Why Everything I Own Fits In My Car

While I don’t live in my car (although the whole living out of your car and van dwelling concepts greatly intrigue me), I can easily fit everything I own in the backseat of my Honda Fit. And I didn’t buy my Fit with that “fit” in mind - bad joke, I know. I’ve moved twice since January 2018, and both times everything I owned only took up space in my back seat, none of the trunk needed. When I moved recently this past December, coworkers were shocked and astonished that I wasn’t hiring a moving company or renting a U-Haul since I was working a full day on a Thursday in Virginia and then driving to upstate New York the very next morning. Why, you may ask, do I live this way? Why don’t I have more stuff? It’s something that has evolved over the years for a variety of reasons, which I’ll explain.

I’ll give you a brief history of how it started before moving on to my current situation. I began reading about frugality and simple living back in the mid-1990s, when the seeds of my current lifestyle were first planted. I really admired what I read but wasn’t quite ready to implement a downsized life at that time. Back then, aside from hobby items, I didn’t have huge amounts of stuff compared to your average person, though I did have two or three bookcases worth of books and all sorts of needlework and crafting supplies that took up a fair amount of space. Over time, having gone through a divorce and several moves and new jobs, I started to reconsider what was really important to me.

Once my life began to settle and I had a stable job, I did what all responsible adults are supposed to do - I bought a house. It was a reasonable size, under 1,300 square feet, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It was quite nice, but I had way more space than I needed as a single person with no kids. Plus I had at least a 30 minute commute to work (which could easily be longer depending on traffic), and most of my friends lived near my workplace, so there was a certain amount of isolation I felt.

As time went on my commute was getting worse and worse, and I realized I didn’t need a three bedroom home for just me, as I rarely had visitors. Also, the idea of retiring early became very appealing, and I was looking for ways to save more money. So I decided to get extreme and see just how much I could live without. It became a game, to see how little I really needed. I’d put things I was considering doing without in one of the spare bedrooms, and when I got to the point where I decided to let it go, I’d either sell the item on Craigslist or the classifieds at my work, or I’d donate it. A few items that I thought friends or family would like I passed along to them. I started my extreme downsizing project around 2011 or 2012, and by the end of summer 2013, what I had left easily fit in my car. That fall I sold my house, found a furnished room to rent four miles from my workplace, and moved myself and all my belongings in one compact car trip. It was one of the most freeing experiences I’ve ever had.

First off, having a 12 minute commute compared to a 40 to 50 minute commute was amazing! I gained back all that time, gas money, and lost the stress of being stuck in traffic. Not having a house and maintenance and upkeep chores frees up a lot of time and money. The last thing you want to do after a long workday is to come home and do more work, unless you’re into that sort of thing. Some people are, but I’m not one of them. I want my free time to be mine, to do what I want, whether it’s hanging out with friends and family, reading a book, meditating, going to a coffee shop, or doing nothing. I did lose some privacy by renting a room, but I also gained friendships and freedom. For me, it was worth the tradeoff. Plus I had been so isolated where I was living previously that it wasn’t good for my mental health. I found that while I definitely need quiet alone time, I also need human interaction, and renting a room and having roommates gives me that balance I need.

In January 2018 I moved another mile closer to work, only three miles away. Again, everything fit into my car, and I had even less than I did when I moved in 2013. My commute was down to seven minutes. During this time, since at least 2011, I was also very focused on saving as much money as I possibly could so I could retire or semi-retire early. With every raise and every money-saving hack I found, I set that money aside into either a retirement or investment account by having it automatically deducted each time I received a paycheck. For those of you considering doing this, I recommend first having a healthy emergency fund in place as well as drawing up a budget to use as a guide for how you intend to spend your money.

Then this past December I moved to Syracuse, NY. I loaded the back seat of my car on a Thursday evening and drove to Syracuse the following day. I’m originally from upstate NY and had been planning for many years to eventually move back, though I hadn’t thought it would happen quite so soon. I had planned to stay at my job at least another couple years to save more money, but then a series of events occurred that led me to shorten my timeline. So now I consider myself semi-retired because I want to work part-time, though I have enough saved to sustain a frugal existence without a job. And somehow after moving and getting my new bedroom organized, I managed to find enough unwanted things to donate a kitchen-size trash bag of items.

So why do I live this way? A big motivator was to save money so I could choose to not work or only work jobs I’m truly passionate about. Having fewer things gives me the flexibility and independence to easily move and not have to stress over logistics like hiring movers, renting trucks, or finding friends to help me move my stuff. I have much less stress in my life these days, not having to worry about keeping track of things and taking the time to maintain multiple items. Cleaning is super easy, and the less stuff there is the less there is to think and worry about. You may think that the stuff you have stashed away in a closet isn’t bugging you, but on some level you know it’s there and that you’ll have to do something with it someday, and that’s a background irritation you don’t need to have nagging at your psyche.

Is my life perfect because I live this way? No, but it is much more carefree and inexpensive than it used to be, and I wish I had started living this way sooner. I continue to look for ways to keep my life simple, minimal, and frugal so that I have the time and money for what I enjoy most in life.

Someday, my next major minimalist hack will be to live someplace where I won’t need a car. I would love to be able to walk most everywhere I need to go and use ride-sharing or public transportation for the rest. Cars are such a money pit, and one of my least favorite things in the world is having to get my car serviced, sitting hostage in the mechanic’s waiting room or otherwise finding alternate transportation in the meantime. Getting rid of my car isn’t a practical thing to do in my current circumstances and location, but I’ll get there eventually.

I love talking about minimalism, simple living, frugality, and finances, so if you have any questions please leave me a comment. If you’d like more inspiration, check out the Resources tab above where you can find links to some of my favorite books and websites. Thanks for visiting!