If you've ever tried to get an accountant or financial planner to let their hair down, break some rules, or let the road take them where it may, you may have experienced some frustration at their inability or unwillingness to participate to your liking. Let's face it: my people, we are not always the best at "going with the flow". It's taken me years of self-work and practice to get comfortable with impromptu picnics and letting people borrow my books (and not throwing a hissy fit when paperbacks get returned with the spines creased -- there is a special place in detail-orientation hell for you spine creasers).

But there are times when a decade of work experience in operations comes in handy. When you downsize from 1800 square feet of living space (plus a garage with overhead storage) to 100, you can't, at least not with success, just wing it and hope everything fits. I owe a great debt to my mother here, for teaching me from a young age the lost Russian art of Furniture Tetris (also Dishwasher Tesselations and Refrigerator Optimization, but that's highly advanced and out of scope here). To play along, you will need:

Room dimensions are 8' x 14', with the first 3' of the long wall taken up by the sink-door-closet combination. Bringing the sofa is non-negotiable. It has colorful buttons.

Graph paper
A tape measure to measure your furniture
Precise dimensions and layout of the space to be occupied

Below are the results of this exercise for my current situation. As you can see, there's a limited number of ways to make it work without turning Tetris into Frogger and having to leap over furniture to get into bed. Please note that 4 squares are equivalent to 12", so while some of the layouts look appealing, they leave little room for a big booty to squeeze through. Input is most welcome.

The way I thought it was going to work is unfortunately hindered by physics.

Legitimate(ish) options shown below.