Downgrading Your Lifestyle
April 16th, 2008. Filed under: Wednesday's Wonders.I just read a post over at LivingAlmostLarge about downgrading your lifestyle. Have you been thinking about doing this? It could be for a variety of reasons – becoming more frugal so that you can pay off that mountain of debt, becoming more aware of the impact your lifestyle has on the environment, nearing retirement, choosing a simpler lifestyle in order to spend more time traveling, or just wanting to get rid of stuff that’s dragging you down and eating up time spent cleaning and/or working more to maintain it instead of doing the things you really want to do.
What are your reasons for choosing a simpler, more frugal lifestyle? I’m doing it for all the above reasons. It started with just trying to eliminate the debt created by a lot of unwise decisions over the years. Now it’s creeping into every facet of my life. I’m becoming more environmentally aware and have started to focus on trying to let less plastic into my life and recycling all the items that my county has the capability to handle. I’ve discovered that it’s much more now than years ago when I first became aware of the need to recycle. Back then it was basically glass and aluminum cans.
I, hopefully, am nearing retirement in a few years. First, the debt has to go so that I can maintain that debt free lifestyle that I crave. Once that is accomplished I will budget for traveling. I miss that part of my life. I used to work on ships and that travel bug persists.
If I get rid of some of my “stuff,” then I will be able to spend less time cleaning it, shuffling it around, organizing it and letting it drag me down in spirits. I started on the “get it out the door” project when my mother died and I helped sort out, distribute and get rid of my mother’s belongings. I learned a lot about my mother then. She was a secret pack rat! I’ve had to fight pack rat tendencies all my life, but I had no idea my mother was anything like me in regards to “stuff.” She had the talent to hide it and pack it in the littlest places. It still blows my mind when I think about how much I moved out of some really small areas of her home. That was when I decided my kids were going to start inheriting early. That way they can use what they love and pass on what they don’t. And I don’t have to dust it!
I am having a problem letting some of this stuff go. Is it because I love it so much, you ask? No. Is it because I need it all? No. Is it because I think I need to keep it because I might need it in the future? No. I’m trusting God to meet my needs. He always has. There’s no reason for him to stop now. The reason is that I have so much talent. I’m extremely talented at procrastination. And part of that is because of my talent of becoming sidetracked. I am just such an all around talented person! 😀 Heaven help me lose some of that talent. Actually, I am being helped by FlyLady, but that is another post. Who or what is helping you downgrade/downsize your life?
April 16th, 2008 at 13:23
Freecycle is helping me to downsize. DH will be retiring in 2 yrs and today is my 60th birthday, so the time is right. I started about 6 months ago and I am lightening our load, so to speak. What doesn’t have a place with our grown children or grown grandchildren, goes to freecycle and goodwill. I am also sending things to Cheyenne River Reservation in SD. It gets easier the longer I am at it. After 43 yrs of marriage and downsizing from a big old farmhouse, I still have a long way to go, but it is really fun to find ways of using it up, giving it away, sharing it with a charity. Hugs, DJ in SW MI, USA
April 16th, 2008 at 13:53
DJ,
I moved to Indiana for three years when my mother’s health started failing. That is where I discovered both freecycle and CRR. My mother collected bears and a lot of them went to the reservation for Christmas at the Main.