WHY WE SMART SIZED OUR HOME?
Work Above Family
This was my son Eli on a Sunday morning at my office.
What was my son doing on a Sunday morning in my cluttered office?
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the career I had gotten a degree for and worked hard to attain had CONSUMED my life. So much that on this Sunday, like many weekends, I WORKED instead of spending quality with my family.
I was chasing the big house, the corporate ladder, financial stability at the sacrifice of a happy home.
I had a 6-figure corporate controller job to help sustain a big home and the high cost of living in Los Angeles, California. But the price tag for primarily focusing on work as oppose to working to enjoy life is ultimately BURNOUT!
Completely stressed and burnout!
The signs were all there, I was just in denial. There was prolonged work overload and work-life imbalance which lead to corporate burnout and stress.
When burned out something always gives and I GOT LAID OFF!
Losing my job was difficult, but it forced me to hit RESET and take some time off. We started spending quality time as a family, going on vacations, and doing lot of fun things. With all the fun, I prolonged my “Time Off” from corporate work.
With only one income to sustain the high cost of living in Los Angeles, savings started dwindling way too fast. We needed a whole shift to balance our new goals.
OUR AHA MOMENT
With the pressure of dwindling money mixed in with some roller coaster moments in our lives my wife had started DECLUTTERING and MINIMIZING some of her stuff. She later challenged me to try it and reluctantly I did.
Little by little it started SNOWBALLING into shedding CRAP out of our lives and making space to work on CREATING the life we wanted. Minimizing the crap in our home and life started feeling good. The wheels started turning and WE FELT LIBERATED, RE-CONNECTED, AND ACCOMPLISHED.
Taking Action for Something New
We figured the best way to sustain our new life with one income in expensive Los Angeles was not only to continue minimizing but to DOWNSIZE and drastically DECREASE living expenses. After all, our household expenses were eating the majority of our money.
We combined minimizing and downsizing to SMART SIZE our home and possessions to fit how we wanted to ENJOY life.
After weighing out all the options of downsizing we decided to SELF-BUILD a “BIG” Tiny House which we call theBigCasita. Because Darn It! Home prices in L.A. are crazy high and I sometimes go to Extremes!
THE RESULT
This whole transition and experience triggered us to stop CHASING and START CREATING.
Since transitioning to living tiny we are saving over 70% of our household expenses versus our prior costs. By SMART SIZING our home and possessions we can continue living in the city we love, with a home that is ours, on ONE median household income. I get to focus on projects that SPARK JOY and
Most Importantly…
It’s affording and allowing us to create a LIFESTYLE in our terms. One that is deliberate, value-driven, purposeful and unconventional.
Smart Sized Home
We now live in a 338 square foot tiny home on wheels in the suburbs of Los Angeles. We have ZERO debt! As a family we spend lots of time traveling, enjoying quality time with each other, and I get to build LivingTinyinLA.com to help you in doing the same.