What to do about pictures

After moving into my motorhome and having more time available, I tackled the problem of the many boxes of pictures I had accumulated over my lifetime. I brought them in from my storage area a box at a time and scanned them into my computer. This is a rather slow and tedious process but was well worth it. I had a digital camera at that point so all future pictures would be on my computer as well.

I now have all my pictures on the computer sorted by subject. You could also categorize them by date but since I did not know the date many of them were taken, that was not an option for me. I rather like being able to see all pictures of a certain person as they were growing up all in one place. To have unique names for all pictures in a folder, I just put the name of the subject and a number. I still have all my pictures available to look at but now they take up no physical room, which supports my minimalist lifestyle.

This also provides you with a backup of the pictures. In case of a fire, flood, tornado or some catastrophic event, your single physical picture would not fare so well. I made copies on CD or DVD and gave one set to my son who lived in a different city, kept one set in my motorhome and took another set in to work. So I had four electronic copies of my pictures as well as the physical copy still in storage. Overkill, I know, but making copies is very easy and my son wanted a copy of them anyway and I never have to worry about losing the precious pictures of my son as a baby. That peace of mind was worth the extra work.

I also now have my pictures available as a screen saver on my computer and since I have copied the pictures to my iPod, I can show those precious pictures of my son as a baby to everyone I meet. LOL Not really, but I can if I want.

So what have you done with your pictures?

Live long and simply.

Cutting back

I have finished moving into the new apartment and organizing my room so I can start sorting through everything and get rid of anything I have not used in the last year. That will include lots of hard decisions on things that have a sentimental value. Maybe I can just take a picture of it or scan it into my computer if it is a document. It will be interesting to see how far I get with reducing my stuff based on a years criteria.

One major item I have decided to sell is my motorhome. Go over to my born free blog to see information on the motorhome. Hopefully selling it won't drag out too long.

I really like it better if I don't have too much stuff. Cleaning is much easier. :-) If I am looking for something, it doesn't take much time because there are only a few places it can be. There is less worry about things like storage spaces, breakage, maintenance, moving things around to get at other things and moving to another place to live. I would like to get to the point where I could move all of my possessions minus the furniture in my van. Actually, I may not be too far off from there now. Most of my furniture is on loan to me from my family so I just need to give it back if I move on. I do need to cut back on my books though. I always have too many.

Being minimalist is an ongoing process. You need to constantly re-evaluate what is essential and what can be eliminated. When buying things, make sure it is a necessity and you have nothing else that could be used instead. If you really keep on top of it, you will save money by not buying things and not needing a large home to store it all.

Sounds good to me.

The minimalist life

I started toward a minimalist lifestyle before I even knew it had a label. In 2005 I sold the house I was living in and moved into a 26' motorhome. I spent 6 months or more sorting through my possessions and deciding how to get rid of them. After the dust settled, I had everything I owned in the motorhome and a 10x10 storage unit. That unit also contained my sons stuff while he was away at college. In the next few years I went from a 10x10 unit to a 10x5 when my sons stuff was moved out and then to a 5x5 unit after more clearing out.

I was working toward my dream of retiring early and traveling around the country in my RV. I accomplished that goal in May of 2009 at the age of 58. At that point, I unplugged the motorhome and took off to live my dream.

Unfortunately, life does not always follow our plans. My Mom and older sister were having difficulty managing on their own and needed help with cleaning, grocery shopping and doctor visits so they could continue living independently. Since I was retired, I was available to help them out so I moved to Wisconsin into an apartment close to where they lived.

Starting out in an efficiency apartment, I felt I had all kinds of room to live in and I started buying things. Not too much as my income is low but more than was absolutely necessary. Recently, I moved into a 2 bedroom apartment so my younger sister could move in with me to save money and found I had an awful lot of STUFF to move. The stuff from my 5x5 storage unit had joined my other stuff by this time. I decided it was time to go through everything again and get down to a more comfortable level.

So this is a blog about how I managed to retire early, move into a motorhome and then switch everything around to move into an apartment while still maintaining a somewhat minimalist lifestyle.