Why I Stopped the Minimalist Challenge

If you're looking to get rid of stuff, and aren't sure where to start, the "minimalist challenge" that I posted about earlier is a great motivator, as it "snowballs". I started the challenge at the first of the month, with plans to go through September. You may have noticed that my month-long challenge lasted a week.

The reason why?

We moved.

Not only did we move, but we downsized. I didn't, at all, take into consideration the timing when I started it. I need to get rid of a lot of stuff quickly, and the minimalist challenge just didn't work on that timeline.


So back to our move. This was the next step in our lifestyle change.

For the past two years, we have lived in Matthews in a beautiful, two-story home on a half-acre lot. We loved that house. We loved the neighborhood, the community that it was in, the layout, the yard…even the previous owners!

When Ellie was born, I had every intention of going back to work. I did. But the first time that I looked into those big blue eyes, I knew I'd do anything to stay home with her. Despite having an awesome babysitter lined up, I couldn't bear the thought of paying someone to spend the day with my kid while I spent the day with other people's kids. I wanted to be with my kid.

Luckily, Ben was fully supportive of me staying at home, with his only request being that I contribute financially somehow. I have been blessed to have found two work-from-home jobs that allow me to do just that.

The "downside" to this decision was that we needed to re-evaluate our finances. Living on one income was doable, but not comfortable. It also didn't fit into our plan of getting out of debt. So, we looked at my (slightly obsessive) monthly expense sheet, and looked at any expenses that could be reduced. I made phone calls, lessened service amounts, and changed policies. While there was a change in our monthly expenses, it wasn't enough to make as big of an impact as we wanted it to.

Like a lot of people, or biggest monthly expense was our mortgage. We talked about the possibility of lowering our living expense, and what that would look like. Like I said before, we loved our house and everything about it, but when we really analyzed our needs in a home, we realized that we were paying for way more space than we needed. We discussed each room, and whether it was a necessity or not, and realized that we didn't need about half of our house. That made the decision to sell and move easier.

On the topic of house sizes, have you ever looked at the statistics on house size? Did you know that the average house size has more than doubled in the past 60 years?!

(I got this from this article on the NPR website).

We opted for a cozy, two bedroom apartment in south Charlotte near Ballantyne, and we love it so far. Downsizing has been a huge undertaking, but it's so necessary and it feels great to get rid of so much stuff that we collected during in the two years that we lived in the house.

And if you're nosy like me, here's the link to our listing, that will likely be taken down soon. :)


Also, if you're looking to buy or sell, we strongly recommend our realtor, Justin Wessel. He is fantastic! If you are buying, I know a guy who can help you with your financing too. :)