The first question is this: What do I actually need?
The model I am using is my friend's trailer. She verified the interior is 6.5 x 10 or 65 square feet. The bathroom version (yeah, for the sake of argument we are going with that) includes two closets, understorage on the seats, and some small cabinetry around the sink (apparently there is no storage on the outside of the unit):
For example, today's test would be kitchen and cooking:
The unit come with a 1.9 sq ft refrigerator and a two burner propane power stove. As you can see, not a lot space for either food or cooking items.
But realistically: how many cooking items do you need? Pot to boil, check. Small frying pan to fry, check. Tea pot (well, for me anyway), check. Colander? Maybe. A smattering of measuring spoons and cups. And some plates, cups and silverware to eat off of. In other words, possibly the contents of that drawer above the refrigerator (if you packed it right).
Reality check: what do we have currently? Literally, a kitchen's worth of cooking utensils and pots and pans and various and sundries (that does not include the food. Seriously. We have more storage committed to items we use to cook than food we cook with).
Am I advocating a complete abandonment of everything we have in our kitchen except for two dozen items. Not at all (and in our case, this might provoke a revolt. The cooks of our house actually use a fair amount of them). But what I am trying to get to - at least to myself - is what do we really need versus what do we really have?
Why? Because, frankly, stuff costs money. And space. And money to pay for the space. And that money, space, and money could be more profitably used on something else.
This has actually been a fairly entertaining mental exercise - and easy for me, as I can pretty much get by on almost nothing vis-a-vis cooking. Wait until we get to books - that will be another story...
I've been a minimalist pretty much my whole life...I never had anything that couldn't be replaced. Maybe it was from leading a bit of a nomadic lifestyle and renting furnished places for 10 years. Whenever I felt it was time to move, I only took what I could fit in the car (I had a little Hyundai back then). I'd planned to live on the road in an RV the rest of my life actually, driving across Canada and parking where I wanted to stay. That was when I was single though! :) Now I'm more of a nester and we have WAY too much stuff. We plan to buy a property (hopefully!) in two years, so that'll be a big exercise in PURGING all the crap we've accumulated. One of our rooms in the basement is so full of boxes of stuff, I don't even know what's in half of them anymore.
ReplyDeleteWe buy our stuff all second hand for the most part. We used to go to bazaars and flea markets...and I guess because we paid so little for things, it gave us free license to hoard lol...sort of. This year though, we stopped doing that. No more spending unless it's for the household needs or to feed our hobbies.
I think the biggest horror you're going to face if going with one of these trailers is the cost of the trailer itself! Pound for pound, inch for inch, these things cost as much as an Airstream! For the life of me, I can't figure out why, either. When these things (rarely) come up for sale on Craigslist they go for ridiculous amounts of money, even when they're in bad shape. Whether they go under the name of Scamp, Casita, Burro, or whatever, the price is the same; HIGH. The same can be said for pop-up trailers. ... if you're going to be using this thing a lot, don't go with a pop-up...
ReplyDeleteAs for cooking gear, try to dual-purpose whatever you carry. If a small cooking pot can boil water for tea, why carry a teapot? The trap you don't want to fall into is needing two pots and only having one. Nesting pots, bowls, cups, etc, are the way to go with minimal space. We also carry a Coleman stove. This allows us to do a lot of the steamy or greasy cooking outside. Good luck on your quest...
Rain - it is funny you mention that. When I was younger, I was a minimalist. Then, over time as we moved and moved again, we continued to acquire things until we had a whole house full! Who knew the stuff just does not "go away"?
ReplyDeleteI can see where the inexpensive thing would be just as bad as just spending too much - you still end up in the same place.
Our garage sounds a lot like your basement - at this rate, I believe 90% of it could just disappear and our lives would be the same (but I am keeping the tools).
Thanks Pete. I really do not have a plan to purchase one of these now; I am doing this more as an exercise for myself in needs and necessity. My friend that does this actually did it to save on rent in our fair city (which, I think she has probably managed to do more than well).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion on the pot. I tried to think dual purpose but apparently did not go deeply enough. It will be a good exercise for round two.