i've been thinking a lot about stuff lately, particularly as harrison and i have been looking to buy our first home. with the home buying process there are always things that you're looking for. does the house have a yard, fence, washer/dryer, master bath, wood floors, front porch, enough windows, granite countertops, vaulted ceilings, room for an office, two kids rooms, a guest room and a master bedroom...? the list goes on and on. and can get pretty extravagant pretty quickly. and to add to it, there is now the handy dandy website called pinterest that can make you jealous, dissatisfied and downright angry because you don't [and probably never will] have your five bedroom shabby chic mansion with a hot tub in every room and ridiculously attractive children in trendy clothes you sewed by hand, sitting at your custom reclaimed wood table in front of a chalkboard painted wall displaying a perfectly imperfect scrawled bible verse. i'm totally guilty of feeling like my life is a total bummer after looking at too many "dream homes" on pinterest.
all of that is to say, what and how much do we really need? the answer is totally different for everyone. but i've been feeling a huge need to simplify my life lately.
i think for harrison and i, simplicity is starting to mean a much smaller home than we originally wanted. at one point in our house hunting, we put an offer on a four bedroom house. FOUR BEDROOMS. for one giant adult, one miniature adult and a medium sized dog [and all three of us are usually in the same room and on the same piece of furniture]. the house ended up not working out and i'm so relieved. we would have been living in a huge empty house and it probably wouldn't have felt much like a home.
i've been researching small space living and it's really been pumping me up. i've found some incredible stories of couples of all ages and families of all sizes living in houses with less than 800 sq/ft and sometimes down to roughly 150 sq/ft. not necessarily because they can't afford any more, but because they don't want to live in excess. there's actually a whole movement of small space living. it's very inspiring. you should google it and see what you find. since learning all of this, harrison and i have included buying and living in an airstream trailer in our ten year plan!
aside from living in a smaller space, i'm planning to clean out our closet and get rid of clothes. i do this about twice a year anyways but i still seem to have drawers overflowing with clothes i never wear. i would like to get down to about one to two weeks worth of clothes. i wear the same things over and over again anyways, so it shouldn't be too difficult. but because we americans tend to be hoarders, it may be a little harder than i think.
this new-found desire for simplicity can partly be blamed on all of the annie dillard that i've been reading lately. she makes me want to sell all of my stuff and live in the woods and examine nature and the wonders of life [i should note that you do not have to sell all of your belongings and live in the woods to live simply. there are many ways to accomplish this and it is different for everyone. the whole vagabond forest lady is just a personal dream of mine].
but, whatever the reason, i'm really excited about trying to live life a little more simply. i'll report back once i've actually made some things happen.
<3 jojy
photo credit: the long farewell from our wedding.
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