Life: 10 x 10

Happy New Year! Rather than make new resolutions, I’ve decided to scrutinize the ones I’ve accumulated over the past year. Matt and I are about to go on “vacation” (more on that later) for a week and this seems like a good time. It’s been about two months since my first blog post, and I find myself wanting to know where I stand. What have I accomplished since my initial, fiery resolve?

Shelter/Tumbleweed

We ran up against some obstacles, to say the least. The legal loopholes that usually allow for Tumbleweeds simply do not exist in New Hampshire. After a conversation with a very nice building inspector, I learned that it’s not just illegal to live in an “accessory structure” of less than a few hundred feet, but it is also illegal to live full-time in an RV. I suspect this has something to do our cold-weather climate mixed with NH’s generally high standard of living. As we work out a solution to this problem, we’ve resolved to move to a much smaller apartment when our current lease ends in June.

Finances

More importantly, however, Matt and I realized we simply can’t afford a house right now. Even a Tumbleweed. School loans put us in the red, which is a poor foundation for our new lifestyle. So after many a late-night conversation we decided to make debt our first priority. (I’m pretty sure we made an oath swearing off mortgages somewhere in there.) For us, this means delaying our dreams of part-time employment and spending the next few years earning our academic degrees all over again – this time in the financial sense. This may seem like a setback, but I believe the mental footwork is progress in the right direction.

Stuff

This is the category in which I shine. I’ve learned that it’s very easy to throw things away, but much harder to avoid the ever-vacuous landfill. I wince whenever I toss something in the trash. I’m not mad at myself for impulse-buys of the past, but I am a fan of atonement. This means a lot of cleaning, sorting and selling. A great number of books have gone to the local library. I’ve reduced the clothing I actually wear to about half of what it used to be. The other half is in stasis, but will soon be finding its way out the door. As for the knick knacks, the sentimental papers, and the “I’ll-get-to-it-someday-craft-supplies,” progress is slower, but apparent. I’m not getting rid of all of my high school papers/correspondences, but the vetting process has gotten a lot stricter. And many things are being scanned and gotten rid of.

Computers

Matt and I recently did the unthinkable. We decided to share a computer. Gasp! What?? Whoa, now, hold on there kiddies, don’t get carried away. We share a desktop. We still have one laptop each (er… in my case, a laptop and a netbook). But it’s better than it used to be. At our peak, we had no less than 7 computers in the apartment. And yes, I realize this is absolutely ridiculous.

It wasn’t like we bought the latest and greatest every few months. It came from an inability to get rid of the old. I mean, what if I need an extra computer? Or what if my still-functioning Windows 3.11 laptop is worth something some day? These were the anxieties that kept them close, move after move. And we haven’t completely fixed the problem… yet. Most of them are still sitting around collecting dust. But slowly, we’re finding responsible ways to dispose/disperse. We’d like to get it down to three total. One desktop to share for intensive tasks and one laptop each so we can both read/write at the same time. It still sounds excessive, I know… but we’ll re-evaluate the situation when we get there.

Exercise

I’d give myself an “E” for effort here. Or maybe an “E minus” for feeling the urge to make an effort. I went to the gym one morning in November when I couldn’t sleep. We recently set up our DDR pads and played for about a week… and then… fail. The end-of-year crunch at work put an end to that regimen, but hopefully we can rectify this situation soon.

Food

Yay, another thing we’ve been good at… mostly. Though exercise is lacking, our diet has seriously improved. We recently… acquired… a GABA rice maker. OK fine, so we bought a new thing. No, I do not regret it. Check out the health benefits here, here and here. Plus, we can throw in rice before work and come home to a delicious dinner, making us that much more likely to eat something that’s good for us.

In general, we’ve been aiming for a higher-fiber diet with lots of grains and veggies while phasing out large portions of meat, sugars and salts. When we do buy animal products, we try to find them ethically-raised. A-Market is a wonderful source, but the ethical and natural trends are finding their roots even in the mainstream grocery stores.

We were eating lots of fish, but we’ve had to belay that habit for reasons I will explain in another blog post. All in all, I feel our diets are improving.

Conclusion

Not bad at all. I’m feeling very inspired about getting rid of things, so I’m going to ride that wave for now. Hopefully vacation will be a jump-start to our pitiful exercise routine. But I’m not worried about reaching my goals instantaneously. As long as progress is made, I’m happy. And heaven save me from the day that I’ve reached the end of all my goals with nothing left to strive for.

Well, actually more like 8 x 14, but these houses are 100 sq. ft. or less! That’s tiny, but there are a growing handful of people living comfortably in them, and I’d like to become one!

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

The above is a company building and selling tiny houses. You can get the basic idea by looking at their designs.

Here’s another site with resources and plans:

http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/

Wouldn’t it be lovely to live without a mortgage, quite possibly in a house that can move with you whenever you happen to feel the wanderlust? Esp. for someone in theater, a highly mobile profession, the idea of taking one’s house along for short stays is very appealing.

No mortgage, and so much less stuff! After all, Campbell’s Law of Storage states:

Ones possessions will expand to fill whatever storage space is available.

With a tiny house your storage space goes way down. Since there’s no room to put new stuff, you are almost guaranteed to get less of it! There needs to be a place for everything, and everything needs to be in its place… else you won’t be able to move.

Why do we need so much space inside when we can move around outside, or do the things we do inside in a lot less space? Most of my inside work is office-type stuff. I do research, I write, I read. All these things can be done in a very small space.

Living in a tiny house is inexpensive in general (no debt, low heating and lighting costs), and I imagine that the mindset of a tiny house dweller tends towards lower cost living in all areas. I look forward to being able to support myself on an actor’s limited income.