The move to NYC was a quick one. My hubby had applied to a couple of schools and we were waiting on the final acceptance letter. We just happened to be visiting family over the Christmas break when we got the news.  He had been accepted to NYU and we had four weeks to prepare for our next chapter. About two of those weeks we were in a completely different geographical location than our personal address and had to do our best to put together the list of things to do until we got home.

Christmas vacation was over and we were on our way back to our three bedroom, two bathroom condo ready to sell, give away, and trash anything we could. We heard stories of how small the apartments were in NYC and expected a significant downsize in space. The following had to go:

1. King size bed
2. Extra couch
3. Bulky dressers
4. Office desks
5. Any duplicate items
6. Rarely used kitchen utensils and gadgets
7. Clothes that we could no longer fit
8. My VHS movies collection
9. Extra kids’ toys
10. Deep chest freezer
11. Cleaning supplies
12. Food
13. 10 year old television
14. DVD player
15. Other unused electronics

I soon learned how good I was at selling! I joined a Facebook group and posted pictures and descriptions on my community page and managed to get rid of everything I thought we no longer needed. I did it, I thought! Then it was on to NYC. We still didn’t have an apartment but we had an idea of where we wanted to end up. So we comfortably lived in a hotel for almost a month until we landed on the perfect space to fit our family of four and we signed our lease.

Then it was move-in day and that’s when I discovered I still hadn’t gotten rid of enough stuff. The movers delivered everything to our living room, and I couldn’t even see a sliver of a view of the skyscrapers through the boxes. It was horrible! But I sold soooooo much stuff! Yet, I still had too much. Three calls later to 1-800-GOT-JUNK and our apartment was on its way to feeling more like home and less cluttered.

We decided we would not pay for another storage space and we would simply keep everything we owned under one roof. It was quite a feat but we did it! Getting rid of stuff is hard. Especially if you are a sentimental person and everything you own reminds you of, “the time when…” Like, who wants to get rid of:

1. Journals
2. High school and college notes
3. College textbooks
4. Birthday cards
5. Every single manuscript you’ve written
6. Assignment planners
7. Pajama pants your mom bought you back in the day
8. Oh, and the robe she bought you too
9. Hotel collection of lotions, soaps, shampoos and conditioners
10. Paycheck stubs from your very first “real” jobs

I mean come on. But seriously, letting go is so h-a-r-d! For the things I really didn’t want to part with I just took pictures of so I could always remember those priceless treasures. There were a few personal items that I couldn’t part with though and I found a corner in my closet for them. Mind you, I now have one closet and it is not a walk-in. Waaaaaaaah! Other than that I love my tiny home.

Cheers to “Tiny House, Big Living,” HGTV style!!!