Tiny home makes family declutter experts

SPRING is traditionally that time of year when people start cleaning out their homes and decluttering their lives after a long winter cooped up indoors.

And if you are in need of some inspiration for your spring cleaning this season, look no further than the Calic family, of Ridgeway.

They decluttered in a huge way when they moved from their three-bedroom suburban home to a tiny 40-square- metre house in the middle of a 1.6-hectare property.

Parents Sophie and Matt Calic had to throw out or give away most of their kitchenware, clothes, books, even the kids’ toys, in order to downsize enough to fit their family of five into the converted shed they now call home.

“We have a strict limit to how much space we have and how much will fit in it now, so if it doesn’t fit, we have to get rid of it,” Mrs Calic said.

“And we are constantly reassessing our belongings, clearing unwanted or unnecessary things out regularly.

“The discipline of that has become almost a spiritual practice, asking ourselves is this thing really useful or really beautiful? And if not, it goes.”

The tiny house has three bunk beds against one wall for girls Romily, 9, Miriam, 8, and Willa, 5, a queen-size bed that lifts up to the ceiling during the day, a small shared living area, a tiny kitchen and a separate bathroom.

“Decluttering and living as simply as this would probably be too big a leap for most people,” Mrs Calic said.

“But we made the choice to live here, so we choose to make it work.”

We have a strict limit to how much space we have