Thinking back....

Looking back on my life, there are a few times in my life that circumstances forced me to become more minimal, even if for a short time.

I was 12 years old, and my parents wanted to build a home. In order to save money to put towards having a nicer home, we (My mom, dad and sister, with lil brother soon to come) moved into a 5th wheel on the property. This made it so we had more money without paying rent, and so that when my dad got off work he could work on the house, and be close to us too. I had 2 overhead cubbords to store my things, this meant clothes and maybe some music. We lived this way for about a year, at this particular time in my life it didn't really matter to me, I was going to get my own bedroom, bathroom and walk in closet. That was worth the wait in my opinion.

Of course upon moving into the house, the gear started to accumulate.

Then shortly after turning 16, we were going to endure the task once more. We packed up everything we owned except clothes and moved into an even smaller 5th wheel. My sister and I had bunk beds, and I had a little closet, plus a cubby at the foot of my bunk. This is the point that leads to my very first post on this this blog.

After some time I began staying with my boyfriend. He lived much closer to my school and work, and he took me in graciously. I kept a few clothes that were my favorites in the bottom drawer of his dresser and he bought me a few books that I still love today :) I had my car with a few things like big jackets and maybe an extra pair of shoes. But besides that, the rest was still in storage, a place I wish it would of stayed!

We eventually moved into our own home, and thats where it hit me. My parents went to storage and brought me boxes upon boxes of things I hadn't seen in a few years. To this day some is still packed in another storage. (still haven't touched it) We got even more stuff, we had friends bringing boxes of kitchen stuff, and plants galore.

After a year, we were financially having problems, so once again, I packed up everything we had, and we moved into 1 room of my in-laws house. We lived there for almost a year, and then while expecting our first child we took and even smaller amount of things and moved to an apartment that was still occupied by my brother in laws things. So we didn't really need any of our house wares yet.

9 months later, we packed all that away, (moving around the state lol) and moved into 1 room at my parents house (the three of us now) for a couple of months, and ended up at the in-laws for another 6 months.

So now two years ago we moved into this cozy duplex and we have been here since then. We are still working on all the stuff we put in storage. We had about 3 small storage units full, and have reduced it down to half of one, the plan is to finish that this summer and be done with it. We have both vowed that if circumstances lead us to live small again we would not put a single thing in storage, it would go bye bye for good!

Well now that you have my life story lol, you can better understand why possesions really don't mean anything to me.

I do cherish some things, but I crave the simple lifestyle. I had a few things that I loved and spent time with people that made me happy, I had money to do yoga, and I didn't eat nearly as much food! I was healthy and I went for hikes often.

So for my conclusion today, I want to say that having a lot stuff has always been a burden for me. We had to move a lot in the past, and I seriously dreaded the day we moved here, beacuse I knew I would have to deal with all that stuff. When we move again, I don't want the re-accuring nightmare. Plus it feels good to know that if you had to go quick you would have to time to grab what you needed instead of wondering what you should leave behind. I guess you could say that I am a traveler at heart.