2011 June | The Minimalist Mom

the new digs: downsizing space, upsizing cash flow

June 13, 2011 By theminimalistmom 29 Comments

The, ahem, art in our dining area.

Downside to our new place: living with other people’s stuff.

View from the balcony.

Upside: enjoying this spectacular view while I drink my morning coffee.

Day one of apartment searching with our relocation consultant was pretty bleak. We arrived at a bad time of year and the rental market was thin. Most available rentals were being let as short term accommodation for the TT Races. The consultant had also told us that most apartment buildings wouldn’t rent to children. She was also sure that after looking at a few places we would really want a house. Who wouldn’t want a house if you had a child?

Us.

Living room: Henry's car seat is doubling as his recliner.

We did see a nice bungalow quite close to Chris’s work but… it just wasn’t us. It was relatively small for a house but still felt too big. The yard was really nice but all I saw were frustrating hours spent mowing the lawn and trimming hedges. Not my idea of a fun Saturday.

Sigh. Requisite HUGE tv for a bachelor pad.

The relocation consultant: let’s call her Mary – this is a small island – was great. While she did give us a few nudges towards looking at houses she was overall very respectful and, she gets things done. She knows everyone here. So when day one was a bust she made some more calls and found out a furnished apartment had just become available. Mary actually placed a client in it a year ago and he had recently left. The landlord was a-okay with Henry living there.

There was just one snag, or what they thought was a snag: the landlord was putting it on the market and could only do a 3 month lease. After that it would go month to month and if he sold the place we would get the last month free.

Henry moved into a big bed! And we have room for guests.

This snag was actually a blessing. We now get the chance to try out living in this area and see how we like it without committing to aone year lease. We’re a 12 minute walk from Chris’s work and a 25 minute walk from town. In the next few months we’ll evaluate if we’d like to be closer to one or the other. And if the apartment sells in a few months the rental market will be better than it is now and we’ll have more options. Win, win.

So we’re living in a two bed, two bath, probably 800 square foot bachelor pad. And we like it. Despite the art.

The unit is completely furnished and that’s really helped reduce our start up costs in the UK. There was already dish soap, hand soap and even a can of WD-40 under the sink (which I used to get the squeak out of Henry’s stroller the other day). The old tenant, who we know by proxy, even left some kitchen basics for us. I don’t think this was an act of kindness, more forgetfulness, but I don’t care. Saves me having to buy flour, oil, sugar and curry powder.

We’re still figuring out what life over here is going to cost us but taking on a smaller home is putting us ahead financially. We could have easily spent 20-30% more on rent for more space. But we didn’t. In return we have more money in the bank and spend less time cleaning. Yeah!

Like what you read here at The Minimalist Mom? Sign up by RSS or Email to get posts delivered to you. You can also find The Minimalist Mom on Facebook (I’ve deleted my personal account but have a page for this blog). Comments are always read, appreciated and responded to – even if we don’t agree on the subject at hand.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

on the road: nomadic families

June 10, 2011 By theminimalistmom 30 Comments

Mariza and Jorje are planning to, or are currently, heading out on the road with their families. Anyone else?

I’m fascinated by so-called nomadic families and have been following a few that I thought I would introduce you too. All of them have gone through a purge phase to reduce their possessions for traveling. And all of them are showing their children that they value experiences and time with them, over owning things.

Britt Reins and family with their RV.

Britt Reins recently left on a one year RV adventure with her husband and two children ages 6 and 11. One of her posts that really hit home for me was how they made the dream happen titled, Do What you Love: Where to get the Money. If you want it to happen, you will find a way. Britt goes into more details here about how they are making it work financially, why they’re hitting the road and what they’re end game plan is.

Heather Greenwood Davis is a globetrotting mama. This Canadian travel writer is also embarking on a year-long travel adventure with her husband and two sons. I’m keeping tabs on Heather’s blog for more details about what they’re doing with their house and how they downsized possessions. She’s told me that they are renting their home out partially furnished for the year. Heather and her family were recently interviewed and you can see the video here. Interesting to hear that Heather’s husband was able to take a year sabbatical and still get paid by reducing his salary for the four years prior. My brother did the same thing so he could take his family to Japan for a year. More inspiration for living below your means.

The Toast family of six were spurred onto the road in the face of impending lay offs.What do you do when you know you’re going to get laid-off from your cushy job at some point? Well, if you’re us, you sell your real estate, rent instead, save your money, sell off 95 percent of your possessions, and then move into an RV when the ball finally drops. Melanie has lots of tips on her blog about living in an RV, how she started an online business and then, outstanding letters to her 17-year old niece.

Another family of six are traveling the world and detailing their adventures on athomeintheworld.com. I’ve had a few email exchanges with the matriarch of the family and will be interviewing her about what they took with them on their journey. These international travelers have visited Italy, France, Morocco, Spain and Turkey since departing Canada in the fall of 2010. This post details why they worked and planned to leave all that was familiar for long term travel.

Courtney Baker has appeared here before with her excellent toybox tips. This mother, wife, photographer and writer is on a year long RV trip with her husband and young daughter (and they’re now expecting baby#2!). Prior to this adventure, the Baker family spent a year working and traveling through Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.

Soon to join the ranks: Alison Gresik. They’re now actively working to sell their home and take the leap as a traveling family.

Any other nomad/traveling families you can tell us about? Is anyone else planning a long adventure away from home?

Filed Under: inspiration, Kids, minimalist with kids, Travel

my winter jacket is crossing the Atlantic

June 8, 2011 By theminimalistmom 15 Comments

now crossing the Atlantic: our stuff

My dreams of a few boxes of things to ship died when we started selling our furniture. I’ll save the details for another post but let’s just say, the going rate for used furniture in Vancouver is very very low. Sure, we were pressed for time so couldn’t wait for ideal buyers. That never gets you the best return. But when I think about what we spent on our mattress set, and that we sold it for 20% of the cost 1.5 years later, I want to throw up a bit.

After discussing it with Chris we decided to send a few more boxes of housewares. His employer was paying for the shipping and we would be losing a lot of money by selling and buying on the other side. We had no idea what our living situation would be: furnished or unfurnished. Decided to hedge our bets and send some basics:

housewares: pots and pans, a few baking items like muffin tins and cooling racks, strainer, steamer (just the little metal one that goes in a pot), spatulas and spoons, knives, silverware, 3 beach towels (brought two towels and 2 face cloths in our suitcases over), one wine crate/rack (sold the other one before we left)
decor: 6 picture frame, a square accent tray, flower vase. I’m a minimalist but like a few things to make a place feel like ours.
clothes: winter clothing and jackets for Henry, Chris and I, small box of infant clothing, a few items of maternity wear (no, I have nothing to tell you! Just hedging bets that we might have another one in the next 5 years), half of our cloth diapers (packed 10 in our suitcases so we can get back to cloth before it all arrives)
other: Scrabble (beautiful wood version that we received as a wedding gift and use a lot), half of Henry’s toy collection (other half was donated), two accent pieces for Henry’s room (stuffed hanging owl, small wooden tug boat with his name on it).
media: 20 DVDs (sold the rest of our collection), 12 books, 40 childrens books (brought six board books over with us in suitcases).

All of that equaled 4 medium boxes and 10 small boxes. And a lot of bubble wrap.

Decided last minute to ship my puffy black winter jacket so, Murphy’s law, it was extra chilly the first few days after our arrival.

Funny thing is, when you don’t have it on hand, you make do. While I know the above will be well used when they arrive, we’re getting an easy lesson right now that we really can live with a lot less. Not going all ‘count everything you own’ on you but I’m getting a taste of radical minimalism. I must say, it’s not bad in short stints.

Filed Under: moving overseas, Uncategorized

I’ll pay you $100 to take my iPhone.

June 6, 2011 By theminimalistmom 32 Comments

This was the subject line of the Craigslist ad Chris put up three days before our departure for the UK.

In our haste to leave town, we’d let the issue of getting rid of our young iPhones languish at the bottom of our must-do list. Neither of us wanted to deal with it. It was depressing. We’d paid $250 a phone in November and signed 3 year contracts. Now we were going to lose a lot of money getting out of the contracts. I’d initially been quoted $400 per phone to end the contract and keep the phone. Chris called back and the real amount would end up being almost $1700 total for the two phones. OUCH.

As I wrote earlier, I was determined to leave the ‘smart’ phones in Canada. The move was a great opportunity to reset and I had already shown that my iPhone mostly led to procrastination and distraction. I wish I could use it properly like MelD who wrote:

I simply do not understand why everyone lets their phones control their lives.
The only thing I was anxious about before I was given an iphone over two years ago was that it could get expensive if I constantly wanted to look information up. That is something I like to do, but it hasn’t been a problem, I just have to be sure I’m on a local network or the costs shoot up (I live near borders!).

However, otherwise, I look at my phone or use it ONLY when I need to. I leave the sound off. I don’t let it dominate me or my life. It’s a tool, for goodness sake. If I’m expecting a call, I will look for it. If I miss one, no big deal – the information is there for me to call back at MY convenience.

On the contrary, my phone is so useful to me – clock, calendar, alarm clock, timer, camera, calculator, notebook, music, maps, capacity to look ANYTHING up, check the weather etc. etc. and I no longer need to drag a book along with me, either, since I got the Kindle app. I actually rarely use it as a phone – though it’s great to keep tabs on the family as necessary and also for my business, freeing me to be away from home at times and still get things done.

My favourite minimalist TOOL!!!!

MelD: that’s what I wanted my life with a smart phone to be like. But I didn’t have the will power, fortitude, good habits and focus. My iPhone became a bad habit.

Maybe some day I’ll have a smart phone again if I feel I can use it sparingly. This will probably be the same time that I can finally leave chocolate unopened and forgotten about in my cupboards.

Instead of buying out the phones and reselling them (going rate on Craigslist: $250) and still losing a lot of money, Chris put up the Craigslist ad and we had a buyer in minutes. They agreed to take over the phones and contracts.

We paid to get rid of our iPhones.

And it was worth every penny.

Life mostly disconnected is good. It’s easier to focus. No iPhone calling its sweet siren of time wasting connectivity. When we’re at the park, we’re at the park. We’re not on Facebook or answering an email. I see other parents tapping away as their kids play and I feel even better about my choice to ditch the ‘smart’ phone.

We picked up super cheap pay-as-you-go phones for life in the UK. Initially I didn’t want one but we ran into a few snags where it would’ve helped to have a phone. I’m keeping it as limited use: I haven’t given the number to anyone but Chris, some new acquaintances here and for registrations. No using it to text family and friends in Canada. That’s what Skype is for.

Anyone cut the chord with their phone recently or take a step back from their Internet use recently ? Considering it?

Photo Credit

Filed Under: Technology

beautiful words on a minimalist life

June 3, 2011 By theminimalistmom 16 Comments

I read this post at The Trephine the other week and couldn’t stop thinking about it. The story Jen told about herself, getting rid of it all until you can fit your things in your car, isn’t earth shattering to me. Probably not to you either if you’re reading this. But the way she writes about it – hot damn! So good.

All I can tell you is that I, personally, as an individual, was deeply unsatisfied with the way things were. I spent far too much of my time dusting my crap, arranging my crap, painting my crap, finding more crap I needed to go with my other crap, and suffering under the illusion that I would feel fulfilled and satisfied and happy just as soon as my life looked like something out of a Pottery Barn catalog and I were wearing the right pair of ballet flats and the most whimsical brooch.

People get dressed up here. Sure, I’m from Vancouver and it’s known as a casual earthy town and I only wear heels to an event or, in the past, to work (but I wore flats to walk to work and then slipped the heels on in the lobby before heading up to my desk). So I’m open to the idea that I fall on the deeply casual end of dressing.

But these Manx, they sure do go all out on a Saturday night. We were at a casual family restaurant with another family the other weekend, something akin to Red Robin in North America, and in walked some late teens and early 20′s ready for a night out. The girls were dressed in huge heels, cocktail dresses and thick make-up. This wasn’t a quick pit stop for a drink before heading to a debutante ball – this was the night out. Oh the hours and energy they must be spending on that look.

I thought I looked okay myself, maybe not ready to get presented as a Deb, but in reasonably current and good condition clothing with my usual amount of make-up (mascara, tinted moisturizer). And I got ready in less than five minutes.

The less you own, the harder it is to hide from everything still wrong with you. All of the dreams you have yet to realize, even now that your childhood is startlingly far behind you, are suddenly so much more starkly visible once you can’t distract yourself by petting fabric swatches or rearranging your bookshelves.

Gulp. These words hit home for me. I’m in a transitory state about career at the moment. Thinking about getting a job-job here in the Isle of Man. Something with a regular pay check. Something I might have to buy some work clothes for (insert sad face).

Trying to make a living writing is hard. The hours for writing and pitching articles were sucked up with the move in the last few months. Now I’ve got some time to think about things, plan, sit still. I’ve got that time because I don’t have any DIY home projects or a vintage sweater collection to look after.

Empty time can be scary. When you’re not running from one thing to the next, always late, always with the long to-do lists, always reaching for more money and more stuff, the quiet can be deafening. What do I want to do? Now that I have choice in my life, that it’s not a necessity that I punch in at an office to pay our bills, where do I want to go? Can I be grateful to have choices and options but still tell you, I’m scared. That it feels like the easier path is to turn my back on some dreams and get a desk job. It’s safe.

Lots to think about from The Trephine. Thanks, Jen.

Photo Credit