Van Life

Things I learned from Downsizing

Posted on by Lara

Downsizing

Downsizing from 1000 square feet with a garage and basement to a less than 600 square foot studio apartment was challenging. It is in my nature to enjoy overcoming such challenges, so I felt very accomplished at the end of it, but the entire process absolutely sucked. I spent nearly six weeks of nights and weekends cleaning out drawers, closets, cabinets, boxes… And over that time brought at least six car loads of stuff to Goodwill, plus sold dozens of random knick-knacks and furniture. I know that everyone can relate to the feeling that it is so easy to accumulate stuff and it seems as though no one knows how it happens. It just happens.

At the end of the day, I have no regrets downsizing. I’m guarantee that no one comes out of the downsizing process feeling like they miss the things that they gave up. Personally, I feel a stronger bond with the things that I did keep and feel and that each one has a value and place in my home. There is nothing extra, because each piece was carefully chosen. Everyone should go through this process at least once in their life. It helps to do it during a transitional period as it can be incredibly therapeutic.

If you are thinking about downsizing, here are a few things that I learned:

1. If you have not used it in a year, you don’t need it.

There are so many things in our lives that we keep around because we think we will use them or will need them in the future. For me, I had a shit ton of art materials left over from college and there was a part of me that didn’t want to give them up because I felt like I was giving up the idea that I was an artist. I had to come to terms with the fact that even though I am still creative and express art in a different way, I am no longer and painter like I used to be. I needed to let go of that piece of my life and move on to what I am good at now. I hadn’t touched my oil paints, brushes or watercolors in years, so it meant that it was time to give them to someone who would use them.

2. I only use a fraction of the space in my house.

Part of the reason that I decided to downsize in the first place was because over time it became very clear that I was only using a fraction of my home on a daily basis. I would come home from work, cook a meal, and spend the rest of my evening in my bedroom with my pets. I hardly even used my livingroom. I started to wonder why I even had a dining room. Or a basement. Or a garage. Or an upstairs. Then I started reading blogs about small living spaces and how it forces you to use community spaces more. As a huge advocate of sharing resources, I was sold. Small living, it is.

3. Community parks are better than having your own yard.

It is bizarre to me that it is a part of the American dream to have your own yard, garden and lawn, which to me just means more work on the weekends. Instead, I seek out community space gems that provide the peaceful seclusion of a yard, but also allow for meeting your neighbors and building a stronger community. My new apartment has a fenced-in park across the street where I take my dog to play fetch. Don’t even get me started on the benefits of knowing your neighbors – that’s another blog post in itself. There is also a small pagoda in the park where I could host parties if I wanted to. Less work, less time, less money, more connection to your neighbors. It seems like a no-brainer to me.

4. Small living space means less cleaning.

Before I moved to the smaller apartment, it was SO challenging to keep my space clean. Granted, I probably have higher “clean” standards than the average person, but I couldn’t figure out how to be a single working person and also live in a clean place. It came to the point where I felt like I had no choice but to hire a cleaning person. I figured that the cost of what I was paying that person was worth the 2 hours that I would spend cleaning it myself. Those are billable hours, right? In my new apartment I can clean it top to bottom in less than 30 minutes. That saves me $150 a month. Pretty awesome.

5. Figure out your deal breaker.

Just like relationships, there is one thing in a living space that you must have to be happy and have a high quality of life. Mine is to have a deck. Instead of having a full yard that I need to take care of and spend my weekends maintaining, I made it a priority to have a deck. I absolutely LOVE being outside and feeling the outdoor air and sunshine, so this was an important part of my search. The benefit of a deck is that it doesn’t need maintenance like a yard does, but you can add things like planters and flower boxes if you want to – the nice part is that you can create as little or as much of a green space on your deck as you want to. During the warm months, I spend at least 80% of my time home on the deck (at least in the warm months). Figure out what really makes you happy and focus on that. If you have too many things, nothing will really bring you that intense joy that you crave. Having less makes you more grateful for what you have.

I would love to hear your thoughts, tips, and advice for downsizing. What are your stories?

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How to Live Without a Car

Posted on by Lara

Car-Free-Bicycle

I recently got rid of my car and am trying to be car-free for at least the summer. This is the second time I have gone an extended period without a car; the first time was for 6 months. A few things that I learned about the process:

Step 1: Prepare for everyone to feel sorry for you.

“Oh, you’re going to WALK to downtown? Do you need a ride? Just let me drive you, it’s so far to walk…” As much as love how people care for each other in Indianapolis, I live 1.5 miles from my office, downtown and a max of 3 miles from practically anywhere I want to go. In most major cities, people walk 20 minutes to the subway or their bus stop. I know it’s foreign in Indianapolis, but I promise you, I can walk and I will survive. Not having a car is part of my expressing that more people should walk/bike/car-share. We do live in an urban environment, after all. In addition, when I choose walking or biking over taking a car, I am choosing not to contribute to carbon emissions. So you are actually doing the planet a favor by letting me make that decision.

Step 2: Make a plan for grocery shopping and only buy what you need for the week.

There were certain things that I had to set in place to make my grocery shopping work. First, I do have a Kroger near my house that I can walk to and I can get most of my essential food items there. This is very convenient place to shop. However, being a vegetarian, there are certain things that Kroger doesn’t carry, such as tofu, other meat-free foods, and some organic products that I want. For Kroger grocery shopping, I walk two blocks and I had a little metal cart that I can roll with me to pile my goods into. For the items that I need from somewhere else, I bike to that location. I usually go once a week to a specialty store, whether it be Pogues Run or Marsh or somewhere where I can have more organic and vegetarian options. This forces me to be strategic when I go to those places, because there is only so much that can fit into my backpack. So make a plan for what you need to buy and think about just the next week only. Part of what makes small living work is that you don’t store up for the “just in case” scenarios, you live much more with a day-to-day mentality. Don’t over buy. Buy what you need for that week.

Step 3: Plan to borrow a car for things like doctor’s appointments.

The nice thing about doctor appointments is that they are usually during the day when everyone else is working. So it makes it fairly easy to ask a friend if you can borrow their car while they are at work to make it to your appointment. Take the time to fill their gas and maybe vacuum out their car as a thank you.

Step 4: Anything that can be delivered should be delivered.

There is an incredible amount of options for things being delivered to your home. And if you can’t get something delivered, keep recommending it and that company may eventually consider it. I do most of my shopping online, especially for specialty items, and I get my dog food delivered to my house. This will save you driving time, extra hassle and is usually free or very low cost.

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5 Things that Living in Beijing Taught Me About Simple Living

Posted on by Lara
1. Only buy the groceries that you need for the next few days.

When I first moved back to the United States, I would walk into a grocery store and immediately be filled with anxiety. To this day, I am still overcome with this strong desire to just turn around and leave. What stresses me out about grocery stores in the US? There are SO MANY OPTIONS. Not only is the building 20 times the size of most grocery stores in Beijing, but there is an ENTIRE isle devoted just to cereal. To make things worse, you might have the same kind of cereal, but then there are also four different brands that you can chose from, even though they may all taste exactly the same. It seemed like complete overkill and made my decision-making process a nightmare. I like to weigh my options, which often translated into me pacing the cereal isle, picking the four or five cereals that I liked and then very carefully weighing the pros and cons between ingredients, price, flavor, and brand before choosing one of them. And that was my process for just one item.

In Beijing, refrigerators are small, street vendors bring in fresh produce every day, and grocery stores are small and have limited options. In addition, we did not have a car, so I had to rely on public transit, bike, or walking when I needed to buy groceries. I learned a lot from that lifestyle; for one, it makes the most sense to just buy the food that you need for the next few days. This makes it easier to plan meals, since you are only thinking about a few meals at a time. Less planning, check. It also makes it easy to walk to and from the market because you are only carrying a few bags at a time. Health benefit, check. You are also less likely to have food/produce go bad. Less wasteful, check.

I still have anxiety about large grocery stores, but living in downtown Indy fortunately gives me the option of going to smaller stores such as Pogues Run Grocer, the farmer’s market, Marsh O’Malias and Kroger at 16th street, which are all much more tolerable. If I HAVE to go to Target, I bring a friend for support.

2. Getting around town takes more planning.

Living without a car is not impossible, but it does take more planning. If I was going across town, I had to plan in extra time to factor in the bus potentially running late, traffic or having to wait for the train. When I chose to bike, I had to allow myself extra time because it would take a little bit longer than public transit. The great part about biking in Beijing is that there is an entire car-sized lane devoted to bikers, which is separated by a median in the road. Brilliant. Either way, it made for very enjoyable ways to get around town and to this day, I prefer all of those methods to driving a car.

I take the bus in Indianapolis several times a week, mostly when it is raining or too cold for me to bike or walk. The buses in Indy are not quite as reliable as the buses in Beijing and do not come as often, but the bus system has improved tremendously over the past 6 years that I have lived here. I mostly use the 2 and 17 to get to and from work and have had very little issues the past 4 years that I have been using those two routes. It is about a 3-minute walk from my house to either stop and a 5-minute walk from where it drops me downtown to my office. Pretty awesome, if you ask me. Be sure to arrive at the bus stop at least 5 minutes before the bus is scheduled to get there, to make sure you don’t miss it.

3. Travel light.

When I would leave the house for the day, I usually wasn’t going to be coming home until dinner or sometimes later, so it was important to pack light. If I didn’t, then my shoulders would be burning by the end of the day. I ditched the idea of giant purses that had anything I could possibly need in them and instead defaulted to a small backpack or shoulder bag. But it is amazing to me how little I actually needed throughout the day; here are the essentials:

  • Makeup for touching up throughout the day. Especially because it got hot traveling on public transit all over the city.
  • Compact umbrella or poncho. I know ponchos are super ugly, but when it’s down pouring, I was glad to have it.
  • A notebook or book. Being on transit was a great time to draw, make lists, or read a book. It forced me to stay on top of current news or refresh my mind with literature.
  • Gum. Chinese food is notorious for having a lot of garlic, so this often came in useful. However, this applies to many cultures and types of food.
  • Headphones and iPod. Sometimes I just wanted to zone out and listen to music. The hustle and bustle of a city can be a lot to take in constantly, but music is always able to bring some peace to chaos.
  • Asprin. There is a lot of pollution in Beijing, and although this is not necessarily true everywhere, it’s a good idea to have a pain reliever on hand in case you need it throughout the day.
  • Small sunscreen. This is really only applicable in the summer, but no matter what city you are in, protect you skin and put on sunscreen.

Throw in your wallet, phone, and keys are you are set for the day!

4. Focus on your experiences, rather than “stuff.”

When I lived in Beijing, there were a lot of things that we could not get. For example, if I found a Dr. Pepper at a grocery store, I would buy it, hide it, and then secretly drink that instead of the coke that everyone else was drinking at whatever occasion came up next. It wasn’t so much about the Dr. Pepper itself, it was about the experience of drinking something that was so special and rare. I would only drink it with ice to make sure that the experience was as authentic as possible and savor every sip. I never just downed a Dr. Pepper, because I wanted the enjoy it as long as possible.

I also spent a lot of my time just exploring. There was so much to see in Beijing that it never got old to just jump on a random bus and see where it would take me. Sometimes I would discover beautiful old houtongs or an instrument store that I didn’t know existed. Especially when I was biking, if I was passing something that looked intriguing, I was often able to stop and take it in. Cell phones were barely used at that time, so other than having my headphones in, I was constantly absorbing the world around me. I knew I wasn’t going to live in Beijing forever, so being there taught me to enjoy what I had in that moment, be present, and let the joy of that point in time really resonate with me. These are the memories that are far more vivid than any of the stuff I owned at the time.

5. You can make community spaces your peaceful place.

One of my favorite times of day in Beijing is the morning. If you wake up early enough, when the sun is just rising and walk around the streets, it’s as if the world is coming alive in a slow motion. There might be a group of elderly people practicing tai chi in the park with intention and grace. The movements they make are slow, methodical and beautiful as they switch poses in sync with one another. Old men walk the streets with a birdcage in each hand, swinging the birds back and forth as they walk. Vendors begin to set up their stands at the market, carefully laying out a canvas cloth and meticulously placing each fruit and vegetable in rows, showing off the array of beauty and color. The canal is still and there is a slight mist rising off of the water.

You might think that Beijing is an overwhelming place to live because of the 20 million people who reside within the city. Although that is certainly the case at times, no matter where you are, you can find retreats and peaceful spots. One of my favorite things about simple living is that it gives you an excuse to get out, explore, find seclusion somewhere, to find your thinking spot. I am not a fan of the American mentality that everyone should shut themselves up in their homes and live privately with their private yard and privacy fence. I thrive off of the idea of living together, experiencing together, even if we are not interacting, soak in the energy of the world around you. Take a moment to feel that morning peace and let it sink into you. To me, that is much more powerful than trying to do that on your own.

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