Down-sizing

I bought a fifth-wheel travel trailer to move into while we build a house.  Now I need to decide what items will go into the storage barns and wheat can actually go into the fifth-wheel.  We currently in about 1700 square feet of house with a 12 by 20 barn.. Each child has  a dresser, chest of drawers and closet full of clothing.  I have a dresser, chest of drawers, walk-in closet, and three 31 brand double-side laundry baskets that are all full of clothing.  I easily have 75 pairs of shoes and that is not including the 15 pairs of Croc's that I have for work.  I will say that I am only using about four of those currently because we are required to wear Pewter scrubs so I am only wearing my black & gray Croc's, not the blue, white, and various shades of pink that I so loved. Since we can only wear Pewter scrubs to work, my lovely, bright, colorful, cheerful scrubs are still in the U-haul wardrobe box that i put them in when we moved here.

My original plan was to take all the things currently in the barn, the furniture and any thing that is in the closets and have never been unpacked and put those things in the 12 by 24 lofted barn that is at the homestead now.  That barn has two lofts that are 12 by 8 feet with a four foot opening the width of the building between the lofts.  There is less than four feet of head room in the lofts and the fact that the floor of the lofts is over six feet from the floor of the building greatly limits what I can actually put in the lofts.  I want to put the things that I'm sure I won't need access to such as our sofa, love seat, recliner, and beds.  Those are the things that I don't think I can lift above my head and even with help will they physically fit into the space that I want them?


I have shelves and shelves of books, that I use.  A 4 foot book shelf of home school books, a 4 foot shelf of paramedic texts & references, and a 7 foot shelf of nursing texts and references.  All of which I have taken something from in the last month.  I'm just that much of a book nerd.  I know this about myself.  I've come to terms with that fact.

The 12 by 20 barn that is here will ultimately be moved over to the property also.  I thought at first that I would put everything into the lofted barn and use the other one as a sort of living space since the living room/kitchen/kids bedroom in the fifth wheel is 12 by 16 feet.  This would give them a place to have their toys and an area for play when with weather is bad.  However, I'm thinking that having our dressers and books accessible would be a good thing as well.

Storage inside the fifth wheel is extremely limited.

 The sofa folds down into the kids bed.  It has storage accessible from the outside.

 The dining booth has one seat that lifts up like a chest and the other has a drawer that slides out.  The wooden closet behind the dinette is a closet with 2 drawers.  The fresh water holding tank takes up the bottom of that cabinet.

 That is the entire kitchen.  The fridge is one the left.

 It does have a Queen size bed with "closets" on either side, if you call 8 inches a closet.  The bed does lift easily and has storage under the entire thing.

This is along the back wall of the kitchen/dining room.  The hot water heater takes up the first door of the lower left cabinet.  It is the smallest water heater I have ever seen, 6 gallons.

How are we ever going to fit into this tiny space?  We are going to move from about 1700 square feet into about 270 square feet. I'm wondering what will happen first; getting the house built or loosing our minds.

I guess we will see. It is only temporary. Does anyone have any suggestions on such a down-size?

The beginning of the Homestead

I should start by saying that I spent the first 14 years of my life on a farm.  I hated most aspects of farm life as a child and early teen.  I could not wait to get OFF the farm.  I have spent the last 20+ years of my life doing NOTHING that even resembled farm life.  My son refers to me as "a city girl."

 It's funny how time changes a person.  I recently purchased 10 acres with the intent to build a small home and farm.  My goal is that I will have a garden and some chickens, goats and maybe even pigs.  The first building of the new Homestead was delivered Monday.  It's a 12 foot X 24 foot lofted barn.  My goal is to insulate it, put up some wall paneling and make it into a living room/play room.  In order to save money to be able to build a house I want us to move into a travel trailer.  The trailer I found is a 25 foot 5th wheel with a four foot slide out that sleeps six people.  However, I think that two adults staying in a travel trailer with two small children might be too crowded, hence the need for more livable space.  

Many people think I'm crazy.  My sister laughs and says "Farmer Jenifer."  I've worked for more than 20 years with NOTHING to show for my work.  While I don't think that farming would give me "something to show for my work" necessarily, I do think that living more simply will given me more time to do the things I enjoy.  More time to spend with those I love.  Moving into a tiny space is going to take some adjustment on all our parts.  I have enough things for any two average size houses.  I still have and even wear some clothes for the 1990's.  I am currently wearing a shirt I got in the 90's from donating blood.  My clothing alone could engulf a 25 foot travel trailer.  I probably have 100 pairs of shoes myself.  My goal isn't to rid us of all our STUFF.  It is to condense the things we need at this moment and put those other things neatly into storage.  There is no reason that all of our jackets hang on hooks 12 months out of the year.  We may actually use them for three months and not even every day of those months.

I invite you to share this journey of more simple living .  While  I don't think it will actually be simple, I do think that it will be WORTH IT.