Three Steps We Used to Downsize From a 3,000 sq. foot house to a 200 sq. foot Airstream
If you have a Netflix account, or you’ve been on the internet anytime in the last few months, then you know that home organization is taking over.
We have The Home Edit to thank for that.
They’re the organizing duo, Clea and Joanna, who makeover the garages, junk drawers, and lives of celebrities and normal people alike.
If you’ve seen their show, Get Organized with The Home Edit, then you know THE is a fan of having a system!
Women after my own heart.
So that’s what we implemented when we had to downsize our 3,000 sq. foot home into a 200 sq. foot Airstream.
That’s a big difference in space! You know what doesn’t fit in that smaller space?
The little knick-knacks our moms gave us from our childhoods when we got married fifteen years ago, the veritable Williams Sonoma I had in my kitchen, or the tote bags filled with holiday decor we stored in our garage.
I live a pretty minimalist lifestyle, but there was a lot to go through!
Here are the three steps we used to thoughtfully downsize without losing our minds!
Do something every day.
It’s all about commitment, not motivation. You have no control over how motivated you feel to downsize, pack, and organize on any given day. But you can control your choices. We knew we had a finite amount of time before we needed to be out of our house, so we made the decision to do something to get us closer to our goal every. single. day.
That could have been emptying one drawer, selling one desk, or donating one box of toys. But every day, we did something.
We had four categories when we were downsizing: sell, donate, store, or pack.
Every single item in our house needed to either be sold, donated, stored in our temperature controlled storage unit, or packed to go in our Airstream.
The idea of getting rid of most of our items is overwhelming. It’s like packing to move to a new house, except instead of moving to a house, you’re moving into a really big closet.
But because we were committed to our dream (traveling full-time in an Airstream), that meant we needed to go through all the not-so-fun steps to achieving that dream, which meant purging our entire house.
Dreams aren’t always fun to pursue at every step, whether it’s traveling full-time, writing a book, or starting a business. You just have to do something small every single day.
Eventually, our house was empty, our storage room door closed, and we hit the road on our Airstream. And it was possible because we did a little bit of work every day.
Answer the magic questions.
Here are some questions we asked ourselves about one thousand times a day while we were downsizing:
Is this going to be something I’m excited to see when I open that storage cube door when we return from our travels?
Is this something that’s going to maintain or increase in value while we’re gone?
Is this something that I could rebuy when I’m back in a home?
Is this something that I have a sentimental attachment to?
If your answer to any of these questions is a “meh” instead of a hell yes or a hell no, then the item in question is not a keeper!
Through this process, I sold a perfectly good Pottery Barn desk on Facebook marketplace because I knew it wasn’t going to increase in value, it wasn’t something I was sentimentally attached to, and I wouldn’t be especially excited to see if when I opened the storage room door.
At the same time, I did keep vintage lamps and bespoke couches that would hold or increase in value, that I picked out especially, and that I knew I wanted in our next home, once we were ready to set down roots again.
We sold art prints we didn’t love, but kept all our sentimental and one-of-a-kind art.
We sold big computers and sound bars, but each kept a keepsake box with photos and sentimental items.
3. Practice so you can purge in phases.
There are so many ways you can “practice” downsizing before you really have to commit to it.
I think it’s important to build in practice rounds so that if you need to adjust, it doesn’t feel like you failed, it just feels like a successful practice round!
What do I mean?
You can practice downsizing your closet. Months before moving into our Airstream, we each created a capsule wardrobe so we could practice living with our clothing choices before we were actually stuck with a tiny closet. That way, if we realized we packed four pairs of jeans too many or far too few sweatshirts, we had time to fix it!
We moved all three kids into the same room early on so they could practice sleeping in the same space. Then, we used the extra room as our mock-Airstream. We approximated the size of the Airstream in the room so we knew when we were getting close to our storage limit.
This was a huge help to me in the kitchen. I knew we could all sleep in an Airstream, and we’d be spending a lot of our day outside, but the idea of cooking meals for five people in such a small space was daunting. Also, I used to work at a kitchen store! I have cabinets full of Parisian copper pans, carefully selected spatulas, and perfectly seasoned cast iron pans. It was so helpful to pack up most of my kitchen stuff (a lot of this went to storage because these items are sentimental, aren’t things I could just rebuy in a few years, and are things I’d be thrilled to see when I open that storage room door), and practice cooking with less.
I realized I needed a 10” pan instead of an 8” or a 12”, and that, as much as it killed me, I needed to leave some of my prized knives behind.
There are so many changes that come with living full-time in an Airstream, and it was nice to eliminate some of those by adjusting ahead of time.
After a few months of practicing living with less, it because even easier to make decisions about some last lingering items. We already proved to ourselves what we really needed!
Whether you’re downsizing so you can travel in an Airstream or RV, you’re moving into a smaller home, or you’re just ready to live with less, these three steps will help you identify what’s important to you, and what you’re ready to let go of!