Over these past six months of living in our adorable tiny abode I have learned a plethora of new things about myself, my husband and life as a whole. We have had to grow and adapt in many ways to live in such a small space, but overall we have loved our home and all of the challenges and joys it has brought. This quote is so beautiful and apt for this blog, enjoy!!

“love grows best in little houses, 

with fewer walls to separate. 

where you eat and sleep so close together,

 you can’t help but communicate. 

and if we had more room between us think of all we’d miss… 

love grows best in houses just like this.”

here is what i’ve learned so far living in the tiny house:

• I can get by on a lot less than I thought I could
  • i’ve realized in these past few months that there has been a deeply rooted misconception that I need x, y and z to be fulfilled and content. but man is that not true. don’t get me wrong, i thoroughly enjoy surrounding myself with beautiful things, but at some point we just don’t need all the stuff
  • normalizing borrowing: when my best friend and i shared a dorm room on our freshman year, we basically had an open closet policy. it helped that we pretty much wore the same size clothes and shoes, but it was so helpful in not getting bored with our closets. i would just peak over into her side and lo and behold, the cutest gone with the wind shirt ever, boom!! i think our culture has gotten to the place of almost looking down on borrowing from others. this makes absolutely no sense in my brain, if someone has something that they don’t use that often and are totally okay with letting you use it for a short span, why oh why would you go spend money to buy the same thing and the space to store it afterwards? no clue. people like their things to be used, you want to use said thing, just ask – the worst they can say is no right??
  • if i don’t actively make space for a certain thing in our home, i clearly don’t care about it enough to keep it. everything should and really needs to have a home, especially not having much space in general, there isn’t any room for clutter. so with things i find continue to move from one temporary perch to another, to the thrift store they go to find another home, or else i will make myself rearrange to account for the item. 
• hosting is possible (and beautiful!) in such a small space
  • so far we have hosted both of our parents for dinner, a few ladies craft nights, and a friendsgiving in our humble abode, and it has been perfect! we have definitely had to scootch things around to make room for a folding table and such BUT so worth to make room for such special people in our home 🤍
• the simplicity of life this way is incredibly refreshing 
  • not having all the space to clean and maintain, having fewer things to decide what to do with – it is freeing to say the least
• there is nowhere to hide
  • this can be both good and bad – it has helped us tremendously in resolving arguments and discussions quicker because there is no place to run off to and hide from the problem. the situation is diffused in less time and with much more grace. it is hard though when you just want a moment to yourself without having to sit on the toilet. luckily for me, I almost never want a moment to myself hahaha and alex has a long commute to help satisfy his desire for alone time
• getting out of the “temporary” mindset
  • this mindset dictates a stressful and chaotic environment under the guise of not living here long enough to fix it. the Lord has really revealed to me in this season what a detriment this temporary mindset can be and has pushed me towards breaking its grasp from my life. it is so much more life-giving to live as if this is our domain {within reason of course, and respect for my parents} and we have the authority and ability to not only change the atmosphere for good, but also make this space our own. as long as we live here i want this to feel like not just a house but our home. 
• it is hard to be this organized
  • organization in our small space is so key to our home running smoothly, but it is always changing. 
  • i have to reorganize and reimagine the order of thing frequently – that’s okay, that is just where we are at! 
• i LOVE being out from the city a little bit
  • don’t get me wrong, I still love all of the big city things, BUT I have found the peacefulness of life on the outskirts of town is pure bliss. Being able to look up every night and see a sky full of stars, or look out of the window and see a family of deer grazing in the field. I love having big bonfires in the backyard and being able to grill outside. I love waking up to bird song and sun filtering in through the blinds. I love so many things about this house it’s hard to write them all down.
  • The Lord continues to be SO faithful!! This house has shown me in so many ways that even in the rough moments, the Lord has come through before and He will again and again. 
  • i love our house 🥹
    • this truly has been and continues to be such a sweet season, a breath of fresh air