Jlogged

Today, we are conducting the operation toy sweep in my children’s room. Three piles: 1.) keep 2.) throw away 3.) give away.  This is a yearly tradition.  We strip down to the bare bones of what my kids, love, play with, and wear.  Everything else goes.  My mom always thought getting rid of my kid’s toys was “mean,” so I started sending the boxes of excess to her house.  She understands now.

It took me an hour just to sort through the mounds of stuff my kids came home with after this years Christmas parties at school.  I have encouraged family members who are purchasing gifts for my children to give them consumables like chuck-e-cheese tokens, gift certificates to pump-it-up, or clothes.  They have a surplus of junk already. This is eggshell territory because one must not rob a person of the blessing of giving, and one can sound very high and mighty (without meaning too) by asking for certain items to not be gifted to her children.  I struggle with this issue, and often feel like a Scrooge.  How does one ask in a nice way for the world at large to stop giving her children land fill fodder?

*Edit*  The boys and I just hauled a box of nice toys to the curb and put a hand written (in crayola) sign that says Free Toys to a good home…Merry Christmas!

photo credit: mfrascella

I have a really good friend *Hi Crystal!* who lives in a house that is just the right size for her small family.  I am envious because they paid less for their cozy two bedroom home than most people pay for a new car.  They purchased it on a 15 year mortgage with fixed interest, and it is darned near paid for. Darned near=they only owe a couple more years of paying a modest mortgage, and then it is theirs for keeps.  Not many people can say they own their homes outright.  BUT not many people, as current headlines reflect,  bought homes they could comfortably afford.

We spend approximately 18% of our income on housing.  Most experts say that you should not spend more than 20-25% of your total income on housing.  My dream is to spend closer to 0% on housing.

When we first started our uphill climb to become debt free, a surprising number of people chuckled and said “yeah, right, like that’s ever going to happen.”  or “only millionaires live debt free.  You can’t live without credit!” But, we are living without credit, and each time I write a check paying off another balance, I want to call up every person who ever scoffed and say “look, ma, no balance!” Part of my reasoning for such action would not be solely for spite, but to let them know that they can live debt free too.

I look forward to down sizing when we sell the house we are in now.  My family members do not even utilize a good 40% of the space we have in our home.  We have an entire second living area with nothing in it.  My kids all sleep in one room…the living room.  Our lot is almost 1 acre, but we could function with far less space.  In the winter we have to rake an acres worth of calf high leaves.  In the summer we have to mow an acres worth of yard every week.  Doing these chores eats up buckets of time that we could be spending together as a family.  Like Suze says, “peace of mind is worth more than a piece of property.”

Have you ever considered trading down?  Living smaller, so you can live a richer life?

N.Y. Times article on living small

Tumble Weed Small House Co.

I actually own a copy of The Not So Big House