Dear Charlie, I'm Scared About Downsizing My Home. What Do I Do?
Welcome to the small living club. You're going to love it
Welcome to “Dear Charlie” where I act as a sort of agony aunt, answering all your questions about all things simple living.
We had some super interesting questions this month, including these three, focused on how to marry expensive housing with living simply, managing busy work schedules and how to not dread downsizing your home.
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First, a question from Keith about my imminent move to an expensive city:
How are you finding housing costs in Porto? I visited several times to try and find a place to live (as I like the simple life too) but found the apartments to be overpriced, cold, and badly maintained. Not to mention the mould problem.
This is a very specific question that I’m going to expand out so it’s more relevant to more people and talk a little bit about how housing — particularly housing in cities — fits into living a simple life.
How do you marry expensive, city-based rent or mortgage repayments with living a simple life? Well, low housing costs are touted as one of the most important aspects of simple living. Which is kind of true. But it’s not everything.
I like to see housing as one (major) part of your whole finance ecosystem.
For instance, yes I am moving to Porto which means a higher rental cost than what I could get in say a small Portuguese village. But I know my other costs will be low. Living in a city means I won’t need to run a car. Quality food is cheap, plentiful and easily accessible. I’ll never have to take cabs because I’ll be living incredibly centrally.
People think that simple living can’t exist in expensive cities but that’s not entirely true because living in cities can actually be — housing aside — quite cheap.
Yes, you may pay more for your coffee but you’ll walk to the cafe rather than drive. You can pop to the local stores to pick up ingredients for dinner as and when you need them which could mean less food waste than if you do a big shop every few weeks. You can make use of the sharing economy like ride shares, or renting equipment.
Housing may be more expensive in cities but you could find yourself spending less money overall.
Keith is right. Porto apartments are expensive and Portugal has a reputation for terrible housing.
So I am spending more than I would ideally like for my 12-month rental contract, not least because I required something incredibly flexible just in case Portugal rejects my residency application. The fact that they make you sign a 12-month rental contract before they make a decision on whether to approve your application you is a rant I’ll save for another day.
But I know that overall, I won’t be any worse off than I would be if moved somewhere where I would require a car. I spend less in Porto than I do in my British home of North Wales for instance.
That’s what living in cities means and for my part, it’s one of the reasons I love them so much.
They can actually make simple living very simple indeed.
Next, a question from Olivia about how to cope with downsizing:
My husband and I have decided that we want to downsize to a smaller, cheaper home. But secretly I'm worried that my family and I will struggle with less space. What advice do you have about how to deal with downsizing?
Welcome to my world, Olivia! Man, I LOVE living in smaller places. I also downsized from a three bedroomed home to living out of one bedroomed or even studio apartments around Europe. It was the best decision I made.
The best thing here is to focus on what you gain by downsizing rather than what you lose.
The only thing you really lose is space. But what you gain overcomes that in spades.
You’ll gain money because living smaller is cheaper.
You’ll gain time because you don’t have to spend so long cleaning or maintaining.
There’s also evidence to suggest that living in smaller spaces is actually better for families. There are fewer places for people to run off to, which may sound like hell to a teenager (and yes, perhaps you) to start with but once you get used to it, it could make your family unit all the stronger.
There is always a nervousness around a new way of living, especially if that way is not the norm. The norm would be to size up. And you’re sizing down. Not everyone will understand that.
So do what you need to do in order to calm those nerves.
For me, I found cosuming as much content as possible around downsizing to be incredibly helpful. You could watch tiny house reality shows to remind yourself that although you’re downsizing, you’re not downsizing that much. And plenty of tiny home lovers make it work.
You could find other content too, like articles over on Medium or YouTube shows about people who live great lives in completely different ways.
Finally on a practical level you’re probably going to have to do a big declutter. Simple and Straightforward’s “dejunk yourself” series could help you with this.
Most of all, keep in mind why you’re downsizing. Keep the resolve and the rest will follow.
Welcome to the small-living club. It’s fun. I promise.
Finally, a question from Roqeebat.
How can I maintain my schedule as a beginner freelance writer and as a student nurse? I can't quit either as I need to handle lots of bills.
Oof that’s a tough schedule, Roqeebat.
I’m pleased this question has come up because maintaining full schedules that are not your fault is seldom talked about in the simple living space. We often — myself included — talk about how to cut down superfluous stuff like social engagements you don’t want to attend but for many people, their full schedules are based on need— like maintaining two jobs just to keep themselves alfloat. Not just because they’ve overburdened themselves with too many birthday parties for people they don’t like.
First, seeing as we’re talking about living a simpler life, I would focus on the bills. Always focus on the bills. If the bills are lower then there is room for more flexible schedules. If there is any way to lower even one or two of your bills, then that’s a great place to start.
Practically, the only way to succeed with not exhausting yourself is to prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. And get REALLY good at diary management.
In the case of freelance writing, it also means working smart, not hard. This could mean taking the less interesting but more lucrative contracts so you, Roqeebat, have more time to concentrate on your student nurse commitments.
A lot of these higher-paying contracts come about through utilizing any specialized knowledge you may have. That could indeed include nursing or the scientific/medical knowledge you need to become a nurse. Or it could be something else entirely.
Balancing these sort of schedules is never easy. Leisure time can easily go by the wayside, which is why my first recommendation is to reduce any bills you can, followed by working smarter not harder.
And whatever you do, prioritize sleep as much as possible. Because tough schedules are the hardest to maintain when you’re knackered.