Downsizing. Part 1.

August 2018 was the first time where Seborn and I would walk out this entrepreneurship journey together and see where it would take us. We’ve had lots of bumps and bruises along the way but we are growing through it. He left is 9-5 and we started working from home together.

Initially, when we first had conversations about bringing him home, we mentioned downsizing to just really set us up for success and we step into this new season, but we just loved everything about our home and couldn’t imagine leaving it. We were quite comfortable.

But we find ourselves in this huge house. Me, being the aspiring minimalist I am, gets lost in the largeness of the house. There are so many unused spaces and we first bought it with the intention of it being our “forever house.” It was perfect and had plenty of room to grow. Over the past 2 years, we have worked on making it ours. Arrow was born here, upstairs in our bedroom. There are so many memories built into the walls. We love our yard, our home, our cul-de-sac, our neighborhood, our city. I could never imagine us leaving. Until… we sold it.

We lived in a 3,232 square foot house that had 6 bedrooms (7 when we moved in but we tore some walls down to have a large family room space), 4 bathrooms and 0.51 acres. Our property backed up to a biking path and then open fields. There is a historical farm behind that is preserved so there will never be anything built behind that house. We had the most lovely front porch. I learned so much about home decor in this house. How to transform smaller spaces and make them more functional and how to showcase pieces only that I truly love.

But we still find ourselves with too much excess. When you have a big home, you fill it with lots of things. I find my time being stretched between just cleaning and maintaining all the areas. I cannot keep up with cleaning 4 bathrooms. It just isn’t a reality for me. And if you are a person who hires a cleaner, more power to you. I just personally wanted to be able to manage the cleaning myself. That’s just the place I am in.

And also, I love change. I should NEVER get a “forever house” because I will most likely be ready for a new adventure in the next 2 years or so.

Another reason for our downsizing, is that with the flexibility of our schedules and homeschooling, I would rather use our finances to invest into that time instead of just funneling into living in a big house. I probably could even do a tiny house! We’ll look into that after this move. (wink wink). I just think of all the possibilities of what our income could be used for instead of mostly spent just living in a big house.

I know what you are thinking, “But you have 6 kids! Where will they all sleep.” Listen, we had 6 bedrooms and basically used only 2 of them. Seborn and I had our room and every night, all the kids piled together in one room (and oftentimes, just sleeping on the floor together.) They each have their own beds but they prefer to be together. So, right now, in this season of life, we don’t have a NEED for more space.

LESS space is so intriguing to me. The simplicity that comes with it is desirable. And I realize that that perspective is not as commonplace. But it’s what speaks most to us.

The interesting perspective for us to navigate is the certain status that comes with a big beautiful house. It signifies success and power and wealth in our society. People see a big house and automatically correlate it with a successful person. And I’m so glad we’ve had our experiences here and it’s also grown me to realize that success is not measured by the size of a house or money or anything like that, at least from my point of view.

It’s more of love and faith and joy and living our lives the best we can. And just so much more. But it’s not a house. We had to tear down those perceptions that it is a “less-than” to move from a big house to a small house. And it’s a process. And one that is so rewarding because I am thinking about the new doors of freedom we will be opening. Less outgoing expenses, less time spent cleaning and maintaining a huge house. More time built in making memories, travelling where we want and when we want and creating a more simple life in a smaller space.

There you have it, a small tid bit of our next chapter. Downsizing. Leaving a home and neighborhood we love in an attempt to simplify and enjoy today in a different way. To set ourselves up for adventure and success our own way.

Because I love our home we sold, I want to share the pictures of it on this page, to never forget what we created here. I pray it blesses the next family who calls it home.

Part 2 of our adventure is coming up next… stay tuned.