So of course, it's been nearly a year since my last post here, so I guess it's that time again. I had something typed up awhile ago, but couldn't get the words just right, so the post was abandoned. The following post may be long and meandering, but I promise it has a point in the end ;-)
What inspired me this time was stumbling upon a high school friend's blog a couple months ago. He has somehow managed to post more than a post a day (on average) for almost 4 years. And they're not all lame, silly posts (like mine would be). Going through his archives from the beginning has been fun -- I appreciate the level of honesty and transparency he's demonstrated, and watching him change through his photos, also watching his skill in photography level up (as it were) is just plain interesting. Granted, it's probably more interesting for me because I know him, but here's a link, just in case you're interested.
His most recent entries surround an epic road trip, just him, his dog, truck, camera, laptop, and the bare necessities. He camped out and couch surfed his way through several states over the course several months. I'm more than a little envious of his ability to pull something like this off, as well as his bravery for actually pulling it off. It makes me contemplate what my husband and I would need to do, just to get to a place in our lives where we could press pause and go on an adventure for awhile.
He (among others) has also inspired me to start taking photos again. As much as I want one, I still can't bring myself to spend $1000+ on a nice DSLR camera. Yes, I could get a used one for much cheaper, but I distrust strangers too much to feel like I'd be getting a good deal. So instead, I've picked up my old school 35mm SLRs again. It's kind of exciting to shoot a roll of film and not know right away how many of the pictures will turn out as hoped. I've gotten quite a few duds (as expected), but I've gotten quite a few pleasant surprises as well. I don't have a scanner, and I'm too cheap to get the picture disc every time, so if you want to see the pics, you'll just have to come visit me ;D
Another friend from high school had a blog for about 9 months before deleting it, which is not surprising, but still saddening. She has a history of doing that kind of thing -- she even admits to a severe fear of commitment that extends into nearly all aspects of her life. On one hand, she's been married three times, she moves at least once a year, and she changes jobs frequently. It's interesting because this same fear gives her a certain freedom from things and belongings that very few people enjoy. She introduced me to hardcore minimalism, e.g. limiting the number of your possessions to less than 100. At her last tally before she deleted her blog, she had pared hers down to ~175 total, and was doing her darnedest to get to that magical 100 items.
Now, I probably have around 175 items within an arm's reach of where I'm sitting right now, so needless to say, I'll probably never be able to demonstrate that level of minimalism. However, between her story and a crazy marathon viewing of Hoarders on Netflix, I've been making an effort to significantly downsize my life.
My husband and I currently have a 2100 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. For 2 people and a cat. It's just too big. We don't use 2 of the bedrooms for anything more than storage, and the formal living/dining room is mostly empty.
So we're moving.
We found a 1500 square foot, 2 bedroom + loft, 2 bathroom townhouse that's right smackdab in the middle of our workplaces. Shorter commutes for both of us, less space for stuff, no more yard work.... there's really no downside... except...
What on earth do we do with all this shit?
I'm trying to channel my inner minimalist, and I've been having pretty good luck so far. We cleaned out one bedroom today and by the looks of things already, we're going to have one heck of a yard sale. It's a bigger relief than I expected, but there's a lot more stuff than I remember, and we're only one room in O.o;;
The biggest reason we're doing this is to improve our financial position enough that we can save up the cash to be able to quit our jobs for awhile and do whatever it is that we want to do at the time. Like take an epic road trip. Or spend a month in Europe. Or move to Hawaii... ~.^
What inspired me this time was stumbling upon a high school friend's blog a couple months ago. He has somehow managed to post more than a post a day (on average) for almost 4 years. And they're not all lame, silly posts (like mine would be). Going through his archives from the beginning has been fun -- I appreciate the level of honesty and transparency he's demonstrated, and watching him change through his photos, also watching his skill in photography level up (as it were) is just plain interesting. Granted, it's probably more interesting for me because I know him, but here's a link, just in case you're interested.
His most recent entries surround an epic road trip, just him, his dog, truck, camera, laptop, and the bare necessities. He camped out and couch surfed his way through several states over the course several months. I'm more than a little envious of his ability to pull something like this off, as well as his bravery for actually pulling it off. It makes me contemplate what my husband and I would need to do, just to get to a place in our lives where we could press pause and go on an adventure for awhile.
He (among others) has also inspired me to start taking photos again. As much as I want one, I still can't bring myself to spend $1000+ on a nice DSLR camera. Yes, I could get a used one for much cheaper, but I distrust strangers too much to feel like I'd be getting a good deal. So instead, I've picked up my old school 35mm SLRs again. It's kind of exciting to shoot a roll of film and not know right away how many of the pictures will turn out as hoped. I've gotten quite a few duds (as expected), but I've gotten quite a few pleasant surprises as well. I don't have a scanner, and I'm too cheap to get the picture disc every time, so if you want to see the pics, you'll just have to come visit me ;D
Another friend from high school had a blog for about 9 months before deleting it, which is not surprising, but still saddening. She has a history of doing that kind of thing -- she even admits to a severe fear of commitment that extends into nearly all aspects of her life. On one hand, she's been married three times, she moves at least once a year, and she changes jobs frequently. It's interesting because this same fear gives her a certain freedom from things and belongings that very few people enjoy. She introduced me to hardcore minimalism, e.g. limiting the number of your possessions to less than 100. At her last tally before she deleted her blog, she had pared hers down to ~175 total, and was doing her darnedest to get to that magical 100 items.
Now, I probably have around 175 items within an arm's reach of where I'm sitting right now, so needless to say, I'll probably never be able to demonstrate that level of minimalism. However, between her story and a crazy marathon viewing of Hoarders on Netflix, I've been making an effort to significantly downsize my life.
My husband and I currently have a 2100 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. For 2 people and a cat. It's just too big. We don't use 2 of the bedrooms for anything more than storage, and the formal living/dining room is mostly empty.
So we're moving.
We found a 1500 square foot, 2 bedroom + loft, 2 bathroom townhouse that's right smackdab in the middle of our workplaces. Shorter commutes for both of us, less space for stuff, no more yard work.... there's really no downside... except...
What on earth do we do with all this shit?
I'm trying to channel my inner minimalist, and I've been having pretty good luck so far. We cleaned out one bedroom today and by the looks of things already, we're going to have one heck of a yard sale. It's a bigger relief than I expected, but there's a lot more stuff than I remember, and we're only one room in O.o;;
The biggest reason we're doing this is to improve our financial position enough that we can save up the cash to be able to quit our jobs for awhile and do whatever it is that we want to do at the time. Like take an epic road trip. Or spend a month in Europe. Or move to Hawaii... ~.^
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