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The Joys of becoming Minimalist
by Shari Snyder
Two years ago, our family designed and built 384 square feet of “tiny luxury on wheels” to replace our 4 bedroom/2 bath “forever home”. Our “why” was to pursue/realize our family values and mission, living in a real house, without a 30-year mortgage haunting us. We didn’t want to be a slave to debt and experience the pain of regret. Having two children leave the nest and a 12 year old still at home, experience told us you can never go back. Relationships produce the greatest joy in life. As pioneers and business owners in the tiny house movement, our journey has not been easy, but we can honestly say the adventure, simplicity, freedom, and family closeness, that tiny living has brought us, are worth it!
Trading Stuff for Adventure!
Since becoming minimalists, we have found many unexpected joys and adventures. We have found the joy of collecting memories, not stuff! Life is short. You only live once. Why not go on an adventure, take a risk, and try something new? We have launched two companies, been featured on HGTV, Daily Mail, The Sun, New Atlas, and travelled the country in our tiny home.
Doing the things that awaken passion and make you feel alive, is worth pursuing!
Trading Space for Freedom!
We traded unused space in our big house for more time and freedom. We have the power to choose where we want to live, what we want to do, and how we want to spend our increased free time. Every day is a new adventure full of new choices, including our career paths. We are passionate about building environmentally healthy tiny home communities for families to thrive in. We are on a mission to pay it forward and help others discover adventure, freedom, and simplicity, through tiny house living, together in a community. Our motto is, “Shrink your house, not your dreams.”
Trading Stress for Simplicity!
Live MORE by owning LESS! Less stuff equates less stress, plain and simple. We had no idea how heavy the burden of financial debt was until it was gone. Being debt free and mortgage free cannot be underestimated or understood until one experiences it! To kiss our debt good-bye after 23 years of marriage, is priceless! The weight of all our possessions was keeping us from a life of true freedom. Instead of spending 3 ½ hours cleaning, we are done in 30 minutes. We don’t have to maintain a big yard, clean the pool, or fix things around the house. We have claimed back our weekends for hobbies, fun, and family adventures!
Total Wellness
As a wellness lifestyle coach for 17 years, I have helped hundreds of clients improve their physical, environmental, financial, and personal health and wellness. My passion to achieve total wellness was a perfect fit to embrace minimalism and tiny living. I’ve already shared some of the benefits for financial and personal health and wellness. Now I will share my experience regarding mental and environmental health.
Mental Health
Clutter in my physical environment created chaos in my mental state. A lifestyle of minimalism, began to replace the stress and anxiety with more clarity and focus, resulting in more peace. Having a place for everything and everything in its place, simply helps you function at your best. We have found so much joy in living with less. We don’t collect things that don’t add value to our lives.
When I was downsizing, instead of asking, “What can I live without?”, I began to ask, “Do I need this to live?”. The mindset of simplicity transformed our shopping habits and carried over into every area of our lives, including how we operate our companies.
Environmental Health
- A. The build process and materials
- B. Wellness and toxins
- C. Reduces carbon footprint
What else has an 86% positive effect and can reduce your carbon footprint by 45%??
In an unprecedented study, PhD student Maria Saxton looked at 80 people who downsized to tiny homes to quantify whether their environmental footprints really got smaller.
“As a whole, I found that after downsizing, people were more likely to eat less energy-intensive food products and adopt more environmentally conscious eating habits, such as eating more locally and growing more of their own food. Participants traveled less by car, motorcycle, bus, train, and airplane, and drove more fuel-efficient cars than they did before downsizing. They also purchased substantially fewer items, recycled more plastic and paper, and generated less trash. In sum, I found that downsizing was an important step toward reducing ecological footprints and encouraging pro-environmental behaviors.”
my credentials, selah oasis…
Relationships, debt-free living, travel more, more time for hobbies and fun
office? We needed more space so adding an office was a game changer. relationships-social affects emotional
common themes we hear from our clients…
When we asked the Moss Family why they want to go tiny, they said, “We are tired of working all our weekends to take care of a big house. We our weekends to be spent having fun and making memories with the kids!”
The Rosa family said, “We want to stop collecting and hoarding stuff! If we have the space, we will undoubtedly fill it!”
The Johnson family said, “Our kids are only with us a few short years and we don’t want to live with regrets!” The Kemp family said, “We are tired of watching most of our paycheck go to pay the mortgage and not much left for the fun things in life, like travel and leisure.”
The Benson family said, “We only use about 400 square feet in our home anyways, the other 800 square feet just costs us time and money to maintain.”
met wonderful people, served clients…
Old version:
“Trading Space for Freedom, Simplicity, and Adventure”
Two years ago, we downsized from the 2200 square foot dream home we had just remodeled to be our forever home, to embrace minimalism, living in the 384 square foot tiny home we built to become debt free. We really had no idea the benefits we would enjoy or the challenges we would overcome.
It’s almost like we woke up one day, realized our two oldest kids had moved out and our youngest was 11, and we looked at each other and said, “Honey, let’s shrink the house!” The four bedroom, two car garage, half acre yard and in ground pool, were too much for the three of us. We understood how little time we had with our youngest child and wanted to make the most of it! We were tired of collecting 2 toasters, 3 basketballs and all kinds of miscellaneous stuff that filled empty space and cluttered our hearts and minds.
Our motto has been, “Life is short. You only live once so why not go on an adventure?” When I asked my husband about moving our family from Michigan to Texas, he came to me after thinking a long time about it and said, “Okay, baby, I’m up for any adventure with you!”
There was MORE that we wanted out of life than chasing a mortgage while life passes by and you’re left with regrets. Our motto is: Life is short; you only live once; why not chase an adventure instead of comfort? Who cares if I don’t own 2 toasters, 3 basketballs, and a 4 bedroom/2 bath house with an in ground pool? All that stuff was bogging us down like a weight on our shoulders. Until it was removed, we didn’t know how heavy it was and how much it was keeping us from a life of true freedom. Andrew and I had to spend about 3.5 hours to clean the house top to bottom for each showing while it was on the market for 7 months. In the tiny house, we are done in 30 minutes flat and have so much more time for things that really matter. We have more time and money to invest into our Tiny House business helping people design and build their own dream tiny homes. We believe our mission will strengthen family relationships and eliminate debt so they too can follow their passions and experience more freedom. This was a reason worthy of giving up our comfortable lifestyle.
Upsize your life ~ Downsize your space
The downsizing adventure
not “What can I live without?” but “What do I need to live?”
a common theme we hear from our clients is…
- Trade unused space for more freedom:
- A. financial, kiss 30 year mortgage debt goodbye,
- After 23 years or marriage, what a dream come true!
- Financial Freedom – stop stressing about your ever-growing pile of debt and live debt free. Own your home outright and stop spending your entire paycheck on housing expenses. Live tiny; live debt free.
B. MORE TIME: Time Freedom – think of all the time you’ll save because you’ve downsized the space you have to clean, repair, and maintain. We didn’t want to keep chasing a mortgage while life passes by and experience the pain of more regrets. Having two children leave the nest and a 12 year old still at home, we understand we can never get these days back.
CLAIM BACK YOUR WEEKENDS FOR FUN! What if you could clean your entire house in 30 minutes flat? How much more time would you have for the fun things you want to do with your loved ones? Nikki’s story…
Career Freedom – you no longer have to slave away at a job that you hate because you have high living costs.
2. Trade your Stress for more Simplicity Live MORE by owning LESS! hoarding
- The unexpected joys of becoming a minimalist
A. Mental health
a. Clarity and Focus replace confusion and scattered
b. less stuff = Less stress, plain and simple.
c. The mindset of simplicity transforms shopping habits, and carries over into your business and entrepreneur habits,
peace
relationships-social affects emotional
- Easy organization: everything has a place and everything is in its place
- Less procrastination: when we start a project, we finish it
- More clarity and Focus: Cleared up prime real estate in our minds, relationships, businesses, etc. because things are just plain simpler
It’s so freeing to rid yourself of all the “stuff” that stole your time and money and added no value to the quality of your life. Relationships, debt-free living, travel more, more time for hobbies and fun! Life is too short to put off doing what makes you feel alive!”
WHY GO TINY: NOT HOARD!! Why go tiny? To stop collecting stuff and start collecting memories. If we have the space, we will undoubtedly fill it.
- Maintenance – with such a small space, the maintenance work is quick and easy! No more stressing over big fixes!
- Lifestyle – living tiny truly is a lifestyle, and it’s a very simple one. There are far less moving parts to worry about and things to take care of.
- Minimalism – own less stuff and experience freedom from choice. Tiny living forces you to be a minimalist which allows you to experience less stress, anxiety, and mo
B. environmental health
WELLNESS:
- A. The build process and materials
- B. Wellness and toxins
- C. Reduces carbon footprint
What else has an 86% positive affect and can reduce your carbon footprint by 45%??
“People choose to downsize to tiny homes for many reasons. They may include living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, simplifying their lives and possessions, becoming more mobile, or achieving financial freedom, since tiny homes typically cost significantly less than the average American home.”
3. Trade unwanted Stuff for more Adventure
collect memories, not stuff!
Travel – with lower living costs comes more savings. Savings you can use to finally take that European adventure you’ve been dreaming of.
- Pioneering a Movement – Tiny Living is still a relatively new idea and you could join the movement that’s spreading like wildfire across the nation.
- New Experience – tiny living is a novelty and can be so exciting. Every day is a new adventure and you have the power to chart your new life path