The first 21 years of my life, I lived a light, minimalistic lifestyle. This wasn’t by choice. It was because I was poor. First, I shared a bedroom with my sister. Then later with various stepbrothers and “boarders”. Eventually, in high school, I had my own bedroom which was fantastic. So I never had much stuff. It all had to fit in my room. Plus, I had to buy most of what I owned myself and my ability to earn money as a child was slim.
Nonetheless, overall I was pretty happy having my own bedroom, owning some clothes that weren’t hand me downs, having a snare drum and having a room to call my own.
I wanted the things my friends had like cars, TVs, Nintendos, computers, parents who cooked dinner and helped them with school, nice houses, more toys etc.
But it wasn’t my lot in life.
Eventually, I got married and worked my way up the career ladder. I began to accumulate the stuff I always wanted: new cars, furniture, dogs, electronics, fancy dinners, and pretty much anything I could charge on my credit cards.
In time, my wife and I had a 3 bedroom house filled to the brim with stuff. We had hundreds of storage bins in our garage, basement and attic packed with stuff that we only saw when we moved.
We lived that way for 20 years.
When I was 40, I had enough and started making changes.
Today, I live very lightly and love it. I don’t want a lot of stuff.
I like owning just what I need and not much more.
Clothing: Two pairs of jeans, 4 pairs of hiking pants, 2 pairs of shorts and a dozen T shirts “fills” my closet. Six jackets – protecting me from the coldest winter days to the wettest summer downpours and everything in between. Hiking shoes, workout sneakers and one pair of dress shoes. Two “dressier” outfits for dates.
Car: The Orangemobile is perfect. It’s small, gets nearly 40 MPG, drive remarkably well and cost less than $20K brand new off the lot. Barring accidents, I expect it to last me 20 years.
My house: My modest 2 BR home on a .15 acre lot is more than enough for me. In fact, I could easily live in half this space with room to spare.
My lifestyle: I have inexpensive hobbies. Many are free or extremely low cost like exercise, playing the drums, painting, drawing and writing. I have small dogs. I eat out very rarely. I DIY as much as I can and rarely pay for someone to do something I can handle myself (lawn care, repairs, etc.).
It brings me great joy to not be owned by my stuff anymore.
I live quite comfortably. I am certain I could live out of a backpack with a few modifications to my lifestyle. I won’t, because my road trip taught me that I’m made for suburbia. I like having AC, heat, running water, electricity and a home base.
Efficiency and convenience and comfort are wonderful to have.
Living lightly has given me all of these and much more.