Extreme Downsizing

IF THIS IS DOWNSIZING, WHERE DO I SIGN-UP? How moving from a 6,000-square-foot custom home to a 370-square-foot recreational vehicle helped quell one family's 'House Lust.'

...what if they sold their Bethesda home, bought a top-of-the-line RV, and the whole family traveled for Jim's work together? For $150,000 they purchased a Fleetwood Discovery recreational vehicle—which, with its full-wall slide-outs, measures 370 square feet. They packed only what they needed and loaded everything else into 19 crates that now lie in a storage facility.

...after more than 25,000 miles the family's attitude about how much space they really need—and at what expense—has been transformed. "

Life in the RV "just helped define what a home is and what a home means to you," Jim says. "It isn't necessarily more space or more money."

As the family contemplates its next move, the biggest source of anxiety lies back on the East Coast, inside that storage locker. The Wards aren't really sure what's in those 19 crates of stuff that seemed so necessary just two years ago. But after many months of streamlined living, they're dreading the day they have to deal with it all again.

Here is the story of another couple living on an RV.

Between experiences such as traveling the world with carry-on luggage, spending a month camping out across the country for a month with my dad, and getting rid of many of my possessions to come back to school (living in small spaces ever since), I have truly learned to appreciate many aspects of simple living.

In all of these experiences, I don't think there's been a time when I've felt like I've had too little, but many times where I've felt like I have too much. There is something nice about not being weighed down by lots of stuff and a powerful freedom that comes from learning to make do with little.

(HT Unclutterer)