View Full Version : 30 years of Practicing Minimalism
Hard to believe but I have been a mostly minimalist lover for over 30 years. I do feel, at this point, it is something I am actively practicing, just like working out or learning a new skill.I have been everything from extreme (less that 74 items, living out of a backpack) to more comfortable (having a family, ebbing and flowing to our living/life situations) and everything in between. Today, I would say I am a happy minimalist. I have what I need, love what I have and can easily take care of what I do own and my environment is pleasant and zen. I have never had the desire to compete in minimalism, like you sometimes see on blogs or in videos, because I find no value in that but I do like to challenge myself to weird little things, like making 5 ingredient dishes, wearing just 4 items for the week to work, and seeing if anyone notices. I am also an expert of knowing my needs and editing as I go. Seems a little quirky, but I love to do these things.
Where are my minimalist/ish peeps at?
I am not as minimalist as you. I have been gradually vacationing closer to home so I spend less time in transit, more time relaxing, and less money, but I did not anticipate the current situation with no vacation. My finances, home, and work are straightforward. A lot of the complexity in my life comes from the give and take living with my mentally ill son, but I would not trade him for the world. My hobbies are low cost. For instance, from this time last year through the New Hampshire primary I went to hear 13 presidential candidates at their in person events. I was scheduled to hear a 14th, Howie Hawkins, in Connecticut when he cancelled due to covid. I am ready for the pandemic to be over so my life can get a little bit more complex.
I am not as minimalist as you. I have been gradually vacationing closer to home so I spend less time in transit, more time relaxing, and less money, but I did not anticipate the current situation with no vacation. My finances, home, and work are straightforward. A lot of the complexity in my life comes from the give and take living with my mentally ill son, but I would not trade him for the world. My hobbies are low cost. For instance, from this time last year through the New Hampshire primary I went to hear 13 presidential candidates at their in person events. I was scheduled to hear a 14th, Howie Hawkins, in Connecticut when he cancelled due to covid. I am ready for the pandemic to be over so my life can get a little bit more complex.
That sounded like a great, learning experience! We do the same, more educational and exploring type travel. Texas is big, so there is plenty to explore and see within a few hours and not a lot of people. I am pretty simple in my finances and hobbies as well. I've been doing some found material art projects and our little old lady neighbor "bought" my son's from him for $1. It's been fun!
Teacher Terry
6-7-20, 6:07pm
I used to have decorations for every season:)). That’s done and now I have only a few Xmas decorations that fit in one small box. I downsized clothes, pictures and Knick naks. If I haven’t used it in a year it’s gone except for luggage. We prefer to spend our money on travel and experiences. Since we are getting older we are traveling more internationally because who knows how long we both can do that. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule our month trip to Europe next summer. Don’t know if we will ever feel comfortable taking another cruise. We really enjoyed them.
I used to have decorations for every season:)). That’s done and now I have only a few Xmas decorations that fit in one small box. I downsized clothes, pictures and Knick naks. If I haven’t used it in a year it’s gone except for luggage. We prefer to spend our money on travel and experiences. Since we are getting older we are traveling more internationally because who knows how long we both can do that. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule our month trip to Europe next summer. Don’t know if we will ever feel comfortable taking another cruise. We really enjoyed them.
Sounds lovely!
Teacher Terry
6-7-20, 6:19pm
We have done lots of traveling in the states. We used our motor home to go to national park’s with 4 dogs. We only missed one that I still want to see (Glacier). We sold it in February.
We have done lots of traveling in the states. We used our motor home to go to national park’s with 4 dogs. We only missed one that I still want to see (Glacier). We sold it in February.
Could you rent one and wipe it down and go?
Teacher Terry
6-7-20, 7:55pm
We will go by car someday. We sold ours because the cost of gas and RV sites were expensive. Renting is very expensive. 4 years ago to park in Yellowstone it was 55/night and grand Tetons was 75. That’s for basically a parking spot close to your neighbor with no picnic table. It was nice not to have to drive through the park every day to get to your hotel. We went 4K miles, spent 6k with me cooking all the meals for a month. 2 years ago we took the car, 3 dogs and went 6k miles for a month and spent 4K staying in motels and eating most meals out.
We will go by car someday. We sold ours because the cost of gas and RV sites were expensive. Renting is very expensive. 4 years ago to park in Yellowstone it was 55/night and grand Tetons was 75. That’s for basically a parking spot close to your neighbor with no picnic table. It was nice not to have to drive through the park every day to get to your hotel. We went 4K miles, spent 6k with me cooking all the meals for a month. 2 years ago we took the car, 3 dogs and went 6k miles for a month and spent 4K staying in motels and eating most meals out.
We're currently in a campground in Sioux Falls SD for the night, moving over to Keystone SD tomorrow for 10 days, then on to Wyoming and maybe Montana before heading south to Utah and Colorado before heading home. Should be home sometime between mid July and early August.
It's got nothing to do with minimalism, just letting you know what you're missing. ;)
Teacher Terry
6-7-20, 11:52pm
Glad you are having fun Alan. Actually a month is all I can stand being away from home whether it’s in a motel or RV. Even going to Europe I feel the same way. As much as my husband likes to travel our last car driving trip was supposed to be for 6 weeks. We cut it short at a month because both of us were sick of being gone. We don’t miss the motor home at all and were so happy it sold.
Alan, that sounds like a dream to me, a really nice one right now! I can't even get my husband to agree to buying a travel trailer, and since he's the one who would have to drive it, I have to respect that.
But boy, I am envious of your idyll.
My grandparents were from Nebraska, as are my husband's, and I'd love to see some of those sites for genealogical research. We were both born very far from Nebraska so it was weird to find we had this in common, all these places.
I had a great great uncle killed by the Sioux in South Dakota.
Teacher Terry
6-8-20, 10:48am
Tybee, my advice is rent one and take a trip. Many people find out that they don’t like it.
That is good advice--I checked into the one near us and it did not allow dogs, however.
We will go by car someday. We sold ours because the cost of gas and RV sites were expensive. Renting is very expensive. 4 years ago to park in Yellowstone it was 55/night and grand Tetons was 75. That’s for basically a parking spot close to your neighbor with no picnic table. It was nice not to have to drive through the park every day to get to your hotel. We went 4K miles, spent 6k with me cooking all the meals for a month. 2 years ago we took the car, 3 dogs and went 6k miles for a month and spent 4K staying in motels and eating most meals out.
Maybe because I've never been camping or RVing but that does sound expensive to me and not worth the hassle of driving such a big gas-guzzling vehicle. As you said, if you drive in a fuel-efficient car the gas savings would definitely make up the price difference to get yourself into a Class B hotel near the park site. I'm not clear from your post, TT--did you prefer being in the park in the RV, or driving in a car and staying at the motels outside the park?
I guess if I were driving a big RV, it wouldn't be bad if you're on interstates outside of major cities. We had a conversion van for a while and even that was a total nightmare navigating city streets. I hated that thing.
TT it never ceases to amaze me how much we are alike. I would have written the exact same thing.
Teacher Terry
6-8-20, 1:54pm
The motor home got 9 miles per gallon. When we got to the park we had to rent a car because it’s too big to drive around the park. It was nice to stay in the park because it was less driving. When we took the car to Yosemite it probably took us a hour each way to get to our motel. We couldn’t tow a car because not all can be towed. Or we could buy a trailer for 4K to put the car on and then gas mileage is worse and the driver has a longer vehicle to pull. A motel room is bigger than the 27 foot since it’s only 162 sq ft. So having the motor home was more expensive and less comfortable. Simple, do you own one now or in the past?
When the kids were younger, we actually went 1/2 way across the country in a van. It worked out really well and I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind van living for a while.
Then my next thought was the Prius woman... I think her name was Sue? Van, yes. Prius, I don't think so. Or maybe just one trip to try it out. lol.
Oh, I forgot the Prius woman. I think one of my top goals in life is not to become the Prius woman.
We're in Keystone SD now, 1300 miles from home and we'll be here for the next 10 days. I know some people don't enjoy this mode of travel but I personally believe being a nomad is one of life's greatest adventures.
https://scontent.ffsd2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/103151415_1142447202783155_1390134766777898037_n.j pg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_sid=b96e70&_nc_ohc=ABvTFA3mw6UAX-32QC3&_nc_ht=scontent.ffsd2-1.fna&oh=d03ccde4a6b981f231ce9382deb35059&oe=5F02C714
iris lilies
6-8-20, 10:03pm
We're in Keystone SD now, 1300 miles from home and we'll be here for the next 10 days. I know some people don't enjoy this mode of travel but I personally believe being a nomad is one of life's greatest adventures.
https://scontent.ffsd2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/103151415_1142447202783155_1390134766777898037_n.j pg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_sid=b96e70&_nc_ohc=ABvTFA3mw6UAX-32QC3&_nc_ht=scontent.ffsd2-1.fna&oh=d03ccde4a6b981f231ce9382deb35059&oe=5F02C714
That is a nice rig.
Simplemind
6-8-20, 10:55pm
3256
We have had ours just a little less than two years. We gave it a hard go the first year and went out about 14 times the first year. I enjoyed it but learned I wouldn't want it to be my only type of travel/vacation. It isn't cheaper than hotels in my experience. Not with low gas mileage and park fees. It does allow us to travel with the dogs so basically we look at it as a dog house on wheels. The plan this year was to take it out a few times but return to our far flung travel. Then the pandemic hit along with DH having another stroke. So our other travel plans have been canceled and I'm working on refunds. We will go back to the RV and places fairly close to home until the time (Please God) that DH is up to traveling again.
Teacher Terry
6-8-20, 11:11pm
Simple, I thought you had one but couldn’t remember. Sorry about your husband’s stroke. We had 4 dogs when we took ours. Surprisingly we took 3 in our car and one was 80lbs. The other two were tiny. Now we just have 2 small dogs. We found it more expensive also.
I really like seeing the pictures of the trailors and the Minnie--Alan, that thing is gorgeous, very color coordinated. And the Minnie is exactly what I would chose if we could swing it.
I really like seeing the pictures of the trailors and the Minnie--Alan, that thing is gorgeous, very color coordinated. And the Minnie is exactly what I would chose if we could swing it.
Our travel trailer is a Minnie too, my wife's first project with her Cricut was to personalize it.
https://scontent.ffsd2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/102650718_298201658015101_9132825120660457520_n.jp g?_nc_cat=100&_nc_sid=b96e70&_nc_ohc=jgsww0ulAaIAX8HmKq-&_nc_ht=scontent.ffsd2-1.fna&oh=c7607ee96d7c137a633d46efb51fc6e6&oe=5F061D38
I appreciate reading everyone's thoughts on the pluses and minuses of RV's. I've gotten mixed reviews from the people I've known IRL over time. My Uncle/Aunt loved RV life so much that when they retired they lived in one for 15 years. Winters in AZ at an owned plot in an RV resort, summers in various national parks working a dozen hours per week or so as camp ground laundry room attendents to get a free space for the summer, and spending 4-6 weeks each fall and spring seeing the sites while getting to/from AZ. My sister and her wife, on the other hand, like theirs because they can take the dog and cat with them, but they don't feel like it's cheap, or even easier than planning a hotel based trip since a lot of the places they want to stay need to be reserved in advance.
As SO and I ever so slowly advance towards retirement in the next decade or so we have been discussing what that will look like. In theory I like the RV lifestyle, the freedom, always sleeping in my own bed, bringing whatever pets we have, being able to stay IN parks, etc. The downsides, though, concern me. One of the things I like about vacations is not having to cook or clean. Yes, eating out is more expensive but the upside is that I don't have to plan a menu or wash the dishes. And if SO sticks with his current mega-corp job for another six-ish years (he has to work for them for 20 years to get this) he will have lifetime employee rate benefits at all of mega-corp's hotels around the world. That alone would make the hotels vs. RV's discussion tilt strongly in favor of hotels despite the other negatives that they may have.
I guess I say this only to encourage (ask?) everyone to keep telling your stories so that I can learn from them. SO and I have a bunch of years yet before we need to be making any major retirement decisions, but if I've learned anything over the first 52 years of my life it's that time passes way more quickly than it seems to be doing at the time.
Our travel trailer is a Minnie too, my wife's first project with her Cricut was to personalize it.
https://scontent.ffsd2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/102650718_298201658015101_9132825120660457520_n.jp g?_nc_cat=100&_nc_sid=b96e70&_nc_ohc=jgsww0ulAaIAX8HmKq-&_nc_ht=scontent.ffsd2-1.fna&oh=c7607ee96d7c137a633d46efb51fc6e6&oe=5F061D38
That is really neat! Your wife could go into business with her decals!
Our travel trailer is a Minnie too, my wife's first project with her Cricut was to personalize it.
Good job! So far, I've avoided adding a Cricut or similar to my trove of art supplies, but they look all kinds of fun.
I started this thread as a minimalist perspective but I am so glad it became an RV thread! Why? I am considering this as a home down the road, my minimalist home! Keep the info coming. I don't need anything big or with fancy bells and whistles.
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