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Ziplining |
The first question that comes to mind is why are we working? What are our goals and what does our future look like?
A quote by Nigel Marsh:
"There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like."
So working is not an option and for us, we have solved one of those thoughts, we do like our jobs but it took many years to find work we enjoyed. When we left our secure jobs to do something we knew we would enjoy there where many MANY people saying we had lost our minds. We were leaving the norm for the unconventional and that had to be a bad thing. After eleven years of team driving I think that myth has been laid to rest.
Now looking at our future and the possibility of moving once again the reality of living in a tiny house is becoming more of a reality. We downsized greatly when we moved from Kansas to Missouri to an apartment. Now we live in a 1500 sq. ft. house that does not include the full basement that has lots of storage and also contains my office. With this room I am slowing adding stuff.... Oh look a new Halloween or Christmas decoration, or a new book, or even an interesting dresser. I have the room, I have the money, so why not... It is hard to not continue to fill space with things that catch our eye. Empty space is like a continues vacuum pulling at us to fill the space.
Now the reality of living in a tiny home full time; while on the road and while at home is mind numbing. The reality is in order to live in a tiny home I will have to get rid of STUFF once again. This time though I will be digging deeper into my items that have great memories.
What to do with the stuff? Some of my favorite children’s books will be given to our girls to read to their children, some of my other treasures that collect dust will be sold or given to those who would enjoy the small collection. Yes I have a collection of awesome Trolls and I will probably keep one or two. The goal is to downsize and not rent a storage unit to hold stuff that we do not need. The process is not going to be easy as I have one piece of furniture that my grandfather made that has never fit in any house we have owned that now will be down sized into something small and the picture will be the memory of the original item.
Do I give the stuff to the children so they have more stuff or do I sell or donate it? As I have started looking at the reality of living only in a tiny home I have started thinking about my stuff and what will have to go. My collection of Troll's, my collection of Key Chains, my collection of Swizzle Sticks, my holiday decorations, and my many cross-stitched pictures. As I went room to room in our house I look at the stuff I enjoy and the reality of having to part with it. One the really grabs at me is my butler frog, not many appreciate how awesome he is.
Some of the things I have saved over the years I could easily take a picture of and then get rid of it. There are one or two boxes of treasures I have that only mean something to me and I look in the box very seldom. Why do we keep this type of stuff? If the memories are so good would a picture not suffice?
As I start cleaning out closets, bookshelves, and storage the weight of maintaining all of this stuff will disappear and so will our expenditures. We will be able to enjoy our jobs more by doing what we enjoy, seeing our country, vacations, and doing what had meaning instead of maintaining what we have for those that do not care. Our goal is to work smarter not harder.
Here are a couple of Ted Talks that I found very interesting on this subject.
Ted Talk Adam Baker - Sell your crap. Pay your debt. Do what you Love
Ted Talk Ryan Nicodemus & Joshua Fields Millburn, A rich life with less stuff, The Minimalist