Tiny House Nation Memory Lane S01 E03
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00:00Here in tiny house nation we've seen it all when it comes to living small. I'm
00:06speechless. But nothing's posed a bigger challenge for our tiny house families
00:11than the dreaded pare down. Who's the culprit in here with the most stuff? The
00:17inevitable shedding of stuff critical to downsizing. How many pairs of shoes do you have?
00:2193 pairs of shoes. Now we're looking back at the stories where John and Zach had
00:26the urge to purge. Pack what's important. But it took some doing for the family to
00:31get with the pint-sized program. There's just so much stuff. I can't sell it. G'day.
00:43This is tiny house nation memory lane downsized. In our first story at number
00:5110 a family looking to go tiny pioneer style. John and Zach traveled to
00:56Clarksville Georgia to meet Taylor and Jenna. This couple and their three kids
01:01were on a mission to change their lifestyle. But their mission went beyond
01:05just simplifying. Taylor and Jenna were moving their family all the way to
01:10Montana hoping to recapture a bygone era. This couple's pioneer plan was going to
01:17require a major pare down. The first issue Jenna turned out to be a real
01:23clothes horse. How much are we talking about? Dressers, the closet, the basement.
01:28The basement. If I was a secret agent I'm pretty sure my arch nemesis would be a
01:33basement. It was time for Jenna to do a little decluttering with the prince of
01:39pare downs. I know you need a table and I'll make sure that Zach has a table for
01:44you. But we both agreed it doesn't fit in the tiny house. Yeah I mean it can't
01:48but I don't know I can't I can't sell it. A good option sometimes is to see if
01:54there's someone within the extended family that could take it. That way you
01:59don't feel like you've you've lost it. I'm okay with that. John's main strategy
02:03was for Jenna and Taylor to hold a yard sale. What is all that? It's clothing that
02:08we haven't touched in years. I even have it tagged to sell I but I just didn't do
02:13it. Okay see that's easy. I've got some camping gear here. Yard sale. Perfect. We
02:19have wreaths for every window of our house. I don't think we'll need that. Nope.
02:23Close. Boom. We're already into the second layer. John's purge party with Jenna was
02:28going great. Now it was about seeing if she can go through with the big sell-off.
02:35$80. I need a good practice instrument. We were thinking $500. Sure. Having John
02:44there with me really helped because I was looking through his eyes. I don't
02:48need to keep it all. Jenna held up her end of the bargain. Now John and Zach had
02:52to come up with a worthy replacement for that beloved dining room table she gave
02:57up. Zach decided to work some magic with their new couch. This is what I'm gonna
03:01use for the table. And it's gonna fit underneath the couch, pulls out, it lifts
03:10up, the legs come down and then on the other side of the wall we're gonna have
03:15a bench seat. Now you're gonna have a whole like dining zone. Jenna and Taylor
03:18had vowed to not only go tiny but live more like the old pioneers. Now after a
03:24major pare down the question was how they react to their new little house on
03:29the prairie. The big finale was Zach's dining room wizardry. You have your table
03:39on casters pulling out from the couch. That's really cool. The table that Zach
03:51designed and built it really helped the uneasy feelings I had about getting rid
03:57of our table that has been in our family for so long. I feel much better
04:00about it honestly. Jenna and Taylor had their new pint-sized pioneer digs and it
04:05was thanks to the power of the pare down. Next up at number nine a tiny pare down
04:11problem that brought America's favorite pastime into play.
04:15Steve and Melissa had settled down in Cincinnati with Melissa's two teenage
04:19boys and if there was one thing this family was bonkers about it was
04:24baseball but in transitioning from 3,000 square feet to 750 this family was
04:30definitely going to have some issues starting with Melissa. Who's the culprit
04:36in here with the most stuff? It is I have a lot of hobbies there's a lot of things
04:43I do. The next question is where's all this stuff and can I see it? It's in the
04:48craft room over here. Just the word craft room scares me. So I've got knitting
04:53supplies, sewing stuff, more sewing stuff and beads for scrapbooking and I paint
05:01sometimes. Look the kids anytime they need school supplies I have them right?
05:07Oh man. But when it came to hoarding in this household son Keegan gave Melissa a
05:13run for her money. Big baseball fans huh? Huge baseball fans. This stuff is kind of
05:20what I've been collecting. They're pretty valuable to you. They're very
05:24valuable. Tearing down all of my memorabilia is not going to be possible.
05:30But hold on a second Keegan mom will see your room full of baseball bric-a-brac
05:35and raise you a bedroom brimming with clothes and accessories. My husband calls
05:40me the girl with everything. I mean not everything just 47 pairs of glasses. I
05:45mean there's one for every outfit. When it came to sizing up her new closet well
05:50Melissa definitely had some pushback. In the new bedroom it's not really a
05:54functional closet because it's really tiny and I can't get to any of the
05:58vertical space so I'm just not really sure what Zach was thinking. Zach had to
06:04go back to the drawing board. So I want to build a big built-in dresser cabinet
06:09situation that will be deep enough to include extra storage for all her crafts
06:13and clothes. Okay. And keep in mind it goes almost 12 feet high. Soon it was
06:18pare-down day. It got a little shaky though when it came to Keegan's baseball
06:23bobble heads. What do you think? I think we're gonna have to definitely get rid
06:27of some of these. Here hand them to me. Just keep all these kinds of ones over
06:31here. Okay. Big ones. Yes we don't need those. Yeah we're cooking with gas. I think that's a good
06:39amount. Great great. That looks better. Dude that looks way better. Finally it
06:45was time for the ninth inning of this prodigious pare-down. Oh my gosh.
06:55Wow. Yes. Oh my god. That is so cool. Then came the most critical feature of all.
07:02Even though it's not a really big room we definitely have a lot of room for
07:07storage. And that's what I turn it over to my friend Zach. Well you do have
07:11dresser right? We have nice dresser drawers. All of them are accessible. You
07:17know you can open them. Get into everywhere. But the stuff up high it's
07:22not really that useful unless you can get at it. As you see. Are you kidding? You pull out the
07:29staircase. Go ahead. Walk on up. You got a handrail. So cool. And now what looks like
07:38storage is actually a door. And go ahead and open it. Oh my gosh.
07:52This is so cool. But how would Keegan dig his new tiny room minus a lot of the
07:59memorabilia? The rest of the room. The rest of the room. It feels like home with
08:03all of my memorabilia here. It's the home run room. It's the home run room. I love it. It's
08:08totally a grand slam for the family. They definitely hit the ball out of the
08:12ballpark on this one. It's not something that we could have done without their
08:15help. As usual John and Zach knocked this pair down out of the park. Next up at
08:22number 8 on our tiny house nation top 10. A canine loving couple in dire need of a
08:28major pair down. This build had the team traveling to Tampa Bay Florida where
08:33Chaz and Crystal were looking to thread a pretty tiny needle. A small home where
08:38they could enjoy their own separate spaces. Pairing down their stuff was
08:42going to be a big part of meeting this challenge. But there was also a third
08:46party involved. Their dog Chloe. Here is her toy box. Chloe's definitely spoiled
08:53when it comes to her toys and stuff. Every time we go to the pet store she
08:57gets something. Clutter in a tiny house is terrible. I could see already Chloe
09:03the dog is gonna be queen of a castle. Then again it seemed there might be two
09:08queens. A lot of gear. It takes a lot for me to look presentable. This is your
09:14section. This is my section. And then all of this. Yes. All mine. Yes. I you know get
09:21dressed. I put on my makeup. I do my hair. I do everything in the bathroom. I mean I
09:26gotta have a little shelf space. What's the plan? Well we're seeing about maybe a
09:30tow behind trailer. While the trailer was out of the question John tapped Zach to
09:36create some powder room magic. Well I mean just trying to get this vanity
09:41figured. What I built here was kind of a medicine cabinet. So yeah you know it's
09:45gonna have the mirror. You'll be able to open it. And then I want to add some lights to
09:49it. I want to make it feel more kind of like a like a makeup station. Yeah
09:54industrial makeup station. But none of the team's plans for Chaz and Crystal
09:58were going to work without a prodigious pare down. Let's start with the dog toys.
10:02Guys can you imagine what this is gonna be like in the tiny house? A little cluttered yes. I'm like
10:08overwhelmed looking at all this stuff. Once they sent some of Chloe's stuff to
10:12doggie heaven it was Crystal's turn. Clutter. Oh my goodness. Okay. I don't need two hair dryers.
10:19Gotta have my lotion. My body lotion. Wait wait wait. Then what is this for? They're two different scents.
10:24Come on. Soon it was time to see if this particular perilous pare down was really
10:31going to work. Oh my god. Oh my god. Wow. Chaz and Crystal loved the big picture. But how about that super
10:43critical bathroom? The whole idea in my mind was not just to make a place where
10:48you could hold your makeup but actually make it so it facilitates the whole
10:51process. And we were able to give you a nice storage compartment. I wouldn't
10:57expect that that would actually give you the sense like this is a salon. And
11:01that's where the idea of now you have beauty lights. So when you get ready to
11:07do your makeup it's a whole different deal. Wow. But that's not actually gonna
11:12store any of your makeup. So this is actually a jewelry box. No way. You got storage for
11:20different variety of makeup area. This one's divided. Are you serious? And now
11:27this one opens. It's more of a jewelry box. I love it. My bathroom is going to be
11:34my favorite place on earth. It's absolutely beautiful. I am mind blown.
11:39Coming in at number seven on the countdown. A double-barreled build with
11:44two pare downs for the price of one. Deep in the heart of Texas John and Zach
11:49met Deanna coming off a major loss. She got the call that her house burned down
11:55while she was on vacation. The place they're living in now is a short-term
11:58rental so they have to be out of there like now. The first step to helping
12:02Deanna is for John and Zach to assess her multiple closets. Oh no. Bathroom.
12:12That's gigantic. Oh my goodness what are all these shoes. There are people that have
12:18shoes and then there's people that have a lot of shoes. And then there's Deanna. I
12:23can already tell this is gonna be a huge problem. You got to meet us halfway. Okay.
12:28In fact I am leaving you with this homework assignment. To go through your
12:31closet and I want you to separate it into just two piles. Pile love. Okay. And
12:37pile really really like. Meanwhile Zach got to work on storage for Deanna's
12:42colossal stockpile of shoes. So I know we're gonna have to build a sliding
12:47ladder system here. It's pretty easy to build like a cabinet on the backside of
12:52the ladder. Soon John and Zach found themselves walking into a real shoe
12:56storm. It's like a minefield here. Deanna has a lot of shoes. We know this it's a
13:03problem so I gotta get her to start making some sort of decision. Remember I
13:08said what ended up in this pile would determine what happens with this pile?
13:11Mm-hmm. So these are more shoes than I was hoping for out here. Are you willing
13:17to donate these? I'll donate them. Thank you. You're welcome. If you promise to do
13:25some more work we will go back and we'll do some more work. Sounds good. Okay. Get to work.
13:29We're gonna do the same. Okay. Yes. Yes. Don't step on my knees. After the pain of the
13:34pare down Deanna got to check out her new tiny home. Wow. What?
13:45It's time to see if Zach's shoe storage idea would really shine. I love it. If you
13:52come over here you can see now you have another shoe closet. I love it. That was
14:02really really smart. John and Zach get an A-plus on the shoe storage. They're
14:06almost all gonna fit.
14:11We're counting down the tiny house nation stories that were all about
14:15paring down those precious possessions. Next at number six it's a husband and
14:20wife each with a very specific set of skills and lots of stuff to go with it.
14:25Vanessa and Jared were living in San Diego and looking to go tiny. As a
14:30survival instructor who trains Navy SEALs Jared had a ton of gear. Skydiving
14:38helmet, kayaking helmet, parachute, backpack. He's clearly super active.
14:43There is enough gear here for I don't know 10 triathlons. Not to be outdone
14:48Vanessa a former professional chef had a kitchen full of gadgets. I mean I can
14:53tell there's a lot of gear here and it's nice gear too isn't it? Yeah. It looks
14:57like what I would imagine a chef's kitchen to look like. We use the blender
15:03and the food processor almost daily. Pretty much cook all of our dinners. We
15:07might go out on a rare occasion. John filled Zach in on this couple's double
15:12whammy of stuff. So they've got garages full of everything from parachutes and
15:17backpacking gear to surfboards and they've got it all and then a whole
15:21kitchen full of tons of stuff. So I take it that they're not gonna just choose
15:25one. Well no that's the thing then obviously there's gonna be some paring
15:28down going on but the name of our game is gonna be storage for sure. Obviously
15:32but it wasn't going to be easy. Yeah you know we're really excited about paring
15:36down and simplifying our lives but at the same time that is like mildly
15:40terrifying. While Zach worked on their storage issues John worked on their
15:46stuff. This is a surprisingly good representation of the space you guys
15:51are gonna have. We'll put the needs on the table and the wants will go on the
15:55floor in front of the table. What are we doing here? Boots. These ones are my
16:00preferred field boot. These I have to have for my military uniform. Honestly
16:06there's no way you can bring all those boots. Right. Once they stockpiled the
16:10must-haves it was time to tackle their stashes of specialty gear. You start
16:15with your gear stuff. What does the food processor do? Does it chop food up? It also
16:20emulsifies. But what's the blender do? Well it's different. Emulsifies. But you maybe can't bring all
16:28of them. No no no no you definitely can't bring all of them. I've got gear for every
16:34environment imaginable. Trekking poles, ice axe, hammocks. I think we have about
16:40six tents. You know we have ten sleeping bags, like seven backpacks. I was honestly
16:47pretty worried that Vanessa and Jared were gonna have a really tough time
16:50getting rid of all this specialty gear they have. But I gotta say they're doing
16:54pretty well. What do you guys think? I mean just looking at it all right. I mean
17:00it's. It actually looks like a lot more than I was thinking. After the big
17:04pare-down the big moment arrived. The first day of the rest of their tiny
17:09living lives. Oh my god. Then John and Zach unveiled a special surprise for this combo
17:17chef and commando couple. You can see it's it's locked on one side. You just
17:22give a little release. Now watch yourself because the whole thing just kind of
17:27comes up on its own. Oh my. Now your grill slides open. You got a full table. A little torch deal
17:37here. So now what you have is you got really a galley style kitchen. So you can
17:41do your grilling and then chop over here. Turn around. You got a little more prep
17:47space. You got access to any of the utensils that you're gonna need. And you
17:51have a huge amount of storage for all of your work and outdoor gear. I can't wait to come out here and cook. We are gonna have so much fun with this.
17:59Vanessa had plenty of storage for her culinary tools both outside and in the
18:05kitchen. While lots of Jared's survival gear survived the transition to tiny. All
18:10thanks to a big pare-down and some tiny ingenuity. Now at number five, a pair of
18:18triathletes whose equipment posed a real problem.
18:22Tommy and Katie were living in Santa Cruz, California. But they weren't there
18:26a whole lot. As world-class triathletes, Katie was even an Olympian. They were
18:31constantly out of town competing. John picked up on this couple's pare-down
18:35needs pretty quickly. These are all bike specific tools. Can I tell you what I don't like?
18:39What don't you like? How many bikes there are here. The math was sinking in for John.
18:44Two triathletes times the gear for three sports. And that didn't even take into
18:49account all the intricacies of triathlons. How come there's so many
18:53bikes? You have the bikes that you ride in the rain. You have the bikes that you
18:56ride for draft-legal racing. You have a backup bike just in case something happens to your bike when you're
19:02racing. Basically this whole porch, which is the size roughly of their tiny house,
19:07is filled with triathlete gear. Trail shoes, racing flats, all-around shoes. It has me
19:13nervous. I guess I just didn't really think about the tri and the triathlete.
19:17Swim, bike, run. So you gotta get gear for all three sports. John let Zach know the
19:24biggest problem would be the gear. And Zach presents a solution for the
19:28bulkiest items to the couple. Their bikes. We've actually addressed bicycle storage
19:33a number of times. And what I've really done is kind of utilize the head space
19:39within the vaulted ceiling. Are you planning on storing the bikes in the
19:43house? I mean that was kind of where I was thinking. We can't really do that. We
19:50do not want the bikes in the house for sure. They're gonna be going outdoors and
19:54they'll be pretty dirty. We'd much rather storm outside but still keep them
19:58protected from the weather. Not inside means we have to find something outside.
20:04Zach was really under the gun to devise a good strategy for bike storage. My
20:09idea is to take advantage of the space underneath by building out the inside of
20:13that cavity and make it into a storage space to keep the couple's bikes
20:16accessible but also keep them safe and secure. But no matter how genius the
20:21storage plan, there was no avoiding a very painful pare down. I'm gonna keep
20:26you guys to two, maybe three bikes. From eight? Yeah, yeah. From eight. That's what
20:34the goal is, okay? There's my road bike. Two time trial bikes. I'll get the helmet. I
20:39definitely need a road bike. Oh gosh. Four bikes. I was hoping for two, maybe
20:44three. As they dug into all their stuff, it was clear the tough decision went way
20:49beyond just bikes. Here's the opening ceremonies jacket. This is the Olympic
20:54blazer. Yeah. Wow. I think the Olympic stuff is just the scariest thing to pare
20:59down. So this is the watch you got. Right now, I mean, the Olympic experience is so
21:04fresh in my mind. However, as I get older, I might want to bring something out to
21:08show someone. It was a tough road but after a successful pare down, this
21:13couple went for the gold. And soon, these triathletes hit the tiny finish
21:18line. Man, this is so awesome. It already feels like home. Oh my gosh. Wow. Oh my
21:27goodness. Holy moly. The big question, would they like the bike solution? Oh
21:34wow. Wow. Wow. That looks amazing. Right? Come on up. Go check it out. Check it
21:44out. There you go. This is incredible. Yeah, it's so perfect. You know, we need
21:49to store four bikes, but it's also a workshop. So when the bikes come down,
21:53the bike stands that come out chop. Wow. That's so awesome. You're a genius.
21:59The bike station. It's perfect. What Zach did was above and beyond. And it's
22:03super easy and really great for our lifestyle. I mean, it's perfect. We're
22:09all the way down to number four on our tiny house nation countdown. Top 10
22:14downsized. Next up, a couple about to tie the knot and go tiny, but not
22:20without some major purging of the bride's prized possessions. This build
22:26took the team to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Jenna and James were recently
22:30engaged as traveling nurses. They planned to be on the move but needed a
22:34home base, so they were going tiny. John noticed some tiny trouble on the
22:39horizon as soon as he crashed Jenna's wedding shower with an extra freezer
22:44bin. Oh, good. Ice cream is essential in the South. It's a big box. Things
22:51didn't get much better when it came time to dive into Jenna's closet. So
22:55this is the closet. Oh, my gosh. I know. Wow. You know, this can't all
23:02come. But don't you think we could get a lot of it? No, I think a lot of it
23:06can't come. Oh, my Lord.
23:12Look how many shoes you have. How many pairs of shoes do you have? Ninety
23:17three pairs of shoes. I know that that's a big number. I'm willing to
23:21pare down a little bit. Zach has a lot of ideas for storage, but nowhere near
23:2693. Up above is going to be also good storage options. So I said it again
23:32halfway through the house, and we've said storage twice. You have no idea
23:36how important that is. She's got 96 pairs of shoes. Oh, yes. A slight
23:44exaggeration. John and Zach couldn't do it alone. They needed some help, which
23:49meant a twist to help this couple pare down. James, you have to pare down her
23:54stuff using stickers. So you're gonna take stickers of your wife to be. These
24:00are great. I'm gonna turn your guys loose, and you put a sticker on
24:05everything that you don't want her to bring. Luckily, you've got a lot of
24:09stickers. It sounded great. In theory, I don't even know where to start. James,
24:14what are you doing? Nothing, honey. Oh, jeez. Get out of my shoe closet. You
24:19have 93 pairs of shoes. You've got to get rid of something. And it didn't
24:24stop there. John devised a question game to keep all those wedding shower
24:28gifts. James is a natural born country boy. I said it's the same thing, right?
24:37Judges? So we'll start small with this. California? Clutter? Does that count? Oh,
24:47well, gotta pick another gift. This pare down sure was unconventional. But with
24:52John's help, it was time for Jenna and James to finally tie the knot with tiny
24:57living. Oh, my gosh. Oh, wow. Whoa. His face is amazing. Look at how bright this
25:06kitchen is.
25:09This is so cool. Now it was time to show Jenna where she'd be stowing all those
25:14shoes, or at least lots of them. They're not just steps. They're full size. You
25:20can fit at least a few pairs of shoes in there. At least a few. I love it. Now
25:25the top one's a drawer as well. And then the smugglers hatch. You just pull on
25:30that pin. Oh, cool. Oh, my goodness. Look at all this space. God, just space
25:38everywhere. This project turned out to be the perfect union of tiny ingenuity
25:43and a big pair down. I started with 93 pairs of shoes, and now I'm down to 36
25:48pairs of shoes. Thanks to John and Zach, James, Jenna and her shoes lived happily
25:54ever after. Our number three pair down took us to a small Midwest town where a
26:00woman's plan to go tiny was complicated by lots of stuff, physical and
26:06emotional. In Indiana, John and Zach met up with Stephanie, who saw this tiny
26:11home project as a way for her to rebuild her relationship with her father, Jim.
26:15They were once estranged when her parents divorced, and now Jim is helping
26:20to build the house. But first, John and Zach need to figure out how big this
26:25transition will be. Right in here is my bedroom.
26:32So whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. This bedroom is bigger than
26:37your tiny house. Yeah, I was honestly shocked. Definitely makes me question if
26:44she knows what she's doing. My small shoe collection. I did count and there
26:49were only 55. 55 shoes? 55. Tiffany's also giving up. She actually has a bit
26:56of a wardrobe. I'm not surprised, actually. She has a dress for every
27:00occasion. John knew he had to step in before this tiny project turned into a
27:05big disaster. I don't think she understands how difficult it's gonna be
27:09for her. So I have a challenge for you. One suitcase. Pack what's important.
27:15Okay. All right. This is not the only thing you're gonna take in your tiny
27:19house. This is just an exercise to get you to prioritize the things that you
27:23really love. Can I do a suitcase and carry-on? No. Oh my goodness. One
27:27suitcase, your clothes, Tiffy's stuff, and then we'll see what's in it tomorrow.
27:31I am excited too. Challenge accepted. Challenge accepted. I love it. I want you to start right now.
27:35Start thinking about that. Zach and I are gonna get back to the tiny house, okay? Okay.
27:39Come here, Tib. Okay. Essentials. I have faith in Stephanie. Smart rolling here. I can
27:47make more fit. Oh, Tibby's coming too. She just needs to pack practical things. The
27:51basics. These are my, like, Sex and the City Carrie Bradshaw. Can't forget your
27:55little frog. That fit. Stephanie will do fine, as long as she doesn't pack, like,
28:00five pairs of yoga pants. At least five pairs of yoga pants. Oh, man.
28:08Zach devises a plan to accommodate both wardrobes. We need to maximize the closet
28:15for Stephanie, so we'll include built-in storage, hanging space, and a wall-mounted
28:20shoe rack. And we'll include some space for Tibby's wardrobe too. While Stephanie
28:24packed her and Tibby's items in only one suitcase, John and Zach worked on
28:29acclimating her to tiny living. Hello. What do you think? Clever, right? I see a suitcase stuffed to
28:39the gills. Not even stuffed to the gills. Beyond the gills. Beyond the gills. To
28:42further test Stephanie's willingness to live a pared-down lifestyle, John
28:47convened everyone in the house's smallest bedroom. For the rest of the
28:51week, this is your bedroom, and this is what you have to live off. Okay. This is
28:58more about getting used to a smaller space with, you know, quote-unquote,
29:02limited resources. Okay. And how did Stephanie do? John and Zach were eager to
29:08find out. Hello. How's tiny house living going? I feel like I should, I feel like I should, like, knock to come in.
29:14Please come in. This is the special door. This is very nice. Yeah, that's good. Smooth. Really good privacy, you know. Yeah, I see you have done a little bit of the unpacking. I did.
29:26Everything is very organized. I noticed a bunch of shoes underneath the bed. Yes.
29:30Good use of space. Shoe storage underneath. Nice. My makeshift closet. I'm sorry. Oh, okay.
29:37This is not clever. So, doors, hiding the dresses. Small, but it feels good. You know, I
29:46could live in this. I'm so excited. Now that Stephanie had completed her
29:50training in scrapping stuff and surviving small spaces, it was time to
29:55reveal the tiny house her dad built with an assist from the Tiny House Nation
30:00team. Just for you. I'm speechless. It's perfect. Isn't it beautiful? Beyond what I had imagined. The storage for her
30:14pared-down possessions was a big hit, too. Wow. I love this closet, and there's so
30:20much room. There's a ton of hanging space. There's drawers and spots where I never
30:25thought there would be a drawer. It's gonna be close. But the biggest upside of this
30:29tiny house wasn't about storage or stuff. I am looking forward to spending
30:35more time with my father. I've gained a relationship back that had gone missing,
30:40and it's only gonna get better. We're bringing you the greatest downsizing
30:45stories ever on Tiny House Nation, and our pared-downs have been whittled down
30:50all the way to the top two. In the second spot, it's one of the scariest garages
30:56and his-and-hers closets ever seen on THN. In Oakland, California, the team
31:02connected with Josh and Shelly, a couple with a lot going on. We own a small
31:07hauling and debris removal company, and Shelly is my muscle. I'm the muscle. What up? In addition
31:14to that venture, Josh had a business refurbishing old off-road vehicles.
31:19Building off-road trucks is a big part of the income, and it's been able to make
31:23this tiny house, you know, dream possible. Josh's off-road business may have made
31:28the tiny house possible financially, but logistically, it was clearly going to
31:32cause some issues. Kind of like an old man's garage, and then there's like all
31:37camp gear, mechanic tools, welders, and this is all, you know, mechanic tool. You
31:42know, these-these pieces, these high-value pieces, you're gonna have to
31:45figure out how valuable they are. What are you trying to get? Yeah, what I'm
31:49trying to get is that we got some work. A big worry of mine is, what am I gonna
31:54do with all my tools? I have a little bit more than the average, so I need to
31:59figure out a space to be able to manage them. This couple's pack-rat
32:02problems didn't end in the garage. Fast-forward to their closet, where they
32:07were both clutter culprits. Wow, shoes! This is nice. What I like about this is,
32:13look at all these shoes. Sparkly rope. You don't see any of these. Come on, you
32:17guys. You know what house you're moving into. Don't make me be the bad guy, always.
32:22Josh, you're not off the hook either, buddy. Who has more stuff, do you think?
32:27I think it's me. Is that accurate? Yeah, yeah, it's pretty accurate. I can't say I was totally
32:32surprised that Josh had more tools in the garage. A little surprised that he had
32:36more clothes. John gave Zach the dire download on all their stuff. Okay, the
32:41other issue is, you gotta see this guy's garage. It is packed with tools, and when
32:50I say tools, I mean like mechanics tools. I mean, I don't know. You know, we're
32:55already building a pretty big house. To add a couple thousand pounds of
32:59mechanics tools, I just don't see it working. You're gonna have to be hard on
33:02these guys. It was shaping up as one of John's biggest pare-down jobs ever, so he
33:08decided to get by with a little help from the couple's friends. I think they
33:12can do it. It's just the process of downsizing. And that's what we're gonna
33:15do here today. Here's the plan. We're gonna do three piles. There's a keep pile, and
33:19then just a donate and a sell pile. Pretty simple, right? Okay. And if you guys
33:24see anything you like, I mean, call it out. Soon, it was pretty obvious that Josh was
33:30having more trouble. There's a lot of stuff here. This keep pile is still way
33:36too big. I think Josh should try on a couple outfits. I like that idea, actually.
33:40Josh doesn't look happy about this suggestion, but I like that. I mean, you down
33:44for that? Yeah. Grab an outfit, and then if the girls think it works, you get to
33:47keep it. If not, we'll put it in the donate pile, and we'll get through this
33:50a little bit. Okay. Oh, look at that. I like it. It's a keeper. You can keep that one, Josh. Nice. G'day.
34:01Okay, all right. But the team knew Josh's stuff issues went way beyond the closet.
34:07I mean, what is this? It's a parts washer for, like, dirty, greasy parts, but I can
34:13make do without something like that. Good, good. Work with me. Car covers, I can do
34:18without car covers. Okay. Tent, I don't really use it anymore because I have the
34:22rooftop tent on the trailer. Okay. Pretty much all of this, like, I can get rid of
34:27this stuff, the heavy equipment, I need. There is a lot of stuff here that we can
34:32really downsize on, but I need this stuff. I understand, certainly, that I can't take
34:39your livelihood away from you. But by the time Josh and Shelley came to visit the
34:44build site, Zach had a plan. We can create space by maybe building in some kind of
34:49seat arrangement. Okay. In the deck, and then that seat area, you know, because it's
34:56raised, and that gives us our extra space. That sounds great for storage. Yeah, I
35:00think that sounds good. If it's something that makes sense and it's ease of use,
35:03then I'm totally game for it. The idea sounded good, but would the finished
35:07product and his pared-down gear work for Josh? Storage is always an issue with
35:13tiny houses, and you guys, you've got so many big pieces that were heavy, so, you
35:18know, we were able to get a bunch of storage built in. It's pretty cool. It's
35:23super awesome. With the tool issue taken care of, it was time to see how their
35:27other choices and big pare-down all came together. So, what do you think? It feels
35:33huge, and it's awesome. Far beyond what I actually thought was possible. It's
35:39really cool. In the end, this couple's stuff was no match for the masters of
35:44paring down. We just feel like this huge burden lifted off our shoulders. It just
35:49feels so less stressful, and that's definitely awesome.
35:54Ah, better.
35:59Time to reveal the number one story on our tiny house top ten. When it came to
36:04this pare-down, John and Zach were up against decades of family history and
36:08one very persnickety pack rat. In Montpelier, Vermont, the team hooked up
36:14with Peter, Marybeth, and their daughters. The family had a bold plan to save money
36:20for retirement, rent the old family home, and construct a tiny house on the
36:24property where the couple and their youngest daughter would live. John soon
36:29learned the problem with this tiny plan. Who's gonna be most difficult for
36:32downsizing? I think they're both looking at me. Yes, maybe. I, earlier in my life, I
36:40collected a lot of things, so I think it's gonna be hard for me to pare down a
36:45lot of my stuff. I think I'm a recovering pack rat rather than, in past, I would
36:50have been called a pack rat, definitely. The family gave John a short house tour
36:54for a quick stuff assessment, but they saved the scariest part for last. So
36:59here's the basement. Yes, now be prepared, please. There's just so much stuff. I don't even know
37:12what, like, all of this stuff is. An old telephone we might be able to reuse. Are
37:19these old batteries? Yeah, look at that. That's probably dangerous, isn't it? Old
37:23paint cans. A perfectly good lamp. I mean, you're not gonna use that anymore. This
37:29is a mixed tape. That's amazing. I didn't even know there were mixed tapes
37:32anymore. I see so much that can easily be thrown away. John started small with
37:38Peter's clothes. That's a lot of shoes. Do you wear these shoes? Yeah, they are a
37:43little worn, wouldn't you say? I would say these go in the recycling bin. We need a
37:48bigger box. We need, I told you we needed bigger boxes. Meanwhile, the guys started
37:52working on one big storage solution, a special couch just for Peter. Getting
37:58that nice and plush, right John? Oh yeah, this is coming along though, right? But
38:02then it was time to confront Peter's scariest stuff of all. This circle is for
38:11recycling, okay? This circle, this is donate. This tiny little circle, keep.
38:22Keep. Good system. Okay, here we go. John and Peter got to work.
38:30Let's grab this last couple things, head up.
38:41How do you feel? Great, and this is really all that's of value in the whole
38:45basement, I think. Good. And soon, the team was ready to unveil the family's new
38:49tiny headquarters. What do you think? I can't believe this is our house. Right? It's way more than I ever could
38:56imagine. But of course, the key parts were the storage solutions designed for
39:01recovering pack rat Peter, starting with the couch. The nice thing about the couch
39:06is that everything's on wheels, so you can push it out of the way and then when
39:10you see down here, it's all got storage. And then also the ottoman, storage in there.
39:16Yes, that's a huge amount of storage. Zach's solution for the whole family's privacy and
39:21storage, a wardrobe that doubles as a movable dividing wall. Just twist and the
39:28whole thing rotates, and then as you kind of push it right back towards the
39:34wall, and now you have just one big room. I'm speechless. Weeks later, the family
39:43was thriving in their new tiny home. I think we made a really great decision.
39:49It's made life way more efficient for us, and we'll have the rental income to help
39:54freeing up some time for traveling, and it's just incredible. A dream come true,
39:59truly.
40:03They came, they saw, they conquered the clutter. With the help of John and Zach,
40:09these families were all able to shed their mountains of stuff, ensuring they'd
40:15make a tranquil transition to Tiny House Nation. Long live Paredown Day!