Think critically about what I bring into my living space.
Sometimes, what you bring into your living space is people, animals, and new ideas.
What an adventure life is! I look at
the goals I laid out three years ago, and I'm thrilled to see that
the core values remain. I've succeeded, I've faltered, I've
re-prioritized, I've adjusted...I've lived.
In the six months following the last
blog post, I made a lot of progress. I became more active, became
almost completely vegan, cooked regularly at home, was moving toward
a zero waste lifestyle, and was about 90% of the way to getting all
of my belongings into my living space.
Then life threw me a beautiful
curveball in the form of my partner. Two and a half years of
courting, moving, adopting animals, cooking for two, finding out what
was important for the two of us to have...it was bound to cause a
hiccup or two.
However, coming back to the blog three
years later, I find that I'm closer than ever to the goals I set and
newly motivated to keep moving! My debt is limited to my car and my
house. My house is on the market. I just got rid of seven boxes of
stuff I don't need. I still have things to bring to my partner's
house from mine, but I'm more sure than ever that I don't need a lot
of those things, and they will likely go directly to a donation box.
We agree that a small house with a lot of land and a garage for
hobbies would be ideal – my partner makes furniture and I have
picked up quilting and painting as hobbies. Keeping those separate
from the main house would allow us to save on utilities, and to keep
our living space (the space that needs to be cleaned regularly!) to a
minimum.
I remain vegetarian, and I'm slowly
making attempts to move toward a lower waste lifestyle.
My partner has a lot of tools, but very
little else, and hates shopping with a passion. I could not have
found anyone better to explore this minimalist lifestyle with! Our
minimalism doesn't look much like the minimalism you see on the
internet – we have a project room filled with art supplies and
fabric – all of it loved and used! We have a lot of collected art
on the walls. We have a bright green kitchen. But we are
intentional. We don't have things just to have them. We have them
to live the life we love, right now.
Goals are great, and they've gotten me
far. But the last three years have taught me to go with the flow,
enjoy the detours, and love the now.
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