Moving into a Small Home - Attitude

Going on the assumption that you might be planning to make a change in your life toward smaller living or that perhaps you are curious as to what it may be like, I want to start with the most obvious area: space.  This is a really big topic, so I am going to try to break it up a bit.  There are some basic areas I want to try to cover in the next few posts:

Necessities - You are going to have to re-assess what you have always thought of as being necessities.  I was just certain I couldn't make it without all of my kitchen equipment, for example.  Surprise!  Not only could I, but I had to, so I might as well learn it!  You may have to break a lot of basic living habits.

Personal belongings: Storage - It's hard, but some things just have to go.

Daily Activities and Ministrations - Reading, writing,, paying bills, cooking, doing dishes, home entertainment, sleeping, etc... all of these situations become more interesting when you are only a few feet apart.

Cabin Fever? - Any way you slice this pie the pieces are small.  You can enjoy it or not.  It's your choice, but it's a situation that requires some reprogramming, a lot of self-education and preparation leading into it, and a whole lot of deliberate patience.

Attitude! - I want to say at the outset that we are not perfect family and any one can do this, but wrong or bad attitudes can make it very, very difficult.  If the whole family understands this and has made a quality decision to give their best effort you are WAY ahead of the game.

Which brings me to the topic I wanted to deal with first:
Perception -  I want to address specifically the attitudes you are probably going to get from other people when they learn you're planning to move into something small.  To the world's way of thinking we're going the wrong direction. We're supposed to go bigger and bigger not smaller.  I've had people think I was crazy, they've gotten angry, (yes, really) they've been sorry for me, afraid, confused, you name it.  Some wished they could do it, some tried to talk me out of it.  You will hear it all.

As I said in an earlier blog post, living small is historically very "normal."  It's only in the last few generations that we have decided we need big  homes.  We think that if our children don't have their own 'XX' square feet of privacy that we have somehow injured their development.  If I can't have perfect surroundings for each activity I have to perform then I just can't do it!  Even though this is NOT TRUE, it is accepted by society completely.   As a result you can get any number of reactions from people. Be prepared! Pick your battles.

Some people don't matter a whole lot in our everyday world.  We like them, they are acquaintances or whatever, but they don't factor into our day to day life very much.  Not everyone needs to know or even wants to know what you're up to.  Don't even bother to tell them.  If they find out and feel it necessary to pipe up about it, don't feel the need to explain yourself to them.  A simple, "Really? We like it," or something similar will do.  Some are bold or just nosy, but they can be politely dismissed.

Among the people who do matter to you there may be some strange responses.  Some of them we are in close enough relationship with to sit down and intellectually discuss it, and walk away with understanding and even support.  That's how it should be with most of the people, but there are those who are actually sad or afraid and you can't make them understand.  Honestly, I can not figure out why anyone would feel that way.  I've tried and tried to explain our hearts and minds to them, but they don't get it.  That's why I say now you should just politely dismiss them. They will wear you out and it is pointless to belabor it.

This is what I mean by pick your battles.  Those you care about who are having trouble with your "weird lifestyle" are just going to have to be marginalized in any future discussions about it.  A lot of "yeah, uh-huh's" and letting them know you're "fine" and life is good.

In our own situation, there were those who meant well, I have no doubt, but they really didn't get it.  They will point out a lot of negatives and they can stress you out about things where you don't need any added stress.  Everything has a negative side.  If you start listening to too much of that and begin to dwell on it you doom yourself to failure.  Don't allow it.  Dance around the topic however you need to, smile and talk about the good things.   I suggest you avoid the subject altogether if you can once you have determined they aren't going to support you.  If you felt you needed to tell them your plans, then you've done your part.  Now it's time to protect your family and home, not defend your decisions to people who, other than being a little concerned, aren't really directly effected by it.

We had people in our lives that we were very close to, people we loved and who loved us, begin to look down their noses at us over this.  OK, yeah, so that's their problem, but in a discussion about the effects of this lifestyle and it's ups and downs, this needs to be mentioned because it hurt us.  A lot.  And it happened.

I have an internet acquaintance who actually had a "friend" turn her into the state child protective agency because he felt that the rooming and sleeping accommodations they made for the children was  somehow not up to snuff.  They were actually investigated.  That is a nightmare scenario!  Thankfully it was tossed out, but the point is, some of the consequences are far more severe than the situation deserves, so, if they can be avoided by just keeping it to yourself, maybe that's the best game plan.

With most people, it's out of sight is out of mind anyway.  They'll drop it if you will.  Just leave it.  Ask yourself why you feel compelled to discuss it with anyone you might be getting ready to discuss it with.  It might just be excitement on your part, but not everyone will be as excited as you are and you might be borrowing trouble, so weigh it out.

I guess I said all that to say this: Be ready for some opposition.  Who knows why; it just happens.  Just be sure going in that it's the thing you want to do, and do it for real, well thought through reasons.  The best way to calm everybody's nerves is to be a success at it.  You can only do that if you're sold on it yourself.  We just recently passed our one year mark.  If, later on, anyone who had any of those thoughts about us in the beginning actually let it cross their minds that we live in a small place, which I doubt, then they would probably say to themselves, "Wow, they did it."  That's good enough.

November - 30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 11

Today I'm thankful for my the smell of fallen leaves on a cold night.  I went outside  tonight and it was so strong in the air I could almost taste it.  I think that if I had no idea what season it was and someone woke me out of a sound sleep, blindfolded me and put me outside in the yard, I could have told you from scent alone that it was November.  Rich, heavy, and earthy made crisp on the the cold air!   Someone should figure out how to bottle that smell.  It's one of life's greatest smells.  That and the smell of book pages.  And coffee.  And toast.  Toast is good, too. 

(photo credit)

November - 30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 10

I'm thankful for my church.  We are really new here and it's a big church.  It's hard to find your place and fit in and make friends in a new church, particularly a big one.  I am tempted at times to give up trying and go someplace different, smaller and more personal feeling, but I know God has brought us here for a purpose, so I continue to go.  I know that the passage of time will fill in all these uncomfortable "stranger" gaps.  In the mean time God has given me  a timely word each and every time I have gone there.

I am thankful that when I feel alone God is with me.  He led me to this river and He will send ravens to feed me if He has to.  I will stay where He puts me.   Imagine!  I will receive from the Hand of God when I go where He sends me!  There's nothing better than that!

(Photo credit)

Important Lighting Issues and Options

I learned something new about living in travel trailers again this week:  if you are planning to live in one full time and still plan to use the lights as you usually would have in a standard home, you should switch the light bulbs from incandescent to LED or fluorescent.

The 12 volt fixtures in an RV save a lot on electricity, and I really like them.  The bulbs last a long time in them, they are easy to change and clean and all that, but the incandescent bulbs that are made for them get too hot if you leave them on too long, and they can (do) melt some of the pieces of the bulb and the fixture.  It seems bad that they would sell you something that could cause this.  I guess they expect you won't be in it so much or something, I don't know, but it's a scary arrangement. I've heard all the stories about fires in trailers and electrical fires, and I don't like the thought of either of them.

We had a fixture short out in the bathroom.  This one was a two sided fixture, and we noticed the bulb in one side had gotten dimmer than in the other over time.  My husband took note of it one day.  I assumed if it was a problem he'd say something more, but he never really did until it blew a fuse.  He fixed the fuse, and it seemed alright, although the light was still dim, but when it blew another one he checked on it, and I'm glad he did.  It had melted the end of the bulb to the point that it came apart and had melted the wires in the fixture.  I'm glad my husband understands electrical things, because I certainly don't, yet.  I'm also really thankful he was at home this week to fix it!  

The bulb itself never burned out on it's own, it just dimmed.  I didn't think much of it in the beginning because the bulbs in the fixtures are the same ones that were in it when we bought the trailer a year ago.  No telling how long they'd been in there before we got it.  They had been burning out, presumably because they were old, and I'd been replacing them as we went along, so I was expecting more to go pretty soon anyway.  One more was not too alarming. 

I did note it was the only one that just dimmed. I probably should have taken note as to which ones I'd changed.  It didn't seem important at the time, but looking back, had I kept track of it I might have had a reason to red flag it and have him check into it before we had trouble.  I could't remember if that was one I had already changed or not.  That's another good reason to keep journals.

The next day, fresh on the heels of this event and keenly aware of the heat of the bulbs now, I remembered having a bulb go out in the kitchen recently, so I went in to check on it.  Lo and behold, when I touched it, it flickered.  It wasn't burnt out at all, it was shorted out like the other one.   I was afraid to touch it!  I did, however, and managed to remove the bulb, and it, too had melted and parts of it had disintegrated and it had come undone in the socket.  Obviously we determined that we had to do something about the rest of them.  Short of sitting in the dark, we found two options.

#1 - LED bulbs.  

1. They are COOL to the touch.
2. I could keep my existing fixtures and just replace the bulbs.
3. They are bright and come in lots of colors, or tones, or hues or whatever, to make it easy on the eyes.
4. They last a very, very long time: 100,000+ working hours.  Obviously they would pay for themselves over time. 
5. They are very cost efficient to operate.  They use about twenty percent of the power of an incandescent bulb, which matters on your bill when you are hooked up, but will matter even more if you are *off grid and have to monitor how much juice everything uses. If you take into consideration the number of bulbs in the trailer, and we have around twenty including outdoor lights, we could considerably reduce the battery drain by switching to LED.  If we had all twenty of our incandescent bulbs turned on at one time they would draw in the neighborhood of **20 amps, which would drain a single **12 volt battery in a matter of a few hours.  If we replaced them all with LED and then ran them all, they would use less than four volts.  That is significant.  

*I don't understand all I know about that, I'm only learning, but I know that using less is good.  
**Please don't ask me about volts and amps and power systems for off grid.  I'm Ned in the first reader on all this stuff.

I found these great links for more info on the pro's and cons: http://eezrvproducts.com/FAQ_s__LED_s_.html

http://eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm

The downside: 

1. The bulbs are expensive.  I've seen them at RV stores for around $17.00 - $20.00 per bulb, and they aren't a lot better on the internet, at least for the ones we decided we'd like to buy. Some only shine in one direction and we want the multi-directional ones which are even more expensive, starting in the neighborhood of $35.00 each and up from there.  The prices seem to be coming down somewhat, but to replace twenty bulbs even at around twenty dollars apiece would really be quite a ticket.  We would have to do one or two at a time.  I will likely buy one of the directional ones and see how it works in one of the single fixtures before I spring for any of the really expensive ones.  When I do, I'll post.  

#2 Fluorescent lighting.

1. Cool to the touch.
2. Considerably more cost efficient than incandescent.
3. Brighter than incandescent, and I prefer the light quality; that's just my personal taste.
4. Replacement bulbs are around $5.00 - $10.00.  That is slightly cheaper than replacement costs for LED's, but they do not last as long.

The downside:

1. The lighting fixtures will have to be replaced.  There is really not a great selection of beautiful fixtures available even on the internet.  The only one available locally was less than attractive, but not horrible, so we got it... for $50.00+ dollars.  At a dozen or more fixtures, you can do the math on that one.
2. The bulbs do not last nearly as long as the LED lights.
3. I haven't seen any replacement bulbs for these type of fixtures just lying around on the shelves any more commonly than I have the LED lights because they are 12 volt tubes.  You can't just go buy one at Wal Mart.  LED is taking over the market in RV and marine lighting, so it's actually easier to find LED now days.

We went ahead with a fluorescent fixture in the bathroom, mostly because that's all they had available and we needed something right away, as in NOW while my husband was home to fix it.  I'm not at all sorry, because I really like it where it is, but I have to say, I have completely talked myself into LED while writing this post.   

No one says I have to replace all of them at one time.  Besides, it's like the industry to change the standard occasionally.  In my short studies here it already seems to me like they are trying to switch over to a different kind of a flat base which would, of course, require a new fixture, so I might as well wait to do as many as I can until the die is cast.  For now I'll plan on  getting a few bulbs.  It pains me to shell out so much dough for one measly bulb, but if it lasts such a long time and isn't hot, I'm going to hold my nose and do it.  

Right now I have to say I like the light our new fluorescent casts so much that I may eventually get one for the kitchen over the sink, unless it turns out that we like the LED's even better.  I wish I could test one.  I wish they had sample bulbs or trials.  Well, I'll let you know when I get one.

Anyway, this obviously isn't all there is to RV lighting, and these are certainly not the only options, just  the ones we are looking at.  For the record, our trailer is a 2001 model.  I imagine a lot of things have changed about how they do things in newer ones.  

Feel free to post in my comments if you have any ideas or suggestions.  I'm brand new at this and learning as I go.  Any good info is money in the bank.

Ps119:105 ~ "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

(photo credit)

November - 30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 9

Well, I'm behind on my Thanksgiving posts, again, so some of the next few entries will be short until I catch up.  I am thankful for my Sunday nap.  To quote an old friend, Pastor Joe Cude, "I love to sleep. I dream about taking naps,"  and there's none better than the infamous Sunday nap.  Church, food, nap.  Isn't that the natural order of things?  I've been doing it that way for so long that  I can barely hold my eyes open on Sunday afternoon any more just out of plain old habit.  Nice.

It IS Sunday afternoon , by the way, so I'll try to catch up on my posts a little later on today.  For now, I'm feeling a bit nappish.........

(photo credit)

November - 30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 8

This is going to sound silly, probably, but today I am thankful for the internet and social media, such as Facebook.  It may be a terrible time waster and whatever other negative thing people say it is, but for me, it keeps me in contact with my family and friends far away.   I don't know about everyone else,  but it almost makes me feel like we are still together. It's weird how it does that and I'm glad I have it.  Lord, help me not to waste too much time there.  :)

(photo credit)

November - 30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 7

OK, gamers, today I am thankful for leveling up.  
I know this may sound arrogant, but not everyone can handle pressure and stress the way I can.  I've grown into a strong individual.   I must have passed at least some of the tests in my life or I wouldn't be so tough.  I have been leveling up!  God must be grooming me for great things!  I want nothing more than to learn what He's trying to teach me, pass my test and move on to the next level.  I don't always like my tests, and I don't always pass my tests the first time, but thankfully we're allowed retakes.  Testing determines proficiency, right?  I must be learning something!

When times are hard, when the test is on, trust what you have been taught.  Psalms 16:7 says, "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: My reins also instruct me in the night seasons."  Your "reins" are your faith and your will. If you have learned from His counsel, it is time to trust what He taught you and hold yourself to it despite how you may feel or how things may seem.  In that night season it is hard to see what we are doing.  This is what we trained for.  This is why we are tested.  Hold to what you know!  If you don't quit you win!!

Some people quit in the middle of their tests.  They whine and complain because it's hard and they can't do it, only to find themselves back in the same test again another day.  "I know God said "     fill in the blank     " but you don't understand my situation," or, "I tried that, but it didn't work for me."  I hate to break it to them, but if you fail a test, whatever your excuse reason, you don't move on, you go back.  You retake it.  Stop failing!  Start passing!  It's not easy.  If it was easy everybody would be doing it, but it is worth it.  


(photo credit)