On becoming a one car family.featured

Last week, we achieved one of our long-term downsizing goals: we became a one car family. The wonderful thing we’ve discovered about choosing a life of simplicity and minimalism is the less we have, the less we realize we need. When we started downsizing, we had no idea it would lead us to apartment living. When we moved into our apartment, we had no idea that owning one car would become a desirable or realistic goal.

Soon after moving, we realized that parking, maintaining, and keeping track of two cars was adding almost daily stress to our lives. We had made the decision to live in an area that was walkable to restaurants, a great playground, and campus, and was within biking distance to our pediatrician and grocery store. Did we really still need two cars? For a while, we practiced using only one car to see if it would fit our lifestyle, and I was amazed at how freeing it was. When winter came, we fell into what seemed like the easy habit of using both cars frequently, but rarely if ever at the same time. In reality, we were doing more work keeping track of where both cars were, making sure there was enough gas in each for the frigid temperatures, and wondering if we had moved them into the garage before large snowfalls. Not to mention making sure the car left behind when we travelled was parked somewhere it wouldn’t be towed or buried in snow. By spring, we were ready to downsize.

Another life change that made our decision easier was Jeff deciding to work all night shifts. He had been working at least 80% of his shifts overnight, and we really enjoyed the family time and culture it allowed us to create. The decision to become an exclusively overnight doctor simply eliminated the odd afternoon or morning shift a few times a month. With our last hint of an excuse gone, we finally made it happen.

The obvious decision would have been to keep one of our current cars, but neither fully met our needs. Jeff needs AWD for winter nights working in Plymouth, which his car didn’t have, and I was incredibly frustrated with the large size of my car. We had bought my car planning for it to become our long-term family car, but six years later we are still far from needing the space, which we now know wouldn’t be ideal for a large family anyway. We have incredible friends. We worked with our friend, Chris, who found us the perfect used car with low mileage and an even trade value only four hours away. We worked with our friend, Christy, to make sure that the car we wanted to buy would still safely accommodate a growing family (she just started a blog all about car seat safety and proper use. Check it out!).

One long day of driving to and from Cincinnati to make the trade and a 2,000 mile road trip later, we love our new car, our lower insurance payment, one license plate to renew, one gas tank to fill, and one parking spot to find. And perhaps most importantly, Molly and Emma love their new ability to hold hands in the back seat.