One tiny facet of our big move

I really gotta call bullshit on that whole tiny house movement. Let me explain. When moving from a large house to a “tiny” house you must take the following steps:

1. Sort all of your possessions into two equal piles labeled “keep” and “don’t keep.”
2. Sell, donate or discard the “don’t keep” pile.
3. Sort the remaining “keep” pile into two equal piles labeled “keep” and “don’t keep.”
4. Sell, donate or discard the “don’t keep” pile.
5. Sort the remaining “keep” pile into two equal piles labeled “keep” and “don’t keep.”
6. Sell, donate or discard the “don’t keep” pile.
7. Cross your fingers that the remaining “keep” pile will fit in the moving truck.
8. Move to your new tiny house.

When you get to your new tiny house you will fill one entire room with boxes you can’t unpack because you have no available space. This is when you will realize that living in a tiny house is not a cute thing to do and you don’t want to be trendy. You will then search for a new house. You will find a new house that is at least twice the size of your tiny house. The twice-as-large as the tiny house feels huge. Here are the steps for the next move from tiny house to the twice-as-large as the tiny house:

1. Move all of your possessions into the new “twice-as-large as the tiny house”.
2. Recognize that it all fits, but not easily.
3. Re-evaluate everything you own.
4. Sell some of the things, for example, living room chairs, because it just doesn’t work in the new “twice-as-large as the tiny house” house.
5. Buy replacement furniture, forgetting that you don’t live in a house that is even one-third the size of the original large house you left.
6. Lament, after delivery truck leaves, that you should have selected two love seats instead of a couch and a love seat.
7. Return the coffee table because it hasn’t been delivered yet.
8. Squeeze the rest in.
9. Begin looking for consignment shops to sell those irreplaceable possessions that had too much sentimental value to leave behind.
10. Fully embrace the concept of memories over the possessions and continue to move forward.

Change is hard. Big changes are the hardest. Each step requires an evaluation of what you can take with you and what, inevitably, will be left behind. It is really hard to let go of those possessions, routines and comforts that defined your prior life. Reinvention happens with baby steps forward, awkward lurches, irrational fear and many missteps. With each step forward you are farther away from a place you can’t magically go back to, because it has ceased to exist. All you can do is embrace the new, keep the memories, honor the connections that remain and settle into a new routine.

The house may only be twice-as-large as a tiny house, but in turn, the heart expands to make room for what’s new to nestle next to the memories of what was.