3 Top Tips to Kick off Your Intentional Living goals

Here at MecoBlue Tiny Living, I believe that ‘Tiny Living’ is about more than your physical home. It’s a whole meld of concepts that culminate in a lifestyle that is intentional and kind on the Earth. Learning to live with intention can be a big transition for people! So here are my top tips to get you started!

1. Get a Calendar!

Being intentional with your time means knowing what’s going on so you know when your weeks are just too full and so that you don’t double book yourself! Your choice whether this is a digital calendar, a wall calendar or a notebook/journal. Or maybe you want a combination of them! Whatever you pick start charting out the appointments and the non negotiables for you. Put in the appointments, activities and the family outings. You can even use this as a place to make notes of meals that work with the time you have available on each night. Be willing to tweak this system as you learn what works for you and what doesn’t.

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

2. Learn to say No.

Ok this is one I’m still working on myself. But – living intentionally means saying no to things that do not fit with your goals, values and your availability (be it time, money or space). Say no to the junky promo pens. Say no to the shift swap that means you miss out on the family outing you had planned. Say no to the BBQ that you don’t want to go to because that group of people make you feel yuck. Say no to following people on social media that make you feel less than. Say no to doing something that your heart and soul are screaming no to because you know its not a good fit. Say no to the food that you know make your insides roll over themselves. Say no to the things that do not fit with your values, passions, goals and resources.

3. Get hydrated!

This seems odd to put on an intentional living list right? But the reality is you will be at your best mentally, physically and emotionally when you are hydrated. The impact of being even a little dehydrated on your body is quit incredible. When you get your water up you will be less likely to reach for junk, you will be calmer, happier and more productive! You will find that everything starts slipping into place and you will make better decisions when you are functioning better!

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

This list is by no means exhaustive – these are things and habits you can start work on over the weekend to help kickstart your Intentional Living lifestyle. I’d love to see what you set up and hear what impact this made for you!

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Meco Blue Tiny Home Specialists

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Why We Have Moved Out of Our Tiny House on Wheels…

Sometimes in life, we have plans and grand ideas of how things are going to go. Having dreams, goals and visions are SO important. Working towards your calling is a huge part of what I am all about!

So why are we moving out of our Tiny House when it is something we worked so hard for?  We quite literally shed blood (ask Jeremy about drilling his thumb to the house), sweat and tears over this dream.

To put it simply – we are taking some time out while we work out where we want to go next as a family. See our big end goal had been to have a property and aim for self-sufficiency.  However over the last 2 years, we have realized that we aren’t actually sure we want to care for so much land, and if I’m honest I don’t know either of us want to (or can) put down enough other plates to make tending to a property viable.

The long story though is that in October we had an accident when our Landcruiser rolled down the hill and crashed into our Tiny House, crashing through the verandah supports and causing damage to the passenger side stud frame. Thankfully no one was hurt! My mum made room for us in their house while we spent the next 2 months waiting for a decision from the insurance company. Part of the complication was that we had elevated our Tiny up on piers to level it as the site was sloped – and added the deck. And for some silly reason, it had completely slipped our minds to let the insurance company know about these changes. This made the process quite complicated as they made their assessments as they weren’t impressed with the fact it was on piers and considered the deck a modification to the structure.

At the end of the day, they agreed to pay out the damage and allow us to organise repair work ourselves.

There is more to the story though. We had chosen to live in our Tiny House under the radar – that is without going through the process of getting approvals for permanent occupation given that we had a mobile dwelling and no plans to stay permanently. Our accident though prompted movement and it was time to make it all official with Council.

Council were quite happy to work with us actually and set out a plan for what permits to apply for (I’ll write a separate blog on this and layout the options we were given). This is really exciting to know and have had this conversation with them about! We were so keen to be able to take a stand in this movement and work with Council on formal approvals! But as we got further through the inquiries we realized the property had a bunch of extra overlays on it which each required their own permits and paperwork. The most unknown of these overlays was the Bushfire Management Overlay as we found enough information to realize we would likely have to comply with a very high rating and couldn’t be sure how our structure would meet those codes without spending large amounts of money on Planning and Engineering reports.

If we were on our own land 100% would I invest the money into getting approvals and meeting the various codes and requirements. However as our estimation of the process began to grow we realised we needed to take some time to think about what we wanted to do next before jumping in and investing money on approvals while on someone else’s land – especially when our goals are shifting a bit.

So, we decided to take a step back from our Tiny House for a while and rent somewhere for a short time while we take time finish the repairs and get the jobs inside the house that were never fully finished done! We aren’t sure what will be our next step. Perhaps we will relocate our Tiny and spend more time as a family in there. Maybe we will buy land just big enough to take it with us and have it as a BnB. Maybe we will rent it out or sell it! We don’t really know. Right now we are just taking time to re-align with where we want to go as a family and dig into what that looks like in the process of getting there.

We have lived in our Tiny House for 2 years with 2 small kids and I was not ready to step out yet. I’ve genuinely loved our home and the pride of knowing we bought it to life. The mess and the noise with kids could at times be overwhelming – but it never made me regret our decision to live Tiny. So right now I am grieving a bit to be living out of our home. But I’m also excited to spend the next months with eyes wide open to possibilities. Actively digging down into our hopes and dreams. Listening for the inspiration for what we choose to do next as a family.

We know Living Tiny is not for everyone. We know people live Tiny for different reasons and for different lengths of time. We know it’s a lifestyle of less resources, less stuff, less space and more freedom. We know people live Tiny in villages, parks, on grid, off grid, with permits and without permits. We know Tiny Houses offer a solution for housing availability, affordability and accessibility. And we know Tiny Houses do have a future. I’m really excited to see where we go next.

My message has been since the beginning (almost) that Tiny Living is not just about the Tiny House. It’s about your choice to live intentionally. To minimise, choose sustainability, say no to consumerism and forge your own definition of what you want life to be.

My message stays the same. I will keep talking about the good and the ugly of Tiny Houses in all their forms. I will keep talking about Low Waste Living, minimalism, decluttering, urban gardening and sustainability. I will be talking about Homeschooling and teaching kids about LIFE. I will also be talking more about how Tiny Living looks in a normal house. These last 4 years as we researched, built and then lived in our Tiny House have taught me so much! Now I get to document and share how this whole philosophy of Tiny Living looks in the process of moving towards your visions. I am so glad you are on this journey with me, thanks for being here.

Meco Blue Tiny Home Specialists

Follow me on Pinterest here.