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.
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