Practising Simplicity by Jodi Wilson

Author:Jodi Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2021-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

This is frugal abundance;

working less to live simply,

instead of working

to buy things we didn’t need.

We had an entire kitchen full of cutlery and crockery, teacups and pots, kids’ segregated plates and Tupperware containers with too many lids. But, in the van, we survived with one frying pan and two saucepans, a bowl and a plate for each of us, a few cups and ample cutlery. We washed the dishes in our tiny sink and towelled them dry, and not once did we feel like we needed any more. And if something broke? We just popped into the local op shop to replace it.

This new simplicity, of cups and cutlery, was life-changing. It freed up time and space and relinquished the dread of those evenings spent with my hands in the suds. (I also passed on the morning and evening dishes routine to my two eldest children, which was met with a year’s worth of whinging, but is now an accepted part of their day.)

I’m realistic; I know that regardless of where we live and what is happening in our lives, there will always be dishes. As the Zen Buddhist proverb goes: ‘Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.’ But I’m in control of how many dishes we own and if we can eat three homemade meals a day and get by on the basics then it’s hard to ignore the maths. It turns out that simplicity is also about restraint, which I believe is a discipline worth celebrating—one that allows you to say no, cherish your belongings and avoid the excess: stuff, and decisions. Living with less isn’t just about the things we accrue and keep. It’s also about having fewer expectations and less pressure, less work and debt, less to clean and less to sort. And although you may live with less, you end up with so much more.

On the road, during the weeks that we were most frugal and filthy, and especially when we free-camped and lived remotely, we agreed that we’d never had it so good. I was continually fascinated by the fact that we were so content in a tiny home with only the essentials (times six, that is). We had packed our necessities: clothes, shoes, wet-weather gear, towels, toiletries, a medicine kit, kitchen basics, a beach umbrella, a few toys, stationery supplies and a rotating collection of books that we would swap at street libraries and caravan park laundries. It was everything and enough, and perhaps most pertinent of all: we didn’t want for anything else. As the weeks and months passed, I reflected, quite regularly, on the significant shifts we’d made and how different I felt with so little to take care of. And this is the very crux of living with less, for me. When we lived in a house, with full cupboards, albeit full of consciously sourced, beautiful items that I loved, I still thought about them when the doors were closed. They may have been invisible

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