I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of Small House Living recently. My blogging friend, Lori, has shared about their family’s fairly radical decision to downsize to an RV and travel around the country as a family.
This in and of itself is impressive. But it’s even more impressive when you find out that they are doing this with four kids in tow.
Part of the idea of voluntarily downsizing appeals to me in a big way because I don’t like extra clutter and stuff. On the flip side, the thought of living out of a really small space sounds like a recipe for lots of tension. Namely, I like to have quiet places to retreat and living in such a small space might make me feel like I’d go crazy after awhile. 
There can be a lot of benefits to downsizing, though, if even for a short period of time.
When I was 10 years old, my parents sold our house and moved all 7 of us (there were only five kids at the time!) to a single wide trailer for 7 months while we built a home in the country. Since our living space was very limited, we put most of our household items in storage and only kept out the essentials.
We have so many memories from that summer in the trailer, most of them good memories. And we discovered a lot of benefits to living in a small space. Such as:
- We hardly spent any time cleaning. My mom divvied up the household chores amongst all of us and with only 6 total rooms in the trailer, that meant very few chores to go around!
- It fostered togetherness. We couldn’t really go off by ourselves because there wasn’t a lot of space, so we had to learn how to get along even in tighter quarters! I have many fond memories of nights spent all together in the living room reading before bed.
- We made our own entertainment. We weren’t able to bring many of our toys/things along, so we had fun using what we had for forms of entertainment. We built an elaborate tree “house” using things left in the old barn. We experimented in the kitchen with new recipes that only used the microwave, crock pot, or electric skillet (we didn’t have an oven in the trailer). And my older sister did a lot of sewing since she was able to bring her sewing machine.
- We became more grateful. My parents were investing most of their money into the house-building project so there wasn’t a lot of extra cash that summer. I distinctly remember it being the first time in my life where we had to do without and I remember how much contentment and gratefulness this helped me develop.
- It taught us the difference between a need and something that’s nice to have. There are many things we had to put in storage that summer that we’d always assumed you needed to live. But we realized that, if you can survive without it for 7 months, it’s probably less of a necessity and more of something that’s nice to have. It’s good to learn from a young age that there are very few real needs in life. I’m grateful for the conveniences of things like ovens and dishwashers and dryers, but you can survive just fine without them, as we did for those 7 months.
I was reading Kathi Lipp’s new book called Clutter Free recently and she talks about their decision not to move up in house, but rather to downsize in stuff.
She lists off a number of benefits for living in a smaller house, including:
- Smaller houses are less expensive to furnish than larger houses.
- Smaller houses are less expensive to heat and cool compared to comparably built larger homes.
- Smaller houses force you to use all of your home.
- Smaller houses force you to be intentional about your possessions.
I love her conclusion that, much of the time, we don’t need a bigger house, we need less stuff. If you’re feeling cramped in your space and like your family is bursting at your house seams, make sure you’ve eliminated all the unnecessary clutter and extras first before you starting shopping for a bigger house.
Have you ever downsized before — even for a short time? Do you think you could do what Lori’s family is doing and downsize your family to an RV? Why or why not? I’d love to hear!
For inspiration, check out this article: 12 of the Most Impressive Tiny Houses You’ve Ever Seen
Queen Bee Coupons shares how they got a free washer from their utility company:
When we moved into our house nearly five years ago it came with an older washer and dryer set. Although ugly, loud and inefficient – the washer and dryer worked just fine. We sometimes discussed buying a new set, but couldn't justify the cost if the ones we had worked just fine.
Last month, my electricity company, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) reached out to me and told me about their PSE appliance replacement program – replacing old refrigerators and clothes washers – for FREE!
Seems too good to be true, but customers who are Puget Sound Energy electric customers (those living in Washington cities like Olympia, Kent, Bellingham, Bellevue etc.) and who have a clothes washer that is really old, like 17 years old or older, can exchange it for a free ENERGY STAR model.
Read more here.
Have any of you tried or done this before? I’d love to hear about it!
Target Shopping Trip
3 Bayer Aspirin – $2.19 each, used $10/3 coupon from the 1/4 SmartSource insert – Free plus overage after coupon
2 pkg Christmas Cards – Marked down to $0.70 each
2 pkg Bic Soleil Glow Razors – $6.99 each, used Buy One Get One Free coupon from the 1/4 SmartSource (took off $7.99) AND 30% off Cartwheel coupon – $0.89 each after coupons
Total before coupons and sales: $35.93
Total with tax ($1.38) after coupons and sales: $1.38 (I only paid tax!)
I found this Trim Healthy Mama Cupcake recipe when I was browsing on Pinterest the other day. I realized that we happened to have all of the ingredients on hand for it, so Silas and I spent a little time in the kitchen making it today.
This boy. He melts my heart! I love how much he loves to help and serve. He has the sweetest heart and is always looking for ways to bless his mama.
Silas did all of the stirring and mixing and then filled up the muffin tins — with very little help from me.
Here’s the link to the recipe we used: Trim Healthy Mama Cupcake recipe.
Overall, we were happy with the end result. For the healthful ingredients they have in them, they were fairly delicious.
I probably would have loved them more if they didn’t have almond flour as their base, though. I keep telling myself I’m going to learn to like almond flour, but so far, I just can’t quite get over the texture and taste of it in baked goods. It just always tastes a little too nutty and off to me.
Is anyone else like that? Maybe I’m just weird!
I do, however, think this batter would be really yummy made in the waffle iron and slathered with butter. Or, topped with some kind of frosting. Otherwise, these were a little on the dry and bland side to me.
Have you cooked or baked anything this week? Have any new must-try recipe links to share?
