The Campfire Trail: December 21 - DIY Homestead - The Art of the Downsize (Part 1)

December 21, 2022

Day 446 of the Adventure

Our camper life circa 2011

Today is the winter-time red letter day. Not only is it actually the first day of Winter (Winter Solstice) but it's the turning point for the days to begin getting longer. I've been contemplating the idea of downsizing today. It's an "En Vogue" trend among some and I suppose I'm part of that group. Maybe it's just that being sixty plus years old, I simply don't have the time or patience to deal with a lot of extra stuff in life. The idea really never really registered with me until about twelve years ago. It was when we were working on renovating some little 320 sq ft cabins at the beginning of our Resort Adventure. The cabins themselves weren't even the catalyst. It was the 184 sq ft camper we lived in for the Summer while working on them. We brought enough essentials with us to adequately function while living in a camper. We discovered that other than the inconvenience of not having a laundry room, we were really not missing anything other than space to fill with stuff. We eventually moved a washer and dryer into one of the cabins we were working on and that problem was solved.

What I discovered that Summer was how little of the stuff we called essential was really all that essential. We discovered that getting by with much less stuff required much less effort and energy. Cleaning for example was reduced to a few minutes of effort then on to the next part of the day. There were fewer wardrobe choices, fewer kitchen choices, fewer places to sit and read. Somehow, that slowly became acceptable. We spent more time outdoors which was also very acceptable. Ironically, we still owned, and somewhat maintained, our 2,800 sq ft home about 30 miles away. I guess it was our "emotional safety net" that let us keep believing that we weren't really downsizing at all. At least not beyond the temporary Romantic Summer Resort fling with the cabins we had purchased. By the end of the Summer, we were beginning to realize something. All of the stuff associated with a "Normal" life, really wasn't all that necessary. We were no longer raising kids. We never did entertain guests all that much. We discovered that by adding a few small cabins to our inventory of "stuff", not only did we have the ability to host our personal friends and family. We could use them for income generation for most of the year. (To Be Continued)......... Please consider clicking one of the video links on this page and Subscribing to our YouTube channel for much more info and details on how we did all of this!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Clutter may rob us of the life we imagined or prevent us from creating a new vision for our future.” ― Lisa J. Shultz

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost on the Trail (Guatemala)

SNEAK PEEK of our Upcoming OFF-GRID project

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Mountain Craft

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Making Wooden Buckets (Cooper Craft)

Pottery

Cornmeal Grinding