I had a breakthrough this week. I really, really, really freaking love my life! Let me rewind…
About a month ago, a coworker came up to me and asked if I liked dogs. Of course! I love dogs and dogs love me. She was planning a vacation with her family and hates boarding her dog. Or, her dog hates being boarded. At any way you look at it, she needed a dog sitter. She was generously offering me cash to stay at her ginormous house with her dog. I happily accepted.
I started fantasizing about long showers, cooking multiple dishes and doing laundry at my leisure. I talked to my husband about the offer. I made sure he knew that I would be staying at the house overnight for about 10 days. (He forgot entirely about this conversation when the first night came…) The night before they left on their vacation I met the potential house host, Madison. She is a larger dog with unknown origins that is very pack oriented, loves her humans and loves food. I knew we would get along perfectly.
The house is huge and in a very nicely manicured neighborhood that is only about 2 blocks from my trailer park. As I got settled the first night – meaning I took about an hour long shower and did 3 loads of laundry while polishing off a bottle of wine, I started feeling uncomfortable about the amount of space I was in. I mean, after a little more than 3 months of living in my trailer (150 square feet of space) I am really not used to having room to roam. In this massive 3000 square foot home, I was feeling a little lost. As I climbed into the Beauty Rest Sleep number king sized bed with just me and Madison, I was really feeling awkward. I must have laid there for an hour just listening to the echos of the silence. The next day I got up and went straight to my trailer to just sit and re-group. As I sat there that first day, I felt home. I didn’t want to go back to that house – ever! I knew that this was going to be a challenging week. I decided that I would need to find balance between the two spots. Every day and night since this adventure started, I go home to the trailer for lunch to hang out with the kitty. Then after work I go to the house and walk the dog then head back to the trailer for a couple hours before heading back to the house. Not to mention my cat, Edward is also very pack oriented and misses his mama intensely. With the husband on the road for work during the week, he gets pretty lonely.
Now that I am at the end of my Madison sitting adventure, I am so excited to get back to the trailer full time. I have been wanting to go camping or take a beach trip all summer. But, after the last 10 days, I just want to be home. I can honestly say that this was a good week to put things into perspective. Of course I miss the conveniences of conventional housing – having a yard, a full size fridge, city plumbing – but what I don’t miss is all the room to keep stuff that I don’t need. I don’t need a garage. I liked having a garage when I had one – especially in Oregon when it rains 9 months out of the year. But, when I did have a garage I would fight with my husband over the space. He wanted to convert it into a man cave or a full time wood shop. During the summer I parked my car on the street so that he could utilize the space, that was our compromise. But how many people actually use their garage to park their car? I know the house I am staying in for my co-worker is packed to the gills with stuff. I had that much stuff at one point. I had 15 boxes of Christmas decorations, 5 boxes of memories from my kids childhood and shelves crammed with camping gear, paperwork, tools and other crap I didn’t even need. Now that I don’t have that space, I don’t have all of the crap to fill it.
My kitchen was full of every gadget you could think of. Every appliance and do-dad that you can only buy on TV. I had at least 15 wooden spoons. Who needs that many spoons? You use it, wash it and use it again. What are the chances that I am going to have 15 different dishes going at the same time that I need 15 different spoons? It’s ridiculous. I am even reexamining my bed sheet supply. Do I need 5 sets of bed sheets in a trailer? I think I might need 2. One for the bed and one back up when I need to wash the one on the bed. Actually, I have just been washing the sheets on the bed and putting them back on when I get back from the laundromat. It’s actually working out just fine! But, I realize I might have the kids come stay the night and need to make up the spare bed – aka the couch.
What I am getting to is the concept of space and stuff. I am finding that the less space and the less stuff, the less stress and the more happy I am. When I sit on the couch at the big house, I look around at all that they have and all of the space. Is this what they work for? They have kids and have good jobs, so I don’t really think it even phases them. But it’s not me. It was me at one point – but for now, I am enjoying simple. If I lost my job tomorrow, I know I have somewhere to live. I can still afford the space rent for the trailer on one income. We don’t have any utility bills or anything else that we would need. That right there is a peace of mind that I have never had before. Living paycheck to paycheck is stressful. Paying more than 50% of my income was stressful. Shacking up in 150 square feet of living space, nope – not stressful at all. 🙂
I think the biggest thing that I took away from this week is how grateful I am. I decided that real happiness is anchored contentment in THIS moment. Being happy now. Being happy and content with what I have created for myself. I love my trailer and all that it represents to me. It represents embracing simplicity and peace. I hope that you can find that same contentment in your life. What is anchoring you to the “now”? Are you absolutely in love with your life? And if you can’t answer that, what can you do about it?
Thanks for reading!
Simply yours,
Michelle – Penny Wise Living
Penny-Wise Living 