Early Retirement Extreme Forums

New thread in honor of my newly achieved level of ultra-minimalism!



All the stuff I own now except for my garden tools and bike trailer which are locked to the fence of my permaculture project. My goal was for everything to fit in half the backseat of a small car or a very large bike trailer.

Now I am free to do whatever I want to do next

Very impressive.

This started me thinking of great minimalist women we have encountered throughout the ages. Nothing personal, but I think if I had my druthers, I'd have to go with Mary Poppins. I mean an umbrella and one carpet bag? And not needing to even ask for a lift when she moves on? Throw in her incredible array of domestic gifts, her singing and a world class rack, and I just don't see anyone touching her.

WOW!!! The "Wannabe5" part is near... I bet you've outfived all fives on this forum. What is the next leg of the journey?

That looks relieving. Curious to see what you do!

This looks good!

What happened with everything else (i.e. furniture, books, clothes, kitchenware)?

What happened with everything else (i.e. furniture, books, clothes, kitchenware)?

And the guy. Out of the picture, I guess?

...

@Jason:

The "Mary Poppins" soundtrack album was one of my childhood favorites. "Let's Go Fly a Kite", "Just a Spoonful of Sugar", "Super-cali-fragil-istic",etc. I think it's pretty obvious it made a lasting impression on me. All sorts of suggestions for fun that cost a tuppence or even less!

@Clarice:

Long way to go yet (sigh.) I either need to get my expenses down to $300/month OR my marginal flexible part-time hourly wage up to $35/hr. OR get very lucky and be very clever at the same time OR get a full time job.

I am picking my BF at the airport and spending most of October with him inclusive of trip to northern property. I am taking a genealogical adventure road trip with my DS30 in early November and visiting my youngest sister in NYC. I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner at my DD27's new house and spending the holidays in a rented farmhouse with entire extended family. I might go to Texas with my BF, but he might not even go himself, because he just got another job offer. I might bid on a dilapidated house near my permaculture project at auction in a couple weeks. I might head south very slowly on my bike after being dropped just below the frost line off of a Megabus in January. Etc. etc. etc.

What I won't be doing is paying for a storage locker

@Bankai:

There are 3 books, 2 thermoses, knife and spork, and 43 items of clothing in the mix. It took me almost 12 years to get to this level from previous all time high of very old 2850 square ft. with 3 attics, basement and garage filled. It's actually quite modular. but not yet perfected or completed. For instance, there is a fairly complete bag of tools in the pile and a folding set of solar panels, but nothing resembling a sleeping bag or bed roll, because in the near future I will be mostly couch-surfing.

@EdithKeeler:

Nope, and I or we have two lunch, one breakfast, and two coffee dates lined up with other men this week. Plus overdue responding to email from previous poly. Plus still in permaculture partnership with other previous poly.

@classical_Liberal:

!

Very nice simple picture but it says much.

We (partner and I) have perhaps 2x your stuff for the two of us. Some camping equipment in lieu of bicycle stuff and some tools for SUV we bought to replace car for more offroad travel. As you say, it took us many years to go from 4 bedrooms to what we now own. Nice hat, have recently taken to wearing them myself, so much nicer than a baseball cap.

Good luck in all you do.

$300/month seems tough. You have to be VERY entertaining to other people to pull this off. $35/hr? Tutoring? You have to have either your own place or transportation... "lucky and clever" always helps. Full-time job? Won't you feel like a gravestone is closing on you?

@Freedom_2018:

Thanks. That's my fancy sun hat. The other one is similarly wide-brimmed, but it folds up flat, and will stay on my head if it's windy. One of my biggest difficulties in reducing my load was trying to figure out wardrobe for everything from sub-zero tramp through the woods in snow to date-night in hot weather.

@Clarice:

Well, the global middle class ranking begins at around $11/day per capita. There are at least 3 different part-time/flexible jobs I can currently do which I find meaningful and/or fun which net me at least $15/hr. So, $15/hr at 5 hours/week = 20 hours/28 day period= 260 hours/year=6.5 40 hour weeks/year= 1 and 5/8 weeks per 13 week season= etc. etc. = entry level global middle class spending level.

Shelter is obviously largest expense. Five percent is on the very high side for property taxes. So, if 40% of $300 budget goes to shelter, and half of that is property taxes, $60 X 12= $720 = .05 X $14,400 = 1/4 occupancy of property valuated at $57,600. Tough, but not impossible, and no need to be "entertaining."

Cool beans!

You still have two hats and no cooking stuff (only eating). Interesting. Pretty sure that my pressure cooker would remain in my inventory as long as I get to check in a bag or two.

Switching a few rucksacks for suitcases/duffels would make it airport/boat friendly.

Interesting! What kind of jobs do you have in mind? You can find a property at $57.600. If you want 1/4 occupancy you also need to find 3 more people, so as far as being entertaining, no escape for you! Not that you need one...

Wow, that's impressive!

Nice! For someone who is 6 years into the minimizing journey, this is inspiring.

Nice, you're well ahead of me in your minimalism.

I'm hoping to follow closer in your footsteps soon though.

Your minimalism is very impressive. Will you be borrowing a bike trailer if you go on the bicycle odyssey or will you be using panniers?

@jacob: I haven't lived anywhere that wasn't already stocked with cookware for at least 6 years. If I do choose to engage in some solo camping or rehab of dilapidated housing, I will pick up a few items, either from my social circle's overstock or at a thrift/junk store. I could, in theory, microwave something in the lid of my large thermos in the nacho cheese corner of a gas station, after sponge-bathing in their public facilities

@Clarice:

My 4 "job" categories will be:

1) Teaching/Tutoring/Tot-care
2) Trading/Trash-Toting (Any activity, including remnant of my rare book business, roughly covered in "Discards: Your Way to Wealth" which is one of the three books in paper format I am currently carrying.)
3) Tech/Typing/Temp
4) Tree-crops/Tenant-Tending

Obviously, some of these might be too fun to limit myself to only 5 hours/week on average total.

Still, I decided to try to start my average $10/day spending level lifestyle yesterday. So far I haven't spent any money, because I am being fed by my BF, and housed by another friend. So, I will be rolling $20 forward. All my business and employment activities will have their own separate accounts in order to make this work. For instance, if I take a bus to get to a teaching job, that will be an expense under Job Category 1 rather than a Personal Expense counted towards the rolling $10/day average. My cell phone bill will also be split into Personal and at least 2 Job/Business categories.

@Campitor:

As I noted above, in addition to the pile in the photo, I do still own some garden tools, a large garden cart, and a large bike trailer which are currently locked to the fence, under a tarp, at my garden site. So, not requiring any additional payment for storage. I actually don't own a bike at the moment, because I donated my last one, because did not meet my standards. So, will be on my shopping/scavenging list.









Forgot to include this in earlier post. Snapshot showing rapid growth of my stock over course of last year.

I see you have a thing for alliteration.

You have less stuff than my laundry pile. Impressed!