Downsizing. The modern day buzz. You hear it in coffee shops, see it on magazine covers, bump into it around each corner. But what does it really mean? How do you go about downsizing anyway?
Well. I thought I knew. We decided now was the right time for this next step. I had a plan and thought it was good. My Mr. was on board with rolled up sleeves. We even got a jump on move out/move in crunch time by starting early. We donated, sold, and generally spread the wealth of our too-much-stuff around. In the early phase things were rolling along like a well oiled machine all in preparation for this snapshot of our downsized space.
Not bad, right? Built-in storage – check. Modern kitchen, great outdoor living space – check, check. Open concept footprint – yes.
We even managed to put some things away in the beginning of this process. Yes, I was feeling pretty swish.
We worked with our new landlord to swap out the basic builder’s chandie and give this space our own touch…
We’ve got this! I’m pretty sure that’s what we said.
We were sad to say goodbye to our trestle table handcrafted by my hubs, but happy it would stay in the family and be put to use in Sea to Canvas studio by Ursula mom! These are the kinds of decisions you will be faced with when you embrace living in a smaller footprint home.
Letting this meaningful piece go meant we had to find a replacement table that would be a good fit. We enjoy meals with friends, so our new table had to be expandable for our lifestyle yet fit into a condo size space. We were also wanting a classic Mid Century piece. That’s been our dream. I scoured the UsedVictoria ads every.single.day. hoping for a teak set to come our way! They don’t come up that often, at least not when you start to align budget, dimensions, condition, location and then of course answering the ad fast enough for even the slimmest shot at being first in the queue. Yes, Mid Century tables go fast!
So knowing all this, we were thrilled when money changed hands and WE got to wrestle this 1960s Danish Modern set into our new home! Don’t let the small profile fool you – teak is solid hardwood heavy and this table was no slouch in making us work for her!
The two table leafs slide in under the table top when not in use. Typical well thought out Danish Modern design! So far our plan was coming together…
But as the days began to tick by getting closer to our move-in date, our many trips of stuff began a slow creep…
Wait, what? We really did go through our things and yes we really did let stuff go! Where did the zen of our small space go? Ugh.
So at this point we are now fully moved in. ‘All’ our stuff we opted to keep is here. And yes, we are literally boxed in. No, seriously. We ARE boxed in! Honestly, if you think downsizing is a cinch, I say you better cinch twice and then cinch again!
I hope you will pop back to check up on our progress. In the meantime, I’m off to list a few more things to sell, compile yet another load for the thrifts, and send out an SOS to family that if you need ‘it’ we probably have one or two!
If you’ve lived the downsizing move, what did you do? Please share your tips and strategies, because trust me, others need to know!
Thank you for stopping by!
