Downsizing to a Smaller Home (on wheels)!

Tiny Living

From 1,020 square feet to 240?!?

Ashleigh Moss 

Updated September 5th 2024

Impulsive or Genius?

I was driving down the road when I had a spontaneous idea. It came from no inspiration, no prior exposure, just slapped me out of nowhere. “Sell your house. By an RV” I heard my intuition say.  I also heard my intuition tell me that even though this was an out-of-pocket idea, I needed to keep an open mind.

So, for the first time since we purchased our home in 2017, I thought about selling it.  This was a home that I thought we would live in my entire life. I actually had dreams about this house before I purchased it. I drew a picture of the home before I even knew it existed. But I trust my instincts, so I thought about it.

With our equity we could purchase a truck and trailer, then invest the rest in the business we had been building. Investing in the business meant we could work full-time for ourselves, on the road. It was starting to sound to good to be true. But, now I had to convince my husband.

It took no more than 10 minutes to convince him. Our 70’s cabin was falling apart, he was tired of taking care of it, and feeling just as burdened as I was trying to keep up. The idea of getting rid of everything to downsize, slow down and work for ourselves sounded like heaven. And IT IS! 

Garbage Heirlooms

Soo many times my husband and I wished we had a bigger house. We had only one bathroom and three girls sharing it. The kitchen was big enough for one person and the laundry room was in the kitchen. 

Now, all of our belongings were stacked in the driveway and frankly it looked like my hard earned money was wasted. I no longer saw the purpose of those things, other than as a distraction. How many radical art projects, that I’d spent hundreds of dollars on, had changed my quality of life? How many times did that extra bolt my husband kept really come in handy, compared to the amount of times I had to clean his junk drawer?! Ladies, I know you feel this one.

What was an even bigger burden was heirlooms. What an incredible pressure to put on someone, to preserve a family legacy through an ugly dresser? Or to pay thousands of dollars per year only to have it sit in a storage space? I would not accept that the only way to respect family and ancestors was to keep their crap! We got rid of everything. 

Empty Saturdays

The days feel anything but empty these days. I didn’t realize it until I let everything go, but having all that stuff made every Saturday feel complicated. We wanted to go to the beach but had to clean up first, and cleaning took hours. 

Now we don’t even plan our schedule around cleaning, that’s at the back of my mind and when it comes up, I deal with right then and there. 15 minutes later I’m relaxing. 

Living in a tiny home is a dream come true. Focusing on my family, on our dreams, and on enjoying nature has changed the quality of our lives. It feels like a dream come true.

We are, now, officially traveling nomads. The change wasn’t as hard as you might think. Trust me, do it!