Small house / simple living. Please talk to me about your experience and advice!

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I have my heart set on living in a certain area and it's becoming very apparent that my budget won't buy me much house. I also kinda want a more simple lifestyle and a big motivator for moving house has been to have less Stuff.

However, the realities are starting to feel quite daunting. My main questions are:

• How do I cut down on clothing? Day-to-day I wear a very limited wardrobe, but I also have a lot of out-of-season clothes and clothes for "special occasions" like beach holidays and funerals. I am not really in to shoes, but I still need wellies and trainers and sandals and shoes for work, hiking boots... How do I cut down on clothing and shoes?
• Hobby stuff?? Camping equipment, bread maker, wet suits and body boards, huge collection of Lego - do I just need to accept that if I've not used these in a decade couple of years I probably need to get rid?
• Toiletries and cleaning stuff that I've bought because I saw a bargain? Do I just stop grabbing a good deal from now on?
• Books, books, books.

If you don't like camping. You can donate the equipment to a homeless charity. That way you know it's not going to be wasted and is helping others!

How much cothing space do you have? Can you see yourself living out of one small wardrobe and a couple of drawers + a few bits in the hall like coats and outdoor shoes? You need to be quite ruthless and cull anything you don't wear, and list on Vinted. About 50 clothing items and 10 pairs of shoes should be enough, right?

If you haven't used items in a couple of years, get rid.

Toiletries - if unopened and no need, stick on Vinted. You need to really simplify your routine. Probably 6 skiscare and 6 makeup items are sufficient overall, don't you think? Even if you have more, one small drawer will be enough to store them all, right? Easily enough for up to 50 items.

Cleaning items - again, how much are we talking? I can't imagine owning more than 10 cleaning products. Use them up before the house move, and in the new house, just buy what you really need. If you don't use the product, then clearly you don't need it? Again, surely you can easily store 20 items in the cupboard under sink - do you really have more than that?

Books - even in a small house, surely you can have one bookshelf? So that's about 100 books? Choose your faves and sell the rest, realistically most bought books get used just once and never opened again.

How small is the house? I live very minimally as per above, and my items could easily fit a small studio flat or a large hotel room.

What I'd recommend is you stop buying stuff full stop now, and go into using up and selling mode. If you don't use an item, why own it?

You'll also make a bit of money towards your deposit.

If you buy one new item, buy the book "Less". Buy it 2nd hand 😉

The absolute key is not bringing more in. I've been decluttering for years and I'm at the point where I buy much less and only when I need it. My friends and I do the "do you need more shit" test. Most of the time we do not so we treat each other to a nice meal/trip/experience/something edible rather than something to look after .
I still buy a present or two for my DC for Christmas and birthday but top it up with money for an experience, a festival ticket or a holiday.

I would say you absolutely need to declutter. If you haven't used or worn anything in the last 12 months then get rid, sell or donate. Be ruthless, you don't need clutter in your life. Furniture is the same. We moved in June and downsized. It took us 6 months to declutter. It is also very hard to let go of stuff, but it made our life easier when we finally moved and did not need to pack the stuff and take it with us. Good luck!

Go on Youtube and enter Kayleen Kelly - most of her clips are really short. She is a good person to watch. There are so many 'decluttering' clips that you can become overwhelmed. She has a simple four part system.
Good luck!

I live in a tiny house- just the two of us. When we moved here I had a particular idea of how the place would look. I had imagined that it would not be over furnished and would have very little “stuff” about the place. I also pictured it being always perfectly clean and tidy
It hasn’t worked out quite like that I must admit.
we do have storage space in the garden and try our best to keep on top of things in terms of what we buy/letting older stuff go
we do manage to squeeze family in for meals etc
I read a lot but only keep a very few special books
one thing I would say is that tiny house does not equal tiny bills

There are lots of great tips here but I think you have to be realistic about what small space living is actually like. I moved to a very small cottage after my divorce, it's 2 up 2 down (2nd room is an office) but with very little storage. I had the loft boarded and bought a shed which helps a lot but I still need to be ruthless (I try to stick to 1 in 1 out for clothes etc) and at times very creative.

Having people over is a bit of an issue - I have a pull out sofa bed so they can stay but there's no space for a table so I cant do anything more than buffet/lap type food. And when my partner is here is does get very tight - we're literally on top of each other and there's nowhere to go for a bit of space, I really would consider that - it's not just about where to put your shoes!

I'm in a mobile home. Definitely tiny.

I only have things that I need & use & don't buy 'stuff'. I find I don't want things as much & think about what I'm buying.

A storage unit might be an option then if you find that you don't need something or miss it after 6 months then sell or give it away.

Are camping & watersports actually hobbies that you do regularly or did you try them a few times & can't rule out doing it again?

Sell that kind of stuff & then hire it or buy second hand if you need it in the future