Well, the secret's out. We made a crazy, life changing and adventurous decision. We are going tiny. Yup, you read that right. We are packing up our 1,400 square foot home and moving into a travel trailer that's just under 300 square feet.
Why in the world would a family of almost SIX decided to downsize into a travel trailer you ask? It's Simple. But really, that's the reason. We love the idea of simplicity. Having ONLY what you need. The freedom to have more time. Time as a family, time for ourselves, just time to be. Not only that, we will save a ton of money on rent. Our goal of having debt freedom was also a huge reason behind this decision.
The last several months, I've really been researching minimalism and hygge (pronounced hue-gah). I remember the exact moment I knew I needed to make a change in our lifestyle.
We were on a family vacation in Flagstaff, everyone was sleeping, and I was wide awake. I was anxious, but I couldn't figure out why. My mind was racing. I kept thinking of all the things I had to do when we got back home. The dishes that hadn't been done, the phone calls I needed to make, the appointments that were waiting for us. There was just so much STUFF that needed to be done.
Here I was, in a beautiful hotel room, on vacation with my family, and yet I couldn't enjoy it. I was frustrated. Why in the world did I feel that way? I'm not even sure what pushed me to search "minimalist mom" on Pinterest, but before I knew it I was sitting in bed reading blog after blog. These moms just got it. It clicked! I was hooked and couldn't wait to get home to declutter.
A few weeks after that, I had made so much progress. I could physically feel the difference. Mentally I was in a better space. I was happier, easier going, less anxious. That feeling drove me to look for even MORE happiness and contentment.
Wes and I have always been intrigued with the tiny living movement. We would joke that we needed to join in and go tiny, but that's all it was. Just a dream that we thought we'd never get around to. I mean who in their right mind goes tiny with four children under four?!
Then came the Youtube videos. We found more and more families with even MORE kids who were living tiny full time. Slowly, I had started to come around to the idea, but again it just felt like a fantasy. We never truly considered it seriously.
One day, I brought it up to him. Why NOT? What were the reasons holding us back? It honestly came down to fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of not having "security" and comforts of home. But, the more we talked about it, the more we realized that we could totally do this.
So, we did. We jumped in head first. Never having owned an RV, we found ourselves shopping for our new tiny home. There was a LOT of research involved and honestly we still have TONS to learn. The only prior experience I had with an RV, was when I lived in one briefly growing up. Even still, being a kid in an RV is much different than being the parent owning the RV.
We knew we were on a time crunch, considering I'm due in just a month and a half. This limited our search quite a bit. We also knew were were going to renovate it to make it feel more like a home. Thankfully, we found our RV fairly quickly. It just felt like home to me when we first saw it. Wes on the other hand...he wasn't convinced. It took a few days of thinking it over to convince him. I just had a vision for that RV and knew it was the one.
We bought our used 2013 Heartland Pioneer Travel Trailer for $15,300. It was one of those, "Holy crap did we just do this?!" moments when we left the lot. I had a wave of panic come over me as I thought, "OH my gosh, what did we just do?! Can we really do this?!" It was quickly followed by the little voice in my head that replied, "YOU can do anything, this is where you're meant to be."
So, here we are. First time RV owners renovating our new tiny home. Racing against the clock to have it done before baby girl makes her debut. Is it a little crazy? HECK YES. But, are we SO excited for this new journey? ABSOLUTELY.
I plan to do a big reveal of our finished project, but until then stay tuned for RV renovation updates! For now, here are some pictures of our new home!
