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, I’m happy to feature Kate, who tells us how she and her family completely overhauled their lives in pursuit of their minimalist dream. So inspiring! And do check out her website, Cohesive Home—while you’re there, you can enter her giveaway to win the new hardcover edition of The Joy of Less!
Kate writes:
Hi, I’m Kate!
My minimalist journey began, like many others, with the birth of my first daughter. It was the typical problem—newborn baby, too much stuff, too many commitments, our hectic jobs, and little quality time together. The breaking point came when she was nine months old, and we needed to move cross-country for my husband’s job. We realized that we couldn’t continue at this pace—both with the physical clutter and overwhelming schedule.
My husband Kirk and I are newly into our 30s and realized that we had allowed our lives to be shaped by others’ ideas of what adulthood and parenthood should look like. You know, the nice house, private preschool for our oldest daughter, and plenty of debt and responsibility to go with it. In May 2014, I read about a family that traveled the country in an Airstream, visiting National Parks and creating these unforgettable memories. Despite the fact that I had never been camping in my life, I suddenly craved that freedom. My husband thought I was crazy initially, but that dream became the catalyst for a complete overhaul of our lives.
Although we had occasionally decluttered in the past, we became ruthless in the pursuit of a new life. Suddenly we had purpose and a vision; minimalism was the key to reaching our goals. We dusted off old dreams and quit any activities or responsibilities that didn’t add value to our lives or support our vision for our family’s future. Kirk began playing and writing music again, and I began writing my first children’s chapter book, both longtime dreams of ours. We then sold or gave away about 90% of our possessions, including our first house, and then packed all of the remaining belongings for our family of four into a 6’x12’ U-Haul trailer. In June 2015 we moved cross-country to pursue our new life.
Our daughters, who are 5 and 2 now, were thrilled to move to a small beachfront community by Lake Michigan and live by family again after years of city life. We bought a travel trailer and spent our first year after the move living partially with family and traveling. Although it was tough at times to be without a permanent home, living that simply for the past 9 months has allowed us to truly identify our family’s next direction.
We just bought our new (to us) home, a 675 square foot, 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom 1940s cottage in walking distance to the town farmers’ market, an amazing library, and a number of family owned restaurants and shops. We can bike to the beach and my daughters’ favorite playground is literally a stone’s throw from our new front porch. Buying such a tiny home means we’re now financially able to travel and pursue our personal interests as well as spend time with family—all things that never happened when we were living the “American Dream.” We’re excited for this next stage of our minimalist journey as we create a simple family home and seek new adventures. You can follow our house remodeling progress and travels on Instagram @thestreamlinedlife, and I would love to connect with other minimalists!
Last fall, I also co-founded a new Instagram community and podcast for intentional and minimalist families called @cohesive_home. Our podcast is on iTunes, and it covers everything from simplifying your home, to living a more adventurous life with your kids, to creating beautiful family rituals, and more. We absolutely love encouraging others on their minimalist journey, and we hope you join us. To find out more check out our website Cohesive Home.
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or joining my email list.}
Your family’s life sounds absolutely idyllic, Kate! Congratulations on realizing the American Dream isn’t the route to happiness, and on crafting a life that does bring you real satisfaction. Minimalism is certainly a fantastic tool for achieving that.
Thank you so much, Karen!
Congratulations, Kate! What a minimalist success story!
Thank you Alix!
A beautifully told, and wonderfully intelligent, life improvement! Thank you for sharing; stories like this keep my dream on-track!
So happy to hear that, keep heading toward your dream!
We too live near lake Michigan, and I have a question. As we searched for a house, we were drawn towards the older, smaller homes near the beach, but were advised by locals to avoid those areas due to higher crime and poor schools. It’s not the 1st place we’ve lived where it seems living small means living in a higher-crime area where many of the homes are not maintained. So we chose to live a bit further out in a house a bit larger than what we really need. Have you found a safe community of small homes to raise kids? I’m frustrated that it has to be a trade off between having the cute small home in a higher-crime and poverty area or the bigger house in the safe and boring area.
Hi Angela,
So sorry to hear you’re having trouble finding a small home in a good neighborhood! I’ve experienced what you’re talking about in other cities, although we feel beyond safe in our new neighborhood. It’s a small town, not a city, so I do feel that helps. It’s about 10 minutes from the beach, which is close enough and also allows us to live by everything in the small downtown. If you’re open to moving (which is what we did), you might be able to explore new towns and check safety before moving. For what it’s worth, we’re on the Indiana side of Lake Michigan.
Best wishes on your house search!
Dear Kate, thank you for posting. I only wish I had this much common sense when I was younger. I have it now after learning hard lesson…….after too much debt, stuff all over the house, working round the clock to pay for it all. Best wishes, it sounds like you have a great quality of life in your years ahead.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Betsy, and glad to hear you’re on the track to living a happier life with less.
Love this! Your new life sounds amazing. We are hopefully relocating in the fal and I want to make the same change. Our first, oversized, house hasn’t contributed to our happiness like I thought it would. I want a significant downsize for all the same reasons you stated…just trying to get the hubs on board!!! Any tips?
Hi Tiffany,
That’s exciting that you’re planning a big move; downsizing is a great plan. As for spouses….that’s a tough one! Thinking about simplifying and living a different lifestyle can be incredibly intimidating to many people, and we all react to the idea differently.
We all come to marriage from different backgrounds and that definitely influences the way we think about our homes and lifestyle; the problem is when two partners have slightly differing ideas on what is the right direction. That’s not a bad thing, but the end goal is to meet somewhere in the middle!
You two will have to visualize that together, agree to work toward a common goal, cut out the unnecessary, and search for the right solution until you make it to your desired outcome. Be patient because this takes time (and it certainly took my husband and I years to get on the same page.) My very best wishes to you two as you enter this new phase of your life!
Wow! You really did trade up! The adventure is just starting. Because you started so young you will have so many more memories than things. Can’t wait to see more on Instagram!
Thank you for the support and looking forward to connecting with you on Instagram!
Another post I just have missed. I would be happy to be down to two thousand items. I read about people with 300,000 items who have two car garage full of junk.
I keep giving more away and trying to only buy second hand items. My craft supplies are mostly given to me. Occasionally I buy something at Goodwill. I asked my friends if they have sweaters with holes because I want to try a felting craft. I sleep in my husband’s and kid’s old clothes. When they get even rattier, they get cut up for rags.