It’s funny how, in life, words catch up with you and turn your life around. This is the story of how the title of my blog became really and made my life small.
When I started seriously thinking about writing a blog I took some time to think of a name. The name eventually became ‘Live Small – Be More‘ because I wanted to show that you and I can live with much less commercial stuff in our lives.
My premise has always been (and will always be) to explore the possibilities of making stuff at home, finding out what is really important to me, and to explore alternatives in general. I always love finding out things I took for granted but which I can make myself or create some kind of ownership over.
When I thought of the name for the blog I didn’t think of physically living small. I meant it figuratively speaking for aspects of life which don’t involve my living space.
And then life happened
In September 2017, my family and I started thinking about relocating from Australia back to Europe. We started reading about our destination, Sweden, and it started to become clear that the housing market in Sweden is extremely tight.
Around the same time one youtube channel I’m following posted a video of a tiny house. I follow that channel because I found tiny houses interesting, but didn’t think it was for me. And then this video came along and it changed my mind. I saw a house which had everything we needed in a house and it was a tiny house.
So we started our tiny house journey
At the point of writing these lines, the house is being put together. The walls are up, the insulation is in and we have to decide on the cladding.
We’ve spent about three months designing the house with its various parts. We designed the overall layout and every single space inside. We chose windows, floor covering, made decisions about the kitchen sink, the shower screen, heating, air ventilation, and the toilet. For me, this is all very fascinating stuff because I’ve never done anything like this.
The house is (hopefully) going to be finished in June 2018.
And when it’s finished our family of four is going to move into a house with a base floor size of 30m² on the outside, 25m² on the inside, not counting the loft. This means we will have roughly a third of the space we had in our previous house.
It seems crazy, even for me, to think about this size. But I believe that because the house is being built to our needs and ideas, that it will work for us.
And it’s funny how the title of my blog will then catch up with me.
I will be living small – in a small house. I will be living with less – because there won’t be space to have access.
And I can only hope that I will be able to live with more intent, greater awareness, and better relationships in our tiny house.
It will be a journey and I’m sure to share as much as I can on this blog here.
I am in the same spot at the moment. Out tiny home will be built by a builder and we are in the waiting and I wonder phase. I’m super excited but also a tad nervous. Do you ever regret your decision to go tiny?
No, I really don’t. And I think it’s great that you’re thinking about a tiny house as well. Good luck!