Last post in the Clutter Cleanse for 2016. Thank you for joining in, sharing your wins on Facebook and Instagram and celebrating living a bit smaller so you can enjoy more of life.
I started this blog to motivate myself to have less stuff. It felt like the walls of our condo were closing in after a stretch at home on maternity leave and the addition of a lot of stuff I thought we needed for the baby. So I started giving away, selling and donating things we weren’t using. It felt good. Things snowballed. Suddenly we were spending less money and were on the fast track to paying off some serious debt.
We’ve been trying to live with less for almost five years now. And my biggest takeaway from trying to get a bit minimalist-ish is that I have to align what I give my time and space to with what I value. And one of the things I value most is time.
Time is my most precious and finite resource: that feels even more clear and urgent right now as I near forty and the gong of mid-life is ringing. Who and what do I want to give my time to?
Time is one of the reasons I am so passionate about not having a long commute and living in a walkable neighborhood. Sure there are some downsides to not having a backyard but the time positive to being so close to so many amenities, parks, the sea wall, library and so much more is worth it to me. I love a road trip but my husband and I will and have done a lot to make most of our day-to-day lives function on foot.
Still, it’s not always perfect. We mostly drive our son to school right now. After a lot of hand wringing and searching for alternate modes of transport and even mulling over moving neighborhoods, we accepted that we couldn’t ‘have it all’ right now with a school in walking distance. It’s not forever, there should be a school to walk to within the year, but for now we drive more than I like. It’s been a good reminder: I don’t like driving. I don’t like packing my kids up in the car. The time feels wasted. I also know that this dislike of driving isn’t universal. I’ve met many happy well adjusted folk with fantastic lifestyles that enjoy kicking back in their car for thirty minutes twice a day to listen to audio books or the radio or to just be in a car alone with no one asking anything of them. I get it.
So, after weeks of getting rid of things, what is it that you want more of in your life? Is it time, a person, laughter, home cooked meals, sleep, education, love or premium? There is no wrong answer. But there should be some answer. Even if you already knew it before you started hauling stuff to Goodwill. You should know that there is something you want more of in your life. If you already have it you should be guarding it. Don’t let stuff or misuse of time steal any of it from you.
For Anyone Wanting Reasons to Slash Your Commute
This is a hot and beloved topic for me. As a time junkie I am fascinated at how we can essentially do the unthinkable, make more time, by changing where we live, work and get around. So read on if you want more ammo for cutting your drive time. Or close this email/browser window right now if your fine with your driving or feeling crushed by your commute that you cannot get out of right now.
It is ridiculous to commute by car to work if you realize how expensive it is to drive, and if you value your time at anything close to what you get paid. – Mr Money Mustache
If you can, go read this article in The Guardian titled The Secrets of the World’s Happiest Cities. If you have a bit more time go check out this post on the personal finance blog Mr. Money Mustache The True Cost of Commuting.
Now, read the following statistics taken from The Guardian article which is an excerpt from the book Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design.
- A person with a 1 hour commute has to earn 40% more to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office.
- People who endure more than a 45-minute commute were 40% more likely to divorce.
- People who live in monofunctional, car‑dependent neighbourhoods outside urban centres are much less trusting of other people than people who live in walkable neighbourhoods where housing is mixed with shops, services and places to work.
Need a few more shockers to help shake you out of the commuter mindset? From Mr Money Mustache:
- The 40 minute car commute for a couple driving separate cars is conservatively costing them $125,000 over 10 years and 1.3 years of worth of working time each.
- Think it’s too expensive to own a home closer to work? MMM says each mile closer to work saves you enough money to take out $15,900 more of mortgage.
Look, I know it can’t be perfect. We can’t ‘have it all’ where we live either. But we can come pretty close by deciding to live without a few things – yard, a bedroom for each kid – so that we have a few more hours a week to do with as we please.
What do you want more of in your life? Has decluttering helped you put more of those loved activities/people in your life?
One of the best things about working from home is getting this time back that would be spent commuting. But I’ve also noticed a funny thing: on the days I drive somewhere, I feel like I’ve “done” something, even though all I’ve done is changed locations! Working from my home office I have to focus on what’s actually getting accomplished to get that same feeling. Much better in the long run 🙂
Having that time thing down is one of the reasons I don’t have an employer. Of course I have clients who get my time but it’s meaningful and purposeful and of course I get to hang out with my kids.
Don’t forget working remotely. With a strategic schedule, and working from home 1 day per week, you’ve effectively eliminated 20% of your annual commute! This can be a great incentive/negotiation point at work, as it’s keeping money in your pocket and time back on your side.
Thanks for the “shout-out” to Mr. Money Mustache. And the opportunity to think about our house-school-work combination. When my husband changed jobs, going from a 45 min commute to a 15 min one, he regained so much of his joy. A real blessing. Thanks.
Well, my husband has a 5 hour commute (2.5 hours each way) by train. It sounds awful, on the face of it, but it’s not. We live in a large town 100km outside one of the most expensive cities in the world. Because of the distance he has access to flexible work practices with his company. This means that he goes in to work three days a week and works from home two days. He works on the train and so starts a little later and leaves the office early. If we lived in the city (even in an outer suburb) he would be expected to be in the office long hours 5 days a week. I walk to work 2 days a week and we walk the children to school (only 6 houses away) and preschool on the way. It’s not far, our three year old can do it. The train station, cinemas, shops, doctors etc are all within 3 year old walking or scooting distance too. We have a small-ish (1200sqft) house on a big block of land (1/4 acre) with lots of space for the boys to play. We walk to the pool, playgrounds, sporting ovals etc. We have a small house on a big block and no mortgage; with lower property prices outside the city we have managed to pay it off. We have one car. We have space, quiet, convenience, no debt and time with the kids, which are important to us as older parents. We have had to be creative but have resisted the pull to move to an outer city suburb. This would result in huge mortgage debt and lots of extra work and driving and commuting. We have to declutter a lot with the house serving as a workplace and home as well but what we are doing aligns with our values. Thank you for your blog!
Kellie – thank you so much for sharing your commute strategy. To me, this makes complete sense. Instead of everyone suffering with a mid-range commute from a suburb, you’ve ‘hacked’ your husband’s commute to a long one but at only 3 days a week and he can work while on the commute. If you ever read Mr. Money Mustache he talks about the making your commute valuable – either by exercising it (walk or bike) or by being able to relax/work/read on it (by train). And you have so much for your family in easy walking distance – fantastic!!
Right now my husband has a 7 minute commute to work. We’ve looked at houses a little farther out because part of us wants a little land, but it always comes down to his not wanting to increase his driving time.
🙂 🙂 🙂
We used to own approximately 30-45 minutes from my husband’s employer. Then we moved to a different state for a job change and we purchased about 15-25 minutes away from his employer. We just returned to the state and employer he started with, sold both houses and are renting 5-10 minutes from work and getting ready to start looking for something to buy in that same range of commute time. Thankfully I have you and Mr. Money Mustache to help me focus on the higher mortgage that will come with the short commute being cheaper and better in the long run. And, really, surprise weekday lunch visits from Daddy just can’t be beat!
Go you! Love reading this. Thanks for sharing, Jenn 🙂
We are moving to a house that is going to cut 10 minutes each way off of my husband’s current 25 minute commute, and the idea of gaining back over an hour and a half of his time each week is awesome! We wanted a little more room (going from 1100 sq ft to 1550, and that size feels perfect for us and our 2 kids, plus the addition of hopefully one more child), but the main reason we are moving is because the schools in our city are awful. In our new neighborhood we can send them happily to public school. Your blog is really got me thinking that moving made more sense than putting them in private school. Staying in our current home with a 1k mortgage PLUS paying $1200 (so a total of $2200) a month to send the kids to private school just didn’t make much sense compared to a mortgage of $1300 in a much safer neighborhood where we can send them to public school. You really helped me think creatively and though what we’re doing isn’t minimalist, I think it is aligning things in our life to better suit our values (we won’t constantly be worrying about my husband needing to work overtime to pay for private school now! ), so thanks, Rachel!
Oh Abby – you just made my day! My week! I love reading about people getting creative and rethinking what the really important things are. So smart of you to make life simpler, and cheaper! – in a few ways with one move. Congratulations!!
I’m one of those people who do not like to waste time driving. Im not able to eliminate my commute, but I’ve improved my state of mind by cutting it down and changing the type of traffic I drive in. When I changed employment, I was able to eliminate highway driving, and cut my afternoon commute in half! My morning commute takes the same amount of time, but is considerably less stressful as I am not on the highway. It’s amazing how much of a difference it had made!
Heather – thank you for sharing your commute hack. 🙂 Agree that a more pleasant but same length commute is a win.