We hit our one month mark of living tiny a week ago. When we had originally thought of this new life, we didn’t really think it would happen. It’s one of those things you talk about but in the back of your mind it’s just too crazy. It’s something that “normal” people with “normal” jobs just do not do. I mean come on, we got married a year or two ago (who is keeping count anyway) we should be having babies! Right?
Here is a quick recap of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good:
We laugh a lot more than we did back home. Even at the annoying things. Well, I usually laugh while Mr. TCP is dealing with the annoying thing, but at least one of us is laughing. Right? You’d think spending so much time together would result in annoyances or just down right hatred of one another. It’s in fact done the opposite.
Downsizing is good for the soul. Or something like that. Living with less is actually fun. Transitioning into a much smaller space wasn’t as painful as you’d expect. Our home back in Austin was around 1250SQFT so we weren’t living in a macmansion to begin with. And clutter really bothers me so filling our home up with a bunch of stuff just doesn’t do it for me. Living small is perfect for us in that we can’t acquire much and picking up after ourselves has been an absolute must.
We waste very little. Just before we left town, we looked at our past water bill and noticed we had used 3,000 gallons of water. GASP! What the hell were we doing? Watering everyone’s lawn in the neighborhood? Six times a day? The Airstream can only hold 39 gallons of fresh water, well 45 if you include the hot water heater, and we go through that in about 4 days. If you do the math, that is roughly 300 gallons of water we are using on a monthly basis now. That is 10% of what we were using before. Obviously, we aren’t including the water we use at laundromats and any bottle water we buy at the store (which is very little). I’d say that is a win!
We are spending a ton of time outdoors. After I wrap up my work day, I am ready to get out of the Airstream so we head to the beach or the mountains. Whichever is closest. We ride our bikes to places we are wanting to explore rather than drive and we are walking the dogs. A lot. I’d say we are spending on average about 30% more time outside than we were in old life. And we spent a good amount of time outdoors before.
The bad:
Laundromats are, um, disgusting. While, yes, some might actually be clean, the thought of doing laundry where others have washed their clothes and other things is quite disturbing. However, on the business side of it. I’d love to own a laundromat. What a cash cow.
Clutter can happen fast! As I mentioned earlier, I am not a fan of clutter and so when you have a small space and stuff starts to pile up it can become a disaster zone quickly.
We are bleeding money it seems. A lot of big expenses seem to keep hitting us around the same time so that has been kind of painful. But such is life and if you plan right it doesn’t hurt too bad. If you ask Mr. TCP how bad it hurts he would say he has severed a few limbs.
The ugly:
Dumping stations. Yeah. It’s just as glamorous as it sounds. This is something that Mr. TCP has the joy of dealing with while I stand back and observe. It can be rather disturbing, have I mentioned that I am kind of a germophobe, so the thought of being in the vicinity of other peoples grossness just about does me in.
All in all, we absolutely love this new way of living and all it offers. It’s something we are truly grateful for and don’t take a moment for granted.
