Hi MMM community!
I'm a long-time lurker (about 1.5 years) and a first time poster. To kick things off, I wanted to share one of the more effective strategies I've developed over the last decade that has really helped me adhere to the MMM lifestyle. I call it "Steam Trunk Living" and I'd love to tell you a little about it.
I moved out to go to University at 17 (in 2007) and I am currently working and living in Toronto (at 26 years old). During that time, I've lived in:
- First year residence
- A house near campus (for the remaining three years of undergraduate)
- An apartment in Maryland (for 6 months while I worked abroad after undergraduate)
- An apartment in down town Toronto (for a year after I moved back to Canada)
- A second apartment in down town Toronto (for two years while I put myself through graduate school)
- A rental condo unit in down town Toronto (while I tried living with my now ex-gf)
- A friend's basement in down town Toronto (for 4 months after splitting up with the ex)
- A third apartment in mid town Toronto (for about 6 months and counting)
That works out to eight separate locations in about 10 years.
One of the things I noticed about friends who were living similarly transient lifestyles, is the incredible amount of stuff that these folks would haul from one location to the next. The day I left my undergraduate, you could walk through my neighbourhood and see students filling whole moving trucks with the stuff they were bringing back home with them. I have to imagine that so much of that: bedframes, couches, closets full of clothes, would end up stored in a parent's basement somewhere. Not to mention the money it would cost to rent a truck to carry a bunch of stuff that probably wasn't being used in the first place.
By comparison, I had cracked a deal with myself early on (I'd say around the age of 19-20) to try and minimize the amount of things I owned so I could be as mobile as possible. The biggest obstacle, I found, was that I would spend so much time becoming emotionally attached to all of the things in my life that it was hard to let go when it came time to actually move (I'm sure you know what I mean with that. I would look at the futton I had brought with me to college and remember that it was the futton my brother had bought when he went off to college. He had passed it down to me so it was obviously special. Etc.)
So how did I get over the hurdle?
I ended up taking an object in my possession (a reasonably sized steam trunk) and deciding that going forward all of the thing I "cared about" needed to fit in this box. In doing that, I made mental peace with the fact that everything outside the box (or that was too big to fit in the box) could burn in a fire and I wouldn't care. Anything I really wanted to keep in life, would be stored in this one place and I would be fine with that. So, to quote one of my favourite movies ... "What's in the Box!?"
- old love letters
- some sentimental clothing like costumes I wore in a play
- small souvenirs I've picked up travelling
- a newspaper from the day I was born
- (always temporarily) important receipts, manuals, tax returns
- a very, very, nice bottle of scotch for a special occasion
And I'd like to rapid fire through some of the benefits steam trunk living has had on me:
- When I travel and feel absolutely compelled to pick something up to remember the journey, that thing is usually small and light because I know that it would be an object that long-term I'd like to keep in my steam trunk. This is great because there have been plenty of occasions while travelling where I have *not* bought something because it's too big for the trunk or isn't worth taking up that permanent room that I'd assign to it.
- When I move, I move light. The core of any of the eight moves I've done over the past decade is the steam trunk and anything else I bring is absolutely essential for the next location. I got in to a very practical habit (especially over the last 5 years) of selling almost every stick of furniture I own when I'm gearing up to move. It's a great source of short-term income and it helps me avoid the expense of trying to haul all that stuff from A to B. I've been fortunate to do most of my recent moves in a friend's car in 1-2 trips.
- After years of living like this, I find it difficult to get emotionally attached to stuff any more. Broadly speaking, that has helped me make smart business decisions when it comes to purchases instead of emotional ones where I could get taken advantage of. It also has a positive impact on my relationships. For example, I threw a party the other week where a friend of mine spilt a full glass of red wine on the couch in my apartment. I was upset about that for exactly 0 seconds. I don't care about the couch. And it all likelihood, it's going to be sold on kajiji the next time I move. By comparison I watch friends who have "invested in a couch" have trouble emotionally detaching from the object and having incidents like that grate on their friendships.
- Steam trunk living constantly forces me to reevaluate my priorities. There has, in fact, been churn in the trunk over the past decade and some items have been discarded permanently. But I think that's cool. Because it forces me to spend some good time evaluating the great times I've had and the things I'd really like to remember. It's also prevented me from accumulating a never ending pile of "sentimental" stuff that will end up in my basement someday. My room for sentimental is fixed, and that's a good thing (for me personally).
Anyways, those are some initial thoughts on the steam trunk. I've found it's added a very healthy and positive outlook to my life ever since I've been using it and I hope it might help some of you in the MMM community as well.
Happy to field any follow up questions! And I look forward to being a regular contributer here on the boards.
