The 6 Books and Documentaries That Inspired Our Downsizing Journey

When people ask what books on decluttering I read, the answer is...not many. In reality, our downsizing journey was sparked my books that were much different than that.

Have you ever thought back to some of your biggest ideas? Like the best idea you ever had, where did it come from?

I don’t know about you, but whenever I look back at my big AHA moments, or times of clarity, I can trace back the inspiration for that idea for years.

Before I had the seemingly random thought to downsize our house, I had a lot of other little moments of clarity. In fact, before I met Tom, I actually wrote out an entire list of exactly what I wanted in a partner. Why? Because I had enough past experience to know what the hell I didn’t want.

I didn't just meet Tom and know he was the one (although I swear it was like the cosmos slowed down the moment we locked eyes). Instead it was a series of events throughout the span of my life that lead me to know exactly what I wanted in life and love. Every tiny shift and change, good and bad, lead me to that daycare center that random Tuesday in September.

That’s why when people ask what inspired us to downsize our house, the answer isn’t exactly what they want to hear. In my last post, I mentioned some signs that the big house was a mistake. However, we didn’t sit down and talk through our options like smart people would do. In fact, we were barely speaking to each other at all — more on that later.

While there were little gut feelings that told us we had made a mistake, it was really a speed of lighting idea that inspired us to sell the house. This random idea flooded into my brain, seemingly out of nowhere, except, I know exactly where it came from. Sort of.

During the year and a half we lived in our Dream House, the idea to downsize was slowly formulating all around me. Tom and I were barely speaking, so I distracted myself by becoming consumed with spiritual self help books. Since I wasn’t much of a reader or documentary watcher, I sort of just followed where they lead.

To this day, I can’t quite pinpoint how they all came into my awareness (except the first book — that one was pure meant-to-be synchronicity). I do believe, however, that each one of these resources was meant to find me. It was like little universal nudges guiding me in the right direction and giving me the faith to make the leap.