I am back with a Small Space Living Feature. I am very excited about this small living tour, you will not believe this RV! And not only how charming it is but you can see they are thriving living small. Lauren from @thearrowanglers her hubby and baby are living in a 300 square foot RV and she shares why they made the move from an 800 square foot home with us today. As for me I walked away from this blog post today thinking less is so much more! I have a tendency to collect too much- even with clothes, which is ok- it is just about taking something out when you bring in more. Also this small living tour is proof that you can have a beautiful, inspiring space, no matter the size!
Love to hear what you took away from this small living spot today, leave me a comment!
What is your home Motto?
“Grace, Not Perfection” – I feel like this has to come with an explanation. I am a firm believer that I have the time to keep our home clean and feeling comfortable for everyone that comes in, but sometimes it is late at night and the house is a mess and neither of us want to clean, and that’s okay. We must be willing to show each other grace because we have been given the greatest gift of grace.
Why a smaller home?
We knew that as we aimed our family towards moving overseas that we would inevitably have to downsize the amount of stuff we had accumulated in the first year of our marriage. We decided that it would be easier to go ahead and downsize as we moved out of our 800 sqft apartment into a 300 sqft RV, to prepare for our ultimate move overseas. We also dreamed of being able to move our house wherever we moved this final year in the states.
Kitchen:
Where do you keep all of the small appliances?
We didn’t bring many with us but our hand mixer and our blender is in the cupboard above our dining table. Our crockpot is underneath the sink (I used it a lot when we first moved in here in the colder months but haven’t used it recently so we probably don’t need it in here.)
Do you have a pantry? Where is all the food?
Yes! We have a mini Pantry. Our pantry pulls out and it’s so amazing because our broom, mop, and dust pan also fit in the pantry! Where is all the food? Most of our food is in the pantry, with the acception of some food that’s in another cabinet above our sink. Our island houses all of our spices and baking stuff!
Kids and their Toys:
What is your approach to kids toys?
I am a firm believer that imaginative play is crucial for a child to grow up. I am surrounded by people who have toys for everything their child could need. A jumper, a walker, a play pen, a exer-saucer, etc. We knew Piper wouldn’t be able to have these types of toys in our tiny home so we just never bought them for her. When she has too many options she gets overwhelmed/overstimulated and doesn’t know what to play with. Not to mention that anything can become a toy of her, a plastic water bottle, a paper cup, a plastic spoon, she loves making a game out of anything! (AMEN! This is my approach too)
How do you store or keep the kids toys and games organized?
She has a small basket of toys that fit underneath the entertainment center and we only get a few out at a time. We also have a few adult games we store in the cabinet above our chairs in the back of our RV.
Closets:
Are you able to fit all your clothes in your master bedroom?
Yes, but I downsized my closet A LOT. I got rid of 5 garbage bags full of clothes in order to fit into our RV!
How do you keep the kids clothes organized and your clothes?
Piper has a lot of hand me downs from my niece and whenever she phases out of that size clothing I give the clothes back to my sister-in-law. This has helped us so much with keeping her clothes at a minimum and keeping only what currently fits her in our home. She has two drawers and two baskets under her crib that house all of her clothes. She has a little drawer on my side of the closet where I keep all of her diaper changing stuff so I can just lay her on the bed and change her diaper!
Small Space Living Rapid Fire Questions-
SEASONAL DECOR- We don’t have seasonal decor! I imagine that when Christmas comes around I would put up some fresh garland, and a tiny tree in the corner where our dining table is. I love fresh everything so I think I would just do fresh stuff when the seasons roll around! I can picture cute little pumpkins sitting outside the door to our RV.
ORGANIZING PAPERS ETC.- Our papers are all in a file box that fits in the cupboard above the chairs in the back of the RV. When new papers come in we give ourselves a couple days to get the papers into the file box so they aren’t just lingering.
SENTIMENTAL ITEMS- We read the book “The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo, and her theory about everything she keeps “sparking joy” is what we went with. If we picked up an item we owned and it didn’t currently spark joy we didn’t keep it. We found out quickly there wasn’t much that we were keeping that did spark joy. We have our wedding photo book, and our honeymoon book in the cupboard above our couch! Piper’s baby book is in the cupboard where her toys are, along with some of our books we love and care about!
ENTERTAINING- We LOVE entertaining! We have had had couples over for dinner, our small group meet inside when it was cold outside (12 people), and we even had a family of 7 over for popcorn and to play Settlers of Catan. We pulled the table into the middle of the living room and put our chairs all around it so we could play! If it’s a lot of people over for dinner we will just gather around on the floor!
HARDEST PART- This is hard for me to answer because I am naturally a pretty adaptable person so I don’t find much that I can’t adapt to. I don’t like that there’s no laundry room, and not a lot of room for our shoes. My husband doesn’t like that there is no room for him to go in to get office work done!
BEST PART- I LOVE that there is less space to clean. It definitely gets dirty quicker so it has to be cleaned more often but it doesn’t take long at all so I don’t mind!
Thank you Lauren for this tour and letting us in your home! Make sure to follow Lauren here- @thearrowanglers to keep up with all her great ideas!
Catch up on all the Small Space Living Tours HERE
Great inspiration. I could get rid of half our stuff and still have too much.
I agree- I could too!! Especially clothes!
Love it… so cute
This is so inspiring. Small space living, brings focus to what is truly important in life. Thank you for sharing.
After about a year of reading your blog, taking notes and LOVING the small space articles my hubby, dog and I just made the move to our small space condo. Leaving our 5-acre homestead/hobby farm in SW Michigan with its 1,800 sq. ft. ranch home, 750 sq. ft. art studio and huge pole barn was a major shock! The shock wasn’t in the scaling back part but in the how much we has accumulated in 23 years part!! Between two avid collectors, two businesses, chickens, barn cat and a dog and a hobby farm it was, honestly, pretty insane. I am now settled in our 1,500 sq. ft. condo with one unattached garage and we pretty much have everything we “need.” Need being the key word choice here. I am fortunate that this condo came furnished and with a lot of built in storage which has helped tremendously. I also made a mindful commitment to scale down significantly and to not try to cram things in just because I owned them. I opted for less is more philosophy and open walls and space to breathe. Our goal is to have more time to play; to explore, to bike and enjoy life instead of maintaining it. Let’s hear it for Small Space Living!!
I love the small space series! We are currently renovation a school bus into an RV and who knows – maybe we will live in it one day. I’m finding out 1,600 square foot home is actually too big lately :).
I LOVE your small homes series. I do not live in a small home, just the opposite. I truly admire what people do with a small space, using both form and function to make a beautiful place to live. I am in awe!
So beautiful!
Wow – what a beautiful space. Doesn’t look cramped or like”camping” at all.
I know!! So impressive how they used the space!
White! My favorite color! Great style in a tiny RV…with a baby non-the-less:0) That checkered wallpaper is very popular but it works with the design. We’ve moved 4 times and the second to the last we downsized a lot into a townhome…..no more yard work! Then, just the 2 of us, built another house with over 3800 sq. feet…..I guess we were hoping family/friends would come visit….sadly…it’s just us still..mainly me….BUT I am happy to have a yard to spend time in doing my flower beds and designing the house just the way I’d like….even if nobody comes to see it…I think another move to a smaller friendlier and more social spot will be coming.
That is so interesting Lori!! Yes, you need less-home to clean!! I agree tho a yard is wonderful if you have a green thumb!
Wow!!! She did an amazing job. I really didn’t even notice it was an RV. It’s a beautiful and cozy space!
Agree!!
Loved this article. You knocked it out of the ballfield again! Love you!
Love this article. I have “lived in my RV” as snowbirds in Florida and found I didn’t miss my 10 room house. Most RV’s have great storage and I can see that you can make it work. I enjoyed the farmhouse look in this RV and thought why didn’t I think of decorating things like that. Forgetting I am older than most on this blog, it wasn’t in style at that time. LOL We have downsided to a five room plus sunporch, no basement or garage. I still have too much and need to purge some more. The older you get – the less you find you need. LOL Love your tiny living articles. I look forward to each one.
I really enjoy your small space living series… although this one may be a bit too small for me. I get lots of good ideas from them for my small (1000 sq ft) home.