Taking the bus - no one understands

I work on a university campus that has a few locations. They have buses that transport students, faculty, and staff between the various locations and it is a free service with ID. I live about a 1/4 mile from one of the campuses. Over the past few years I have ridden the bus randomly to help with the rising cost of gas but it helps the environment too, so extra bonus.

I enjoy riding the bus. I am not one of those people that get sick while reading in a car, so it is the perfect time to get some reading done and not stress about the commute to work.

I am not the perfect environmentalist and I have been rather inconsistent with my bus riding schedule in the past. Most of this is due to traveling for work and needing to leave my car at rental car places while I am gone. But I have made it to a point at my job where I no longer have to travel...(YAY!)...so I have had plenty of opportunities over the past month to get back into riding the bus almost every day. (I occasionally drive when I know I have a bunch of errands to do.)

Riding the bus has been great. It is a freeing experience. I enjoy my morning and afternoon walks to/from the bus stop. I enjoy talking to people on the bus. I like taking in the sights of the city I am soon saying good bye to.

What makes me laugh is how people can't seem to comprehend my taking the bus. People have offered to drive me to work, drive me home from work, etc. It is nice that they offer but that's not the point of my taking the bus. I live in an area that is quite dependent on individual transportation. Yes there is a bus system but most people I know have cars and prefer to drive themselves everywhere. Its seems like the only reason someone would take the bus is because they need to. People cannot wrap their minds around the fact that I am purposely choosing to take the bus. I have a car, it works just fine....I prefer to leave it at home and make use of public transportation, because I can.

Oh what an interesting world we live in.....

Am I a minimalist?

Miss Minimalist wrote this great post about "What is minimalism?" It got me thinking...am I a minimalist?

I would have to say...No, not really. I am definitely not one of those extreme minimalists or follow The Compact in any way. (Very basic definition here.) But over the past year or so, my hubby and I have made great strides to eliminate as much clutter (tangible or not) disappear from our lives.

It started when we were moving in together and realized that all of our "stuff" was not going to fit into one apartment. But since then it has become so much more than purging. It has become a way of life. We find ourselves asking "Do we *really* need this" before making any sort of purchase. We have gotten into recycling/reusing anything possible. And we are looking forward to the day when we have space to garden, compost, and (*fingers crossed*) raise some of our own meat.

I have enjoyed the simplicity. Not only have we gotten rid of "stuff" but I have also paired back on my Facebook "friends" list, blogs I follow, and TV shows that we DVR. We are finding that we have so much more time to do things and spend time together (which is great seeing as I travel a lot for work).

I helped my sister and her husband move last weekend and I was starting to twitch with the amount of possessions they have. It helped me to see what size moving truck we will need come June and it was confirmation that we are on the right track to simplifying our lives. I have no regrets of getting rid of the things that we don't need to hang on to. Life is about experiences, not possessions.

The urge to purge!

I know I haven't blogged in a VERY long time but I really haven't had much to talk about. When I started this blog I had a focus. It was to talk about the diet I was doing and realizations that came with the process. I am not really doing the diet anymore. I have managed to keep about 25 lbs off - not perfect, but I will take it. I am now trying to figure out the direction of the blog...

So what to write about?!

Over the past 6 months I have really gotten into reading blogs about being frugal, minimalistic living, paying off debt, saving money, home cooking/recipes, and just plain old simplifying my life.

And it couldn't have come at a better time. Work has been stressful. Friends have been stressful (whether they realize it or not). And now the hubby and I are officially relocating come June (or sooner for me if I get offered a job...fingers crossed I get the job I just applied for!)

The hubby and I have done a LOT of purging since we considered living together 5 years ago. We weren't married yet but he had a lot of stuff, I had a lot of stuff. It wasn't all going to fit in our new apartment. It got to the point that even after we moved in together one of us would get the urge to purge (oooh, I like that phrase, maybe I should copyright it before anyone else does! My luck, someone already has!!) every 6 months or so. Now we have done some major purging in the last year because the realization of moving all this stuff to the other end of the East Coast is just scary to think about.



This weekend culminated in the largest purge we have had in a long time. We took everything out of closets or hiding spaces and discussed whether we should keep it, toss it, donate it, gift it, etc. We spent most of last night posting things on Craigslist, Freecycle, and our virtual yard sale on Facebook. This stuff is going like hot cakes and it feels SOOOOO good!

Luckily, the hubby decided he needed a day off from work so he is home separating, organizing, labeling, and putting out things for people to come pick up. (Don't worry, I took care of him - bought him lunch from a new sub shop near my work. He loves this place and is so excited that it opened today!)

And he has also been busy doing laundry (I sure did score a great catch!). We upgraded our full sized bed to a KING over the weekend and it gets delivered on Friday...we are soooo excited. Plus we finally get to use all the bedding we registered for that has been taking up valuable closet space for the past 4 years! So all of that stuff needed to be washed.

We have 3 large closets in our apartment. After all of this stuff leaves our possession we could probably fit it all into 1.5 of these closets if we needed to. YAY!

It is such a great feeling. It is freeing. It is cleansing. It is amazing.