Downsizing

Since we moved to Germany, I feel like a lot of aspects of life have gotten smaller and simpler. I will start with our living space. We left a beautiful, recently partially renovated (basement & kitchen), house in OR that was about 2,300 square feet and have signed a lease on a 91 square meter apartment here, which is roughly 1,000 square feet. Because our space is limited, we had to be very selective in deciding what to bring with us and I have this vision that everything will be super organized since we were able to leave some of our things (**ahem, crap**) behind in storage.

We went from a brand new large stainless refrigerator with a huge freezer drawer, to a dorm sized fridge. Granted, our "real" kitchen will not be installed until October, so right now we are still living in the hotel where things are obviously on a smaller scale, but seriously people, the appliances in Germany are tiny. Many people do have dorm sized fridges in their homes. They shop more frequently so they do not need to stuff every crevice of the fridge with food for the entire week or more. The strange thing is, although I was so devastated to leave my newly renovated kitchen, I am not finding the small fridge situation to be that bad. I am not wasting as much food because I shop more carefully, planning only for a few days at a time. The ovens are pretty tiny as well, but we have not had one in our hotel, so I have not yet experienced the pleasures of the elf sized oven...

In OR I was driving a Saturn VUE which is a mid size SUV. I loved that car and was so sad to have to sell it, but that is beside the point. Since moving to Germany, I rely on two things to get me from point A to point B. Those two things would be foot #1 and foot #2. I do not have a car here. We are staying (and will live) close enough to my school that I can walk easily everyday. We also live in close proximity to the gym and the grocery store, so I actually went an entire month here without driving once. This past weekend I broke that streak because my husband enjoyed Oktoberfest and I needed to be the D.D. I absolutely LOVE walking everywhere. Not only is it good exercise, but it allows me to be more observant of the people and things I see that I would otherwise neglect if I were driving in a car. It is a great to start my day with a little time outside and I hope I feel the same way when the winter weather comes. Luckily our new apartment is only 3 minutes from my school, so even if it's really cold, the walk is not that long.

Another funny thing that has changed is the size of my purse. I had to include some photos to illustrate this. In the U.S. I happily toted this beauty...

It was a Christmas gift from my husband last year and I loved how its spatiousness allowed me to put my wallet, sunglasses, lip glosses, gum, and other various items inside. I also loved that it was so roomy, I could secretly carry snacks for just in case situations that merited some emergency noshing. In the U.S., when it comes to purses, it seems like the bigger, the better, right?

Now, onto my new "purse." Before we left for Germany, I went outlet shopping with my mom and I got this.

I intended to use it for holding all of my coins because in Germany, there are no single bills, there are 1 Euro and 2 Euro coins instead. Needless to say, I knew I was going to have to cart around a lot of coins, so I wanted a separate little change purse for that purpose. This little baby was $29.99 at the Coach outlet and I loved that it (somewhat) matched with my big Mama coach bag. Well, this has become my purse. It has room for my coins, my cards, and my keys and there is no reason to carry anything larger...especially at Oktoberfest because there are so many people having a huge bag just means you get bumped by every passing person and that makes me really crabby. Again, it's more simple, but it works.

I am finding that a lot of things that I thought I "had to have" or that seemed to be great because of their "larger than life-ness" are really not the best and the greatest. Or at the very least, I am finding that I can adapt to a new situation and find things that work. I never thought I could live without a dryer, and we are not planning to, but I have jumped on the bandwagon of hanging some clothes to dry. Some Germans do not own dryers at all and hang everything to dry. EVERYTHING. I have started with some of my nicer work tops and undergarments, but I am really starting to like it. I feel like I am taking better care of my clothes and that is a good thing.

I would have to say for certain things, I would probably tend to stay bigger is still better, but I am happy with my downsized life so far and am relishing in the simplicity of how we are now taking care of business in our daily lives. :0)