So it all started after our road trip with the kids out west. We knew before leaving we would either love it or hate it. Well, we loved it. We came back knowing we had to do something different. Here we were, both working full time barely seeing each other just to pay bills. That’s not the life we wanted and wanted to continue. We knew we had to do something drastic in order to get off of the vicious hamster wheel we were in. We want to have a better future, not just for us, but for our kids. We want to be able to get up and go when we want. We love to travel. For the average Joe couple with three kids, traveling can be expensive…bottom line. Not just the trip itself (ha because we tend to camp), but missing work while we were gone. We want to finally be able to save without going through it because of those random “emergencies”. We want to be in a more comfortable position ten years from now and beyond…heck, five years from now even. If you can relate, raise yo hand!

So we came to the decision to sell our house. Since the time we bought, the market drastically decreased and we felt stuck. Stuck paying a mortgage (really, paying interest) on a house that wasn’t even worth what we were paying for it anymore. We started to really reevaluate what was important to us. Family. Time with our family. Not feeling strapped to pay bills all the time. We were meant to LIVE. That’s the thing you have to make yourself face. What is really important to you? Why is it we have this way of thinking that success is defined by how much we have? Why do we have to live in a big house in a nice neighborhood? Who defines that as normal? Really, it’s all excess anyway.

We were set to redefine our normal.

It was weird for us. We live in an area full of status quo, nice luxurious houses in ritzy neighborhoods,  nice cars, blah blah blah…. We knew people wouldn’t fully understand. However, thanks to HGTV and the recent tiny house nation on a rise, it was a little more understood than we even realized. People can relate. They want freedom. Quite frankly, we didn’t care what people thought or continue to think. We wanted to do what’s best for US.

Luckily, my parents had a cabin on their land that my grandfather lived in when he was alive. It was up for grabs and vacant! Yay! So we got rid of our house of 9 years, along with close to 4 trailers worth of things no longer considered necessities, packed up our 3 kids and adopted a more minimalist way of life. It’s funny, you begin to realize once most of your stuff is gone, how much you really don’t need.

It’s wonderful.

Many thought we were nuts. I don’t blame them because I kind of thought we were too lol. Here we were, three kids (8,4,&2) moving into a cabin/tiny house less than 600 sq ft. Yep.

Was I scared? Of course! I’m a very claustrophobic person. My kids can be, let’s face it, cray sometimes. I didn’t know what I was getting in to. I have to say though…

I don’t regret it for a minute.

We only really lived and used about that much square footage in our other house anyway so it wasn’t such a huge difference for us. Sure, there are things we have to adapt to… less closet space, one bathroom for us all to share (ugh the days when we are all on the same “schedule” *eye roll*), smaller hot water heater (which leads to 2 minute showers and hairy legs), not to mention being creative with making sure mommy and daddy have their time as well *wink wink*.

It’s an adjustment, but like anything, you learn to adapt. Having less has taught us so much. It makes us appreciate and to not take things for granted. Because of being in closer quarters, it forces us to spend time with each other. Where as before, we would walk into another room and isolate ourselves. It’s nice to be able to talk more. It’s what we needed. Believe it or not, having a tiny house is so much easier to manage.

I use to constantly stay stressed about a messy house that would stay messy because I didn’t have enough time in the day to clean it all. Now, though my kids can sure mess it up quick, it’s also easier to clean. It’s less to clean. I may be stating the obvious, but geez a sigh of relief to be able to clean every part of the house in a half a day…with three kids.

A few more perks….

Because we don’t have a lot of room, it FORCES us to keep things neat and in its place. Everything has a place. If not, we wouldn’t have space to live. I love organization and now, I have more of it. We do laundry more often…and actually put it away now lol. We wash dishes right after we use them (because we don’t have a dish washer). I hang my clothes back up after I try on 50 different outfits. Because there’s only one bathroom, I’m able to frequently clean the sink and toilet….halleluuuurrya. So getting my drift now?

No regrets.

I feel like we now have a well oiled machine way of how we do life. It’s wonderful.

So would you like to meet our little humble abode?  I haven’t taken pics of the kid’s loft yet because I didn’t feel like putting away the toys they were playing with at the time lol. Also, there’s a few finishing touches I wanna do first. Just note, the kids have a loft with two beds and a ladder that can go up and down for times when we want it out of our way. The two boys share a side and “sissy” has her side of the loft. They love it. It’s like they live in a clubhouse 24/7 :).

So here she is, in all her realistic lived in glory lol…

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