Nesting...Again

With this move to Wilmington, we downsized...again. I know I talked about the last two moves...one as recently as November. I've mentioned that we downsized when we lived in Bellevue/Seattle. I loved that. I was surprised by how many endorphins I got from lightening our load. The Bellevue apartment had just 736 square feet. I thought of that small size as a badge of honor. 

When we downsized in NC, I earned another badge of honor. We went from living in a house to 853 square feet. --Granted, not as small as Bellevue. But, the new proud achievement is that this was the first time we downsized without any of our things stored in a utility room or storage unit. In the cross country move in 2010, we ruthlessly let go of our possessions in storage. Our thinking...do we love "this" (whatever the "this" was) enough to pay for it to move cross country with us. Keeping in mind that moving costs are affected by how much space we take up in the truck (movers) and what the weight of our stuff is.

When we got to the NC house we basically did not furnish several rooms in the house. In that time we enjoyed another aspect of fewer possessions. We got to live with a lot of "blank spaces". I'm not sure how to explain this...but seeing a room with clear surfaces provides a sense of calm.

So, when we moved to 835 square feet, it wasn't as difficult. We did give a few additional things up, but the big win was that we were not paying rent for our possessions to be in storage. YAY!

Long story, shorter...I've not regretted any of my downsizing experiences.

With this move, I had to really work on lightening our load even more. This time we are living in 667 square feet. The kitchen/dining table had to go as well as Jordan's desk. When I measured our living room furniture, I realized that it would not fit in the new space. The living room space is too small for the couch and chair we had.

On moving day, our new living room included two side chairs one side table and a footstool. Of course, we also have the credenza for the TV.  --But sitting wise, we had very little.

I planned on using the money from selling some of our things to buy a new, smaller couch, which I did! Don't you just love the color? I bought it online. It came in three boxes and Jordan and I put it together. --It was quite an accomplishment.

The walls are still bare. I plan on hanging pictures next week. That will help cozy up to the place (I think).

One of the bloggers I follow, Cait Flanders, recently posted about her own relocation and her new small kitchen. I loved that post. Inspiring! And the photos are worth seeing. I really like her approach. Her photos show how she really lives in her kitchen.

In a similar vein, I snapped this pic of our kitchen and sent it to a friend. I wanted to show her the bright the white cabinets as well as give her a sense of the space. I know the island looks bare...but I really did not stage this picture. --It was taken during one of the first few weeks in our new place...I hadn't had time to really make a mess yet.

The packing and moving part of this relocation was hard. Physically hard and emotionally hard. But...this part...the nesting part...is fun.