Levels of possessions

[Walt34]

Right now we're typical, house with garage, shed for lawn maintenance stuff, small boat with outboard motor, three vehicles (3rd is a motorcycle). But we're slowly moving in the direction of housebound minimalists.

When we do move we don't want to have to move a lot of stuff too.

 

[palomalou]

Unlike Amethyst, I can hardly WAIT until the blessed day when we FIRE and have no lawn to worry about who does it. Right now he mows and I do the roses. We'll get rid of two cars, lawn mower, all but a small toolbox. Downsize from 2700 SF to 912SF. We are typical American who aspires to become minimalist. At least my half does--spouse I think is having a bit of trouble with the joy I get from selling/donating items.
So much of our stuff wasn't bought to be permanent, but to fill a temporary need, such as a couple of towels when were teaching at a summer camp and the towels were yucky, or forgot to take some item on a long trip. Or something bought as small token present for each other. That category is tricky.

 

[rescueme]

We are typical American who aspires to become minimalist.

Are you sure (speak to my DW , who still travels the world) and has no desire (along with me) to reduce our current lifestyle?

We both w*rked (long and hard) to achieve our retirement goal. No reason to settle for less, IOHO (in our humble opinion).

 

[Amethyst]

Except for the part about "can hardly wait till the blessed day until I FIRE." We DO have THAT in common!

I come from a family of stuff-lovers, and will always love stuff. I fully intend to figure out some way to take it with me. I would not be happy in Heaven without stuff.

Amethyst

Unlike Amethyst, I can hardly WAIT until the blessed day when we FIRE and have no lawn to worry about who does it. Right now he mows and I do the roses. .

 

[East Texas]

We got our lawnmower for free from a typical American neighbor who was upgrading... and he's still working for a paycheck.

Isn't it interesting that people with "stuff" consider minimalists to be poor?

 

[Amethyst]

I don't consider any such of a thing. Going around judging whether other people are "poor" is not worth my time....as long as people can pay their own way, and don't expect me to foot their bills, they're fine by me...I just like stuff.

A.

Isn't it interesting that people with "stuff" consider minimalists to be poor?

 

[East Texas]

I don't consider any such of a thing. Going around judging whether other people are "poor" is not worth my time....as long as people can pay their own way, and don't expect me to foot their bills, they're fine by me...I just like stuff.

A.

I did not mean to offend. People have mistaken my living below my means as my not having any money.

 

[MooreBonds]

I'm between "typical American Household" and "house-bound minimalist".

35 years young, in the wealth accumulation phase. 1,750 sq ft house/garage/car/riding lawn mower (1 acre)...but bought about 1/2 of my household furniture off Craigslist (the rest from lower-priced sales/stores), don't have 10 different $100 gadgets in the kitchen that are never used, and have a leaning-towards-minimalist amount of furnishings.

Don't ever see myself as an RVer, just because I like some space to stretch out, have friends/family over, and would like to eventually enjoy a garden.

 

[Amethyst]

No offense taken! People can assume whatever they like...and they will! Unlike your situation, ET, I work around mostly LBYM types, so we all tend to assume each other has more money than it would appear.

Amethyst

I did not mean to offend. People have mistaken my living below my means as my not having any money.

 

[Koolau]

I come from a family of stuff-lovers, and will always love stuff. I fully intend to figure out some way to take it with me. I would not be happy in Heaven without stuff.

Amethyst

Did you hear about the guy who showed up at the pearly gates with a trunk full of his prized possessions - several gold bars. St. Peter had a puzzled look and asked the guy "Why did you bring paving stones up here?"

 

[Koolau]

Guess I would have to consider myself an "affluent minimalist." Affluent because we keep two dwellings which are 5000 miles apart. Minimalist, because each is furnished primarily with cast-offs, hand-me-downs, garage-sale finds and Goodwill pieces.

Between the two places we don't own a single lawn mower (or chain saw). All outside maintenance is performed by those hired to do so. We do own two cars - average age 12 years+.

Guess it just goes to show, most of us don't fit neatly into any niche.

I had to chuckle about this description of "homeless" people.


Homeless people don't own a backpack, because they don't have enough stuff to need one or have enough money to get one. They drink coffee that is free from one place or another.


The homeless that I see nearly every day have almost as much stuff as I do. True, it tends to fit into shopping carts and plastic bags, but on "moving day" (recent APEC summit here) the homeless could be seen trudging down the streets pushing one over-flowing cart and pulling another, while family members did the same - occasionally taking a break to drink Starbucks. I've forgotten the figures, but the city moved out quite a number of our homeless for APEC and the trash disposal costs were in the multiple 10s of thousands of dollars. That is how our homeless "downsize". They move occasionally (or get moved) and leave behind what they no longer wish to keep.

I absolutely agree that this is a miserable existence (at least, it would be for me) and I'm not poking fun at the homeless. Just suggesting that the lines drawn between the various groups can get blurred when it comes to the volume of their possessions. YMMV

 

[Ronstar]

Probably closer to typical Americans than any other category. But with multiple dwellings, cars, truck, ATV,boat, lawn mowers, chain saws/ yard tools, etc we've got a lot of minimizing to do.

 

[ShortInSeattle]

Minimalist. Sold our too-big acreage property and downsized to a condo less than half the size. We have no yard, two pots and one frying pan, and one set of sheets. We drive rarely, sharing a single car.

We love having few possessions, but the things we do have are high quality. Our condo has a gorgeous view, we buy designer clothes at consignment shops, and we're picky about what comes into the house. Less stuff, more time, more freedom!

SiS

 

[Nunyaa]

Somewhere between "Extreme minimalist" and "Housebound minimalist." I seem to relocate every couple of years for work so I've always been a perpetual renter.

 

[Nords]

Or gotten to the "don't go beyond this point" rung of the extension ladder, which is leaning against the 20-foot columnar yew that is getting a haircut. You've got the picture
Nords - You've confirmed what I suspected.... the so-called "safety" features are actually for the manufacturers to be "safe" against lawsuits

I used to climb to the top branches of our 30-foot mango with a reciprocating saw and a long extension cord.

Now I just climb up about 10 feet and start cutting. The trick is to avoid dropping a 400-pound branch on a (buried) PVC sprinkler line.

Isn't it interesting that people with "stuff" consider minimalists to be poor?

I don't consider any such of a thing. Going around judging whether other people are "poor" is not worth my time....as long as people can pay their own way, and don't expect me to foot their bills, they're fine by me...I just like stuff.

I did not mean to offend. People have mistaken my living below my means as my not having any money.

I think that's exactly why we got the lawnmower... because he thinks we're livin' on the edge of poverty. He's never spent enough time with me to appreciate our lifestyle. His daughter was one of our daughter's best friends, though, and she gets it.

Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I should stop talking about surfing or scoring good deals on FreeCycle & Goodwill. Maybe I should start kvetching about Roth IRA conversions or the high commissions for selling call options.

 

[Onward]

I absolutely agree that this is a miserable existence

I believe the typical homeless person in America is at least as happy as the typical corporate employee. Not because homeless people are happy, but because the typical rat racer is so beseiged and desperate.

 

[Nords]

I believe the typical homeless person in America is at least as happy as the typical corporate employee. Not because homeless people are happy, but because the typical rat racer is so beseiged and desperate.

I wonder which one is more affected by cigarettes, drugs, & alcohol...

 

[Hamlet]

I'm in the typical American crowd.

I expect to eventually die in an avalanche of thrift store children's toys.

 

[devans0]

I am typical, but moving to minimalist. Owning stuff is it's own slavery. I want a few nice things that are special to me, otherwise, I am spending too much time fixing, cleaning, maintaining, that it is too easy to become a slave to my possessions. No thank you.

 

[kat]

Typical American. But the early examples on this thread hardly touched on my possessions. I think for me the insights come from spending the years from 30.5 to 49.5 in the same house. In my 30's, I was buying and buying. At 40 to 43, I donated things to people who were burned out, and to nieces and nephews. At 49.5, I see I hardly ever use 90% of what is here, but it's here. It's not the worst problem in the world, in fact it's quite easy to ignore. Since I did not move after the accumulating years, I haven't ever done a thorough clean out. Yet.

 

[brett]

We are in the process of downsizing from a five bedroom house to something that we can lock up and walk away from for a few months at a time. We are now on the third pass and becoming somewhat ruthless about what to keep and what to pass along to others.

Prior to starting the process we thought that it may be difficult. The opposite it true, we find it liberating and continually ask ourselves why did accumulate so much and why did we ever need such a large home. Can't wait to get out of here and move on with our lives.

 

[FUEGO]

Housebound minimalist describes me the best I would say.

No garage even though we have the lawnmower and cars. Small 8x12' storage shed where we keep all the outdoor stuff (like lawnmower) and general storage.

1800 sf house which is bigger than we really need but we bought it at auction at a dirt cheap price (around $60/sf). We do have 2 kids and another on the way, so my idea of downsizing is still 18.5-22.5 years away. I imagine as the kids get older we will grow into our house for a period of a few years before they leave the nest.

In terms of decor, I don't think we have ever bought any furniture new other than our main couch, and most of the remainder was given to us or acquired for free or nearly free (thrift shop, craigslist, FIL found it in an abandoned house he was cleaning out, etc).

We don't own a lot of tools, but we do use most of the ones we have. I don't like owning a bunch of stuff or spending time acquiring stuff so we just don't buy much. Although I will stock up on consumables if I know they are a great bargain since I know we will use them relatively quickly (under a year).

Our cars demonstrate who we are pretty well - 12 year old accord and 12 year old civic. Powertrain is very well maintained, but the exterior looks like garbage. I guess not washing them in years will do that, along with driving through mud and concrete dust/slurry on the job site. But they get us where we need to go and will probably last another 12 years. However I take the bus to work about half the time (when I don't need my personal car for work trips out of the office). Most families with kids have big honkin SUVs or minivans but so far our ample sized trunks seem to have taken care of kid related cargo hauling. I have entertained the idea of a small hitch addition to one car in order to tow a small utility trailer (for personal watercraft which we don't yet own). Or to put a hitch mounted luggage rack or bike rack. I'd rather do that than buy a big SUV to haul the same stuff rather infrequently (since I do a lot of downtown urban driving and parallel on street parking when I do commute to work by car).

I describe our consumption patterns as "value conscious consumers". If there is a cheaper way to accomplish something that isn't significantly inconvenient or burdensome then I will usually choose the cheaper way.

 

[ShortInSeattle]

.
Prior to starting the process we thought that it may be difficult. The opposite it true, we find it liberating and continually ask ourselves why did accumulate so much and why did we ever need such a large home. Can't wait to get out of here and move on with our lives.

Ditto! Downsizing has felt liberating. Downsizing my book collection was the hardest part!

 

[palomalou]

Oops! I should have said we aspire to be house-bound minimalists, not minimalists-travelers. The "house-bound" was a red herring to me because after we retire, we will be less house-bound than now. We'll have good access to public transit, whereas now, I drive, but only for what I absolutely have to. And I LOVE getting rid of stuff! Spouse, not so much... (I don't mean I am trying to get rid of him! He just resists the, "But do we ever use it?" argument and has the "but we might need it someday" point of view.)

 

[FinanceDude]

What really frosts me is the following "safety feature" dreamed up by the manufacturers - I use heavy-duty outdoor electric cable with 3-prong male and female ends, but the hedge trimmer and chain saw only have TWO prong plugs - the better to suddenly fall out, causing the machine to quit while you're using it.
Amethyst

Wrap the two cords around each other, and then plug them in, it helps........