Our life in 33 things
I'm finishing up reading Tammy Strobel's book about simpler living, "You Can Buy Happiness (And It's Cheap)". It's been a fun read and I can relate to Tammy about her experiences with downsizing. It's been helpful to read about other people who are rethinking what it means to be successful and creating a fulfilling life with less stuff. Every chapter has a list of "Micro-actions" that the reader can do to get them closer to their goal. One of them was to make a list of all of the things that you do in your home. Colin and I had a fun time making this list together. Here is what we came up with: 1. Sleep 2. Brush teeth 3. Take medications 4. Poop! 5. Charge our phones 6. Wash hands 7. Look for Dante (Is Dante here? Yes or no?) 8. Make coffee or tea 9. Cook 10. Eat 11. Wash dishes by hand or dishwasher 12. Dante does yoga 13. Use computer 14. Colin runs (outside, usually) 15. Shave 16. Shower 17. Get dressed 18. Play video games 19. Work at home 20. Read books 21. Watch movies 22. Make popcorn 23. Feed cats 24. Change cat litter 25. Painting & drawing 26. Sew 27. Sexy time! 28. Hang out with friends 29. Gardening 30. Tabletop games 31. Sit on porch 32. Look out window 33. Meditate There you have it. It's strange to see your life boiled down to numbers. The purpose of this exercise is to help me understand what we really do in order to make our living space accommodate these things. These are the things that we like to do and keep us happy (or functional). As I continue to downsize, I've started looking more in to the "tiny house" movement. This might be my end goal. A freeing thought occurred to me yesterday morning. As I was waking up, I thought "What if this will be the most stuff that you will ever own from now on?" This was liberating. It freed me from the notion that I could keep accumulating more things in hopes of living in a larger place one day. Not having more things means that I won't have to move in to a larger, more expensive apartment. Not moving means that I can focus on paying off student loans and possibly saving money to build our tiny dream house and start a family. This could be it.
