A Simpler Life

[droid_ca]

Been thinking lots lately of just having a simpler life no cell phone no facebook less television less internet more time more fishing more out doors less work...... OK less money but then again less is more .....Right? So what I'm wondering is how many of you have taken the plunge and down sized or are considering to down size and if so how'd you do it or how are you thinking of doing it ....Whats the plan of attack?

[Cliffmeister2000]

With a moniker like "droid", I'm thinking giving up the cell phone would be difficult for you...

[gregp136]

PArt of it is not buying into it in the first place. I have cable, but only for the Brewers games, no cell phone, and live as simply as possible.

Greg

[48Rob]

Whats the plan of attack?

Have a plan.
Understand the plan.
Follow the plan.

If you are/can be self sufficient, you can do as you describe and be content.

What are you living for?
If your answer involves learning how to enjoy whatever you can provide for yourself, and not what everyone else has, you might be able to get there!

Rob

[pilgrim]

I've been into downsizing for a few years now and I have never been happier. I don't have a choice for a few things because of my work, like a cell phone and computer, but we've managed to cut out a lot of things. The cell phone is seldom used and is not carried everywhere we go and my computer was banned from vacations many years ago by my wife!

For us it's been a total lifestyle change. You could say we've gone old school! As an example I sold my acoustic electric guitar a couple of years back and went totally unplugged - and love it. We took stock of our closet and decided to rid ourselves of the things that just didn't fit, weren't usable, or just plain out of style. I keep a few shirts and pants and just wear them until they are worn out. One of the things we do is live by a guideline - Something in - something out. I won't buy even a T-shirt without thinking about which one I'm willing to get rid of. We apply that to everything we do.

We've also downsized our home. We used to have around 2700 sq.ft. with a super large garage. We sold and rebuilt 1300 with a much smaller garage and in a couple of years plan to go even smaller. What we have found is that our taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities are all way less - actually well over 50%.

We seldom watch TV and spend a lot of our summer on the porch playing family games and the like. We spend some time on the internet but once again with some self-imposed rules, such as: Check the news and not get caught up in reading everything, no social sites, with the main emphasis on research.

We're on our way to living pretty much 'off-grid', just have a ways to go.

Our lives are slower paced, we have better relationships with each other, and generally enjoy life better.

One of the things I do is cruise this site and I really don't consider it a problem as I learn a great deal and the people are great!

Pilgrim

[sagebrush]

Lovely Assistant and I decided this spring to downsize. Sold my business and commercial property. (Still have one vehicle for sale.) Bought the vacant lot next to our house (actually the other half of our lot)and built a double garage there. Found a full time/part time job that provides benefits. (Too old for paper route, too young to retire)
Get to spend a LOT more time with my wife/best friend and a LOT LESS stress .
We heartily recomend this change if you are in a position to do it!
Will and Lovely Assistant

[hotrod]

ditched the cell phone when I shut down my fishing guide biz..still have the computer..spend more time cutting wood being with family and playing fiddle instead of doing things that cost alot of money.. simple is good....hotrodding is even getting to be less and less..

[jdarkoregon]

Mona and I have been trying to drop Direct-TV,
Today was the day. Switched to an antenna and saved $70 a month. Come to find out, we get 30 channels, that is more than enough.

The house will be paid off soon and we are enjoying just being around us. NO money is spent on parties.

John

[Wolfscout]

because of my disability, I keep a pay cellphone. I don't use it much. Often 10$ gets me a month or more of service. I use the laptop mostly to learn things... Like this site. I use the laptop to keep in touch with our kids... Yim phone calls and such. Saves on the pay cellphone too, plus adds video.
I grow our own veges, can and freeze and dehydrate what I can. I have fruit and nut trees. I have chickens and occasionally emus and goats. Basically I've turned our place into a hobby farm. We get by.
We don't go to movies at all. We rarely go out to supper. I don't buy "stuff" that doesn't do something for me.
I don't have to have a new vehicle as long as what I have will do what I need it to do. For example I have a Buick '95 Century and a '86 S-10 that I paid $50 for. Wife drives a '01 Pontiac Grand Am. They are all in terrific running shape.
However, I'm in need of a truck with more power. I'm considering next spring as buy time.

[LDK]

Someday I would really like to downsize. I've always had an interest in starting a small homestead. Buying a few acres of land and building a small cabin and living off grid. The only problem is my wife is totally against it.

[droid_ca]

The thing that intrigues me the most is just how much happier I hear people are I'm sure there would be some sad times but I do believe that the good will out weigh the bad now with that being said I like the idea of something in something out does that work truly for everything I can see buy clothes and what not but stuff that is consumed or what about supplies that help you make a living at what ever your doing for example chicken feed now does that count as something in or would that just be apart of daily life stuff I understand the need for enjoyment and entertainment I presently live in a community where we have a television tower that rebroadcasts about 14 channels to us with just a simple set of rabbit ears there are neighbors around here that do have the 1200 channels and I just ask myself is it really that necessary like what the heck are they watching kinda makes you wonder I do believe that I would need an internet connection as that is where I do most of my television and movie watching just have to look around and viola you have that kind of entertainment plus then there is the other uses for computers such as using them to make a income and for a communication device so I think I'll be keeping a computer for sure but the growing my own food that's kinda a pain we do have a nice little farmers market and there are some pretty good deals that pop up there I'm friends with some of the local farmers and we do a trade off sort of thing I'll help put on a new roof in exchange for meat or whatever so I have been finding it easier to downsize some things but then it is now a couple of big ones like power no wood stove no natural gas nothing but electric so I've been exploring the options of solar witch totally makes sense to me but as far as I know we don't get any sort of kickback from the government for going solar it's kinda an up to you sorta thing you want it you buy it you use it Sorry about the Rant just nice to see other peoples views and takes on every day sorta problems that we all have and maybe someone can help out some one else

[pilgrim]

Something in - something out works for our clothes of course because thats easy to do. We have applied that principle to other things - but not the consumables. For instance we really look at what we need for tools or kitchen items, for electronics, camping, fishing, hunting gear, and even regular household items like furniture, decorations, towels, bed sheets and blankets. We evaluated every item in our house using the following method:

Absolute use and need for daily living
Nice to have - makes life easier - really don't want to give up
Can get by without it even though it is nice
Don't really need or even use all that much
Has a triple layer of dust or in storage and forgotten

Example (relating this to the kitchen only at this point and obviously not a complete list):

We absolute need at least 1 pan, 1 pot, a baking dish, plates, glasses, and silverware
It's nice to have another pan and a couple different sizes of pots, my wife loves her baking stone, we use the mixer a lot as well as the food processor.
We can really get by without the hand held food chopper, the smaller hand held mixer, and really countless more items we just had on hand.
We hardly ever used the extra large serving dish (we actually had 3), the electric knife, some of the extra dishes and a whole lot of doubled up items in the utensil drawer.
We never use several of the mixing bowls, a whole lot of the baking items, and that quiche dish really had to go.

When I applied that to my workshop I found a lot of the same type of thing. I can't really use 3 hammers at once, or 2 jig saws, or 5 of the same size screwdriver.

Instead of buying books the internet or library is a great source.

I can only play one guitar at one time so we're in the process of selling several I had acquired.

I have a fun time seeing how few paper towels I can use - OK I'm a little weird sometimes but it works for me!

What we've also found is that we make far fewer trips to town than we used to, saving a lot of gas. A lot of our time is spent on the porch or fishing.


We will go as solar as we can in the future. Take our lighting as an example, for now we just use as much natural light as possible and don't stay up as late.

I grew up in a 7X50 trailer and we could only take a few items along with us as we moved around the country following pipeline construction so we found ways to multitask most items and just got by without a whole bunch. I remember mom weighing whether she needed that new mixer since the old one still worked. Dad had a small tool set that was well worn. I had a small collection of toys that only changed because I didn't play with them anymore and had outgrown.

As for our consumables we eat what we buy and buy a lot in bulk. Rice is a great example. We can buy a 50lb. sack for $18.00 at Costco and it serves us for a whole lot of meals. The storage isn't that bad and we just take some out of the container once and a while and fill a small kitchen container to use out of. We don't buy many prepackaged meal items or junk foods. We buy from local producers as much as possible. I cut and split our wood for winter and mow my grass with a really small mower, and my health is the better for it.

Each individual has to make the decision as to what is really important to them. I have dropped a lot of my hobbies that, although they were fun, they cost too much and took up too much space.

The possibilities are endless. I try to look back 50 to 100 years ago and see how they lived. It looks like so little when you really get into the depth of it but they made it just fine.

We've been seeking a simpler life for a long time now and we have found that more really isn't better - at least in our personal lives. Not only that but we really are a lot happier and find great pleasure in each others company and with our friends. Our cost of living has gone down a great deal. Oh yeah, the dog gets a whole lot of ball throwing time nowadays.

Pilgrim

[kirkman]

Here is my hero!...The ultimate in down sizing. If it where not for the wife and kids I would be doing some thing like this. Not quite as extreme but dang close.
http://www.dickproenneke.com/alone_in_the_wilderness.html

[stevem50]

down with facebook! i wholeheartedly agree with this thread, only buy what you NEED. if i'm spending actual green money for something, its gotta be a need. i have found a lot of people are working more and more on the barter/trade system.

i know people who spend 100 bucks on a "smart" phone bill a month.
i don't call that smart.

same people spend 150-200 on cable/dish so they can watch 500 tv cahnnels from around the world and still complain that nothing is on...

then watch what they saddle up in, single 30-somethings no kids cruising around in 8 passenger escallades, yeah, bitch about gas prices some more!

i tell my son over an over that for the most part, people are just plain dumb, don't follow the heard as they will lead you into the slaughterhouse

or maybe i'm just a cheapskate kook. i dunno

[Py0tr]

I'm really pleased I'm not the only person who feels the need to keep things simple. We only have one TV channel. We returned the satellite TV decoder because we just didn't watch any of the 60 channels on offer.

I will occasionally watch Tv on-line but that is very rare. Over the past few weekends we have been cleaning out cupboards and on Saturday morning we're having a yard sale of all the "extra stuff" we have and have, in most cases, never used. Does a couple really need two twelve place setting dinner services or 8 large square serving platters? We've decided not.

We are also committed to driving smaller, less hungry cars and tend to socialise at home or friends homes rather than flashy night spots, clubs and bars.

When my partner and I met he was living in an uptown apartment right in the middle of our largest city, Auckland. We've gradually moved further and further out of town and now live in a rural area surrounded by commercial farms. I'd like to get even further out, into the really rural bushblocks but I think I'll have to work at that goal slowly.

I always tell my children and my students, We all own this earth and need to consider how our actions effect others. What are we conserving, preserving and improving for those who come after us?