One in, Two Out (and other simplifying decisions)

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." -- Buddha

If you have read my blog before, you know that I am reading and enjoying a book by Tammy Strobel, "You Can Buy Happiness, And It's Cheap" Previous to reading this book I got involved with my local community through volunteering and helping to run facebook groups specific to Laveen, AZ. I also got myself an electric push motor and a recumbent trike in an effort to improve my health and independent mobility, got solar panels on our home, and moved into a smaller room to do a test run  for eventual tiny home living. I also have started learning aquaponics, built my first aquaponics system, and started eating healthier and learning where to get affordable healthy food in my area. More recently I started loom knitting, making green smoothies which I love, and working out to continue towards my goals of health, simplicity and peace full living.

I often think that the next step is tiny living, but really, there are still so many things I can do to improve my life and the way I interact with the world around me right now, in this place, in this moment. As I continue to read Tammy Strobel's book, I am inspired to take further steps in my current situation to make small, or sometimes more sweeping larger steps to change my current situation, and not just dream of living more sustainably some day. What are you doing today to live simply?

So I wrote down a list of commitments to myself. Some of these are new things I have already started, and some are brand new. Most are due to suggestions of "micro actions" in Tammy's book, which I am reading bit by bit, because I am applying the things that I take away from it, and sometimes need more time to work on something before I can move on in the book.

The list of commitments to myself boils down to this:
Make time in my schedule for things that bring me health, peace and joy
Eat healthy, whole foods
Use the one in, two out rule
Organize, Organize, Organize!
Change Consumption Practices

On that last one, I listed several questions to ask myself, which I feel will help me become less consumption oriented, and happier with my life. Here are the questions I plan to ask myself when I am wanting to buy something, and hopefully my loved ones will help me stick to my desire to simplify:
Is this a need, or a want? (sometimes fulfilling a desire is just as important as needs, but not usually)
Do I already have one that works? If so, do we really need to replace it?
Is buying this thing worth getting rid of 2 other things?
Is there another, cheaper, better, more sustainable way to fulfill this need or want?
Can I wait/put off buying this and add it to a gift list instead?
When people ask what I want for a gift, tell them useful things and/or experiential things such as concerts, shows I want to see, classes I want or need to take, gift subscriptions to food delivery clubs, and the like.

There are also things I am considering committing to such as giving myself a certain amount of time from the first impulse to buy something until I make a decision. (like 30 days, 2 weeks, or whatever) This would help me eliminate impulse buying, which I believe is a bit of a problem in my life. I have taken steps in the past to move away from impulse buying, but I still find it happening. For now, the above list of commitments is my definite plan, and as time moves on I am sure I will refine it.

Have you made similar commitments to yourself? If so, I would love to hear which ones have worked for you.

Organizing and Reducing Clutter

Today I attended a meeting online about tiny home organization. I got some great ideas about how to get my life simplified by organizing and reducing my stuff. Others also found it helpful to reduce clothing first. I did this already, but need to reduce even further. Somehow some of the clothes I gave to someone else in the house crept back into my room. They look the same, they're just several sizes too big for me. Plus I have noticed there are clothes I almost never wear, so I think I am going to use the hanger method. This means I will turn all the hangers around facing one way, then when I wear clothes, they will go back onto the hangers facing the other way. At the end of February I will have an idea of the clothes I don't wear. I will still keep some of the dress clothes I only wear for certain occasions, but I suspect there are shoes, hats, and other shirts I can get rid of. Plus I obviously have too many shorts so I'll be going through that drawer.

Another thought that was shared which I really liked was that there are lots of reasons we hang onto stuff. Sometimes it is because of an emotional attachment we give to that item, other times it is because of something we do not want to let go of which that stuff is somehow tied to. I do tend to associate memories and emotions with things. It made me realize that there are some things which I have no use for but have not gotten rid of. I have been working on being present and focusing on the moment, but some of the stuff I've held onto has memories attached to it. Maybe some of it has emotions which I have avoided facing by holding onto the stuff. So letting the things go, may help me deal with things I've avoided. We will see, but I thought it was a thought worth looking into. As people talked, I recommitted to my goal to do a practice run on tiny living by using my 10 x 13 room as a dry run for my tiny home of the future.

Carlie and I talked about how my hammock could be used as a hammock chair during the day. Great idea! Might try creating something similar in my room in the mean time. Definitely will have to plan the build correctly for my hammock to have supports to hang from. We also discussed the feasibility of building a tiny home with storage below it and a guest bed under a trap door in the floor. Looks like I'll need to find someone with know how to talk to about this build before it's done.

I will be sure to post the event page before the next time there is a Tiny House Chat instead of just writing my thoughts up afterwards, as it is definitely an event I'd recommend you "attend" by listening in and/or watching the chat room.

Finding my Joy, Simplifying my Life

Micro Action Happiness Brain Storm

For the last  several years I have put extra emphasis on my health,  and for the last year I have  had  the goal in  mind that I would  be more independent and self  sustaining. One way in which I have been doing this is learning to cook healthy foods, and more recently to garden. I'm getting pretty good with my composting and recently moved into Aquaponics and now worm farming. Also, I taught myself to knit on looms, and started making all sorts of knit Peace Full Creations along with my paintings, tiny sculptures, and the like. My art brings me joy.

In recent reading I took a couple micro actions proposed by Tammy Strobel in her book "You Can Buy Happiness and it's Cheaper than You Think."

Detail of Happiness Brain Storm/Rough Sketches

First she asked how I define happiness and that resulted in a brain storming session and some rough sketching of tiny home plans. as  you can see above and to the right.  During my brain storm session I broke it down into several main areas that bring me joy:
- Being as Healthy As Possible (Eating Healthy, Exercise, DeStress)
- Being Creative (Photography, Painting, Sculpture, Knitting, Cooking, Gardening, Trying New Things)
- Community (Friends, Family, Knitting it Forward, Animals/Fur Family, Workshops)
- Living Within My Means (Sustainability, Not over committing, not creating debt, learning useful skills)
- Time For Myself (Hammock Time, Reading, Meditation, Manifestation Journaling)
- Travel (Getting Out of the House, Seeing New Places/ Things, Meeting People)

Side and Top View Sketches

In some ways I am already doing these things such as focusing on my health, family, and becoming self sustaining, and then there are others I have been neglecting such as travel. All in all, the brain storm session was very empowering and I recommend anyone try it. I also noticed that every time I sketch a tiny home, my vision of my Tiny Home/Gallery/Art Studio/Community Center/Camera Obscura aka ObscurAbode becomes more clear and I feel that much closer to my dream.

Another micro action I completed recently was to write down how I can simplify my life. At first  it seemed a lot like my previous  brain storm, and  things I'm already working on like be healthy, spend time with loved ones, but then I started getting down to some specifics and things started falling into place:

ObscurAbode Sketch 03 Layout Plans

- Organize my stuff (Bedroom, Loom Knitting Supplies, Art, Books)
- Get my Peace Full Creations in order
- Clarify/Organize my Calendar (Simplify Schedule for Knitting Groups, Specific work days/times, One day off with Patch, one day off with Carlie, Specific morning routine)
- Plan trip to CA
- Make a specific tiny home plan (Finances, Supplies, Time Frame, IndieGogo or Kickstart Plan, etc.)

I got started on each of these to some extent. The loom and knitting supplies are better organized, Carlie and I decided that the profit from Peace Full Creations will go to the Tiny Home Fund, I decided which days/times will be work and which aren't, worked on my calendar, and worked on another more specific floor plan for ObscurAbode (Sketch 03, above left) so it already feels like I am heading towards my goals. More work is needed, but things are really coming together!

Fears and Challenges I Plan to Overcome

Frank Lloyd Self Built Tiny Home

Note: At the end of this entry I do ask a series of questions and I would appreciate your input.

I have long put off actually taking steps towards building a tiny home due to fear. One of the first micro actions suggested in Tammy's book is to write down your fears, yet for some reason I did not stop and do so. Instead, I told myself that I no longer had any fears about building a tiny home, as I have already started taking steps towards doing so. Then I moved right along and read the next section of her book.

When I came to the next micro actions, I did those. Why did I skip the one on fear? Since I have been blogging about my whole process not just in building a tiny home, but in getting up the courage and simplifying to the point where I feel I am ready to move into one, I decided that this would be a good blog post. Besides, Tammy suggests having a support network, and I believe writing these things in my blog is a good way to hold myself accountable and possibly find others who support my dream. I am sure this will mean that sometimes I write in this blog more frequently than other times, but I do plan to write in here at least once a week for the time being while I sort through my thoughts and organize my current stuff, etc. We will see where this all takes me, and those who read my blog will be along for the ride. I thank you ahead of time for reading my rambling thoughts and for any comments you may make. I hope this blog can be a bit of a support network as I continue moving towards a simpler, space to call home.

This Art is Not My Intellectual Property

So fears and challenges. Here is a quick list in no particular order, a brain storm of fears and challenges as it were: My loved ones will feel I am abandoning them and won't get or support my dream, people will think I'm nuts, my mom will think I am ungrateful for the house she rents to us. My loved ones will not buy into the dream and me moving forward with it will cause division between us, I will miss my animals. People will harsh on my dream because I'm taking such tiny steps and moving so slowly. It is a bigger project than I can accomplish by myself, I will start building and find it is too difficult to complete due to my health issues and be left unable to see my dream through, I will build something that doesn't match my needs and later have to sell it and start all over. (Which I do not want to do but have seen others do) If it won't be completely accessible, what if my disability gets worse again? How will I afford/find spaces to park it when I move from place to place? How can I build a house that is able to tolerate huge shifts in climate? What if I design it with a certain aesthetic but then want to change it over time, will that limit me? Should I leave my pets behind when I travel and not allow animals into ObscurAbode because other people have allergies and it will be a gallery as well as a home? If I tried to take Pixie (my Chiweenie) with me she would fit well in a tiny home but would bark at all the strange noises and probably pee inside. If I took my cats with me, they would be unhappy because they are used to going out into the big backyard and chasing bugs. If I took all the animals with me but not my loved ones, they would miss their pets. If I left the pets behind I would miss my pets, but my cats do not do well with hanging things, and I would build a house that cats would inhabit totally different than I would a tiny house with no cats. Screened in porch versus open porch, fun hiding spaces and up high ramps for them to run on, hammock versus no hammock, etc.

It feels like too many what ifs and potential obstacles to get started, I feel like I have to figure so much out before I can even design my home let alone move forward to building it. On the one hand, I would like to have an accessible tiny home/gallery and on the other hand, I love the idea of having a bed that tucks away under the rest of the house, is it really possible to do both? Stairs are a challenge for me, should I build a home without any stairs, or should I go ahead and incorporate a few? (other than those which might be outdoors. Even if the indoors is completely accessible, a bed that is built under a single level floor with a section of floor which slides over or lifts off to reveal it might work, but then how does one go about building a ramp to get into the house? Build it as part of the "wrap around porch idea?"

So many questions, and I would like to get moving forward on the project, but really do not feel I can until I answer these questions and any others that come up along the way. Fortunately, despite the many challenges of building a home that is at once perfectly homey and welcoming to me, and welcoming and accessible to the public for gallery shows, I do feel that it is completely doable, and that a completely functional and wonderful space could be and will be built. Also, I have a lot of funds to raise, parts to get, and plans to make before I can make my dream a reality. For example my garage is not large enough to build the tiny home in and the HOA we currently live in does not allow long term parking of RV's let alone building things in the drive ways, so I will need to find a space where I can build my tiny home before I can actually start the building process.

Some of these fears have already been resolved. I know that those I currently live with fully support my dream, and understand it does not mean I am trying to run away from them, abandon them, etc. In fact Carlie has started helping me prepare and set aside for our tiny home, and has taken up the challenge to get rid of 2 things for every one thing we bring into the home. But I'll leave that for a future blog post.

For those who are reading this who have already build their tiny home, how did you overcome your own fears and any obstacles along the way? Did you have all the answers before you started to build or did you dive right in and get going? Do you have any suggestions or recommendations for me? Thank you ahead of time for your input, any advice you are willing to offer, and your support. Since this blog is in a way an extension of my very personal dream and making it a reality, I do ask that we try to be respectful and positive in comments and discussion with each other here. As I have been warned by others that some will lash out or call me crazy for wanting a tiny home on wheels, I do want to make it clear, I will not bother approving those comments to be posted, so you may as well not waste your breath. Instead, think of it as if you had been invited into my home. For really, that is what this is, an internet version of my future home. I am your gracious host, you are an honored guest. I would not expect a guest I invite into my home to be rude and neither would you expect it of me, your host. I think that's a pretty simple request :) Constructive criticism is welcome, bullying is not.

Induction Stovetop Has Arrived

I have been dreaming of a tiny home for years, and more recently began planning how that could become a reality when they sent me a kitty in a box! That's one of my kittens of course, Squeakers aka the Princess.  She seems to believe they shipped the boxes merely for her enjoyment.

Of course it was actually a box of Nuwave induction stoves and the free items which came with it. Included in the box were 2 NuWave Induction Cooktops, an induction cookbook/instruction manual, 2 nonstick metal pans, 1 multi-piece cookware which can be used in a variety of ways including as a steamer, and 1 cast iron skillet. Basically, my tiny home's kitchen in a box! Or at least, the items in the box set me in the right direction.Eventually I will also get a Blendtec blender and an induction oven.

So this weekend was exciting when planning turned into doing as our first small piece of our tiny home arrived. Although two actually came together because it was a buy one get one free deal, I will probably only be using one in my tiny home/galllery. Normally I would simply buy one if I only need one, but in this case Carlie and I decided to buy one that we are using now and one which we have set aside for my tiny home. It is exciting and I feel like the dream is finally becoming a reality even tho it is only one small piece of the puzzle.

We spent most of the weekend at the annual Front Yard Art Bazaar that Laurie Provost puts on, but tonight Carlie cooked up some of the veggies we got at Market on the Move and some sausage we needed to use up on one of the induction stove tops. She loved it, and especially enjoyed showing me how much less heat is wasted in using it, and how much safer it is to cook on. I will try using it this week myself.

I had set today aside to rest up after the busy weekend, so I finished reading the 2nd chapter of Tammy's book about simplifying. I am working through some of the micro actions, and will write about those in a future blog post, so stay tuned!

ObscurAbode, The Dream

I have a dream! A dream of a Tiny Home/Camera Obscura/Artist Studio/Gallery/Community Resource Center on wheels which I can move from place to place interacting with other artists, building community, sharing and learning skills, Knitting it Forward with others, and holding Gallery Shows for local artists wherever I go.  I think my inner nomad needs a chance to come out. As a young person, I was privileged to travel around the US a bit with my family, and to Germany as a teen to see a bit of the world, but the travel bug was not really satisfied before my disability kicked in.

Now that I am starting to be healthier but am still have so far to go, I have decided that I want to learn to be more self sustaining by growing my own food, and creating objects people can barter, trade or buy from me to help me make my dream a reality. I have begun doing that with my Peace Full Creations. Please "Like" the Facebook page!

As far as the Gallery, it would be called ObscurA, and I plan to have a sign on the house that says ObscureAbode, and has a sign that can come down or move over to cover the last few letters so that it will then say "ObscurA, the Gallery is Open", or "Welcome to my Abode". I imagine it would be a rotating show. So that if I was parked somewhere for a month, every weekend would focus on a different artist, with the final show focusing on myself, and several other artists. Some artists have already said they want in on the deal, which is fun and exciting. If you are an artist and you'd like to help make this a reality, let me know.

As part of manifesting this dream, I did a quick and dirty sketch up of a tiny home/gallery on wheels which you see above, but it is nowhere near the reality of what I will build. For one thing, after much investigation, I changed my plan to have the entrance on the short side, and a fold down porch on one of the long sides, that wraps around to the front porch (short side) ... that may make no sense in your mind but I will sketch it out in the future. For another thing, I have been wanting to make it all in copper tones, with a steam punk aesthetic. At first I might have to build it bare bones, but eventually it will come together into the creative home/gallery I envision. In the mean time, I thought I had better post about the dream here, and hopefully my fellow tiny home enthusiasts, artists and friends can send out positive vibes to make it happen all the sooner!

Radically Simplifying

I am so excited, in the same day, I got my first item for my tiny house ordered, and received this book from a friend. BEST GIFTS YET!!!!

I did several happy dances this day. So far, this book is really good and is challenging me to get back onto track in the simplifying of my life, minimizing of  "stuff" and being as healthy as I can be.

When my first piece of my Tiny House arrives I will take a photo and share more details. For now, let me just say my tiny kitchen will be simple, minimalist, possibly a bit steampunk, yet completely gourmet ready because that's how I role.

The friend who gave me the book asked me to document my path towards building and living in my own tiny home, so I am back to my Bare Simplicity blog and promise to post more often.