Simplified Living: what might it look like with kids??

[Tardis Girl]

I have dreams of truly simplified living -- like the zenhabits site and such. A home without clutter, just stuff we love and use. You know, peaceful happy family times all day long. lol

 

But seriously, if anyone here has seriously tried to move toward simplified living, I'm curious to hear what it might look like when children are very much in the picture! Our 5 kids are ages 1-16, and I wonder how possible it is. I am starting a separate thread on kids' toys. ;)

 

Thank you in advance for comments + ideas!

[missmoe]

:bigear:

[mama23]

I would LOVE more info on this!!

[Peela]

Well, our simplified living looks different to others (and may not be considered so by others).

Dh and I came back from travelling around Australia in about 1992/3 with a beat up old station wagon that had served us well, and some camping gear and a few clothes. We rented a cheap but very run down 2 bedroom house on the river front in our city, in a wealthy suburb. We have lived in bargain rentals in this area ever since.

Then we started collecting and buying what we needed to set up home, at our local Sunday morning swap meet. (like a massive garage sale in a local carpark). Every sunny Sunday since then, through 2 babies and their childhood and now teen years, we have used swapmeet as our main source of clothing, furniture, kitchen appliances, carpet, some electronic goods, ornaments, many books....everything except perishable goods, which are not allowed to be sold there.

We have had the "best" of everything- the kids get good labelled clothes and bags....all for extremely cheap prices. When we want something, we wait for it to turn up at swap meet- or we check the 2nd hand traders online or in our newspaper. And it almost always does turn up. We are bargian hunters.

So...in many ways, we live incredibly abundant lives, having whatever we need and much of what we want...on a pretty normal income.

Even though we rent, I also have chooks and a vegie garden and many pots of herbs.

Simple living has many flavours. It can be more expensive to make your own bread than buy it around here...but I like to make it sometimes anyway. It can be far more expensive to make your own clothes, than to buy them 2nd hand. So...its all relative.