Showing posts with label simple living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simple living. Show all posts

Friday, December 28, 2012

Choosing to live more simple


Before we moved here, we lived in a huge house. Downstairs was more than enough for us, with a large washingroom, bathroom (only thing is, it lacked the battub i so want) two large bedroms, kitchen and living room with dining area. In addition to this there where three bedroms upstairs and a hughe hall. We tend do just use the upstairs for our mess. Yepp, we had so much space that we could store all things. ALL!!

It was expencive to heat up the house, since there where no fireplace. The heat just went up stairs, and I did not wanted to use the upstairs at all. It definately was a nice charming home, a little chabby chic, and rigth there by the sea and the old traditional bakery from early 1900 (no function there today)
In addition to heating we needed to pay rent for it, and to tell you the truth, we did not have the ammount of money to pay of our rent, power and to pay down our debts. We always putted of our debts, and they grow.

So, when we finaly decided to move here we live now, it was a huge turn for me. We now had twice as little room as we where used to. My bedroom just contains my bed, because there are no more room on the floor. The kids room is actually in a really good size. The living room, kitchen and dining area now are just as big as our kitchen was before. Oh, and we have no washingroom, no bathroom and just alittle storageroom.

We are blessed to have this opportunity, since we now dont pay any rent, and verry little power. We have furnished the whole house ourself, down to the walls we built to seperate the kitchen from the hall. We got the kitchen from a local freecycle, and it contains two dobble uppercabinets, and three cabinets, a small fridge and a small stove with only two plates. The living area is combined livingroom, and office. In the small storageroom we have a portable toilett. To use the shower we need to go to the neighbour (my father in law.) We have a wasingmachine, wich we share with my father in law and his family. No dryer. We have no dishwasher either. And we gave up the cable. The kids have a tv to watch in the livingroom, but there are only dvd`s and games on it. We also have no water in our house.

Now that we dont have anymore room to store our mess, you would think that we dont have any, rigth? Well, we have a cold basement. Perfectly for our canned goods. And, I`ve stored all the mess there. I really hate it! So, today I told my husband that I need to get my act together in the basement, to clean up the mess. I have so much clothes left from my two boys, and I also runned a onlineshop before, and I have a huge stock left that did not sell. My husband jokes that I dont need to buy more shampoo for the rest of my life. I think it`s true ;)
My organization goal for 2013 is to get rid of all the stuff left from my shop, and also give the leftover clothes from my boys to charity. Because, we want to start isloating the basement, so we can have an extra room there, and a bathroom. We definately want to have water input by the end of next year if not sooner.

This post is shared at Frugal Fridays over at Life as Mom.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Welcome to Simple Life in Norway

Hey there! Welcome here to this new blog at Simple Life in Norway!

I am a young mother from Norway, living on a small family homestead together with my husbands father and his family. I have two kids, DS8, and DS4.
There are no animals left on our homestead (except from our cat), but this place used to be a huge austrichfarm, and our home is the old hatcherybarn redesigned to a home. We currently do not have water in our sink, and we dont have a bathroom. We have to get water from the neighbour (the husbands father) and we use their toilet, washingmashine and shower. We also have a smaller amount of power that we used to have when living in a hughe house. That meaning that I have to turn of the heat to use the oven. It is kind of simple and "of grind", but I like it! We have been living like this for 1,5 years now, and we have saved alot on this.

I love the whole idea of living simple. I do belive that to much stuff is bad for us, and that it leads to stress. Stress is definately something I dont need. Back in 2010 i got adrenal fatigue, and are still trying to get the old me back. The combination between that, and that my oldest kid have behavioural problems (he actually have multiple diagnosis, but I have no clue what they are called in English) does that I am a stay at home mum at the moment, trying to recover and also trying to be the best mom I can for my kids. (Who doesnt, rigth?) I used to be a manager at a healthfood shop, and I do want to go back to some sort of working, but now is not the rigth time for me. I will definately try to make some kind income at home/online.

I am also a huge datanerd! I love computers, I love the internett, and I love blogging. Since 2004 I have been somewhat an internetmarketer, running my own multiple blogs (both on blogger and wordpress) had my own popular onlineboard with clothdiapers as a theme, runned multiple onlineshops (I also built and designed them) BUT! I have always done it in Norwegian, so I am challenging myself now, with this English thing here.

I love to garden, I love to fish, I love to sit and look out the window with a big cup of tea, I love herbs, I love food, I love nature and camping, I love to redesing and reuse things, I love to make menuplans, and Oh how I love to save money.

I think this cap me up in a bottle, but I am sure you wil get to know me better when you read on in this blog.

I also want to get to know my readers. Hwo are you? Where do you live, and what are your dreams?