I had, at this point, begun to find other Minimalist Heroes to learn from. A few of my favorites were The Minimalists, Joshua Becker, and The Practical Minimalists. I knew that, in order to change my mindset so completely, I needed to surround myself with people that had already changed theirs. I didn't know any minimalists in real life, so I started listening to a lot of podcasts. I'm not normally a podcast person, and I have since abandoned all of the podcasts that got me through this mindset-changing phase, but it was exactly what I needed at this period in my mental transition.
Joshua Fields Millburn, one half of The Minimalists, often talks about doing "experiments" along his minimalist journey. Things like living without a phone for two months, or waking up at 3:30 every day. Experiments are a great way to see what the extreme is like without having to completely commit to the extreme forever and ever. I decided that this road trip could be an excellent experiment in extreme minimalist living.
The Experiment: Live for one month with three kids and only what I can fit into a Toyota Prius.
I made a lot of lists. What do I think I will need? Okay, can I pare that down? Can I pare it down again? It's amazing how many things you can live without for a month if you really put your mind to it. It's also pretty amazing what you can fit into a Prius if you're really good at Tetris.
It wasn't just "needs," either. We wanted to enjoy this road trip. This meant that things like books and games and toys and craft supplies made it onto the packing list. The first camp we were going to was a co-op style camp, where we would each come prepared to run a certain number of activities. Which meant that I would need to bring supplies for those activities, too. I pared the "fun" stuff down to the things that I knew would pack up small and offer the most entertainment for the most people. I was deliberate about every item I chose to bring, and I packed all the "fun" stuff in the sub-trunk. It all fit.
(The supplies for these bendy dolls took up very little space. We ran out of felt for clothes after the first camp, but guess what? We were able to buy more felt at the next location.)
(When you don't bring a ton of toys with you, you find other things to play with. Like rocks!)
I gave each kid a backpack and told them that all of their personal "fun" stuff needed to fit into that backpack. My kids are big readers, so I encouraged them to download lots of books onto their Kindles for the trip. (You can say whatever you want about the feel of real paper between your fingers, but nothing beats being able to fit a whole library into the space of one paperback.)
Other than the first aid kit, we didn't pack any "just in case" items. We weren't leaving civilization completely behind us, and I knew that we would be able to go to a store if we needed something. We didn't pack any fans, and then the weather ended up being hotter than we were expecting, so we bought ourselves a box fan. We left it behind at our last destination, because we didn't need another one at home. Was that a waste of $16? No, I don't think so. When I think about all of the other "just in case" things I could also have packed to save $16, they would never have all fit into the car. Once you start down the "just in case" path, it widens very quickly. And a $16 fan was several times cheaper than the car-top carrier I would have had to purchase to fit all those extras. (Should I have analyzed the weather patterns better and KNOWN that we would need a box fan? Maybe. But I didn't. And hindsight is always 20/20.)
I packed two towels for each person. A designated indoor towel, and a designated outdoor towel. That might seem like overkill when you're packing for a minimalist road trip, but I can tell you right now that it saved me a lot of extra laundry. We went to the beach or the river every day at camp, and to the spray park almost every day at my mom's house. Having a second towel that stayed clean while the outdoor towel got dragged around in the sand and dirt meant that you could actually take a shower and have something clean to dry off with afterwards.
Each person had a clear plastic tote to pack their clothes in. These totes kept their clothes visible and organized at our destinations, while also keeping them clean and together while traveling between locations.
(Full disclosure: This photo is actually from Girl Scout camp last summer, but the bin and the packing style were basically the same for this trip.)
We only packed enough clothes for about a week. And once a week, I found somewhere to do laundry, and repacked the bins fresh with clean clothes. Fun fact: Clean, folded clothes take up less space than dirty laundry. Doing the laundry and re-packing the bins before leaving each destination saved me a lot of space.
The verdict: We loved living minimally on our road trip! Doing a week's worth of laundry every week was so much less stressful than letting it pile up. Tidying up our rooms was so much easier when we hadn't dragged tons of extra stuff along with us. And we actually kept our rooms tidy because it wasn't too hard, and we had started to really enjoy having a clean space.
(Our room at the first camp - maintainably clean!)
I started to get stressed out at the last camp, and I started to let the room go. We started getting on each other's nerves more, and the peace began to break. Then it hit me - it's because the room is messy! I took some time that afternoon tidying up while the kids were at an activity. The difference afterwards was tangible. Clean spaces breed peace.
Coming home was the hardest part. Home, where bad habits are deeply entrenched, and the mess can't be fixed in an afternoon. Home, where there are enough spare clothes than I could put off the road trip laundry for another day or two or ten. If I hadn't been convinced before, I would have been convinced then, when the weight of clutter washed back over me, and I felt like I was drowning again. It's hard to see progress when you're picking away at decades of clutter a little at a time. The road trip experiment was like a glimpse at the end of the book: Yes, it's possible. You can do this, and it's so worth it. There are a lot of chapters between here and there, but at least I know that I will like the way this book turns out.
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