It’s been 2 years almost to the day since I packed up my things and really made my first big effort in downsizing. Its an important – and sometimes difficult – part of moving into a small space like a van. Here’s an introduction to what I’ve learned as well as some things that have helped me put things into perspective on how to cram a whole house worth of things into 40 square feet!
Do the Easy Stuff First
Do the easy stuff first: The hardest part of downsizing isn’t the junk that we all collect. Its not the things we let clutter our lives. Its the things we want but know we don’t necessarily have space for. To work up to the hard stuff, start with the easy stuff first! Personally, I find toiletries really easy to start with. Half empty bottles of shampoo that you hate? Get rid of them! 17 brushes? No room for all those in the van, so only keep the ones you need. Get rid of any that are worn out, crusty, don’t work for your hair, etc. Clutter that’s literal trash, and I’m talking manuals you can find online, things you’ve kept because you don’t want to go through with them – to the recycling they go! This will give you practice for the harder stuff down the road.
Make Plans for Storage
Make plans for storage: If you are planning on living full-time in a van, you won’t need your bed frame, your couch, your dining room table, the entertainment center, or any other large furniture. While you don’t have to take action right away, you can at least decide if it makes sense for you to store it or sell/donate it. I have several pieces of furniture that were fairly new when I decided to move out of my house. Thankfully, I am able to store them for free. Some considerations may be the shape the item is in, if an item you like is going to be outdated by the time you need it again, if its easily replaceable, if you have multiples, and of course how long you’ll be living nomadically. When you’re downsizing, its a great time to take a look and decide if you really need back-up furniture for your furniture. Hint: you probably don’t.
Decide What’s Most Important to You
Decide what’s most important to you: We all have different needs and those should really reflect in the things we take with us. Perhaps you are outdoorsy and you have a lot of gear – it might make sense to keep more ski gear than it does jewelry. Maybe you craft a lot. Keep a larger stock of art supplies on hand but its easy enough for you to run and buy a shirt if you need one, so only bring the essential clothes. Or, if you’re like me you have a weird relationship with clothes (that you’re still working on). Keep a lot of it, but you’re okay with using your Dutch oven to cook everything, so you don’t need as much cookware! You know yourself best, so take those considerations into account.
Do the Hard Stuff (After You’ve Had Some Practice)
Do the hard stuff: Once you’ve made your way through the easy stuff and clutter, decided what you’ll be storing and given thought to what makes you uniquely you, its time to tackle the hard stuff. This is more than likely things you identified in the last section as wanting the most. According to Marie Kondo, also sentimental items. It’s the stuff that makes downsizing feel impossible. A good way to handle this is to first decide what you need by having an honest discussion with yourself.
If we use skiing as an example, do you need ski boots? Yes. You can confidently say you need one pair of ski boots. Do you need 4 pairs of ski boots? Probably not, and if a situation arises that the one pair you identified does not cut it, you can probably rent some. Or, using clothing as an example, do you need underwear? Yes. Do you need 4 weeks of underwear? Probably not.
Once you’ve identified what you need, I find its easier to identify what you do not need: yes, I need underwear. No, I do not need a sequined cocktail dress. Yes, I need flip-flops. No, I do not need 6 inch heels. Again, this is very personal to who you are, but if you’d like to see what I’ve identified as a jumping off point for myself, you can find how I broke it down HERE.
Examining sentimental items also poses an interesting challenge. Perhaps there are some sentimental items we’ll be taking with us, whether its a loved ones necklace we hang from the mirror or an important picture we have on the dash – the truth is, at least for me, there’s a lot that I refused to part with but also can’t take with me. Photo albums are the perfect example. I have many and I thoroughly enjoy looking through them, but I can’t take those in the van with me for the occasional look. And this would be where storage comes in. A loved one may be able to hold on to your sentimental items, even if they can’t hold onto the larger furniture (if you choose not to pay for a storage unit). I do recommend a small jar, or something akin to a faux book, to store mementos along the way.
I’m here to tell you – you got this! We can do hard things and often times, it turns out that the harder it is the more rewarding it is, too. Downsizing doesn’t have to be like pulling teeth and there’s really no right or wrong way to tackle it. My final words of wisdom, especially if you’re like me and you love to thrift: don’t hesitate to donate things that are out of season so that they may find another loving home!
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