Turning It Down

In America, we’re not used to living smaller. And it’s no wonder given that we live in the land of “super-size it”, SUVs and “bigger is better”. It’s the way I and my fellow Baby Boomers were raised and to us, it’s as natural as breathing.

hummer-h2Recently though, there are a lot of us Boomers (and Post-Boomers) who are thinking that maybe we’ve taken this “more is better” thing a bit too far. We’re realizing that there is a price to pay for all this growth – a price to the environment and our community and a price to our sanity.

My wife and I realized this about 7 years ago when work (or a sudden lack thereof) circumstances and financial circumstances forced us to consider how much we had and how to get by with less. Before our downsizing, we were happily rattling around on two acres of land (most of which needed to be mowed each week)
and living in a 3800 square foot house with two late model cars and lots (and lots) of stuff that we had accumulated over our 12 years of marriage.

These circumstances let us to start what I like to call our “adventure in downsizing”. To make a long story short, two very large garage sales, one house sale, and two house moves later, we are a one car, 800 square foot house couple that is surviving quite well thank you very much.

It wasn’t always a smooth process and we learned a lot. From this ongoing adventure, I thought I would share the 4 most important lessons we learned as a starting point for those who are considering how to live in a future world where more is not always better.

Lesson 1: Planning Avoids Pain

Downsizing can involve some psychological stress and worry but with a little bit of planning and some time, it can be done and you can survive. Like any project, I would recommend that before you start, you plan. Set some goals for yourselves and your lifestyle that you want to achieve in 5 years. These are the big, overarching goals to your downsizing adventure. Maybe one of your goals is that you want to spend less time mowing your lawn. Maybe one of your goals is that you want to get to know your neighbors or be more involved in your community. Maybe one of your goals is to have more discretionary time and income.

Besides goal setting, it is critical to understand that, because downsizing is a lifestyle change it’s a project best completed over a period of time. Of course, in one weekend, you could go cold turkey and sell the house, sell the car and get rid of all the stuff you have accumulated  but I wouldn’t recommend it! It’s better and you’ll incur a lot less pain if you take  your time, make the changes and make them permanent.

Lesson 2: Make the Changes in Stages

One thing that helped us during the downsizing was dividing things into “living-departments” then coming up with a plan to reduce consumption in each department. Your living space is one department. So are your cars. So is the waste you generate, the gas and water you use and the space you use to store your stuff. It’s worth putting plans together that focus on each of these areas because it breaks down one big challenge into may smaller bits that can be better managed.

To help you start your planning process, you might want to brainstorm about how you would get along with one car (note I didn’t say “if you could get along with one car”) or brainstorm about you would live in a smaller space. Also, look at how others have already downsized and what resources or lifestyle methods they are using. Browse the web for “stories of inspiration”. There are a lot of them and you’ll learn a lot by reading them.

What you’ll probably find during these brainstorming sessions is that changes in one “living-department” are most likely going to have an affect on your other living-departments. For example, when you start discussing how to live with one car instead of two  you may decide that you need to move closer to your work. That may require you to live in a smaller space if you work closer to the city center. That means that you won’t have a lawn to mow (yea!) but it also means that you will probably have a lot less storage space (no garage) so you’ll have to get rid of “stuff”. It may also mean that you’ll be home earlier because you won’t have that 1 hour commute (double yea) and that you’ll be able to combine  your daily exercise (bicycling and walking to work) with your commute (triple yea).

Lesson 3: Set Some Disposal Criteria

So called “disposal criteria” helped us a lot when it came to deciding what we would keep and not keep. (Things we were not going to keep either went to a couple of garage sales, were given away to help others or sent to the landfill (ouch!). One rule that we set up when setting up for the garage sale was that if we had something that we had not used is a year, it went to the sale. My logic (oft challenged by my spouse) was that it we went through four seasons and didn’t need it, then we probably really don’t need it! I would suggest though that you soften this rule by applying some family values. For example, my spouse and I have some china and other items that we consider family heirlooms. Even though we don’t use them, we still are keeping them as part of things that we can pass down to our children.

Lesson 4: Set a Plan for Future Consumption

They say old habits die hard. And one thing we learned during the adventure is that they do. In order to avoid a “re-arming” of our consumer lifestyle, we have now settled on a few things that we ask ourselves when we buy something in our newly downsized world.

First, we ask ourselves if we really need it (or to put it another way, could we survive without it). There may be a better substitute for what we think we have to have and if there is, we may already have it or we could borrow it. Second, we ask ourselves if we have a place to put it. This is really critical when you move into a smaller space. Things like less kitchen space, and smaller rooms or a one car garage are things that force you to make better, wiser decisions. Finally, if we really decide we have to (or would like to) have it, we see if we can find it used. (That goes for clothes too!). Resources like Madison Freecycle or St. Vinneys (wow, people sure throw out a lot of good clothes!) are great for helping us re-use items, preserve natural resources and keep things out of the landfill.

 

 

So, was the adventure a success? Well, I’d say yes with the caveat that we are not there yet. We are not finished downsizing, we still have a lot to learn and a long way to go. But, like I said in the beginning, it’s an adventure — one that is good for our earth, good for our wallet and good for us.

Think small(er)

 

Fred

 

 

 

 


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