The Beginning of a Simple Home and Freedom

"Why do we have so much stuff?!"
We were staring into our Storage King containers, trying to reacquaint ourselves with all we had left behind fifteen months ago, when we had gone to live in England for just over a year.
This comment, said with trademark teen accusation and disdain came from our 17 year old Alex.
  17 year olds as you know, are the epicentre of all wisdom and knowledge on the planet, so of course I was quick to respond with an "It's just what goes into any modest three bedroom Sydney house. If anyone you knew packed up their whole house into boxes, this is exactly what it would look like."
From Alex's expression it was clear he was not to be put off by boring  facts and responded with- "Well, I've been living overseas for fourteen months and didn't miss anything in there." (Good, then you won't miss it when I chuck it out dear...)
We were staring at 70 square metres worth of stuff that had been squeezed with difficulty into a large moving truck- despite multiple garage sales, charity store donations, Ebay sales and garbage disposal.
"It's never going to fit," my husband Fil comments. He's referring to the2 bedroom granny flat we are about to move into that will be our home for a time unknown. Mind you he has said this five times already and I am getting fed up. We are always complaining about dragging around all this stuff, so I keep responding with a "Well, it's a great opportunity for us to lighten our possessions and live more simply isn't it?" But Fil wants it both ways- uncluttered space and freedom together with keeping stuff he has bought with hard-earned cash. And he's meets most of my ideas of an adventure with fear and alarm- despite the fact they turn out well. Come on, they do. Mostly
We will just have to see. Looking at our possessions, I am uncomfortably aware that the reason we still had a mortgage was in part due to the things we kept spending money on. And, we don't even have all the fancy do-dads some people own or the finest furniture.
This is what I tell myself anyway. It justifies the spot that we find ourselves in right now.
It's a common phenomena that when people put their worldly possessions into storage for a year or more, they have trouble remembering what they actually own. Now I am looking at it all again as an outsider, I can see the trail of things bought as we renovated, as the boys grew from children into teens, as I went through fits of decorating or restoring old furniture. It's all there, more or less, looking at me saying "I deserve a spot in the new house don't I?"
After 8 hours of furniture moving and parting with $1100-, we are looking into our new home...with difficulty. Boxes are piled to the ceiling and spilling out of the door onto the tiny veranda and into the garden. We have no garage in the new place and barely any garden and the bedrooms are on the small side and the boys will have to share. Hmmm.
So why am I moving into somewhere that clearly does not fit us? Fil has been wondering the same thing for months.
Well, aside from family close by, reasonable rent and a brand new home, I think, short of our house burning down heaven forbid, this is the best opportunity we have had in our very average western lives, to jettison so many of the shackles we drag about with us and create a life of freedom and peace. (Play noble, emotive music here).We may not love the process, but the end result is something we all like the sound of. Freedom- it's not just an ironically named furniture store.
This is all a massive call I know, but I at least am up for the challenge.
 But what I'm really thinking is, can two working adults with different opinions and two teens who are not used to sharing a room or sacrificing much at all, live together in harmony in a little, simple house? Without killing each other, divorcing or writing each other out of our wills? (To Fil I leave thee the mop. It is used to clean a floor...)
Well, we are all about to find out...