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How I Live in a 400 Sq. Ft. House – My Minimalist Home

Last Updated: January 1, 2023 BY Jordann - 59 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

How I Live in a 400 Sq. Ft. House - My Minimalist HomeToday’s post – How I Live in a 400 Sq. Ft. House – is by my wonderful staff writer Jordann. Enjoy! Also, if you are a new reader, please don’t forget to check out my monthly online income reports where I show you how I make over $30,000 a month while traveling in my RV.

Last week’s post about how I’m not always a minimalist got a lot of responses to the fact that I live with my fiance, my dog and my cat, in a 400 square foot house. Really, it’s more of a cottage. The story of how I came to live in this house is one of luck and a good relationship with relatives.

The bottom line for why I live in a tiny home: By living in this small space, I’ve been able to reduce my rent to $100 per month plus utilities, which has enabled me to pay off $27,000 of debt in 17 months.

That said, living in such a small space with so many other creatures isn’t easy, even for a minimalist like me. Sure, the sacrifice is worth it for the monetary gain, but it can get stressful at times living in a minimalist house.

There are a lot of problems that come along with small space living, so if you’re thinking about down sizing in order to save a little money or live somewhere more desirable, here are a few of my tips so that you can successfully live in a minimalist house. [Read more…]

59 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, House, Minimalist Tagged With: Budget, Home, Minimalist

My Minimalist Confessions – I’m Not Always a Minimalist

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Jordann - 22 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

My Minimalist Confessions - I'm Not Always a MinimalistToday’s minimalist post is by my awesome staff writer Jordann.

I love being a minimalist. I love the freedom it gives me, and the financial power.

Over the years I’ve extended my minimalism lifestyle to most areas of my life. From my wardrobe, to my furniture, to my book collection, I’ve been slowly and surely trimming away unnecessary items in my life for years now.

The result is that I can live comfortably with my spouse in a 400 sq. ft. house (if you’re interested in something even crazier, I recommend you read I Live in a 175 Square Foot Tiny Home – Sailboat Living), which helps us save all kinds of money.

There are some parts of my life, however, that minimalism hasn’t touched. In fact, there are some things I still love to have a large collection of and it makes my minimalist lifestyle almost non-existent. I know that, in these areas of my life, minimalism has failed spectacularly, but I’m ok with that.

Here are my minimalism fails:

Workout gear is a minimalist living fail for me.

I wouldn’t say I have a huge collection of work out gear, but I definitely have more than I need. I love to work out but I’m not naturally athletic, so being active can be a challenge for me.

To help combat this, I’ve collected a large selection of high quality work out gear. I definitely don’t need as much as I have, but I love adding to this collection, filling gaps here and there and keeping an eye out for the perfect piece that will make my runs that much more comfortable. [Read more…]

22 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, Fitness, House, Minimalist Tagged With: Budget, Home, Minimalist

How Being A Minimalist Has Helped My Finances

Last Updated: January 25, 2021 BY Jordann - 30 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

How Being A Minimalist Has Helped My FinancesI didn’t always have minimalist tendencies. Though I never considered myself a collector, I did have a ton of clothing and furniture while in University, and the size of my book collection growing up bordered on the absurd side. Becoming a minimalist wasn’t on my mind before.

For the last few years though, accumulating large volumes of stuff wasn’t really on my agenda anymore, it just didn’t hold the same appeal that it used to.

I didn’t know my new found feelings were called minimalism until I started trying to get out of debt, I realized what a great advantage my natural habits were, and how much they could help me if I was willing to hone them a little.

 

Minimalism Helps Me Stay On Budget

When I first started trying to get out of debt, I knew that I needed to cut my expenses and develop a budget. I also knew I needed to get a handle on my shopping habit.

Even though I was no longer into collecting many material possessions, I still had the bad habit of purchasing dumb stuff like magazines and candy, which, when added up at the end of the month, represented a huge waste of valuable cash that could go towards paying off my $38,000 debt load. [Read more…]

30 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, Minimalist Tagged With: Budget, Minimalist

Preparing Your Minimalist Wardrobe for Spring

Last Updated: April 2, 2020 BY Jordann - 35 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I try my best to maintain a minimalist wardrobe. I avoid duplicates, I make sure everything I buy is versatile, and I agonize over purchases to make sure that I’m buying what I really need, and not just something I want. This is key to becoming a minimalist.

Due to this, I’ve managed to keep my wardrobe under control this past year, even though I’ve been making more money than ever before and my expenses have never been lower.

That said, every Spring I still go through a little extra preparation to make sure that my wardrobe is up to date and as minimalist and it can be. Here are a few steps I make sure to go through.

[Read more…]

35 Comments
Filed Under: Fashion, Minimalist Tagged With: Fashion, Minimalist

Is Clutter Ruining Your Productivity?

Last Updated: May 1, 2018 BY Jordann - 36 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Clutter sucks. It gets in the way, it clouds our physical space and emotional space, and seems to always get in the way just when we need to accomplish something most.

I know we’ve all been there, you’re late for work, you’re running around the house trying to grab everything you need before heading out the door and you just can’t seem to find your car keys. Or maybe your story is a little different.

Maybe you need that file located somewhere in your downloads folder, the problem is your downloads folder has about 300 files in it and you can’t use the search function because you can’t quite remember what that pesky file is called.

Clutter finds ways to ruin our productivity on an almost hourly basis. It invades all aspects of our lives, it forces us to slow down, it wastes our time, and it is incredibly unnecessary. Here are a few simple ways to reduce clutter and help you increase your productivity. [Read more…]

36 Comments
Filed Under: House, Minimalist Tagged With: Home, Minimalist

Buying a Home as a Minimalist

Last Updated: July 29, 2019 BY Jordann - 27 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

As a minimalist, I always want to have less. Less stuff, less space, less bills, less, well, everything. Buying a home as a minimalist is also something I think about.

Generally speaking, this has served me well in the past. I have fewer clothes, which means less to replace, wash, etc. I have less space, which means less to furnish, clean, and repair. Most of the time, living with less makes me happier. There’s only one place where being a minimalist is really throwing me off, and that’s with home buying.

Now, I’m not ready to buy a house just yet. I still have a lot of debt, and I won’t be ready to take on the commitment of a mortgage until that’s paid off and I’ve amassed a sizeable downpayment. That said, I want to be a home owner some day. I want to have my own backyard, my own little bit of space that I can change or remodel and do whatever I want to.

The only problem is deciding how much space I need.

Right now, as a couple of DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) with a dog, my fiance and I need relatively little space. We used to do just fine in a studio apartment (we live in a  400 sq. ft. house), but since the addition of the dog, we’ve moved to a 400 sq. ft. house with a backyard. At the moment, this size living space suits us perfectly, and it’ll probably continue to suit us for a long time. [Read more…]

27 Comments
Filed Under: House, Minimalist, Real Estate Tagged With: Home, Minimalist

How to Know if You’re a Minimalist

Last Updated: March 15, 2017 BY Jordann - 19 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Michelle's non-minimalist closet... :)

Michelle’s non-minimalist closet…

I wasn’t always a minimalist or interested in becoming a minimalist.

I used to love collecting things. My apartment in university was full of odd and mismatched pieces of furniture that I never used but couldn’t part with, and my closet bulged uncontrollably, belching clothing onto the floor if I dared leave the door open.

My journey into minimalism started organically. I didn’t decide one day that I was going to become a minimalist.

In fact, I didn’t even realize that I was becoming one until I was already well on my way. Here are some of the signs I recognized in myself, that meant I was becoming a minimalist, whether I meant to, or not.

 

Having Too Much Stuff

This was the first sign. Everywhere I looked, my apartment was overrun with my stuff. That tends to happen to university students, especially ones like me who weren’t particularly well off financially. Since I didn’t have any money to buy furniture, family members would give me their cast off furniture.

This worked well at first, but eventually it became too much, and I started to feel smothered in my apartment. I didn’t want to have all of this stuff around me, it felt cluttered, and claustrophobic, and entirely too busy. Everyone hates clutter, I always had too, but this was different. My skin would crawl at the sight of so much stuff encroaching on my personal space. So I began to purge, removing anything and everything that didn’t serve a real, genuine purpose. Once my apartment started to empty out, I felt better.

 

Having too Much of Everything

Even the things I needed, I started to hate having a large amount of. In university, every time a room mate moved out, my fiance and I seemed to inherit their kitchenware.

By the time we moved out of the city, we had enough glasses, plates, dishes, and frying pans for six people. While this hadn’t bothered me before, it started to irk me. Now, I’m down to four of each type of cutlery, and two frying pans. While this cookware was necessary, having so much of it was entirely unnecessary. I’ve extended this concept to my wardrobe, my linen closet, and my bookcase.

 

Enjoying Having Nothing

Once I’d gotten my possessions under control, I started to really enjoy the sight of bare walls, bare counter space, and bare floors. These days, I’m on a quest to always remove, remove, remove. Remove that clutter on the counter and enjoy the clean, empty space. Remove the kitchen table that we never used and enjoy the look of the extra space left behind. Remove the three wall hangings and enjoy the look of one in it’s place instead. The less stuff that’s in my home, the happier I am.

The less stuff I need to live my life, the happier I am. I will sometimes come across people who insist that they can’t live without this hair product or that type of pillow. That somehow they would be unable to function without these things in their life. I’m glad that I am needing less and less stuff in my life every day to function normally, and happily.

 

I’m Still a Fledgling Minimalist

I’m not a full on minimalist yet. I have a TV, I don’t strive to live with less than 100 items, and I have a cache of scented candles hidden in my laundry room. I don’t think things like this look good, and while I don’t think I could live here, I’m intrigued by the idea of it. I probably will never be a full fledged minimalist like some people, but then, I never set out to be a minimalist, so wherever I fall on the minimalist spectrum, is fine with me.

Where do you fall on the minimalist spectrum?

Do you have any of these symptoms? I want to know!

19 Comments
Filed Under: Minimalist Tagged With: Minimalist

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Hello and welcome!
My name is Michelle and I'm the author/owner of Making Sense of Cents. Learning how to save money and make more money changed my life. It allowed me to pay off $40,000 in student loans, start my own business, and I now travel full-time.

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