves & our Standard Schnauzer, we stumbled on Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.
People can and do live in approximately 10% of what we live with now? Cool!
We happened upon the last day of a great sale on tickets to their upcoming Las Vegas workshop and decided that would be our Christmas present to each other–investigating a different future. By the time the workshop came, we were mid-move to a 1200 sf house. After our 2 day workshop, we were both “all in.” This was part of the simpler life we had been looking for! Not long after, The Minimalists were stopping in Vegas on their 100 city tour–Megan and a friend had an amazing experience! Their book, Everything That Remains, was an amazing inspiration. To clearly understand that how we choose to spend our time everyday is a direct reflection of our priorities, was hard, but gratifying. We wanted to build a life that reflected those priorities. We began investigating both the Tiny House (& the movement of incredible people behind them) and the downsizing that would require.
Fast forward to today:
We are building a modified Linden (roomtosparetinyhouse.com), have founded a Las Vegas Tiny House Meetup Group, & have downsized so many of our things that much of our 1200 sf house is empty. Drawers & closets are empty, shelves & open areas have much more space. It’s freeing & causes an incredible feeling of accomplishment. It’s not always been easy, but what we have gained instead of those things are beyond measure: new friends, skills, self-knowledge. Jeff remembers me telling him on the drive home after meeting BA from A Bed Over My Head, “I’ve found my tribe!”
Because we’ve been so open about our journey, our friends and family understand that we don’t want or need physical gifts. Much of what we have downsized we have passed onto someone that wanted or needed to use that item now. It makes us feel much better knowing that the people around us are benefitting from something that we’re benefitting from at the same time. We tend to gift consumables and experiences our loved ones can share. So much of the reaction we’ve gotten is one of solidarity and support. If this last year is an indication of how the rest of our minimalist journey will be, we are both excited to see what possibilities we can continue to open for ourselves in future.
Thank you to everyone that has shared their stories here as well: we always look forward to reading the Monday Minimalist piece on miss minimalist. Each one opens up another aspect of what we might be able to do next or differently to get closer to our goal: simple and fulfilling living. Send us a message if you find yourself near Las Vegas, or if you want to connect electronically–we love to make like-minded friends!
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
Congrats, Megan and Jeff! So glad you’ve received so much support from family and friends — that’s not always the case, unfortunately. Look forward to an update when your tiny house is finished!
Thank you, Alix! You’re right, it’s not always the case – we do get some funny looks sometimes. But we consider ourselves lucky – we have felt really supported by the vast majority of people we’ve talked to over the last year. Many of the people giving the funny looks a year ago are now fully on board – they send us articles, blog posts, magazine articles – you name it! It makes you feel like this movement really has something to it for everyone!
Hi Megan and Jeff, I love the way you’ve been so open to change and learning and also how open you are to sharing your simplifying progress so far. Great stuff. I couldn’t agree more how these Monday posts are a regular dose of inspiration. Good luck!
Thank you Claire! What a compliment coming from you! We feel very strongly about trying to present our journey in a positive but constructive light – Megan’s post about Zen and the Art of Building a Tiny House is a great example of this to me. Whether it’s undergoing shoulder surgery, or only getting 4 screws put in the house the entire day, this is life and this is how it happens – better to embrace and roll with it than to rail and gnash one’s teeth about it.
I enjoy your blog, and look forward to new posts!
Thanks for sharing your story. I am so drawn to the whole minimalism movement but am a bit at a loss as to where to start. I did read Everything that Remains and read some blogs. It is just applying it to myself that is hard. I know I need to let things go. I guess the hard part is knowing what will fill my life when I no longer have the stuff. Any resources you can suggest on what to do once the stuff is gone? What is the journey like after the stuff is gone and you are having to decide how to fill your time and what to focus on?
Best of luck!
Interesting question. While I am not yet ‘done’ on my minimalist journey, I find I suddenly have more time and focus to do the things that I could never find the time for before (hobbies, fitness, spiritual growth). It just seems like there are more hours in the day. I guess what you do after will depend on the person.
Love your minimalist teamwork!
Jen reminded me of someone asking ‘Who are you without your stuff?’ It’s quite a scary question! But anyone can give it a gentle try – and it’s very easy to acquire stuff again if you find minimalism is not for you…
What brilliant Christmas presents to each other Megan and Jeff! Thank you for sharing your story.
Since I haven’t worked in a while, and I’m trying to get rid of more and more stuff, my life is defined by what I do. I visit my mom at the nursing home, do volunteer work I enjoy, visit with friends, try to learn new crafts, and read. If you can live with very little, do that. If, like me, your minimalism is a work in progress, that’s OK, too. I don’t buy more than 1 or 2 of anything. I notice detergent and Kleenex and shampoo are always on sale somewhere. We recently folded our dining room table down as small as it goes and my daughter thought we bought a new table. Our folding chairs are at my son’s house because he’s been using them more lately. Two of my friends complained how big and inconvenient their houses were so I suggested they get something much smaller. They complain about all the steps but won’t downsize.
I remember the feeling of slowly ending up with a mostly empty house! I live in a tiny flatlet (one room + bathroom) with my dog now, and all our belongings fit into my van, but I still feel I have way too much stuff. I’m hoping to buy a tiny house and a small plot of land eventually, but I need to figure out exactly what the rules and regs are here in the UK first. Recently I’ve started exploring visual minimalism as well, turning my flatlet into more of a blank canvas by always purchasing white items whenever something needs replacing. I think I may have become addicted to minimalism…! ;-)
Looking at my condo, you would not think I was striving for minimalism. However, last August, I had boxes and boxes of my Mom’s papers and clothes shipped here as she was moving from her home in Miami to a nursing home near me in the Chicago area.I got 5 boxes of papers reduced to a tote bag of old letters, my son scanned all her old pictures, and one of my closets has her clothes. My sister sent her some new warm shirts, I brought her some warm sweatshirts and sweat pants and I even found her one pair of shoes from her apt. I’m keeping a lot of her books here and I bring a selection of puzzles and books when I visit. I have given away some china and I have more to give away. We just got rid of another big stack of books and magazines today. I encourage my daughter to give her old clothes to me so I can add them to our Goodwill donation bag.
I just caught a show about tiny house living on TV. It was on the HGTV channel and they showed various styles and sizes. Seems tiny house living has gone mainstream.
I am fascinated by the tiny houses. However, a lot of them involve climbing. I enjoy seeing pictures of very small apartments, too.