100 Things Challenge Interview

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.

What We Like (and Don't)

Parked in Charleston, SC

Well we’ve been living pretty much full time in the 160 sq. ft. of space allotted in our VW Rialta for about three weeks now.  Here’s a brief list of things we like and don’t like about it:

Like

Home is where we park

Life is simplified

Not having clutter

Freedom (though it’s quite scary sometimes)

Exploration, we’ve seen some truly stunning scenery

As winter gets closer, we’ve only gotten warmer

Cooking simple meals with a two burner stove

We don’t have a lot of clothes, hence it is simple to get dressed

We use our microwave as an extra cabinet rather than a microwave

It’s cozy

Friendly locals (more the further south we’ve gotten)

We can fit in most parking places in the city (only 22’ long)

We have a TV, but we don’t watch it (we watch the occasional movie or show on the laptop)

Dislike

Tolls

Staying at WalMart too much

The suburbs that we have to drive through to get to the Wal-Marts

Not having a sense of community – we miss our friends, and our local shops

Doing dishes in a mini-sink

Banging a knee or a head into something at least once a day

Having to move various items (ie. Fishing rods) to get to storage (ie. the kitchen cabinet)

One of us can sit while eating, the other has to stand (we’re sleeping on the dinette)

Things We Miss

The aforementioned friends and local shops

Unlimited hot showers

Laundry facilities

Dishwasher

Going out to eat more often – we’re on a very limited budget to be doing this

Being able to be “greener” (we had a worm compost at our house)

Grocery shopping for more than two days at a time

A couch

A kitchen table

--

All in all, this has been a great experience thus far.  We have our days where we look at each other and say “what the f*ck are we doing!?”, but the good experiences outweigh the bad.  In looking over our lists of likes and dislikes, it seems the things we dislike or miss are many of the conveniences that we take for granted when living in a house or an apartment: furniture, unlimited water on demand, etc.

Will we stay living in an RV forever?  No.  Our ultimate dream is still to live on a sailboat.  We are living in less space than the size sailboat we will eventually live on, so this has/continues to be a good primer for that.  In the meantime we will continue our travels on land, but keep the water in our hearts.

A Week of Transition

It's been a week since I left Albany, NY, my home for the past ten years.  I'd wanted to leave for quite a while now, so there haven't really been any feelings of nostalgia for it.  Of course I'll always miss my friends who are still there, but with our new mobile lifestyle I have faith that I will see them all again.

Our first stop after leaving Albany was at my in-laws on Long Island.  We were there until Wednesday of this week arranging and re-arranging our new 160 +/- sq. ft. of living space.  That's 10% of the square footage we had when we lived in our house.  We've gotten rid of so much, but we still ended up with two large garbage bags of clothes for Goodwill and some other miscellaneous errata that was donated.  It's good to know that our no longer wanted or needed items can have a new life with a new owner.

On Wednesday we left for Trenton, NJ.  An unlikely stop, I know, but we decided to take the opportunity to visit with some family there.  We ended up staying for two days as we found out that some other cousins were coming into town on the second day.  We hemmed and hawed about the decisions to stay, feeling like we had to get on to our next destination, but it dawned on us that we didn't really have to.  We don't have to be anywhere specific until at least the 30th.  The kind of freedom we are now experiencing is both liberating and frightening.

On the second day in Trenton we came upon an unexpected surprise at the Trenton City Museum located in Cadwalader Park.  There was a good art exhibit featuring local artists in the renovated 1800s summer home that the museum occupies.  The park itself was designed by the same fellow who designed Central Park in NYC, and Washington Park in good old Albany, so it was a nice place to spend an afternoon walking the dog and soaking up some sunshine.

We've noticed we are about two weeks behind the climate in Albany.  Whereas they got flurries last night and most of the leaves are gone, we have had temperatures in the 60s and there is still a lot of green on the trees.  If we plan this right, this nice weather will follow us all the way down the coast.

Today we left Trenton and headed for our first real destination:  Annapolis, MD, the sailing capital of America.  You see, even though we decided to "cruise" in an RV, we are still sailors at heart.  I'd much rather be anchored in a nice cove than boondocking in a Sam's Club parking lot, but such is life.  The opportunity to use an RV came along and we jumped on it, we'll get to the boat soon enough.

This week has seen a lot of change.  Change in the amount of space we live in.  Change in our schedules.  Change in the climate (at least our climate, I won't get into global warming here).  Changes in our spending habits.

We've finally started on our journey.  It's scary, it's overwhelming, it's fun and it's exciting.  This new life will take some getting used to, but we are living our life by our design and for ourselves.  There's no going back!

"Living the Dream"

A typical hallway conversation at my workplace:

Person 1:  "How's it going buddy?"

Person 2: (in a dejected and sarcastically toned voice) "Just living the dream..."

I hear this too often.  Why don't we just stop?  If you aren't living the life you want to live, living your dream, it is time to change.

The problem is that most of us think we have to work for forty or more years and sock money away to get to the point where we can go live our dreams, some would call it retirement.  Somewhere along that journey we lose our youthful ambition and the daydreams we had as children.  The simple fact is that almost anything is possible with enough determination and initiative.

What I mean is, I can't walk onto an NFL team as a quarterback (one type of dream), but I can get out of the work-a-day life I have been leading and start living life on my own terms.  It won't be easy, and it will take some sacrifice, but what is leading the life you want worth?

Too many people are unhappy, or just content with their lot in life.  But they assume that is how it is supposed to be: you work, save your pennies, and then "someday" you'll get to enjoy the things you are truly passionate about. 

Part of the reason for writing this blog is to challenge that assumption. 

Maybe I am crazy, but I feel there has got to be a better way.  There's got to be a better way than driving thirty minutes to work to sit at a desk under fluorescent lights while staring at a computer screen for nine hours only to turn around and drive thirty minutes home eat and watch TV till you fall into a fitful sleep only to repeat tomorrow.

My wife, Trisha, recently broke free of that trend.  By renting our house and getting rid of much of our stuff, she was able to quit her job to focus on starting a business for us.  It's nothing too fancy, no dot-com start up that will turn us into uber-billionaires, but rather a seasonal concession business that we can hopefully work at for an eventual six month on/six month off schedule.

I'll soon follow her out the door away from corporate America.  Our plans now include traveling south by RV for the winter.  It would be better if it was by boat, but plans change and we have to re-evaluate our situation and adapt to the challenges at hand.  We are sticking with our overarching plan of heading south before winter sets in, and we are still going to be looking for boats, while we journey in our "land-yacht".

I'll leave you with a quote from Bob Bitchin of Lattitude & Attitudes fame:

"Don't dream your life, live your dreams"

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.

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 :)

Always Wanting More

"I want to be a billionaire so freakin bad"

On my way to work today I heard a song on the radio with the above line as the catchy chorus.  The rest of the song went on about all the things he could do if he was a billionaire, and the fame he would get, though I should mention he said he would probably adopt a couple of kids.  Growing up, people always wanted to be millionaires, now apparently that isn't enough, you have to be a billionaire.

Immediately after the song, the DJ came on saying how times were rough but that was okay, you should enter his contest because you deserve a new car, and that would make you feel better!

This stuck in my head all day and got me thinking about how we are driven to always want more. The media, pop culture, our neighbors, family; all expect and push this ideal that everything would be easier and more glamorous with more.  More cars, more money, more house, more parties, etc.  We spend so much time thinking about what we could do and have if we had more, that we don't pay attention to what we have, or think about how great our lives could be with less!

What if you had less?

The Minimalist Path

If you had a smaller house (or a sailboat) it would cost less money to maintain, and you couldn't fill it with as much.  If you had fewer bills you wouldn't need as much money.  If you didn't need as much money, you wouldn't need to work as much, or stay in a job you don't care for just because the pay is decent.

The way I see it is that there are two options if you want to be able to enjoy your life and not work forever:  

You could become a millionaire (or a billionaire).  

Or you could choose to live a minimalist life with fewer possessions and fewer expenses and live on much less. 

In between these extremes lay the majority of people who are just trying to get by saddled by debt and the desire to always want more. I was on this path, and in some ways still am (the house hasn't sold), but am trying desperately to break free. 

To me, the easiest path is the minimalist path.  It is a path that you can control, that doesn't require you to win the lottery, or to be a movie star, or a Wall Street tycoon.  I think the odds are definitely in your favor if you have less.

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 furniture, Christmas decorations, and assorted knick-knacks. 

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.

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.