As I purge our home of unused and unwanted belongings, and lighten our load, the reality of it hits me. In just a few days, we will be living "au natural" in the woods.

The last week has been full of revelations. I was amazed that, though I had always been into decluttering and keeping things tidy around here, in reality I was able to round up more than 10 garbage bags and 3 large boxes of "stuff" that we really didn't need. Just in dropping that truckload of extras off at the Salvation Army has lifted a huge weight off of me.

In the forefront of my mind has been the idea of "needs" vs. "wants". As we prepare to live in the woods for a bit, I am forced to look at every object we own and decide if it's a need or a luxury. It has made me realize that we still have way more than we need to survive.

I can tell that these next few weeks of living in the serenity of our property are going to be a wonderful and life-changing experience. For all of the uncertainty that creeps into my mind, I know deep inside that we will all learn a lot from this experience. I am hoping we can come out of it with a lot of knowledge about ourselves and what we want in this life. I plan to do a lot of soul searching while nestled in our little corner of the forest.

The process of lightening our load and simplifiying already seems to be rejuvenating to my spirit....

It looks like we'll be doing a majority of our moving Friday through this weekend and we'll be out of this house by Sunday. I am unsure of when we'll be packing up the computer, but if I don't get a chance to check back in, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the Summer. I look forward to coming back to the board whenever we happen to get back online!

:happy:

Meeshi, I will be thinking about you. I have to say, I envy you so much. DH can't give up one luxury to do this - AC. But, then, we are in South Alabama, not NY. He even wants to put an AC in his work shed. :rolleyes: We will miss you.

Hooray for you!! This sounds like an awesome adventure. Could you plese send me your mailing address (or where you are having your mail sent) so that I can send you the quuilt for your little one? It's almost done and I want to get it to you. thanks Sarah

I know that feeling well. I though we had gotten rid of so much stuff when we moved. Living with the house under rennovation means most of the things we did keep are still packed. When we finished the kitchen I went though the boxes of "needed" stuff and got rid of half of it! I'd say I've dumped 75% of my kitchen stuff in the past year. Sometimes I still get the feeling that we have too much. Living without really makes you focus on what is needed. The purging to get back to basics feels great though!

Chole

I'm so glad this has been a positive and revelatory experience for you.

I'm in the middle of the same thing - just a more drawn-out process, including prepping the house for sale and selling it. We have been feeling a lot of the same feelings as we go through our houseful of stuff. It's been like peeling an onion. I purge a layer, then another layer, deeper and deeper. I really don't want to move anything I don't absolutely love and use in some way.

We should be out by the end of the month. We will be camping as well - but not on our property (we won't own any land or home once we sell this place), we will be camping in the National Forest for a few weeks, most likely...we will have to carry in everything at least 200 ft from the car.

It should be interesting and an exciting adventure. Enjoy it!

ETA: I actually started replying to let you know that Katie sent Nico a letter! It went out yesterday. I hope she gets it before you move. Will you have mail forwarded somewhere? Let me know! We'll be here a few more weeks but then probably unavailable for a few weeks as we camp in early September.

Meeshi~wishing you well!!! I am sure this will be a fruitful and adventurous journey. Will you keep a journal~I hope!?

We are going through a similar process. We will not be camping out. I don't like camping even for a weekend. LOL. We are moving to a smaller space. We have gotten rid of bags upon bags of stuff with more to get rid of. I am sure after our move we will find even more to part with. It is amazing how much we have and I wouldn't consider us as having a lot compared to most people in this country. (U.S. ignore my username...LOL)

<<<hugs>>> we will miss you while your gone. Try to get to the library once a week and check in on us!!!! I know what you mean about trying to declutter. I keep WAY more than we need. Brian and I are packrats by nature. Both of our mothers were too so we get it naturally. But I am determined when we move to go through all of our belongings with a sharp eye and get rid of anything we don't use/need. I keep all of Colin's clothes because they get passed down to Gavin. Once Gavin gets into that size then I weed through them because they have different types. But they share everything else so that makes it easy. We are moving into a smaller house. Brian wouldn't go for the camping thing either, but its because its soooo dang hot and humid here. It gets to 100 degrees in the summertime with 75-100% humidity. Its just not bearable to camp here in the summer time. We camp spring and fall and sometimes winter because we have such a mild winter most years. If it were up to me, I'd have camped, LOL, just so we could have the property that we wanted instead of a transition property. But atleast we are downsizing and practicing a little bit of smallering. We will be able to pay down debt (from our more materialistic phase) and learn building and gardening techniques we can use when we move permanently. That's if we move again.

Meeshi,

I will keep you and your family in my thoughts until you return again to Amitys.

You are so correct about unloading "stuff" and it's effect on the spirit. I have been getting rid of things all summer and donating to various groups in our area. I am shamed by how much stuff I have when I think of how many people lack basic items to live.

I still have more to unload and keep two big boxes open that I am putting items in on a daily basis. Even though I know my husband and I and our six children live more simply than many, I am still holding onto so much "stuff" in my life.

Thank you for the reminder. I am sure you will learn many lessons while you rough it and I hope to hear about them and learn from what you will be experiencing when you come back.

Blessings and Godspeed to you Meeshi. :)

Michelle

I wish you and your family well !~


Valerie