Tag Archives: Simplicity

“It’s the dogs that count”: a tale of the New Austerity (via Baroque in Hackney)

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While I’m working myself into a lather, writing my next post about THE END of Civilization in America, you have time to enjoy this spirit-lifting essay by Ms. B, a gifted British blogger. She manages to cover many of the things that really matter — dogs, austerity, friendship. Ms. B makes her points deftly and moves on. She doesn’t beat you over the head, again and again, about the same boring issues, the way I do.

"Its the dogs that count": a tale of the New Austerity Well, I promised you dogs. The sad truth is that this picture was scanned in yesterday morning and has been sitting since then, waiting for a post. It has taken that long to find a few minutes. I have a friend whose mother was a doughty woman from Bristol, who knitted and sewed and made do and mended, and who recycled absolutely everything. A good, solid, practical, no-nonsense woman, in the old  mould. She died about ten years ago, if  not maybe … Read More

via Baroque in Hackney

Property Virgins (via The Clueless Farm Hand)

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The Virginia welcome sign at the Virginia welc...

Image via Wikipedia

Update! Update! The Clueless Farmhands have a deal to buy their Virginia farm, complete with livable house. The bank suddenly decided to OK the short sale. See their update post here. It contains a long list of things they have to do to get the farm running this Spring. (Far from a leisurely idyllic existence, farming is probably more like endless work and 24-7 responsibility.) But I guess you’re your own boss and can work at your own pace, so far as Mother Nature allows. If the Clueless Farmhands can pull it off, maybe other people can do it! Opens up your limited career and lifestyle options, doesn’t it? Do you think you could do it?

End of Update.

You’ve had the fantasy. Admit it. What you really want is a few acres of farmland and a house. You’d like to buy it dirt cheap, because it IS mostly dirt, after all.

You want to chuck the career and the credit cards. Tell your boss to take this job and . . . Escape from the materialism, the congestion, the commute.

You’d trade it all in for freedom and simplicity. Life on the farm.

The Clueless Farmhand couple has done what you dream of doing. They’ve searched five counties in rural Virginia. They’ve looked at single-wides, double-wides, and actual houses. They think they’re ready to take the plunge.

I suspect most folks in Consternation-land will find their story enlightening. At last report . . .

Property Virgins You would think during these days of foreclosures it would be easy to pick up a nice old farmhouse with a bit of land and some serviceable outbuildings for a song. For the past six months or so … Read More

via The Clueless Farm Hand

March 9, 2011 Update: The Clueless Farm Hand has posted an update, detailing the bumpy road to buying a distressed property via a short sale. I had heard that buying real estate through foreclosures and short sales could be problematic, but this was an eye-opener for me. — John Hayden

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?

Just Like Old Times? (via The Hip Flask)

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Republished below is an exceptionally good post, from a blog I’ve just discovered. The subject is bar culture, and I think it will be of interest to many in my generation.

This is as good a time as any to toast the bars of my misspent youth: The Raw Bar in Bethesda; Gentleman Jim’s in Twinbrook; Mr. Henry’s at Tenley Circle; The Schnitzel Haus and the Pirate’s Den in Ocean City; Ireland’s Four Provinces on Connecticut Ave.

And special mention to the bars whose names I can’t remember: That MJC bar? on Upper Wisconsin Ave? Got it, it was called The Lodge. I think it was the first place I drank a beer, when I was 18. And a few blocks south, the Grog and Tankard.

If I habituated all those bars, and lived to remember, I must have had a rollicking good time! The smoking and drinking was a horrendously unhealthy lifestyle. And I admit that I drove my car home from all of those bars, over and over, weekend upon weekend, and in Ocean City, night after night. It is only by the grace of God that I was spared a serious accident. In fact, I never even got a ticket.

I’m thankful I was able to quit smoking at 29, and drinking by about 35. I had good friends who never quit, and they are dead now.

Was life as simple as I remember it then, in the 1960s and 1970s? We can’t have been all that innocent! We had Vietnam, and Civil Rights, and Assassinations, and Watergate. But we still believed in the intrinsic goodness of America, and the U.S. government, and Wall Street.

Without further ado, here’s the post that sparked my bar nostalgia:

Just Like Old Times? A Three Part Lamentation on Modern Drinking Culture Part 1: Progress? The idea of progress and drinking has been on my mind lately.  New drink creations, new styles of decor, and re-imaginations of old classics seem to be all the rage.  New technology follows these new trends, be it bars that pitch their Wi-Fi hotspots or boast of countless high-definition televisions.  These technologies have become ubiquitous in bars and pubs, which has made fi … Read More

via The Hip Flask

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

How NOT To Simplify Your Life

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Here’s eight easy steps that I do not recommend:

  1. Quit your night job and run for an obscure political office.
  2. One blog isn’t enough. Try three blogs.
  3. Get yourself adopted by a cat.
  4. Volunteer for a political campaign. Better yet, volunteer in TWO campaigns.
  5. Freely offer unsolicited advice.
  6. Begin each day promptly at the crack of noon.
  7. Experiment with carbohydrate-rich nutrition.
  8. Be too busy for prayer. Be too busy for exercise. Forget to be grateful.

Every day is a good day to repent and start anew. Today, for instance. For starters, one blog will be enough, don’t you agree?  This blog is the one. Humor me. Stay tuned.

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.

Fear and Anger: Walk Away From It

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Thursday, there was a whiff of panic in the air, as the Dow went through a 1,000-point intraday swing.

Friday, American eyes were locked, with a sense of “deja vu,” on the financial train wreck in Europe. The credit engine in Europe may be on the verge of seizing up, like it did in America in 2008.

This week, Greece; next week, the Continent?  Germany and France are rushing to avert crisis, but probably too late. It doesn’t help one bit that Britain woke up Friday morning with a fractured Parliament. Can the new Parliament possibly be more dysfunctional than the American Congress? And next week, strikes are scheduled in Europe.

For the average human being, this would be a good time to be far away from and fully independent of free markets; out of debt; and growing your own vegetables in dirt and fresh air. In other words, simplicity never looked so good.

Next time someone flies into a rage over a parking space or a line at the supermarket, give them plenty of room to vent. And don’t take it personally. It’s not about the parking space or the line. People are angry about events not under their control.

This would be a good weekend to go fishing, in a quiet place, far from the maddening crowd. Take along someone you like. Eat comfort food. Read a good, long book, or two short books, and call me in the morning.

— John Hayden