Your House is Your Home, Not Your Status Symbol {Guest Post}

Last year we published a post in which we talked about the attitude a person has about frugality and I talked a lot about how your car is for transportation, that’s it. It isn’t a symbol of your status. This year I’m telling you that the same can be said for your home.

Downsizing your home is one of the best ways to set yourself up for a better and more financially stable life. Small homes cost less money to buy, rent, and maintain. They use less energy, produce smaller carbon footprints and require less time and energy to keep clean. And still? They can be homey and safe and inviting.

It’s also worth noting that if you do not have to live in your current neighborhood, city or state for work or familial reasons, it might be worth it to consider moving to an area of the country that is more cost effective. Sure you might love being able to say that you’re from New York or Atlanta or Chicago or LA. But for the money you’re spending on something tiny there, you could spread out in something much larger and spacious in, say, Portland or Austin or Denver. Or you could save even more money and get a smaller home in any one of those cities.

So how do you do it? How do you take the big life you’ve grown accustomed to in a big city like Chicago and make it smaller and more manageable in a place like Denver?

1. Pare Down
Does it have intense sentimental value? Have you used it within the last twelve months? If the answer to those questions is no, chuck it out (or sell it online or in a garage sale to earn some extra cash to help finance the move).

2. Store Stuff
You do not need to have every single thing you own with you all of the time. In fact, you’ll probably feel a lot calmer if you store the things you don’t use a lot offsite. Holiday decorations, for example, and toys your children have long since outgrown but that you’re keeping for sentimentality’s sake and old financial records that you never look at but the IRS says you should keep for a few more years. You can easily rent storage for these things—and for less that you’d have to pay to buy a bigger home in which to put all of it.

3. Do It Yourself
Sometimes this means to make your own stuff for the house or an event. In this case we’re talking about making your own fun. One of the reasons people flock to large cities is because of everything there is there to do. Then they spend their time sitting at home because they can’t choose an activity. Pick one new thing to do in your city every week (scour the local paper for free events) and one new thing to try at home—a food, a game, a show, a book…you get the idea. You’ll have tons of fun without spending all of your money!

Good luck!

guest post by Jennifer Smith