Our Family of Five Downsized to a Tiny House … and Then We Changed Our Minds

In 2010 we bought a new vacuum cleaner. It is one of those unsightly vacuums that zooms around corners and is dressed unapologetically in yellow plastic. For years it lived in a cleaning closet, its appearance in our home dictated by our cleaning habits. Like the rest of world, we never gave our vacuum much thought. Not until we moved our family of five into a 1,000-square-foot house. And then, as if it were the master of ceremonies of our tiny life, it announced itself to everyone who walked through our front door.I'd like to say that we had thought about what it would be like to live a tiny life before we downsized from our 4,000-square-foot home, but we fell in love with our little cottage in McKinney, Texas, and had grown tired of living large. Somewhere between the quest for more living space, we lost ourselves in exchange for higher utility bills and weekends spent dusting.   Continue reading...