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#171: It At last Happened!

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#171: It At last Happened!

We lately hit a long-awaited milestone that we have been working towards for months, and we could not be more grateful!! We are sharing all the details today – plus we are diving deeper into a question that seems to keep popping up: “How can you tell if downsizing is right for you? What if you majorly regret it?!” There are in fact four ways that you can take smaller space living for a spin before pulling the ripcord – which is a large advantage, and a strong way to answer that question for yourself. We also explore how the reality TV show that you’d want to be on the most (or the least!) can reveal a lot about your personality. Plus a moving pointer that is helping us pare down even more – and why we like watching TV, but do not in fact want to be on it.

You can also find this episode on your go-to podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

What is New

  • While we did not record the episode from our POD, here is a glimpse at what it looked like getting delivered. They device they use to lift it off the truck is called “Pod-zilla” which pleases Sherry-The-Product-Namer to no end.
  • The four steps to “test drive” smaller living came from The Little Book of Living Small by Laura Fenton (also available at local bookstores). It was also excerpted in the April 2020 issue of Real Plain.
  • As we talked about, we unknowingly went through all four steps over the years leading up to our own decision to downsize! So clearly, they can clarify a lot – and even lead to you pulling the ripcord with confidence!
  • Test Drive Pointer #1: Simplify & minimize slowly over time. We have been paring down and simplifying over a number of years, many of which have had moments where it became the topic of our podcast! For example, there is Why We Got Rid Of Half Of The Toys In Our House (#45) and Can Minimalism Be Cozy? (#111)
  • Test Drive Pointer #2: Notice what spaces do not get much use at all. While we have not literally closed off rooms in our house, we became keenly aware that certain rooms were fairly superfluous to us – like our dining room, since we consistently ate at our kitchen island. Over time it became more and more clear to us that two spaces to eat dinner that were simply steps apart felt like one too many. You can hear more in our May 2018 episode: Our House Is Too Big (#95) and in Science Says These Rooms Are A Waste of Space (#108).
  • Test Drive Pointer #3: Learn from others who have already done it. You’ve heard us explore our curiosity on the topic of downsizing by interviewing Plenty of other people who have done it before us:

What Reality Show Would You Go On?

  • The photo below is the exact photo that we took for our application for The Remarkable Race way back in 2005. We had simply began dating and Sherry had never seen the show, so she’s lucky nothing ever came of it (tune into the podcast to hear why she thinks she’d be the worst at it).
  • And back in 2015 we made this Real Housewives spoof video, which simply feels like it needs to go in here as part of this discussion.

NOTE: You can also view this video here on YouTube.

We are Digging

  • I forgot to take a picture of all of our picture frames gathered in the office as a means of evaluating things en mass (so you can take the time to evaluate everything and declutter before packing), but here is a somewhat blurry screengrab from a video that Sherry shared on our Instagram Stories (you can catch plenty of behind the scenes moving info if you follow us there).
  • And below is a trailer for the McMillion$ documentary that we have been watching on Hulu (it originally aired on HBO). It is based on this article from the Daily Beast that I dug on the podcast two years ago, way back in Episode #111.

If you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we have recommended on our Book Club page.

And lastly, a big thank you to Social Print Studio for sponsoring this episode. You can take 15% off your next order using the code YHL15 through April 30th! And heads up – their Mother’s Day standard shipping deadline is April 27th.

Thanks for listening, folks!

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