After two months of making the move from a large Canadian City to a small village three hours north, we're discovering little things that we may not have expected.

Our original goals, for example, included less clutter, less stress, and a happier lifestyle overall. While that's definitely still the case, and we haven't really been disappointed so far, not everything is quite working out as planned, so far.

In episode one of A Downsized Life, I talk about:

• How the less clutter goal isn't quite being met
• What this means for our stress levels
• Unexpected purchases, and what that means with regards our plans
• The longer winter, and its impact on us
• The challenges of keeping two young kids entertained while still needing to work

Listen in as Danny shares his thoughts on these challenges, and what comes next in our journey to downsize our lives.

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[Music]

Welcome to A Downsized Life. I'm your host, Danny Brown, and in the winter of 2019, my wife and I

moved our family from a sprawling city in southern Ontario, Canada to a small town 3 hours

north. This podcast is about our journey to downsizing our lives.

Lessons learned, successes earned, and everything in between. If you're looking to downsize

your life, then join us and listen for free at downsizepod.com or wherever you relax with podcasts.

Today it's just myself, Danny. Jaclyn's down in Burlington at her work offices, and should be home this

evening. So it just me and the two kids. Ewan and Salem are downstairs having some lunch at the moment

and, you know, getting up to all sorts of mischief I guess. I'll check in there soon. But today I

just wanted to talk about what we've been finding. Our initial thoughts on the first

6-8 weeks that we've been here. Our goals when we moved from Burlington where we came

from, to Port Sydney where we live now, was a quieter life with less clutter, less stress,

and being happier overall. Port Sydney only has 800 families give or take so it's a very small

town compared to Burlington which was about 170,000 people. So a very big change and that's been

an adjustment, a good one but it's been an adjustment to go from that hectic pace down to this very much

quieter pace. For an example, where we used to live in Burlington, we'd probably see about, I don't know,

two or three cars passing the house every 10 or 15 minutes. Now, I'm lucky if I see two or three

cars pass the house all day. Now, it could be that it's winter and no one wants to go out,

which I understand. I mean, it is minus 34 after all. So I'll check back in on this come spring.

One of the things we did notice or have noticed, and maybe it's just me, I'm not sure Jaclyn may

not have noticed as much, but I'm feeling that the less clutter we're looking for isn't quite

happening at the moment. Now, that could be down to the move because we're only as I mention

two months in, so we do still have boxes that are either unopened in the garage or around

the house. There might also be some books around the house, some DVDs etc, and some equipment

that we bought for the move that still needs to be unpacked, so hopefully we'll get to do that

this weekend. But at the moment, it just feels the less clutter we were looking for isn't quite

happening, and because of that our stress levels are maybe a little bit higher than we

wanted them to be this time of the move. And I guess I'm just really wondering when

the stuff will be unpacked and the house will be the way we want it, and what the

space will look like when it's done. Because at the end of the day, we moved from

a three-level detached home to a two-level bungalow. Now the bungalow

ironically enough does actually have the same physical floor space as the

old place except it's on two levels versus three. So it's a little bit more

thinking has to go into where stuff goes and what the place is going to look like etc.

So again maybe that's playing in to the cluttered feel, or the cluttered mindset that we currently

have at the moment versus where we want to be. We're also discovering things that we

may not have planned for. My wife's Mac just died. She has a 27 inch iMac and that died in a

horrible horrible way. So we've just purchased a new one which thankfully arrived today.

So once she comes home this evening from Burlington that's something to look forward to and

exciting, but it also means it's going to be an additional box in the house. There's going

to be two iMacs in her office while we get the old stuff transferred and a bit more

upheaval and temporary clutter. And it is temporary, but it's still there. I guess the other

thing that we discovered by speaking to the neighbors and people who've met since moving here

is that the winters here last a lot longer than the winters back in Burlington. For example,

winters in Burlington would have started in, say, December and lasted into January and February.

Winters here start at least a month earlier, and last at least a month longer.

So we moved in in the middle of November, and it was snowing heavily already.

Still snowing today, and it's going to snow 'til probably around march, or April.

And that's a bit of a mindset change and something that we have to get used to.

Speaking to the parents of one of Ewan's new friends atschool, for example,

they said that they'd moved here three years ago, and it's only just now that the

mom is getting used to how long the winter's are, from where they came from.

So again, a little mindset change and lateral thinking. Is it lateral thinking? I think so.

But the kids. bless them, they're really adapting to the move and that's great.

But with the Christmas holidays at the moment, they are going a little bit still crazy.

Like I said, the weather can be a bit iffy and it's too cold for them to go outside.

They have to entertain themselves indoors. And it's fine for the most part.

We got a bunch of crafts they can do. We got them a cool sort of games table.

That's got six or seven games on all like foosball, table tennis, etc. for Christmas.

So they use that and they play on that, but there's only si much that they can do before they

go a little bit loopy and they need more stimulation for their brains. So again, a lot of things

like that we have to look out for. It also doesn't help that Jaclyn and I still currently

working during the Christmas Holidays, apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and because we're still

working we have to be considering what we need to, while still trying to entertain the kids,

and that's a bit of a juggling act. But despite all this, as mentioned, it is the holidays,

and despite these little challenges, that's all they are at the moment, they're minor little challenges.

Little things we have to get over, think differently about.

Because for all these so-called challenges at the moment, the peace and tranquility

and just the beauty that's up here makes us confident we did the right thing.

After all, you don't move from a lifetime of city-dwelling to a small village like this

and expect everything to be perfect immediately, right?

Until the next time, live happily.

[Music]

If you enjoy A Downsized Life, be sure to share it with friends and family and others who might enjoy it too.

And we'll see you next time.