So, after 2 months in wild Alaska, how am I adapting to mainstream life in the lower 48? Here are the highlights! Greatest convenience (besides a flush toilet): plugging in my computer and phone every night and finding them fully charged in the morning! Best Kitchen Moments: Washing dishes with soap, water, and a sponge, instead…
Tango and I are settled into my friend Gennie’s house in the Williamette Valley, in Central Oregon. She is making the transition to becoming a full-time RVer and needs some help making forward progress. Sorting through things and making decisions about what to keep for this next phase of life is so difficult. What goes…
I love the curiosity that resides in human minds and leads to new and interesting statistics. Curiosity compelled several researchers to determine how much our “stuff” weighs. You know, our books, kitchen ware, toys, clothes, bins of stuff in the garage and everything else we own. Here is what researchers at the University of Leicester…
Blue Moon is snug and safe in a storage place. I need to keep the battery charged so I dug out the solar panel and hooked it up. I checked with the front office guy to make sure it was okay and he said no problem, and also “we have lots of sun here”. Really?…
Small is Beautiful, Small is High-Tech. Now I want to propose that small is also low-tech. Why not have the best of both worlds while reducing your carbon footprint and creating a simpler life. However, thanks to my recent posts, my definition of small is getting large, so I will clarify what I am talking…
Simplifying. Minimalist lifestyle. Slowing down. These pursuits involve getting rid of excess possessions that choke our body and soul. Ask any empty-nester, recent retiree or minimalist officianado how destuffing leads to a new freedom. Some minimalists may also be anti-technology, although I am not. In fact, high-tech helps me to get RID of often burdensome possessions. The…
In my last post, I mentioned that I want to radically simplify. What a luxury to ask such questions, especially if you consider how 80% of the world’s population struggles to find clean water each day. Anyway, now I must figure out what radical simplifying means. I am pondering the following: Will I measure my…
Frequent readers know that I am trying to live a more minimalist lifestyle and euphemistically call the process of purging my excess belongings “simplifying” and even “destuffing”. This week, I wrestled again with the shifting moods of my materialistic inner being. The mood on my day off was: get rid of the stuff you have…
While in Ohio helping mom move, I muttered often under my breath about all the stuff she had accumulated. I judged Mom and patted myself on the back for being much more sensible about stuff. I silently thanked the “Stuff Empress of the Universe” that I am not a hoarder. I don’t have piles and…