Life, Unencumbered

Over the past couple of years I have gotten less and less things, and I am starting see how I am getting more out of my life.
My husband and I have one car, which has been such a great money saver for us. We only pay one car payment, insure one vehicle, maintain one vehicle and we only have to pay for license and safety/emission inspections on one vehicle. It has strengthened our marriage, because it has forced us to share, it is no longer, my car or his car, but our car. It has also forced us to spend more time together, as we usually are in the car together since we have to share.

In the area of residential space, we have downsized first from a 3 bedroom house w a basement and backyard, to a 2 bedroom apartment, to our current 1 bedroom apartment. In the downsizing process we have decluttered and gotten rid of excess furniture, clothing, household items and other things we just didn’t need.
I won’t pretend to be perfect here, and act as though this process has been easy, or something I have enjoyed every step of the way. There have been rough patches along the way, there have been days when I have done my fair share of complaining about having one car, or what have you.
But at the end of the day, when I sit back and really examine my life, I feel like I have more than I need, and I can see that the quality of my life has really improved since I have less stuff to keep track of.

Since I have seen how well I can live with less, I plan to keep challenging myself and live with even less than I have now.
I know my way of life is not for everyone, and I am not here to try to talk you into “drinking the koolaid.” I am simply sharing my experiences, in the hope that there are some of you out there who either share my feelings about less stuff or who want to downsize but haven’t because of social pressures or other reasons holding you back.