Guest Post by Mariah Coz of www.CometCamper.com
As the next session of the Comet Camper Tiny Transition and Downsizing E-Course opens for enrollment, I thought it’d be interesting to reflect on my personal journey with simplifying into less than 100 square feet. I wanted to show you that if I can downsize into a tiny space, it’s possible for anyone!
I had a serious collecting problem before I got serious about living tiny. You know how people will tell you that at a certain point the stuff that you own actually owns you? It’s absolutely true. I had a problem with collecting everything vintage: clothes (2 bedrooms full), furniture (a garage full), clocks, kitchen things (I don’t even have my own house), oh did I mention clothes? And more clothes.
Two years ago I had 3 bedrooms in my parents house (me and my collections had forced my parents to move downstairs, as I inhabited the entire second floor of my family’s house). Two were filled with piles and piles of junk. Clothes from when I was in elementary school up until now – I hadn’t gotten rid of anything in 15 years. My thought process was always “One day this will come back in style” or “One day I’ll get around to mending this or making it into something new” or just that it had sentimental value. I had shoes that had never fit me in the first place, and coats that were toddler sizes that I bought because they were adorable and I couldn’t accept that “adult” clothes just aren’t as awesome as kids clothes. So I had two rooms that were literally MOUNTAINS of clothes, piled up. I am sort of glad I don’t have any pictures of this to show you guys, because it is really embarrassing.
I think that all of my guilt, shame, and frustration that came from having this “addiction to acquisition” is a large part of what attracted me to the tiny house movement. I saw a glimpse of freedom in the simple, small homes that I was so far away from yet longed for so badly.
The actual closets in the rooms were for things that I never wanted to look at or deal with. The third room had my bed in it. Besides clothes, I had art supplies that I NEVER used (and never wanted to use), which took up an entire walk-in closet. I had my “sewing” stuff stacked on shelves – fabric, lace, notions. I hadn’t sewn anything since middle school! (but was pretty reluctant to give up my childhood dream of becoming a famous fashion designer). And vintage furniture: chrome chairs, dining room sets from the 50’s, mid-century sofas, vintage refrigerators and anything else you can imagine (I commandeered the garage to house this stuff).
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