My blog gets several hits each day from people searching for information on small houses. In fact, this has surpassed ‘making butter’ as the top search term that leads people to my page.

It looks like I’m just jumping on another trend here, the trend of downsizing. I’m certainly in good company. It seems that with the current economy, with people losing their homes left and right, and paying out the ear for gas and milk, that people just can’t afford that McMansion in the suburb, and even if they can afford it, they are done with it. They are done with the old American Dream of a hefty mortgage payment to pay for that four bedroom home with the postage-sized yard and wall-length television set.

No, the new American Dream is owning your own home-actually OWNING your own home- rather than paying the bank to let you live there.

Ryan and I have been talking every single day since we came up with the idea about our small house. We talk about exactly what we want: a small private bedroom for us, big enough for a king-sized bed; a small kitchen with a large pantry; enough room for a washer and dryer. But mostly what we talk about is the land we want to build it on. We want about five acres, preferably with water already nearby. We want trees, and maybe even a little creek. We’d like it to be near town, but secluded enough to feel private.

Obviously, this isn’t going to happen over night. It could be years off down the road, but I truly hope not.

Some people have expressed concern about how we’ll manage living in a such a small house. What will we do? My answer is, “Whatever we want.” With a smaller mortgage payment, we’ll be able to afford to go places, so we won’t have to stay at our house all the time. We’ll play outside more. Of course, I don’t think it will be difficult to manage. Our current house may be 1200 square feet, but the four of us can generally all be found in our 10 x 12 third bedroom, which we use as a family room.

Our first step towards this move is a garage sale. As soon as the weather cooperates, we’re having a massive garage sale to get rid of a ton of stuff. We currently have a garage so full that we can barely pull our car into it, and a master bedroom that has so many outgrown baby items stacked around it that there is just a path from the door to the bed.

After that…well, I suppose we’ll see what comes next!