The Minimalist Leap

When I started on this decluttering/minimalist journey, I figured I’d have to put my minimalist money where my mouth was, but I didn’t ever imagine it would mean living in a 25 foot travel trailer for 5 weeks. It all started when my husband, Tom, was talking to a friend in mid-June. That friend was sharing about how he and his wife live on their boat while they rent out their house for the summer. Tom came home and said “Let’s rent out our house!” I told him that that was a great idea and that we could spend the year getting the house ready to rent. There is a lot of wear and tear on a 15 year old family home that can’t be erased in a matter of weeks, or can it? Tom replied with, “No, I mean this summer! It’ll be great! I’ll take the month off and we can live in our camper,” (insert forced-smile emoji here). So what we embarked on was 4 weeks of furiously cleaning, painting, updating, picture-changing, towel and linen-buying adventure, culminating with our cats living with my son and his wife, and us living in our camper with our dog. For. Four. Weeks. Four full weeks. I have to admit that if you want to learn how to live like a minimalist, or if you want to see what tiny house living is really like, try it out in a small travel trailer for an extended period of time. Everything takes thought and planning. Grocery shopping was a very thought-out process because the cupboard and refrigerator space were at a premium. I had to decide what to make and then only buy food for those specific meals. Clothing had to be whatever could fit in a tote small enough to slide under the fold-out couch. We also had to accommodate for somewhat limited internet service and go back to reading old fashioned paper books and play old fashioned card games on the rainy days. What I learned though is that albeit cramped, I was forced to keep up with dishes and stay on top of clutter daily. I spent a lot of time finding ways to maximize space. Luckily for me, Tom likes organizing things and within the second week all of the cabinets were organized with additional shelving and plastic totes. So when it came to shooting my mouth off about all of the decluttering and minimalism, I found out that I really could downsize into an incredibly small space for a longer-than-usual amount of time. Now the question is, will we do it again next summer for two months instead of one? Stay tuned.