Right Size Your Life
Do you own a home where you feel like you are constantly doing maintenance? Shoveling, mowing, snow blowing, weeding, planting, cleaning, redecorating, painting...the list of “upkeep” tasks go on and on. Consuming, always consuming.
I was caught in this rut. After working a full week, my weekends were spent doing tasks that I didn’t love. Now don’t get me wrong, some people enjoy home maintenance and to them I say, “I live at The Morton in downtown Grand Rapids, you are welcome to come over and do tasks for me anytime!" :-)
To me, these tasks were not refreshing, they weren’t cathartic. They were torture and I was exhausted.
In the wake of this realization, a friend suggested I write down a list of 10 things that when done, refreshed me.
The list I put together included:
-- Spending time with my family and friends
-- Taking baths
-- Running
-- Reading a good book
-- Exploring a new place
-- Spending a large amount of time with my spouse
Nothing on the list involved my house or material possessions.
Clearly my time spent was out of balance. No wonder I felt out of balance.
We decided to downsize.
Today we live in what we affectionately call our “No Maintenance Hotel Room.” It’s tiny, but it takes 20 minutes to clean. If something breaks, we call maintenance. (Shout out to John, our building would never be the same without you.) We even have heated sidewalks...no shoveling required. No fuss, no muss. No mowing makes my allergy prone man do a happy dance every Spring. We don’t even shop for extra home accessories because there is simply no space for more. Extremely Low Drag.
Now before you say things like:
“That might work for you, but not for my family.”
“How tiny are we talking about?”
“I worked hard for this, how could I sell it?”
“If I can afford it, why not?”
“What would my friends and family think?”
I want to be clear, I AM NOT trying to suggest that each person should only live in “x” amount of square footage. That everyone should go tiny like we did.
I AM trying to suggest that the things you spend your time maintaining should fit with your priorities, not your obligations. Your material things should serve you, not the other way around. And your home should be a place of refreshment and restoration, not toil.
So what can you do?
Make a similar list. Ask yourself, how do you feel refreshed?
Sell or give away what you don’t need. Too overwhelming? Start with one thing per room. Less stuff = Less maintenance.
If you can afford it, hire out a few hours of labor around the home. Perhaps tasks you don’t enjoy. For example, we have our dry cleaning picked up from our door and we only pay a 10% premium. Russ’ suits are always clean, shirts pressed and for very little extra!
Strongly consider the question: Do my home and my things serve me or is it the other way around?.
This is a marathon, not a sprint people. Let’s take the first steps together and actually LIVE.
Here is to weekends spent with friends and family….to slow cooked meals, picnics and spontaneous trips...to naps and making memories with children...to ping pong tournaments and drinks with friends.
Because in order to have QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS you have to have QUANTITY OF TIME TO GIVE.
Pink said it best when she said, “We are all running out of time and we want it all.” In my experience, all is nearly impossible, but we can have what we would consider the best. You just have to determine what the best is.
