One of the keys to Trisha and I being able to up and leave our "old" life behind and travel has been the ability to let our stuff go. I've talked a little bit about the 100 things challenge before and the concept of a minimalist lifestyle. I think living a simple life is one of the keys to being happy. Think about it, if you learn to get by with less and enjoy it, then you don't need as much money, so you can have more time to pursue what you really want to, and so on.
Another key to us being able to take off has been the elimination of most of our debts, specifically credit cards and car payments. Without having to pay for stuff on credit and then fighting to pay it off every month, we've been able to get out and follow some of our dreams.
So, with these two things in mind, I was happy to see an interview by Baker of Man vs. Debt fame (who is about to embark on an RV journey of his own) of Dave Bruno who started the whole 100 things challenge a few years back.
It's a great interview and touches on a lot of points that I think are valuable to cruisers, RV'rs, and pretty much anyone who wants to be able to cut down on the amount of stuff they have. So check it out if you have about 15 minutes to spare:
100 Things Challenge Interview
If you haven't yet made any resolutions for the New Year, this would be a great one.
Showing posts with label 100 Things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 100 Things. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Thursday, September 2, 2010
The Real Cost of Stuff
We moved out of our house this past weekend. After unsuccessfully trying to sell for the past four months, we took on renters. So naturally we had to move all of the junk, I mean stuff, that we have accumulated.
Well, not all of it. We sold off several large pieces of furniture the week before on Craigslist. We had also had a yard sale earlier in the season to get rid of unwanted items. I thought we were in pretty good shape for our move. So down to U-Haul we went and rented a 14' box truck.
Last Friday afternoon we left work at lunchtime to go home and load up our truck. Everything went pretty smoothly and fit in fine, though we did end up throwing a futon frame away and some other miscellaneous stuff.
Of course now we had to find a new home for all of our stuff. Luckily my in-laws were willing to take it in for the time being. The thing is, my in-laws live on Long Island; four hours and many expensive tolls by U-Haul truck away.
Long story short: we made it to the island after a harrowing journey involving cutting across nine lanes of NYC rush hour traffic, an inadvertent trip around the Mets stadium, and no bathroom breaks.
By the time it came to unload the truck the next morning, we didn't even remember or much care about what was in those boxes in the back of our U-Haul. In fact, we put up a couple more things for sale on Craigslist that day.
After all, the tag line to this blog is currently 'Achieving our dreams by simplifying our lives'. We've made great strides in simplifying, but we still have a ways to go.
Of course that isn't even taking into account all of the stuff that we have moved to our new apartment.
I estimate that to move our stuff it cost right around $500.00. That is just for the hard costs including truck rental, gas, tolls, etc. I haven't yet put a value on mine or Trish's time.
On the bright side we did make a trip to the beach on Long Island Saturday afternoon. We had said to ourselves that if we were going to go through all of this trouble that we would have to at least go to the beach for a half an hour and remind ourselves what all this craziness is for. We spent about five hours there.
The moral of the story? Own less stuff. I have talked before about wanting to have less, perhaps even trying to live with 100 or less things. I think this experience will be a good catalyst towards those goals. I have basically been living out of a backpack for the past two weeks as we have packed up and moved in to our new place for the next month.
"But Bill, what do you mean: 'for the next month'?"
I mean that we are moving forward. The opportunity to transfer to Burlington, VT with my job fell through. And while we have toyed around with the idea of the USVI, I think we will be stateside for the time being, just not in one place for very long :)
Well, not all of it. We sold off several large pieces of furniture the week before on Craigslist. We had also had a yard sale earlier in the season to get rid of unwanted items. I thought we were in pretty good shape for our move. So down to U-Haul we went and rented a 14' box truck.
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| Loading up |
Last Friday afternoon we left work at lunchtime to go home and load up our truck. Everything went pretty smoothly and fit in fine, though we did end up throwing a futon frame away and some other miscellaneous stuff.
Of course now we had to find a new home for all of our stuff. Luckily my in-laws were willing to take it in for the time being. The thing is, my in-laws live on Long Island; four hours and many expensive tolls by U-Haul truck away.
Long story short: we made it to the island after a harrowing journey involving cutting across nine lanes of NYC rush hour traffic, an inadvertent trip around the Mets stadium, and no bathroom breaks.
By the time it came to unload the truck the next morning, we didn't even remember or much care about what was in those boxes in the back of our U-Haul. In fact, we put up a couple more things for sale on Craigslist that day.
It got me thinking: if one annoying trip can make me forget about what is in those boxes, what did I really care about it in the first place?
After all, the tag line to this blog is currently 'Achieving our dreams by simplifying our lives'. We've made great strides in simplifying, but we still have a ways to go.
Of course that isn't even taking into account all of the stuff that we have moved to our new apartment.
I estimate that to move our stuff it cost right around $500.00. That is just for the hard costs including truck rental, gas, tolls, etc. I haven't yet put a value on mine or Trish's time.
On the bright side we did make a trip to the beach on Long Island Saturday afternoon. We had said to ourselves that if we were going to go through all of this trouble that we would have to at least go to the beach for a half an hour and remind ourselves what all this craziness is for. We spent about five hours there.
The moral of the story? Own less stuff. I have talked before about wanting to have less, perhaps even trying to live with 100 or less things. I think this experience will be a good catalyst towards those goals. I have basically been living out of a backpack for the past two weeks as we have packed up and moved in to our new place for the next month.
"But Bill, what do you mean: 'for the next month'?"
I mean that we are moving forward. The opportunity to transfer to Burlington, VT with my job fell through. And while we have toyed around with the idea of the USVI, I think we will be stateside for the time being, just not in one place for very long :)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Paring Down
| Verb | 1. | pare down - decrease gradually bit by bit |
We have been whittling away at the possessions we've accumulated by selling them off on craigslist, donating them to charity, giving them to friends, or putting them aside in a yard sale pile. The process is kind of like when you get asked: "If you were stranded on a dessert island and could only bring 1 thing, what would it be?"
While we aren't going that drastic, we would like to decrease our overall possessions to under 100 things. Fortunately for us, the boat will count as 1 thing, but be many things to us. It will be our home, our living room, our kitchen, our couches and our shower, our car, and so much more. By living on a boat, we won't need many of the things we currently possess including
We have done a lot of thinking about getting rid of most of our worldly possessions and what it will mean for our future. By getting rid of things we start to feel liberated. It is as if a weight is being removed and we are being lifted by helium balloons.
Fewer things = less holding you down/back/behind.
By simplifying our lives, we can achieve our dreams.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Minimizing Your Life
I often wonder if we are strange for wanting to "run away" from our typical American life. I mean here we are in our late 20s and we have so much stuff. We have a house, two cars, a flat screen TV, clothes, bikes, boats; by all accounts we are firmly entrenching ourselves into the middle class. Yet all we feel is that we have to get rid of it all and change the way we are headed.
We've been taking steps in the past year to reduce our consumption and the amount of stuff that we own. Last spring we had a big yard sale and managed to trim some of the fat. We've also been donating clothes to goodwill and the like. Still so much more remains.
There is a minimalist movement going on in the country now that we've recently been paying attention to. Maybe you have heard of the 100 things challenge? The idea is to reduce your worldly possessions to 100 items or less. To us it sounds very liberating. I mentioned it to some people at work and they seemed somewhat intrigued, but couldn't image in doing it themselves.
So, this spring we will be having another yard sale, maybe two. In some ways we'd love to do an estate sale where people could just come into our house and buy our things as if we had died. That would certainly make it easy.
What doesn't go in the sales will be donated to charity, and when we move south we'll take the smallest U-Haul possible. One thing about living on a boat is that we won't be able to re-accumulate this much stuff.
We've been taking steps in the past year to reduce our consumption and the amount of stuff that we own. Last spring we had a big yard sale and managed to trim some of the fat. We've also been donating clothes to goodwill and the like. Still so much more remains.
There is a minimalist movement going on in the country now that we've recently been paying attention to. Maybe you have heard of the 100 things challenge? The idea is to reduce your worldly possessions to 100 items or less. To us it sounds very liberating. I mentioned it to some people at work and they seemed somewhat intrigued, but couldn't image in doing it themselves.
So, this spring we will be having another yard sale, maybe two. In some ways we'd love to do an estate sale where people could just come into our house and buy our things as if we had died. That would certainly make it easy.
What doesn't go in the sales will be donated to charity, and when we move south we'll take the smallest U-Haul possible. One thing about living on a boat is that we won't be able to re-accumulate this much stuff.
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