I believe in having exactly enough stuff to accomplish a goal. I believe in enough stuff to keep your life running. But above that? It’s just not necessary. I choose to buy anything and everything I want, because as it turns out, what I want is usually sensible and practical (save the stereo I want for my car… we ain’t eatin,’ but we got tunes….). Right now, I’m trying to decide what should live where, mostly.
Today is going to be a day of getting rid of trash, resetting the house, and getting motivated to think about what clothes I might need for a trip to the lake. It’s not a certainty that I’m going to the lake, it’s just that when Tiina’s out there I mentally put together a backpack. That’s because it’s not unusual for Tiina to call and say, “we’re hanging out. Come on.” Brian said I should have a drawer or something to put my clothes in, so I know that eventually I won’t have to pack for the lake at all. Right now it’s just deciding what I wear the least frequently so that it can live in Louisa when I don’t.
Louisa, Virginia reminds me a lot of Mt. Pleasant, Texas…. or at least, the version of Mt. Pleasant that exists in my memory from the 1980s. Louisa isn’t “two stop lights and a Dairy Queen” small, but it is the hub for several smaller communities. Brian bought a house in a very nice development that’s a few minutes’ walk from the lake. It feels picturesque, cut off from the town so that it has its own vibe.
Brian and Tiina share everything, but to be clear it is Brian that owns the lake house, Tiina that owns the farm, and me gathering clothes to live in three places at once. 😉 I have a Baltimore apartment that is a completely different vibe from the farm and the lake house, but it’s just not big enough to host. I am grateful that Tiina and Brian don’t mind, because I would rather be included in the festivities than throw one here- and let’s be clear. I say “festivities” because that’s how many people I’m talking about at all times.
Brian, Tiina, and the kids are their own football team. I am a competent if klutzy water boy.
Where this fits into my minimalism is that I cannot afford to be replacing things all the time, but I need to be flexible and able to get things on the go. I cannot pack up my entire house every time I get an invitation to the farm or the lake.
Speaking of the farm, you have to see this meme. Someone tried to go on Threads thinking they were clever:
The heart count is now much higher, because I didn’t accept the frame. The person was trying to be pejorative, and I simply stepped around him. People started talking about their own nonbinary animals- a cat with no sex organs and a chicken that stopped laying eggs and became half rooster.
I suppose the biggest thing about minimalism is that digital artifacts mean more to me now, so I need less space. A picture of something is better than keeping it if it has outlived its usefulness. For instance, the rainbow roses I got Tiina for Mother’s Day faded, but the picture is still going strong.
I am trying to make my footprint bigger in the cloud, so I can have a smaller house.
Stories That Are All True 