my story...

with so much talk at the moment about the economic situation i thought it all only fitting to share my story of the freedom that downsizing can give you. you maybe sinical as i had something quite substantial to downsize from but none the less we gave up something that we had worked extremely hard to achieve for financial freedom.

we had always dreamed of having a larger block, space to bring up kids, have unrestricted space for vegies & fruit trees & maybe even a bit of bush where we could witness our impact on nature first hand. three years ago the dream came true & we purchased our peice of paradise (as far as we were concerned, our friends probably thought otherwise). to afford this dream we lived in a very basic shed while our house was being built. we didn't have an oven & so i taught myself how to bake cakes in a fry pan. we didn't have rainwater feeding the shed, just very dirty bore water, so i'd wash my hair outside in a tub. we built chook pens, vegie gardens, herb gardens, orchards, eradicated weeds, revegetated & loved the 'home' we were creating.

though all this simplicity & joy came at a cost, we both would always have to work fulltime to maintain this home we were creating. we had no buffer in the event that either of us didn't work, we were stretched to our max. this was not through our everyday living costs, we grew our own vegies, rarely ate meat, i preserved, baked, made our own soap...we cut out the waste in our lives & still always knew that we would never have breathing space in the event of a dire situation like what is currently being experienced by many.

we decided to sell, downsize to a suburban block, still large enough to have vegies & chooks but we wouldn't have the blue wrens bouncing on our back lawn, the orchids in the bush, the odd visit by bandicoots. the decision seemed highly logical & we moved forward but i was absolutely gutted to be losing what we had worked so long & hard for. i had tears & anger, frequently.

we moved out in july & i can now say that the decision was the best we have ever made. even without living in the new house we're building. the freedom that downsizing gives you is amazing. it is true that 'home is where the heart is', no matter where or what size. we're now renting a little old house but we can now, again make plans for the future because we have the freedom to do so.

downsizing comes in a matter of forms & can be experienced by moving to a less expensive rental or getting rid of the flash car that sits in the garage to only be paraded on sunny days. it is about living within our means & giving yourself the flexbility to build for the future. i highly recommend it.