{"id":46,"date":"2021-04-07T10:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T10:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vangirltravels.com\/?p=46"},"modified":"2026-06-19T22:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:24:26","slug":"how-to-downsize-but-still-keep-the-simple-pleasures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vangirltravels.com\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"How To Downsize But Still Keep The Simple Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To prepare yourself for living in a limited space, you must downsize. However, that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t keep a few special belongings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Downsizing is so hard. Especially if you live in a large house. I have a dog, whom I need to crate. Not to mention food, water dish, dog food, treats, and toys. I run a business that requires me to have space to make things & the materials to make said things, which isn\u2019t easy when you need to downsize the number of things you own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Box Method<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever heard of this but this is something I have done and I love it. I went to Walmart and bought a \u201cSmall Box\u201d that measures for each room in my apartment (there are only 3 rooms so this is super easy). At the beginning of the month, you set up your boxes and put them in that room. Everything that you touch for the first 30 days goes into the box. Anything not in the box at the end of the 30 days is tossed out. Things that you use daily, you\u2019ll just pull out of the box and then put it back in. If you find that you don\u2019t have enough room in your box you can try it again with a bigger box but I really don\u2019t recommend that. I would recommend going through and seeing how often you actually used something and decide if you can go without it or find something that does double-duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What To Keep & What To Toss In Your Bathroom<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I like to start small, so I started in the bathroom. For me, I basically try to keep it to a toiletry kit + towels. Beyond that, I have a small hairdryer and a small curling iron, a tiny amount of makeup, a few hair ties, and then I have contacts and my contact solution. That\u2019s all my bathroom stuff. It takes up only a fraction of the box.

And no, you cannot put items from another room into the bathroom box if one is overflowing and the bathroom box isn\u2019t.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Downsizing Your Closet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This seems to be the hardest for everyone and I am not sure why. I try to keep my clothes to a minimum by just staying out of the stores and adopting the \u201cone in one out\u201d method; wherein if I buy a shirt, I have to donate a shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you are first starting out in getting rid of your excess and downsizing to a minimal amount of clothing an easy way to do it is this 7 x 7. There are 7 days in a week so you need 7 of everything except accessories (like hats, scarves, bags, wallets, etc) shoes, and outerwear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n