We'd be willing to bet a lot of you have thought about downsizing. Some of you however might dream of up-sizing. Whether you want room to sew, work on motorcycles, garden, or just spread out, it's always nice to fantasize about bigger and better. After living in apartments for what seemed like a very long time we were thrilled to finally buy our house and have the positives that come with it, including s p a c e. While a reader outside a major city may think that a "postage stamp" lot of 125 feet by 25 feet sounds tiny, in the City of Chicago it's the standard. We made use of the 1,756 square feet (not including the basement) and two car garage that our house offered as best we could. When we moved in we inherited a collection of furniture that the previous owner left for us. None of it was nice, but it was what we needed after our previous purge when we moved back to Chicago from Los Angeles. At that time we kept only what fit in our beloved Saab 9-5 wagon, and the rest went to new owners or the dump. It was a year before we realized that of our nearly 1,800 square feet we only actually used about half. We spent 90% of our time split between the living room and bedroom and the other 10% in the kitchen. OK, the bathroom factors in there somewhere too. We didn't need that much space.
Our house
As you have already learned, we are going from just under 1,800 square feet (not including the unfinished basement) to significantly less. The boat is 42 feet by 15 feet, that's a total of 630 square feet. But if you've seen a boat before you know that they are not shaped like a house. They have a pointy end. That pointy end means there is not as much room. In fact while the entire boat may be 15 feet at the widest point, it probably averages something like 10 feet inside. So now we are talking 420 square feet. Within that space you have mostly built in furniture and fixtures, like the beds and dinette and counters so you're limited to using the space in a certain way. Tucked away under floors and in corners you have engines, pumps, a generator, and a helm. All these things take up space, so to estimate I'd say we are realistically dealing with 280 square feet of living space. Some basic math gets us to about one sixth the amount of room of our house. You know, that isn't much. Costco is basically out, just one of those carts is about 10 square feet! That's 4.2% of our available space.
Boat living room
Furniture, clothes, tchotchkes, cooking utensils, towels, anything that isn't vital to our survival and minimum comfort has to go. Kevin likes jackets, he has ten. Not anymore. That favorite painting hanging in the living room? No room. Picture frames? Maybe a couple small ones. You have to reevaluate what is important to you. Colette likes saving the "Simply" brand of juice containers to make frozen cocktails and juice. We used to have a pantry full of them, no more. Souvenirs need to be tiny, a shot glass maybe. Clothes need to be multi-purpose, or at least you need to have a lot less than you currently have. The old trick of turning the hanger backwards and getting rid of what you have not worn in a few months is great, if you keep up with it. The other thing to be concerned about is moisture. Boats are damp and mold likes damp, so if you don't wash your clothes regularly you get moldy clothes. You simply can't own a lot of clothes.
How about that chair you have sitting in the living room? The one you got from your Mom or Sister, or whoever. It's too nice to just get rid of you think, but you don't really like it or use it either. It just sits there, not matching the rest of your decor. On a boat you have no excess space, so it has to go.
Got a bike in the garage you have not ridden in six years? It has tires that are beginning to crack, and you aren't even sure where the seat is. That's something that boats don't allow - those extra areas of a home or apartment where you can stash things that you don't use. Either go ride that bike or donate it to someone who will. It might not be a bike, maybe it's the bread maker you got at your wedding, or the giant toy your kid just had to have nine years ago. When was the last time you looked at your high school yearbook?
If you like to shop, purging can be a great way to feed your craving. We recently had a moving sale, sold some things for dirt cheap, and still ended up with about $600. If we were in no rush and had a couple garage sales we would have doubled that. Then you can take that money and buy more new things to replace the old.
So Water We Thinking in moving to such a small space? Well, living with less is becoming more and more popular. Click HERE to find out about a woman who lives in just 84 square feet. Smaller homes are cheaper to buy, maintain, heat, cool, power, and just about everything else. That leaves money left over for vacations, a nicer car, a few more nights at restaurants, camera gear, whatever you are into. Take a look around today and see what you have just wasting space, maybe it's time for a purge.
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