Category Archives: SIMPLE LIVING

Refocusing on Simplicity

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Blogger’s note: Didn’t I start out to write about simplicity here?  Lately, I’ve been too much distracted by the noisy turmoil of political and economic change.  It occurs to me that politics and economics do not seem to lead to peace and simplicity.  Certain songs lead back to simplicity.

“How Can I Keep From Singing” is often identified as a Quaker hymn. However, the music was written by a Baptist minister, Robert Lowry, and first published in 1868, according to Wikipedia. The words are attributed to “Pauline T.”

Almost makes me forget anxiety and worry.

How Can I Keep From Singing

My life goes on in endless song:

Above earth’s lamentation,
I catch the sweet, tho’ far-off hymn

That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife

I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul–

How can I keep from singing?
What tho’ my joys and comfort die?

The Lord my Saviour liveth;
What tho’ the darkness gather round?

Songs in the night he giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm,

While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,

How can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes; the cloud grows thin;

I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smooths,

Since first I learned to love it.
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,

A fountain ever springing;
All things are mine since I am his–

How can I keep from singing?

Secrets of Living Large In A Small Apartment

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A TALL, SNOW-COVERED, OUTDOOR CHRISTMAS TREE IS THE RIGHT SOLUTION WHEN YOU LIVE IN A SMALL, INDOOR APARTMENT.

I’m making some progress on downsizing and simplifying my lifestyle. Two years ago, I moved from a large apartment in a pricey suburban neighborhood to a small apartment in a rural/seasonal resort area three hours from the cities.

I gave away a lot of stuff, and moved what was left helter-skelter into a one-room apartment. It has two windows in front and a door and screened porch in back. Cross-ventilation!

Rent is reasonable and includes all utilities. Priceless amenities are a quiet street that ends at the marsh; a parking space; a small fenced yard, with nothing but woods beyond; cable TV and high-speed internet service.

One-Room Apartment “Before” Pictures

CLUTTER GONE WILD.

CLUTTER ALL AROUND.

A COMPLETE GALLEY KITCHEN. EVEN A FIRE EXTINGUISHER, IN CASE I TRY TO COOK.

My neighborhood is an enclave of quiet affluence. Within sight, across the water, is a resort that can be rowdy in summer and a ghost town in winter. I might be the poorest church mouse on the block, but not the only one living on a tight budget. A few of the houses are little more than old beach cottages, but most are medium-size, modern homes with that suburban look. Some of the more spacious houses have million-dollar waterfront views. Within a short walk are two grand, waterfront homes that must be worth . . . I can’t even guess. One of them is a modern mansion.

No Extra Charge For Natural Beauty

THE MARSH IN WINTER. VISIBLE BY WALKING DOWN THE STREET. NATURAL BEAUTY AND PUBLIC SPACES ARE IMPORTANT AND USUALLY FREE.

But I digress. This post is not about living large in a mansion. Anyone could do that. And it’s not about living large in your car or a tent, which would be more of a challenge than I’m up to. We’re talking about a modest and attainable goal of living large in a small apartment. (If your apartment has a separate living room and bedroom, with a walk-in closet . . . well, that doesn’t qualify as small).

If It’s Big Enough For A Cat . . .

SAFE AT HOME. LOLA IS PERFECTLY CONTENT IN A SMALL APARTMENT.

My challenges with living large in a one-room apartment are the same ones I would have in a big house. Fundamentally, I have no “nesting instinct.” Plus, I’m disorganized. The only kind of order that comes naturally to me is “Robert’s Rules of Order.” For everyday life, the nesting instinct is more useful than Robert’s Rules.

My Rules Of Order

Here are Hayden’s Rules of Order for one-room apartment living:

  • Pay the rent on time. Otherwise, you will be living in your car.
  • I’ve got to get organized, and it can’t be forever put off until tomorrow. Two years is long enough.
  • A place for everything. Everything in its place. Efficient use of what little storage space you have is essential if you live in one room and you own more than one “thing.” One-room apartments generally don’t have wine cellars, garages, or attics. Not even walk-in closets. Drawers, shelves and hooks are essential. (The easiest kind of hook is a nail in the wall, but some landlords frown on this method.)
  • Furniture. Less is better. Replace all large pieces of furniture with small. I’ve replaced the sofa with a chair, and the double bed with a single bed. (It helps if you have the lifestyle of a monk). A toaster is better than a toaster-oven; a good radio/CD player is better than a complicated stereo system; a laptop is better than a desktop.)
  • You can break the small-furniture rule once. I still have the same medium-sized dining room table as when I lived in more spacious apartments. The table is clunky and dominates my one-room apartment. But it’s an all-purpose table. It serves as dining room table, kitchen table, and desk. I need a certain amount of surface area to be organized, whether the task is paying the bills or making soup.
  • Experiment. Find a way to make the furniture fit. I’m on the third rearrangement of my furniture. After two years, you get tired of playing “furniture checkers.”  Furniture checkers is a game in which you have to move one chair and jump over at least one other “thing” in order to get to your goal. There must be a way to arrange this furniture efficiently! I will have to find it by trial and error, since I have no interior design skills.

HOME OFFICE OF THE ConsterNation BLOGGING EMPIRE. SOMETIMES ALSO USED AS A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS.

Clutter Is My Enemy

I’ve saved the most important secret of living large for last. As you can plainly see from the photos, I need to reduce clutter.

People sometimes criticize me for having too much “stuff.” I’ve gotten rid of enormous amounts of stuff, but I still have too much. Other people have their stuff all over the basement, the garage, the attic, the walk-in closet, the guest room. And that’s not all. Homeowners often rent a storage space for their extra stuff. Why don’t they simply give it away or sell it on eBay?

Everything I own is inside my one-room apartment, or inside my car, which is parked in the driveway. And there’s a limit to how much clutter I can hide in the trunk of the car.

To sum up, I need to get organized and reduce clutter. That’s not too much to ask. I call this challenge “My Apartment Project.” Two years is long enough to put it off. What you see here are the “before” pictures. Coming soon will be the “after” pictures. Wish me luck and stay tuned.

If you have any helpful tips on one-room apartment living, they would be welcome under “comments” below.

— John Hayden

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Austerity Project, Day 10

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ITPB Health Club

Image via Wikipedia

It’s too soon to know whether the Austerity Project will be a success. I’m defining “success” to mean reducing my spending to match my income.

The total damage for Austerity Project, Week No. 1, was $189.13. Issues from Week No. 1: I ate pizza three times. That number has to come down. My biggest single expenditure was a fill-up at the gas station, with regular at $2.76 a gallon, for a total of $33.68. After rent, health insurance, and food, gas for the car is my next highest monthly expense. Soon I’m going to need an oil change and some regular maintenance, which is not included in the monthly budget. And looming in February is the $700 annual payment for car insurance, which is also off-budget.

The first day of Week No. 2 was my first day with no expenditures. Not a penny. Tuesday was $16.23 for miscellaneous household goods at Walmart.

Today, I signed up with a health club, aka “gym,” with a commitment of $19.95 a month for the next year! I did not make this decision lightly. There is no health club line in my monthly budget. I don’t know where the $19.95 a month is coming from. But you have to admit it’s a good price for a health club membership.

With a fancy new health club opening, there’s something of a price war going on among health clubs in my area. I found the $19.95 price at a so-called “bare bones” club. It doesn’t have a sauna or whirlpool or spa. The locker room is small. No towel service. But the place is bright and airy, and they’ve got more equipment than I’ll ever use.

I’m thinking that at age 62, with creakiness in the bones and weakness in the muscles, the health club membership comes close to qualifying as an essential.

It’s not as if I’ve been inactive in the past year. For much of that time, I worked as a security guard, which was mostly walking, walking, walking around a large building and grounds. In other words, my job was to be a moving, human scarecrow. Since August, I’ve spent a lot of time on political campaigning, which also involved lots of walking. I got a sunburn, and then a tan, on my face, but I can’t say I feel any healthier for all the walking. The campaigning resulted in two disappointing losses, first my own in the primary, and then the candidate I volunteered for in the general election.

Now, with the security guard job and the campaign over, and winter coming on, I feel like I’m facing rapid deterioration if I don’t keep these old bones moving. The health club is less than $1 a day, and it will give me another place (in addition to the library) where I can go to get out of the rain and snow.

I’m starting the health club adventure at near rock bottom (I always feel rock bottom this time of year, with the shortening daylight and the sun low in the sky). Job one is to get myself to the health club almost every day. It will be interesting to see if the exercise makes a difference. Any improvement in health of mind and/or body will be well worth the $19.95.

Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted.

— John Hayden

Austerity Project, Day One

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On this first day of November, in the Year of Our Lord 2010, it’s time for me to begin.

After a lifetime of free spending, I’m changing my ways. I’ve never had expensive tastes, and in the past two years, I’ve downsized my lifestyle and focused on simple living.

Now, I have to get really serious. In June, I turned 62, and in August, I received my first Social Security payment, direct-deposited into my checking account. For a variety of reasons, it looks like I’ll never have a middle-class job again. So it’s me and Social Security, and whatever part-time or seasonal work I can find. The rent is covered, and a few other items that I still think of as “necessities.” (Food comes to mind.) But there’s no budget line for “discretionary spending.” There’s no financial margin for error or excess.

Therefore, I will begin today, Nov. 1, 2010, to keep a record of everything I buy, everything I spend, down to the dollar. Hopefully down to the penny. I call it my Austerity Project. I should have done this a long time ago.

I have one of those old-fashioned elementary-school composition books, bright red color, made in India, I forget how much I paid  for it. (See, that’s my problem. I never pay attention to how much I pay for the things I think I need. I need it, so I buy it.)

In this bright-red composition book, I will record every expenditure, every day. On this, the first day of the Austerity Project, I did one load of laundry at the laundromat ($3.25). While waiting for the clothes to dry, I had the off-season special from the Pizza place next door ($4.23, including tax, for two slices and a large Coke). I invested in an eight-pack of budget paper towels, which were on sale at Food Lion ($5.08). I bought a gallon of Turkey Hill iced tea and two bananas at Super Fresh ($3.65).

Total damage for Day One: $16.21.

Today was the last day of the 2010 election campaign, and tomorrow, Election Day, will be a long day volunteering at the polls. So I knew these first two days of the project were going to be hard on the budget. Tomorrow, I’ll probably grab a quick lunch at McDonald’s or someplace. The polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., so that probably means a couple shots of caffein during the day. Maybe a doughnut. Hey, Election Day is a special day for me. I’ll even go to a  party after the polls close.  Whether it’s a funeral or a celebration, I’ll buy at least one Coke at the cash bar.

Wednesday, the day after, will be hangover day, nothing to do but drive around and take down the campaign signs. No more excuses about hamburgers at McDonald’s or Cokes at 7-Eleven.

I never thought it would come to this. But then, I never was much of a realist.

I never thought a newspaper or a Coke would be a luxury I couldn’t afford. I can still enjoy those luxuries, but now, I must have discipline to drink the Coke at home, and read the newspaper at the library.

I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going.

— John Hayden

Timeless Attitude

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For your enjoyment, a timeless song for a summer day. Doesn’t matter if it’s cloudy or raining, thunder or lightning. This is a song to put some spring in your attitude.

Today’s a  great day to be alive.

Princess Lola

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I hear that you can get rich quick by simply posting photos of cats on your blog. With that in mind, please welcome Lola, the nocturnal wonder-cat. Can you believe those long, white whiskers?

It can be frustrating, trying to get a good photo of a black cat or dog, and Lola doesn’t help. I think she is a little bit camera shy. Lola is black as ink, with four white paws and a white belly, and green eyes. With the help of iPhoto, these photos have been digitally enhanced so you can actually see her against that blue dog blanket. (She doesn’t know I got the blanket for a dog, so please don’t tell her.)

What Lola does best is sleep. She is a world-class sleeper, and I’m not talking catnaps. She’s practicing to be a consultant on sleep disorders. Lola gets up in the morning when I do. After eating breakfast, she curls up and goes right to sleep, and snoozes through most of the day. Late at night (or more likely, early morning), when I’m trying to fall asleep, Lola is prowling around in the dark. My apartment is small, but she never tires of exploring. There are even small spaces here that she hasn’t gotten around to trying out. Small spaces are one of Lola’s favorite things.

Sleeping, eating, and small spaces. That about exhausts the list of Lola’s interests. If she has a hobby, it’s going out on the screened porch to listen to the birds, or swat at the moths. I really have to get her on an exercise program. She’s age four, in the prime of life, and if I can persuade her to shed a few pounds, she will easily live another 10 years, or more. Right this moment, Lola is perched precariously but serenely on a narrow window sill, listening to the summer rain. It’s kinda hard to tell if she’s awake or asleep.

One more thing about Lola. She is a talker, with a vocabulary for all occasions. Lola has a word for “Hey, you!” and others for greeting, contentment, surprise, curiosity. Lola’s favorite subject is food. I believe she can say “Feed me,” in five languages, including French and Chinese.

After an hour or so of late-night exploring, Lola settles down at the foot of my bed. (Lola sleeps wherever she wants. During the day, my favorite chair. At night, on the bed. Only thing I ask is that she avoid walking across my stomach more than twice a night.) Lola sleeps sporadically, at night. Mostly, she lies awake, with her head up, meditating on the middle distance. Either that, or she’s working complicated mathematics problems in her head.

Oil, Water, Sin

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What has gone wrong with the world? Good grief, where did we fail? How did we fall so far?

If I’m going to blog, I may as well try to tell the truth. There’s oil gushing from a hole in the bottom of the ocean floor. It’s a horror movie come true.

The mob screamed for government to get out of the way, free corporate capitalism to give us unimagined wealth. Now, the mob screams for government to do something. How ironic that the same people who fumed that Obama’s health care reform put us on the road to socialized medicine are now furious because Obama  won’t nationalize BP. Seems to me that Obama is doing a good job by keeping his head when all about him other people are losing their’s.

 

No oil in the water at my part of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet.

 

Oil keeps gushing, more and more every day. It’s washing up on the beaches. Government, save us. David Broder writes that the BP oil spill will be Barack Obama’s Iranian hostage crisis.  The President! Why doesn’t the president do something? Why won’t he send in the military? “Give us Barrabas!” This could come straight from the Bible, or from “Lord of the Flies.”  Get the president! He’s smart, he looks different, he doesn’t care.  He won’t stop the oil leak! “Crucify him!”

The nuns used to say that trouble in the world is the result of sinfulness, the cumulative worldwide weight of our small sins of omission and commission. Maybe the nuns were on to something. If so, I would trace our predicament to all our cumulative sins of greed. Or perhaps worship of false idols.

Now, it is common to talk of corruption, not sin. Corruption in government, corruption in business, corruption in bureaucracy. Government, business and bureaucracy, of course, are made up of individual human beings. Right now, the blame police are examining every omission and commission associated with the oil spill, in an effort to name the sins, or to expose a culture of corruption in BP and government agencies.

(While we ponder corruption and sin, I think we should also remember that possibly it is not sin or corruption, but human mistakes, unintended errors of omission and commission. I would even suggest one last, unlikely possibility, that the oil spill is an accident or an act of nature that was unpreventable.)

In the case of government dysfunction, my neighbor at Lost On The Shore suggests we are all responsible:

“You see, we either want things that are opposite of each other, or things that are impossible or we don’t know what we want . . .

Our politicians can’t solve our problems for us because we want it both ways and we don’t want to compromise.”

I agree with his analysis. We want too much, or we want what we cannot have.  I hope  we repent and change. We can reform our values. We can change the way we live. We can, if we have the will, refuse to tolerate corruption. We should do it for ourselves, and for our children and grandchildren.

— John Hayden

Thanksgiving Simplicity in America

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The cozy comfort of family tradition took precedence, at the last minute, over the plan to simplify Thanksgiving.

Turkey-vegetable soup was replaced on the menu by a grand old turkey with all the trimmings. We were all so mellow after the dinner and wine that we didn’t get around to the pie at all on Thursday.  No problem, man. Apple pie warmed in the microwave, with a generous topping of whipped cream, makes the perfect Black Friday breakfast. Apple pie for breakfast is American simplicity, as long as the pie has been pre-baked.

Now Black Friday, THAT we have simplified, for years. We all slept late, sat around and read the newspaper (they still get the Washington Post here!), and tossed the tennis ball for the dog. How about that reality-show glamor couple that crashed President Obama’s first state dinner? Of course, Barack and Michelle Obama are America’s first family of glamor.

In a little while, we’ll have a larger family gathering at an undisclosed location in Montgomery County, with a pie theme. Pizza and left-over apple and pumpkin. Continue to relax and enjoy!

Thanksgiving Simplicity in America

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[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=thanksgiving&iid=7129735″ src=”4/a/b/8/Las_Vegas_Performers_6b13.jpg?adImageId=7834475&imageId=7129735″ width=”380″ height=”539″ /] [picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=thanksgiving&iid=7129234″ src=”2/0/8/4/Bay_Area_Food_0325.jpg?adImageId=7834773&imageId=7129234″ width=”380″ height=”257″ /] [picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=thanksgiving&iid=7129230″ src=”c/d/5/d/Bay_Area_Food_ebe2.jpg?adImageId=7834666&imageId=7129230″ width=”380″ height=”261″ /] [picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=thanksgiving&iid=7129788″ src=”f/4/5/5/Las_Vegas_Performers_2eb8.jpg?adImageId=7833951&imageId=7129788″ width=”380″ height=”286″ /] [picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=thanksgiving&iid=7129744″ src=”a/4/2/5/Las_Vegas_Performers_44c6.jpg?adImageId=7834155&imageId=7129744″ width=”380″ height=”270″ /] [picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=thanksgiving&iid=7129239″ src=”3/a/3/f/Bay_Area_Food_93cc.jpg?adImageId=7834269&imageId=7129239″ width=”380″ height=”258″ /] [picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=thanksgiving&iid=7112612″ src=”7/8/c/0/Thanksgiving_Meals_Delivered_9f36.jpg?adImageId=7835021&imageId=7112612″ width=”380″ height=”260″ /] [picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Thanksgiving&iid=7112610″ src=”5/8/b/6/Thanksgiving_Meals_Delivered_f77a.jpg?adImageId=7835139&imageId=7112610″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]

I’m enjoying Thanksgiving with family in Montgomery County, in the neighborhood where we grew up. Lilley, Poe, Bubbles, et. al.  They have an entire guest basement for me, with full bath.

Thanksgiving in America

This year we’re simplifying Thanksgiving.  Instead of a whole turkey with all the trimmings, the menu will include hot turkey-vegetable soup, cheese, wine, bread, pumpkin and apple pie, whipped cream. What more could we possibly need? I can hardly wait. Lots of talk. Scrabble. Maybe good movies on TV.

We have much to be thankful for, and we know it!  Thankful to the Creator, and thankful for each other. (And thanks to PicApp for making this selection of Thanksgiving photos available.)

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! God Bless America! And God Bless The Whole Wide World, No exceptions!

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Life And Blogging: So Much To Do

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Let me humbly acknowledge: I have been shamefully neglecting “Life After 60,” the blog. This is because I’m too busy LIVING life after 60, the life.

Here are a few of the things I’ve been busy with:

  • Covering a three-day Nor’easter, worst storm in my neighborhood since 1998, for my other blog.
  • Applying for Unemployment Compensation. (Application accepted)
  • Applying for at least two jobs per week, as required by Unemployment Comp.
  • Attending classes to learn how to be a volunteer adult literacy tutor.
  • Doing homework for above classes. (Found out I’ve forgotten how to study with any discipline.)
  • Rearranging furniture in my efficiency apartment to make better use of the small space. (I’m not finished.)
  • Laundry, at least once every two weeks. Cleaning the bathroom, once every two weeks, whether it needs it or not. Running the dishwasher once every two days.
  • Getting a colonoscopy once every decade, whether I need it or not. (My decade ran out last year. I’m thinking about making an appointment, which is the crucial first step.)
  • I have not yet motivated myself to make the Recession Vegetable Soup, but I have assembled the ingredients and the necessary cookware.
  • Treating my Seasonal Affective Disorder by taking naps. (I don’t know if this is a medically approved course of treatment, but it has the advantage of being free, whether you have health insurance or not.
  • I’m still paying my monthly COBRA bill to keep the good health insurance I’ve got for a few more months. And then there’s the rent, the credit cards, food, gas . . .

Most recently, visited the Christmas Bazaar at my church, near the end of the second day of the event. They had marked everything down to half price. I bought two ancient commemorative tin wall hangings, one with a picture of JFK, the other with a picture of Jackie. They still have the original Hecht Co. price tags. Hecht Co. sold the plates for $1 each in 1977. I bought the pair for $1 at the church bazaar. What do you suppose they would fetch on eBay? (They’re not for sale at any price.)

Jack and Jackie and Hecht Co. have all passed on to their rewards. I am delighted to be living life, with my memory and my health still in good working order.

— John Hayden