Living Large by Traveling Light
Just like any kid living in America, I was socialized to want stuff from an early age – from Hello Kitty to stuffed animals to Barbie dolls. I would pour over the Sears Christmas catalog, seeking out the prizes that I wanted Santa to bring me. I had been a very good girl. While we never had a lot of money growing up, and certainly much less after my father departed the scene, I embraced my southern California upbringing wanting all the things that other teenager girls wanted: clothes, jewelry, a car, music, etc. I got a job at the age of 16 to pay for what I wanted. I worked 2-3 jobs in college in order to partially support myself…and buy more stuff. By my mid-20’s, society told me that I should settle down, go to grad school, get a good paying job, and buy a house. If you own a home, you know that a house requires a tremendous of time and responsibility. Like goldfish we tend to grow to the size of our bowl, we get another chair for the guest room, new paint in the office, and the attic and closets fill up with…you guessed it, more stuff. Somewhere along the line, I discovered that stuff never really made me happy. Since I despise clutter and searching for things, I would often go through fits and rages of cleaning out closets and drawers and giving away or throwing away stuff….stuff that I don’t even know from where it came.
Last year I found an ad in a magazine which stated, “Travel
is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer.” I cut it out and it now hangs on
our cork board inside our camper. It’s
become a bit of a mantra for us and reminds us how we want to invest our money
and the kinds of things we are looking for as we enter the next chapter of our lives.
I got the travel bug in 5th grade when my
gymnastics team was invited to Hawaii to compete with a team from Oahu. We had homestays, participated in a couple of
meets, did some exhibitions in parks and at elementary schools, and got to tour
3 of the islands. Not a typical 10 year
old experience, but one that I cherished because I raised the money to do it all
by myself. You’ve heard of
run/walkathons? Gymnasts do
cartwheel-athons. Two hundred cartwheels
and 48 sponsors later, I had enough money for my plane ticket. After experiencing a culture very different
from my own, I was hooked on seeing more of the world. While I didn’t get to travel much as a child
or teen (my parents just weren’t enthusiastic travelers), I worked multiple
jobs and saved my money to be able to go to Europe for a month while in college. Did that satisfy my travel bug? Nope.
It did nothing more than make me want to see more of the world. As a bit of an armchair anthropologist, I’ve
always been fascinated by discovering how people live and work, finding out
what makes them tick, and learning how they celebrate life’s joys and sorrows.
Since this time, I have been lucky enough to travel to 21
different countries (some more than once) and have experienced a bit of how
others live out their lives on this planet – from the cities of Europe to the
islands of Vanuatu. Hutch has joined me for
many of these trips, most of which were funded by frequent flyer miles, camping/hostelling
instead of staying in hotels, eating from local fruit/veggie stands and grocery
stores instead of restaurants, and all the usual ways of making travel more
affordable -- and in my estimation, much more rich. I’ve
never really been much of a resort person.
I tend to find locals more interesting than other tourists, and enjoy
off-the-beaten-track beaches that aren’t listed in the guide books rather than
those with a sea of matching lounge chairs.
I have found that traveling in the back of a truck with 8 other people,
4 bags of casaba, and a flock of chickens is much more exciting than the
comfortable air-conditioned bus. Both
get you to where you are going, but the former makes for a lot more laughter,
good advice, and interesting stories. While
I realize that I’m often the oddball amongst my friends and family, the idea of
arriving in a foreign country with nothing more than a return plane ticket and
a map that I picked up at the airport is simply way more fun than an overly
planned itinerary – even if you get on the wrong city bus and get the cheap
tour of Verona…right Hutch?
What I’ve come to realize during my travels is that most
people I met or stayed with had very little stuff. Unlike Americans, they don’t have large closets
full of clothing, kitchens cupboards stuffed with pots, pans, and gadgets, and garages
piled so high with tools and junk that you can’t find anything. In 2006, after
traveling abroad for 7 weeks with nothing more than what we could carry on our
backs, we came home and found ourselves dumbfounded by the ridiculous amount of
stuff we had and didn’t need. Where did
it all come from? That summer we began
systematically downsizing our lives by cleaning out each drawer, closet, and
cupboard in every room of our house. If
it didn’t meet at least 2 of the 3 following requirements (beautiful, useful,
or specifically sentimental -- i.e., the cake pan in which my mother made my
3rd year birthday cake), out it went. Three
car loads, 5 charity shops, and 1 trip to the dump later, we felt tremendously
lighter (and somewhat embarrassed about how much we had accumulated). From that point on, we encouraged our friends
and begged our families to make donations in our names and/or give us
consumables for birthdays and other gift giving holidays. We simply had to take control of the amazing
amount of stuff that continued to enter our home.
In 2012, we took an even more drastic step. We made the decision to sell it all -- or at
least most of it -- and rented out our 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house. Our friends and colleagues repeatedly told us
that we were “brave” and “courageous,” but for us, this just made sense -- or
cents depending on how you to choose look at it. We strategically downsized our lives to what
we could fit in a small pick-up truck and 12 foot camper. We now live on about $2000 per month (or about
half of that when we are WWOOFing), which includes food, gas, lodging, cell
phones, insurance of all kinds, a retirement plan, a small emergency fund, and
about as much entertainment as two people can possibly take in. Just
looking at energy savings alone, we used to pay about $3600 per year in
utilities; we now run our lights, computer, etc. on solar power, spend about $90
per year on propane for cooking and heating, and are on a pay-as-you-go cell
phone plan. We get water and wi-fi where
we can find it – which is as simple as finding a McDonald’s or public library. We’ve reduced our showers to 2-3x per week
and even make our own laundry soap for about $.05 per load (thanks for the
recipe, Jaimie!). To make a few extra
dollars of spending money, Hutch is doing some busking and I am beginning to
sell some of my photography.
Despite living on what amounts to below-the-poverty-line
wages, our lives have never felt so rich and full of meaning! Instead of running frantically from one project/meeting/email/program
to the next, and squeezing in vacation time between semester breaks and house
projects, we are doing what we want and giving our 40-something year old bodies
and brains the nourishment they need to thrive, grow, rest, and be sustained. We have never felt so unstressed. Instead of paying for gym memberships, we cycle,
kayak, hike, and snowshoe. Instead of
paying Earth Fare or Whole Foods prices for organic produce, we volunteer on WWOOF
farms and get locally grown fruits and vegetables in return – thanks Rippling
Waters and Orchard Pond Organics! After
living like this for nearly 6 months, we’ve come to terms with the real meaning
of living sustainably – for not only the planet, but for our bodies and minds.
Traveling light is one of the best feelings, you always have a shirt you enjoy to put on - because you only have four shirts! :) Or at least, that's how I found it.
ReplyDeleteCan you pass along the laundry detergent recipe? I've come across a few but love to try ones I know friends have had success with.
So proud of you two for making this leap and so incredibly happy to hear how well it's going. I love reading about what you're up to and miss you dearly.
ReplyDeleteLove you always,
Sarah