Less is More

The opportunity to simplify our lives came in the move across country. Five years earlier we sold the home where we raised our kids and moved into the city of Buffalo. We bought a 1920 brick house that was the kind of home George always dreamed of owning. It had cool features like leaded glass windows and an elaborate oak bar in the basement. It also had very cool walls (no insulation), nice in warm summers but brutally cold in the dead of a Buffalo winter. Now we were relocating to a city where the building boom happened in the late 50's and early 60's. Unless we bought a a "newer ugly build" in the suburbs of Davis, or wanted to live in Sacramento and commute (which we did not want to do) we were looking at California ranch houses that were mostly 2,000 square feet or less and built in the early 70's. Our house was built in 1974 and is exactly 2,000 square feet! The Buffalo home was 2,300 square feet NOT counting our finished basement or 3rd floor which had a full bath and 2 good sized rooms!
George says you spend the first 30 years of married life accumulating "stuff" and the next couple decades giving it away. I had always been a "keeper of the goods" as my relatives passed along furniture, dishes, household stuff and mementos. In our 30 years of married life we accumulated furniture, records, books,plants and artwork from George's mom and dad, my dad (who remarried and moved to a new home), and still more of my grandparent's and aunt's stuff!
We staged a huge garage sale, set our son up in an apartment and still managed to fill a moving van with the contents of our home and our two professional offices. The van left Buffalo on July 3rd. We arrived at our new empty home on July 6th. Here is the interesting thing. Somehow we had packed in our small Volvo sedan exactly all that we needed to begin life in Davis and survive until the moving van arrived on July 12th. We purchased one thing, a blow-up mattress which we inflated with the vacuum cleaner I had packed in the trunk in case we needed to clean before the movers arrived. We had one light blanket, a fitted sheet which we had put over the back seats for the dog, a small cooler from the trip, our clothes, a few towels, and one pillow.
I remember lying awake on the blow-up mattress thinking about all the stuff in the moving van. Yet here I was, perfectly content with all my needs met for shelter, water, and food. What did I need more of? If the van never arrived or met an unfortunate fate, what would I miss? What was in the van that I could not live without? Life seemed complete lying on an air mattress with my life partner at my side, dog at my feet, and the bonus of a few beers in the cooler. During the next 5 days I lived life without stuff and experienced "less is more". My needs never seemed to increase, my level of comfort remained constant, and it seemed much easier to live in the moment because nothing drew me away from it. No TV or computers. We walked and explored the neighborhoods, studied the gardens and flowers, listened for new bird songs, met and talked with people, ate at the farmers' markets or the Nugget (our grocery store), explored the downtown stores, walked in the arboretum on campus, and read books during the hottest hours of the day. By the end of the 3rd day I began to dread the arrival of the moving van and by the time it pulled up in front of the house I was in a panic which seemed to escalate with every box that was unloaded.
Life did calm down with most of the "stuff" finding suitable places. I confess to having large give-away piles in the new garage and often pick up stuff while cleaning and wonder what the heck made me bring this thing?? Moving can be an incredible opportunity to evaluate your attachment to objects, to make a conscious decision to cherish or reject familial things as necessary or not, to simplify your life which in turn quiets the mind. To live with less created much more in my life!