Hari Berzins is the eco-warrior behind Tiny Home Family, a blog dedicated to simple living. Hari lives in a tiny house with her family and has helped 250 people get on the path to becoming mortgage free. Hari’s top tip is to commit 10 minutes every day to sorting your stuff out: “It's overwhelming to imagine the work involved in sorting, evaluating and then letting go. It feels like too much. If you look at the tiniest shelf in your house and start there, you'll get started," she says.
It might sound like a simple place to start but begin with a list. Meseidy of The Noshery downsized in stages, from a 2,800 square-foot home to a 1,800 square-foot home, to the 350 square-foot camper van pictured here, in which she now lives with her family. Her top tip for success is to grab a notepad and categorise your items into the following: ‘must-have’, ‘can live without’ and ‘can replace’. For the latter, assess what can be swapped for a smaller version – like your 50-inch TV, for example!
Instead of collecting items, collect knowledge. This is the advice of tiny house pioneer, Dee Williams, author and founder of PAD Tiny Houses. Dee built one of the first tiny homes on wheels in 2004 and has been living small ever since. She suggests studying, reading everything you can on the downsizing process, finding a community in which to seek support and guidance, and watching YouTube videos to aid your downsizing journey.
When you're decluttering your home, it can often seem like an endless battle, something that Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist really understands. In 2008, he and his family decided to intentionally live with fewer possessions, starting his blog to inspire and assist others. His best piece of advice? Look out for clutter hot spots around your home and work at keeping these areas tidy and clutter-free. "This will set a precedent for the rest of the house," Joshua explains.
Ethan Waldman of The Tiny House has plenty of brilliant ideas for downsizing your life and your home. If you're finding the process overwhelming, Ethan suggests getting rid of one item per day. This way, you can take your time to consider what you do and don't want in your life. He suggests starting with simple items that you're keen to be rid of, then when you gain confidence, you can tackle larger items with more sentimental value.
Since 2009, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus have helped millions of people declutter their lives. The duo's advice-led website, The Minimalists, suggests one key thing – host a packing party. Invite your friends and family around for a night of drinks and nibbles as you pack your belongings up as if you were moving, carefully labelling boxes as you go. Then, spend the next few weeks unpacking only what you need. The rest you'll be free to give away, sell or recycle!
When it comes to decluttering, ask yourself what Marie Kondo would do! Despite the fact that Marie isn't a tiny home dweller, she is the queen of minimalism. The Japanese organisation consultant has several top tips for change. First, deal with one room at a time. Next, hold each item in your hands and consider whether it brings you joy. If not, thank it for its service and place it in the 'to go' pile. Finally, carefully fold your clothes to free up space in your wardrobe!
Meag and Ben of The Wild Drive have been on the road in their handmade tiny bus since January 2018, so this couple knows how tricky living in a tight space together can be. So, in order to prepare they suggest packing essentials into a backpack and heading out for a few days of camping: "Nothing trains someone better in resource management, than having to carry everything they need for survival on their back," says Meag.
Laura LaVoie lives in a cabin with her partner Matt and their cat, Piglet. Laura's blog, Life in 120 Square Feet offers plenty of tips for tiny house living, one of which is something she read in Shay Salomon's book, Little House on a Small Planet. Place a post-it note on every door of every room in your current home. Each time you enter that room, write down the reason why you went in. You will soon understand which spaces you don't use, and which can be combined in your new, smaller home.
Tiny house dweller, YouTuber and author of Live a F.A.S.T. Life, Jenn Baxter knows exactly how to downsize and declutter, and now teaches courses on living minimally. She suggests that we need to rid ourselves of duplicates. We often have multiple kitchen utensils, numerous bottles of shower gel and handfuls of almost identical jeans. Cut down to one of each item and you will instantly free up bags of space. As for clothes and shoes, keep things down to what you actually need.
Andrew and Crystal Odom were struggling to maintain their expensive Brooklyn lives, deciding to build their own tiny house to free themselves from debt. Their Tiny r(E)volution blog reveals how they transitioned. For this couple, clearing out their child’s toys was their biggest challenge. They suggest you ask yourselves three questions: Do they love it? Do they need it? Do they use it? Transition to gifts that matter and work with your children on a twice-yearly toy clean-out.
Tiny homer and Rowdy Kittens blogger, Tammy Strobel, moved into a smaller home to lead a simpler life, which saw her cut her belongings down to just 72 items. Tammy is a firm believer in having an organised kitchen and suggests investing in multi-purpose appliances and ditching single-use items. There are also plenty of clever gadgets out there – including the pot lid that doubles as a strainer – and small-scale travel versions of electricals such as irons and kettles.
At the age of 24, Tom Duckworth decided to leave materialism behind and built a 72-square-foot home on the back of a former army lorry. Tom now travels around in his mobile home and offers an insight into how he did it. "We need a lot less then we think. A dependency on material goods will prevent everyone from enjoying life fully," he explains. When you let go of consumerism and realise that you can live with only a few key items, your downsizing dream will become much easier.
Billy Ulmer, author of Life in a Tiny House has learnt a lot during his time exploring what 'home' really means. Billy was keen to understand his own buying and hoarding habits, so took on an 'unshopping challenge', where he committed to buying nothing new, except consumables, for a whole month. “When I’m already having strong, mixed feelings about my relationship to material life, what better time to learn from it?” Billy asks. He also states that trying is the first step to success.
The Minimalists, Joshua and Ryan, also point out how we all hoard technology over the years. From having televisions in various rooms to drawers filled with outdated mobile phones and DVD players that we no longer use, we all own electronics that are obsolete. Consider whether you need your old VCR machine, your video games consoles, or your giant desktop computer. If not, clear it out and free up some space.
Jen Fuis was a self-confessed hoarder and decided to cure herself by decluttering and moving into a tiny home. Her Tiny Dreamer YouTube channel now educates people on how they can do the same. Jen explains that she spent a year prepping for the move, researching, selling her stuff and keeping a note of everything she learnt, to better enable her. Take your time, rather than rushing into a move totally unprepared. The longer you take, the easier your move will be.
Over time we acquire items that hold sentimental value. Meag and Ben of The Wild Drive understand that there isn't always space in a tiny home for these things, but they've figured out a way that you can bring them with you: "The secret to the items we imbue with sentiment is that they don’t lose their power if they’re made into something else." For example, turn your first skateboard into a bench! Use sites like Pinterest to gain inspiration on how to re-purpose something that's special to you! See more amazing upcycling ideas to try at home.
Macy Miller and her family built a 196-square-foot tiny home in 2011, before downsizing again in 2017, to an 84-square-foot vintage camper van. The family now travel the world and write about their experiences on their blog, Mini Motives. Macy’s greatest tip is to initiate the ‘one in, one out’ policy. If you buy a new pair of shoes, for example, get rid of an old pair. This way you will never end up with too much stuff again!
Rob Greenfield lived in a three-bed apartment and one day decided to move into the biggest room in his house. He then switched to the smallest room, eventually moving into a six-foot-square closet. While extreme, it highlights how gradually downsizing can ease the process. Try moving to increasingly smaller rooms or properties until you feel ready to commit. Plus, each time you move, you'll find yourself taking less with you. Rob now travels the world educating people on tiny living.
Another top tip from Joshua and Ryan of The Minimalists, is to digitalise your belongings. Just think about how much space your CD, DVD and music collections take up! Well now, thanks to modern technology, you can move all of these things into cyberspace. Scan your photos and documents, burn your disks and download your favourite music and books. Don't forget to back up your PC or upload to the cloud, to keep your new-found digital world safe.
Try It Tiny is a blog dedicated to connecting tiny house enthusiasts with the tools they need to lead a tiny lifestyle. Their top downsizing tip is to purge your pantry. Remove any items that don’t belong, that are expired or that you haven’t used in a long time. They also suggest considering bulk storage in clear containers, which will take up less space and prepare you for having to work in a small kitchen, just like this one from the tiny home dwellers @wonderrigs. Be sure to check your cupboards before you go shopping too, to avoid duplicates.
Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell lives in 480-square-foot tiny pad and wrote a book, Living Large In Our Little House, to help others successfully downsize. When she made the move, Kerri followed eight simple steps, one of which was adopting the “a place for everything and everything in its place” motto. Simple storage tricks and organisation can save bags of space in a tiny home and allow you to find everything you need, when you need it. Know what you own and know exactly where it lives.
In 2012 Ethan Waldman built a miniature mobile dwelling, before writing a book and starting The Tiny House blog to inspire others. One of his many tips for downsizing success is to temporarily move into a smaller property or vehicle, taking with you only a handful of items. Spend a few weeks or months living this way, to discover whether this way of life is right for you. “Don't just dream about being a minimalist; try being one. If it makes you miserable, maybe it's not for you,” says Ethan.
Andrew and Crystal Odom of the Tiny r(E)volution have another top tip – repetition. Andrew explains: “Understand now that you are never done. As human beings we are hard-wired, I think, to want more than what we have.” He suggests that we just need to press forward and keep reminding ourselves of our downsizing goals, in order to succeed at leading a simpler life in a smaller home.
Jenna Spesard of Tiny House Giant Journey quit her job and built a tiny dwelling on wheels, deciding to dedicate her life to helping others live small! Jenna suggests finding creative ways to store your possessions and personally loves browsing Pinterest for inspiration! Utilise the inside of cupboard doors, the space above window frames, the gap underneath your bed, to give yourself room for things you thought you might need to leave behind.
Read next: This couple gave their tiny home an extreme makeover