This topic is one that keeps repeating in different ways throughout my life.
When you live in a little less than 500 sq. ft., simplicity becomes paramount. We moved from a 2200 sq. ft., 4-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath house into our RV, and that proved to be a process.
Round one began with going through each room in the house and throwing things out – obvious things. Then came the packing round; this is for storage, this is for the RV, this we have no idea what to do with it, but we can’t bring ourselves to throw it away just yet!
The reality was that we would have several rounds of selling, throwing out, giving nice things to charity, and family members. If we had known just how many times we would move the same objects around, and how many miles we would transport it, before we would arrive at our final inventory, we may have given up before we started! SO. MUCH. STUFF! Things we don’t even use, but that are “too nice” to part with. If you have a house, no matter how big it is, you WILL fill it.
Are our lives the same way? How much time do you spend maintaining your “stuff”? How many years are wasted in futile pursuits? The average American spends 9.1 years of their life watching TV. Of that 9.1 years, 2 years are spent watching commercials (sorry). Ladies spend a total of 17 years trying to lose weight. You will spend 2 years of your life sitting in boring, pointless meetings at work, when an email would have worked as well. All of this time, energy, and money spent on our “stuff”.
Simplicity is an art-form. The wise seek it out, and work hard to maintain it. The temptations can be many, and we are weak.
Having said that, in our “simple” home, we still have three flat screen TV’s, two computers, one all-in-one printer, two Apple TV’s, a Wii, three iPhones, one iPod, two DVD player’s, two microwaves, two refrigerators, communications equipment, etc., etc.! This is our “simplicity”!
Maybe, we still have a lot to learn…
Our Moving House 