Author: ElisaMG

So far, I’d been living risk free in my Airstream, in a beautiful RV park tucked among the hills along a gorgeous lake just a hop and skip outside of LA. I’m minutes from my LA Airstream buddies who have helped me tremendously in my education process. The park seems to be a well kept secret and has been an awesome place to start out, but the road has been whispering her promises of travel, adventure, beauty and growth in my ear, pulling me out of my comfort zone. It was time. I knew,  “Bug” was just not going to  get the job done! You see I’ve been driving a VW Bug for as long as I can remember. It was time to find a tow vehicle.

Bug was small, quiet and could go unnoticed slipping in and out of places without disturbing anyone. Bug represented everything polite, sweet, unassuming, and always would move out of the way for the rest of the world, making sure everyone around had their needs met first. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bug and all of her beautiful qualities, but, there comes a time in a relationship, where a girl’s gotta make some changes. So, along came Beast.

I have no idea why I called my Doge Ram 2500 4×4 Diesel Truck, Beast. I love saying that! But it simply came to me and stuck. Beast is strong, unapologetic, courageous,  and adventurous.  Beast is self reliant, commands attention and has no problem with everyone moving over. Beast has no problem putting herself first. Beast, owns the road. Just sitting in her I sit a little taller.

I grew up with three big brothers in the late sixties and heard all of the messages many of you had in terms of what was for girls and what was for boys. I remember times I impressed my brothers by daring to cross those societal lines. I recall climbing the trees in South Chicago that towered so high one could not see the homes, just the Sears Tower off in the distance above a tree blanket of fall color. Then as a young adult there was the very impressive pink tool kit that had tools better than some of the ones the boys had. I picked them out from target when rehabbing an old Victorian in South Minneapolis. After first moving to Los Angeles,  I successfully maneuvered the three dimensional grid of  LA freeways during rush hour, once again leaving my big brothers in awe. (If you’re from LA, stop laughing.) I had already impressed my brothers with my competence in doing things that we did not grow up thinking were for girls, but I guess societal messages go deep.  I still had tiny voices of doubt as to what I could do, what I should do, how much of my feminine self I might lose doing it, and other ridiculousness. So here I go again, relearning that as women, we can do whatever we want and it does not define us. There are no limits.  Now I learn how to drive and care for Beast, my 2018 2500 Dodge Ram 4×4 Diesel Truck, in preparation to learn to tow. I’m still learning about all she can do but buying her was a first step at making future towing and boon docking a reality.

By the way, if you are a truck salesman and you are a guy you should know… I passed up Chevy and Ford, not because of all of the oh so convincing classic online arguments over which of the “Big Three” trucks are the best, but simply because of how I was treated in the sale. At those two places I experienced two extremes. There were the guys who were more interested in making small talk about my cute cowboy boots… (and granted they are), or my beautiful turquoise necklace… (a treat to myself from Santa Fe)… but seriously, salesmen (and I underscore men… sorry guys). Salesmen who didn’t want to spend an iota of time educating me on the advantages of buying different trucks, but rather thought compliments  from guys would make the sale, basically lost the sale.

To top it off, I ended up at Ontario Dodge on the 15 in Southern California talking to  Cassidy, a twenty something year old snappy female who was smart not just on her product and all of its internal workings (transmission, engine, etc.) but also on the competition. She told me from her personal experience hauling horses, (as up until then she spent her days as a successful horse jockey). She didn’t waste my time with lots of filler blah blah blah. She was fast and to the point, and since the sale, is still incredibly helpful when it comes to questions I have. She goes way above and beyond in terms of customer service and follow up even after the sale. Oh, and I told her if she was going to hand me off to the closer for the finish of the deal, rather than closing it herself, I would walk. And you see how that chapter ended. Thanks Cassidy! Introducing Beast!

Folks told me I looked so happy in the photo above. Well, I am and I’m about to share some of my secrets. It’s all in the downsizing. Less stuff means less stress. The garage sale was just one way that I downsized. There were also lots of tiny decisions and choices all along the journey of the last two years. And in all honesty, I’m still downsizing. I work on one area, and eventually another area reveals itself as the next space in my life that could use a bit of decluttering. So, here are some random thoughts on that to round out the garage sale story I just talked about.

A Quick Thought On Blankets:

Keep all of your favorite blankets. That is one thing that I packed away to see if I would miss, and they all came back out. It’s nice to have blankets for guests when they visit, but also when the temperatures drop it’s nice to layer blankets and crawl under the heap, rather than throw away dollars on propane or have to rely on hookups for my electric heaters. I found It could get down to the forties at night outside and it would get into the fifties in the trailer and I would be toasty under a good pile of down and other cozy blankets. And getting up in the morning chill just made my morning cup of joe that much more of a treat.

Clothing:

I had to make some decisions since I was going from four closets in my house, to two closets in my apartment to a fourth of a closet that I now count as one closet in my airstream. If I had items I walked out of the house in and nobody gave me a compliment, I decided it was their time to go. Items that I loved except maybe one little thing about them I let go of. Items that squeezed my figure accenting where all of the fat resided in my body…. Absolutely gone! For the most part if it was not a piece that I could mix and match with a few different pieces, I let it go, or if I had multiples that pretty much could pass as the same piece I let them go. And if I hadn’t worn the piece in a long time I definitely let it go.

I kept the items that frequented my dirty clothes basket, because I knew I actually wear those a lot. I kept the clothes that made me feel happy when I put them on and were comfortable. I kept items for the occasions I knew I would be involved in. Yes, I kept a couple full length formal dresses! I’m not going to repeat the “POD” method as you can check that out on google, but I tried a version of this where I kept out 30 items of clothing from the given season and that is what I wore. In my version I picked my favorite thirty items for a particular season and packed the rest away to see what I’d miss, or not miss. Shoes were hard to say good bye to, so I kept quite a few and found creative ways to store them. I use those grey cloth baskets from Target to store quite a few things. They are awesome because they squish into funny corners and they protect things from breaking. Anyhow, I had a ridiculous number of coats that I gifted to friends and handed out to homeless people, some of which I had never worn. Ridiculous! As time travels on I notice I am able to let go of even more and really get down to what I need.

And there were my favorite furniture pieces:

I discovered my beautiful Italian Bed Set simply would not fit in my apartment bedroom. The room was small and odd shaped. I tried measuring that room over and over and even thought maybe I could store it on end. A friend said I’ll buy it from you for $400. I was surprised to find the minute I let go of it, a weight lifted, not only did I have zero regrets, I got a little extra joy out of the set knowing my friend’s daughter would be enjoying it. I donated a couple of fun chairs I had to a local art museum for folks to sit on while looking at the art. It makes me smile when I go in there and see them put to good use.

Dishes, Dishes and More Dishes:

A dear friend said, you really only need two plates, two glasses, and two sets of silverware. He had lived in a minimalist manner all of his life. He couldn’t possibly understand all of the fun memories from each of the mugs I had and how I needed to keep all of those memories…. So I kept them. Now, looking back, I think I still have three of them. Things break, get lost or borrowed along the way, and then I simply do not replace them, or if I get something new, I get rid of something old.I also realized that when I host a party and need lots of dishes, I don’t take out the fine china, I take out paper plates and plastic cups. I really did not need all of those dishes.

My Plant Babies:

I love my plant babies. I hauled as many as I could with me to the apartment, then a few less to the first parking place for my trailer. Now I’m down to three pots. As I get closer to getting on the road and truly being a nomad, I’ll likely dump the plants and buy new when I settle down in one location again. The best thing I did with my plants was give them to my dear friends. When I visit  their homes and see my old plants it warms my heart and makes me smile. Also the plants look a lot better than when I was taking care of them.

Books, Books, Books!:

I am definitely a book addict. I gave away three fourths of my books to places like Cafe Con Libros, where you can exchange used books,  and also in book boxes the trendy new addition to folks’ front yards around the neighborhood. I’d still say books are the thing I have the most of. I have been slowly reading them and saying goodbye. Where I had duplicates on kindle I let the hard copy go. I had to ask myself… am I really going to read these? When I did the math,I realized how many books I had collected and that with all of the time in the world there would never be enough to read them all. Books are heavy so I know I have a ways to go in letting go, but I’ve made great progress.

Files and Important Paperwork:

I had files from work, and files documenting my life up until then. Everything I can now happily say is paperless and I feel light and free. I believe I transformed around seven boxes of paper records. I do have a little more to go in this arena. There also was a lot I had been toting around in files that I really had no need for and it got shredded.

Hobbies:

The keyboard, photography equiptment and art supplies, including the huge canvases and art easel were non-negotiable. When you figure out what you really love, you find a way to make it fit.

A Tender Surprise:

I came across some childhood dresses that my mother had saved for me. I thought,  well I’m not having kids and my nephews and nieces are too old for these. Its a shame they are in perfect condition, but its silly to hold on to them. I tossed them into the waste bin and immediately my eyes teared up. I snatched them back out, and immediately called my sisterhood. These dresses were way to precious as they told the story of my childhood. I could see a little version of me as I thought back on everything I went through as a child, good and hard. I saw the best intentions of all of the people who loved me into the me I am today. With things like this, I have created artwork out of them to preserve them in my memory and heart. I also stored a couple things like this with good friends, knowing I could get them back later. And now that I have let go, I know I’m fine with saying good bye. I also gifted some items from childhood to friends with small children, and got the joy of seeing these things create new memories in someone else’s family.

I went from the 2,000 square foot house and 10,000 square foot yard with a two car garage to the apartment which was approximately 900 square feet not including my patio. Then in the apartment I started closing off rooms and sections of my closet getting my pile of belongings smaller and smaller. Eventually the day of the big move to the airstream came and I made the big jump to 200 square feet. I started with nice neat looking plastic bins stored underneath it. Now they are all gone too, its just the trailer and the back of the truck where I store things. I even sold my VW Bug to the guy who sold me my airstream! I did the math on renting a storage unit and thought that it just did not make sense. In ten years I can save the money and buy new if I really want any of these things again. Besides, there will be new designs and trends out in ten years, and if I leave my airsteam I’ll be in an entirely new space that deserves new furniture.  I can honestly say, looking back on all I let go of,  I have zero regrets. I miss nothing. There is not one moment  when I have thought I wished I had not thrown something. And I have added a few new things to my belongings, but the fun now is I only buy top quality things that I really want and need. I slow down and ask myself why I feel the urge to buy something. Am I really just bored, or am I avoiding feeling sad about something. I laugh at myself because if I’m being honest I have to admit, I’ve bought some pretty big purchases over break ups with boyfriends. Seriously…. big! Now there is no guilty shopping. Shopping is way more fun when living tiny.

I know there are some folks who have been doing this longer than me now following me… please do chime in on any great tidbits you have discovered along the way about getting rid of stuff. By the way folks, this applies whether you stay in your sticks and bricks home or whether you join me on the road.

My hope in my near future writing is to quickly get caught up to where I am present day actually living in my Airstream. Join me again soon and as always… thanks for following me.

Minimalism is sorting through the fog and gaining clarity on one’s purpose, and what is most important while removing everything else that distracts us from this. It is living a life of intentionality. When I successfully got on the road to a minimalist life I realized how many times I bought that something, just to get a charge,  feel better or use it to identify with some unreachable happiness. In reality, happiness I have found comes from within, from the people you connect with, from the silent moments in between the silence. Happiness is definitely not found in things. As a matter of fact, the imaginary joy of buying something quickly wears off leaving an even bigger need to fill that hole. Getting rid of my things and getting down to what is most important to me has been an ongoing process of self discovery. One thing I can honestly say is thus far, I have zero regrets.

How does one get rid of 50 some years of collecting things that overflow in a 2,000 square foot home, with a 10,000 square foot yard and two car garage? How does one get this down to 200 square feet worth of belongings? Well, I found multiple ways, and to be honest am still on the journey. So let me start by telling you about one, the garage sale.

Let me start by saying, I hate garage sales. I had sold my house and had a limited amount of time to get out. Over the last few weeks whenever I touched something it either went in the garage to a throw pile, or garage sale pile, moved to my fancy new apartment ( I downsized in stages), was given away to friends and family or donated to charity, or local organizations. Thinking back on the garage sale, a colossal disaster that taught me about one of the first things I would do differently going forward, I can do nothing but laugh.

It was the day of the sale. Yep. It was almost noon, and I had not put out a shred of advertising. I didn’t do the ad in the paper the night before and have everything set up to go at seven in the morning. Nope. I sat down with my cheap poster board and markers and couldn’t get any of them to work around noon the day of. I was feeling incredibly sorry for myself. Everyone needs that sisterhood (or brotherhood) that will surround them with support and love when in crisis, were what saved me that day. My sisterhood, I loving call my Bristlecone Sisters because, like the trees, they are strong, resilliant, dependable, have your back type of beautiful long lasting friendships that everyone deserves. The Bristlecone Sisters dropped in, took over, and saved the day!

One sister handed me a plate of home cooked enchiladas and instructed me to sit on my behind and eat. She grabbed the very last posteboard and marker and asked me what I wanted it to say. As I was blubbering about nothing working and how useless this whole stupid effort was, she again firmly repeated what should I write. I thought about it, and said “Afternoon Garage Sale” with my address and a big fat arrow pointing in the general direction of my house.  Another girlfriend went to work on setting everything out so that it was presentable. I really was a mess. Getting rid of stuff can be emotional. I told another girlfriend to duct tape the sign to the pole on the closest busy street (five blocks away) so that the arrow pointed the right way.  I figured curious folk would find there way to my house. I had an awesome turn out! Who knew?!

The people who showed up were an amazing crew of interesting artist types all super excited about this afternoon garage sale. They said who is it that thinks everyone wants to go to garage sales in the morning? They loved the afternoon sale. As everything went down to plants from the garden, I gained an assortment of new friends, wonderful folks who had been living by me for the last five years. Along with this new bunch of artist types that I had no idea (living in a very plain suburban like city) lived by me, came a collection of wonderful swapped stories and an all around good time filled with laughter.

Some neighbors really didn’t come to shop, they seriously just wanted to meet the girl they had watched slowly transform her yard into a beautiful drought tolerant paradise. Several came by in the next couple of days, dropping off bottles of wine, gifts, thank you for a fun garage sale. I did make money, but what I really made was the realization that going forward I would always see the people, get to know the beautiful souls who lived around me. I would never bury myself in a household, double car garage full of stuff, barricading myself from humanity. And I do just that, I introduce myself. I listen and get to know folks. My life continues to grow with amazing beautiful people all around me.

My very terrible garage sale taught me I was on the right path and helped me get rid of my stuff. In a future post I’ll share a few more of the nitty gritty on how I decided what to keep and where to get rid of things. And I’m pretty sure I’ll never have to have another garage sale. I’ll just get to know folks up front rather than collecting things.

The Parsonage

The Cabin

My Airstream

I started on the planet in the foster care system obviously owning absolutely nothing.  Very early in life I was fortunate to call home where I lived with my new adopted family. I’m standing on the steps of the parsonage in Chicago with my big brother in the picture to the far left.

My dad was a pastor and back in the day, pastor’s families often lived in a “parsonage”. A parsonage was a house owned by the church, typically on the property, loaned to the pastor and his or her family. Folks working in that industry did not bring in big salaries, the reason to work as a pastor was more about a calling to serve and connect with people and a shared spiritual journey with the grand creator. We didn’t grow up comparing ourselves to others based on the size of our house or things we owned, since we didn’t own much. We just thought of home as a place you live.

Like the minimalists of today, people came before things, and so did lots of joyful memories.

Also, in the summer time, when we went on vacation we’d head twelve hours north to a small lake in Canada where we had what I would consider the original of tiny homes, a cabin! Our cabin was especially small as it was made of an old gun shack, no more than 100 square feet. So as you can see having my two hundred square foot home all to myself is really living in luxury!  In the cabin, the bed folded up into a table in the daytime. The windows and porch extended the size of the building as it brought the outdoors inside. We didn’t have insta pots back then, but we did have crock pots and electric fry pans. Paper plate vs washing dishes was often the choice we made. How we were to get our water and deal with sewage were all things that had to be thought out. Water came from a nearby well and using an outhouse was normal. Granted I don’t have a composting toilet today but there are definitely similarities. And somehow when I think of doing that activity in an outhouse vs right inside of our living spaces, the old fashioned, or tried and true way, somehow seems cleanlier.  Every space had multiple uses and was creatively designed. The middle photo from the right was one view of the cabin. It was much more charming than this picture, but this is the picture I have.

In spite of the fact that others around us had bigger much fancier cabins, my memory of this as a kid, was not one that lacked for anything. No matter how many family and friends would come over to visit, magically they all fit inside, and conversation and connection and community were the most important things, not whether or not we had a good internet connection or hundreds of channels on the TV. As a matter of fact, there was no TV, and the radio only played on a couple of stations, some of the time. In my current RV park and in the postings of those who are out and about boon docking, internet really only comes up when someone is talking about using it for their source of income, and their are creative ways to make that happen.

Like my modern day Airstream, shown in the picture on the right, the small cabin structure also encouraged us to get out and about, enjoying the nearby adventures in the forest, or out on the lake, or hiking to visit neighbors. The community, in this case a coop of other folks in small trailers was an important part of our existence, and demanded that a diverse group of folks learn how to get along and work together when it came to decisions that effected the whole community. Like days long gone by, in todays modern day RV Parks, Nomad groups etc, you will find more diversity in every aspect of the word and an incredibly strong caring community that looks out for each other, in spite of our diversity, unlike a lot of the silo building we are seeing today dividing us into groups of people who are just like us.

Night time stories around the fire gifted me with many fond memories of those days. As I look at my current RV life, it is all very familiar. When thinking about downsizing into a Tiny House, my dad thought it a good idea for me to first try out living in a trailer to see if I liked it. Even though I thought it was a great suggestion, I smiled, as I already knew, this was how life was when I was small and I loved every minute of it, and am loving every minute now, including the modern day environmental friendly fire pits in RV living and the community building that happens around them.

My neighbors all look out for each other, support and help each other and enjoy each others company. I learned early on, talk to folks, get to know them and give back.

Did my early life and homes teach me about living tiny or did tiny living make me appreciate my early life? Who knows! But I’m glad I found my way here on this journey.

Thanks again for following me! Feel free to comment, like, share this blog, as well as communicate with me if there is any particular aspect of this life you are curious about and would like me to share stories on.

On to the topic at hand….Did you know, that we can live in a national forest for free? In the beginning when I first started reading on the tiny movement, that fact definitely caught my eye. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to live so far out and isolated, but free?! Yes, the national forest is considered to be owned by all of us… citizens. There are apps, methods and ways of figuring out how to locate specific spots for boon-docking. I talk about this here because knowing that had me thinking about money in a new way.

Typical expenses like (in California) our way over priced house payments, plus paying for Gardners, cleaning ladies, pool guys, exterminators, painters, Air Conditioner and Furnace Specialists, Roofers, and the list goes on…. All adds up. Sure one could do a lot of do it yourself… but who has time for that when working full time?

People kept trying to understand how the expenses work and saying things like, can you really live for less?  Isn’t your diesel truck gas going to cost you a ton?! Yes, you can live a great life on very little and yes, gas can add up, but now I simply pay one payment that covers a parking space, electric, water, and cable as well as fantastic security guards who welcome me home everytime I drive in and amazing service from all of the park employees. They are like family. And I don’t have all of those huge house maintenance or repair costs. I will have RV repair. Costs, but that’s not as bad. There will be other expenses like vehicle registration for my RV and my truck that may determine what state I call home down the road. And I drive a lot slower with eight thousand pounds behind me, so gas is not as bad as it would seem… and diesel is way worth it. But overall, I live on a lot less. Seriously, it would be insane to hire a cleaning lady when it takes me ten minutes to fully clean the inside of my home. But…. If I wanted to they have those services for RV folk too.

I live in a pretty fancy RV park. We have our own breathtakingly beautiful lake, miles of wilderness hiking yet 30 minutes out of downtown LA, a couple of swimming pools and more. Thus the higher end rent. This next year I’ll be on the road and living in an RV park  as a full timer for five months of the year to escape the cold. I will live right on riverfront property. My “rent” will cut in half. My goal will be to own my own land to full-time on, taking trips at will.  Eventually, I’d like to provide parking on my land and possibly invite an artists’ community of nomad glampers. 🙂 My  adventures begins.

How did it begin? It began with a bad ass real estate agent whose efforts to sell my house were like a finely orchestrated, well choreographed dance. Her name is Valerie Hoffman, and she now sells houses in Texas. You know your service is good when you become friends with the people you do business with. In a nutshell, she quickly got me good money for my home. She was creative with her methods and it paid off. I was so impressed I contemplated changing career directions for a flash and learning from her, but in the end I stuck with early retirement and the money making ventures I’m currently doing. So the house sold, I made enough money to be ready to buy my trailer and truck, a shift from a tiny home and land…. and I began downsizing.

By the way… as I type this I’m listening to two guys at the bar downing drinks dreaming about the day they near retirement how they want to live their life and it’s making me chuckle because they are describing what I do. I am grateful for my life.