I did it

I put in an offer.
I find out whether or not it's accepted on Monday.
Cross your fingers, toes, eyes, I don't care.
Eep!

I have a dream ...

These ladies, they just look so happy. Shortly, this will be me


(http://www.vintagelucys.etsy.com/)



 

 ps: these are phenomenally fantastic tea towels that you can buy from vintage lucys.

I don't know if I ever mentioned why I love etsy so much:

a) it's original

b) it's not Walmart

c) I'd much rather pay the little guy any day than captain capitalist

If you're into space and that sort of thing

You kinda gotta be to live in a trailer. Into space. Or into saving it. Because you barely have any of it. So space just becomes a little more important. Like storage space for the copious bottles of wine you didn't have room for before:

(http://www.winebeds.etsy.com/)

And living space (I could live in my bed, I'd be thrilled if I never had to get out of it - completely and utterly satisfied) - with drawers in it. I am still convinced that someone should create a bed with a full dresser underneath. As well as a chair with shelving below the seat. And a sofa chair with storage space below the cushion. But this bed is a great start:

(http://www.mrnash.etsy.com/)



Or outer space ... ok - maybe living in a mobile home doesn't make you consider the value of outer space. But this is a beautiful table:

(http://www.studio724.etsy.com/)

More space saving ideas from etsy:

Upward Mobility: I wish that I knew what I know now ...:

"It doesn't matter what size your mobile is, it's small.

Which means that every time you choose to add a shelf,

chest, rack, or set of drawer..."



Living with Jack Kerouac

Ever try to read Jack Kerouac? I did. And sometimes I thought I needed to be on acid or drunk on red wine or completely sleep deprived or outdoors in order to understand what the hell I was reading. If you read Kerouac, and think about those ways of being, it might make sense to you too. Whatever it took, I think that in order to get his books, you had to get freedom. And you have to respect a lifestyle that's a little more people-minded and a little less capitalist. Small capitalists would understand it. Like children, and old people who aren't really playing that game anymore.

When serious players buy homes they don't view trailers. They end up living in the doll houses in the suburbs with attached garages and fenced in yards and they either don't know the neighbours or only know the ones they don't feel threatened by. And they sleep in king sized beds and dream about the day when they pay off their mortgage.

A friend told me "you will always live in debt. You are never going to be debt free. It's reality. Get used to it".

But he doesn't live in a trailer either. I have this image in my head, of living in my trailer, with my little mortgage, paying it off, and Uncle Sam furioiusly hammering on the windows because I don't have to let him in. Mr Moneybags is there too, wagging a disapproving finger at me and sort of tsk tsk-ing. I don't want to go to bed at night only to dream about freedom. I don't want to live with Sammy boy and Moneybags. I'm going to live in BC - arguably the most naturally beautiful part of my country, I'm going to live with my boys: Jay, Wayne and Kerouac. I'm going to live without debt, without the restrictions that brings. I'm going to live free.

Evolution

I tried, but it didn't take

I thought I was making a move to a simple life. Going from living in a house to a trailer, purging our stuff and starting over, moving from a large-ish city (population 600,000) to a small one (population 30,000). But when I looked into it, I'm not doing "simple living" at all.

I found out it's actually pretty serious stuff. There's this Simple Living Manifesto I found from zenhabits.net. It lists 72 ways to simplify your life. You'd think they could simplify the process a bit, but no.

The way they put it, It means getting rid of the clutter so you are left with only that which gives you value. and you can do it in 2 steps:

1. Identify what’s most important to you.
2. Eliminate everything else.

or, since that is apparently too vague and difficult for most people (myself included), you can follow their instruction manual and achieve satisfaction after all 72 simplification tasks are complete. Reading that list wasn't so appealing to me either. But I'm also not interested in killing babies, which is apparently what I'm doing if I don't at least make an effort



So, assuming it's on the list somewhere referring to de-cluttering my life, I started by cleaning out my inbox, outbox, junkbox ... all the electronic mailboxes I had. It took an hour. I don't feel much better. And I'm pretty sure that if I had that hour back, I might be able to use it napping, or reading a book, or petting my puppy which, simply, makes me happy.

Instead, taking on simplicity, seriously, is completely time consuming. I feel like I have yet another goal on the horizon and 71 more tasks on my agenda (I did find "declutter your digital packrattery" on the list). I'm not sure I'm cut out for this, and I'm not sure I want to be either.

Not to mention, it's not a happy moment when I realized that I accidentally deleted a whole number of emails I was keeping for posterity's sake, including one from a personal hero I've never met but have corresponded with. I feel like I just gave my autographed baseball to the dog to be used as a chew toy.


ps - that image, it's for sale. I'm not telling you where. Because one of the 72 steps to simplicity is "limit your buying habits" - so why market a simple living product when buying unecessary material goods is completely antithetical to the goals of simplicity?

I smell a ruse. I'll try again tomorrow when I'm feeling less suspicious.

Andrea Zittel, I think I love you

So I've been daydreaming about the trailer we're going to one day (hopefully sooner than later) buy, fix up, and call home. And I've been thinking about living simply, considering living small. I don't think it's a condition you are stuck with because you lack the finances to cut yourself a bigger chunk of the real estate pie - unless you are living in a rooming house. I've been in a rooming house. If you live in one of those 10ft by 14ft holes in the wall, I'm so so sorry. I will be living one step up in a trailer. But seriously, I don't think living small and simply is a devastation, I think it's a talent.

And because I love to think of myself as talented, I've been coming up with the most creative uses of space I can think of. If only I had the time, tools, materials and skill, I'd be building myself a kitchen table with a wine rack for a base. Or a kitchen table with a spice rack built in, right underneath the table top, edging all four sides. Or one with shelving below the table top made to hold place settings. Lots of table ideas for sure.

But none of my own ideas even compare to the space saving, multi-purpose furniture creations of Andrea Zittel - American designer and sculpture artist. She's amazing. And if she wants to come live in BC with me and Jay, and design our interior space for us, I'm sure there's room available (can you hear me Andrea? I'd gladly and lovingly adopt you in a heartbeat and Jay will just have to roll over and make room)



(http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/chasing_andrea.php)