My ideal answer to the question above would be, “Easy, I could just go.”

My main goal for New Years was to get rid of more stuff. Right now, I have more stuff still than I’d like. I’m not a pack rat or anything, I just do have stuff. Over 30 odd years it builds up. In my case a lot of my stuff consists of books, paper items like notes, saved articles and such, and art supplies. If Cedar and I were to pack it up and travel, we’d need a medium sized storage space (for both furniture and boxes). To me that’s too much. Lately I just want to simplify as much as possible.

I have been working on my goals though. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Went through my files and recycled about half of my paperwork. I saved obvious stuff like tax and medical files and got rid of most of the rest.

Over the last few days I’ve been going through books. I have about 300 or so. Now I’ve set maybe 100 aside to sell at Powells Book’s. This has been really hard. I love my books, or did, I’m starting to feel confined by them though. It’s time to let go. I’m also going to give some away – the ones that are more used looking. In all I should end up about 200 books lighter.

I think I’m going to try and get my art supplies organized too – but I’m still working on a good solution. Because we homeschool, we do use them all, but I think I want less.

Lastly, soon, Cedar and I are going to go through his toys. While I’m not a pack rat, this kid sure is. He has tons of stuff.

If I bought an RV and Cedar and I took off, or wanted to backpack for a while, it would be easier with less stuff. Since that is in our future plans, it makes my goal easier to work on.

Here are some more resources about having too much stuff:

The hidden costs of too much stuff - MSN Money

Stuff Owns You

The awesome Story of Stuff video.

Two of the most influential books to me about stuff have been Your Money or Your Life and Into the Wild. I highly suggest both – although, I don’t necessarily suggest you take off for the wilds of Alaska quite like the kid in Into the Wild did, it’s still a good example of being less confined. They recently made a movie of Into the Wild – no where near as good as the book, but beautiful, here’s some musical inspiration from that flick.

So, how are your green New Year’s goals going?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Downsizing is a great way to live a more eco-sensible lifestyle and Ward also wrote, Use What You Have Decorating — another good green idea.

The good:

• The obvious best point of this book is that most of us could downsize as a way to tread lighter on the earth and even if you’re shunning green living (now, why would you do that) housing costs have gone up and even if you want a large house it may not be in your budget. For eco, budget, and sanity minded reasons downsizing is a logical way to live.
• This book covers ideas for decorating success when downsizing no matter the reason. It offers ideas that work if you’re moving to the city, trading in the large family home, or simply moving because you’d like to simplify your life. I like that the book covers the downsizing process in easy to manage steps.
• Ward discusses everything; from assessing the floor plan of your new home, to the preparation that needs to happen before you move (like measuring and locating light sources), to what to pack and what to leave behind. Once you have your new space she covers how to make the small space workable for you. Issues like making a space multifunctional and how to repurpose your stuff is all included.
• I LOVE how the book is broken down. Ward uses multiple headers and text colors in her book which really makes great tip sections; like bookshelves as room dividers stand out. You would hope that a book from a designer would be designed well and Ward gets a gold star from me for her easy to read, easy to scan, and easy to use content layout.

To give you an idea of what you’ll find in this book here’s how the book is broken down. Although keep in mind that each chapter has multiple sections with various case stories, tips, and more.

• Intro: Living more simply is the best revenge
• The ten most common decorating mistakes you don’t have to make
• Preparing for change
• What to pack and what to part with
• What to do with what you part with
• The truth about storage — you can never have enough
• Repurpose your stuff
• Camouflage and sleight of hand
• Make it multifunctional
• For kitchens and bathrooms only
• New tactics for living smaller
• One year later — time to reassess

There’s also an amazingly extensive resource section in the back that covers where to find the best storage and home items for downsizing.

The bad:

The one problem I have with this book is that when it comes to books about homes and decorating I like insanely cool eye candy. Chalk it up to me writing Offbeat Homes, or my preference for unique and / or retro style digs but this book had very few photos that interested me. The book’s style is more elegant and contemporary than I like.

That said I am sort of a snob about how I like things to look and also most people don’t agree with my decorating style. I’m guessing that about 90% of people will like the photos in this book. Overall I thought the usefulness of the tips far outweighed me not loving the photos so I’d highly recommend it as a useful book to have around if you’d like to learn to live smaller and still functionally.

If you want to see some of the photos in the book check out Harper Collins.
Win this book:

I am so contested out after last month (I had something like six blog contests going on) that this is going to be low-key. Here’s the deal; leave one comment anywhere on this blog between now and um, let’s say the 1st of December and I’ll enter your name into a big bowl and pull one out and if I draw your name I’ll send you this book.

Easy as store bought pie.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family