Ark Life: Paring down to the essentials...

The best rule of thumb we've come up with

when it comes to reducing the amount of crap you have to carry with you: if you haven't used it in three months, you don't need it!

When The Fabulous Feathermaye and Yours Truly were forced to make choices like this, we had, like so many of us out there across America, accumulated quite a lot of stuff.  Some of it was sentimental, a lot of it fell into the category of: stuff we might need to hang on to for a while, to: Jeez,  this is still a pretty good bit of (junk we weren't using).  


In all honesty, we might still be accumulating junk if we hadn't been laid off.  Our day job allows us to work together; we prefer it that way...Yes, that's another blog altogether so I'll remain on point here.

As resident managers, housing comes along with the job, so when we were suddenly handed pink slips, we had to scramble, not only for income, but for housing!

It was at this point that we decided to do what we had talked about for a long time: Never let anyone, any company (You know, THE MAN) put us in such a position again.

We had a week to move out.  Our accumulations

amounted to a house full of stuff, as well as a 10' by 20' storage unit full to the brim.  By the time we left for parts unknown (at least at that time) we took everything we felt was essential, and only that which we could pack into our small Hyundai.

Necessity forced us to get RID of everything else; we gave it away to the kids, sold a good deal of it, and free cycled out as much as possible, trying not to leave a big environmental footprint.  

You might think it a painful process.  But it was actually quite liberating.  We no longer had to stress over things!  And, we began to focus on the important items we needed to put into our ARK.

After some trial and error, we broke it down like this:

portable is best, when you can
have it! But do NOT sacrifice
the quality...

1. Bedding-getting comfortable sleep is paramount. You can't think, work, have any sort of fun, nor can you keep up your energy level (highly important) without a good way to rest.
If you are an old fart, like Yours Truly, or a sprite young kid like the Fabulous Feathermaye, you will come to find how much one appreciates a simple, glorious night of rest.   

2. Communications-The internet is the most powerful tool mankind ever came up with, second

The Web and a good WiFi
keeps you in touch...

only to fire (perhaps) or air conditioning (if you're in Texas).  The best way to transport important documents, photos, birth certificates etc. is on the portable laptop, or smart phone, push-come-to-shove.
Keeping with this theme: When we started out on our journey, it was not as easy to find Wi-Fi as we had first hoped.  We spent a good deal of time in McDonald's parking lots, and lawn chairs close to someone's free signal, in order to keep blogging, posting on social media, or keeping up with friends and family that were concerned about our well being.

Here of late, we've noticed that Wi-Fi signals are becoming more and more common place.  It all depends, really, on where you are making camp, or holing up, as the case may be.

3. Entertainment-A big one for us.  Since it's just the three of us (Feathermaye, Starbuck the dog of wonder, and Yours Truly) we don't have a lot of big time needs in this aspect, but it is important to keep entertained and

stimulated. A couple of cool but portable items we take along is a device called ROKU, and 
paid memberships to NetFlix and Amazon Prim

e.  We opted not to take our 65" Big Screen TV--sold that puppy--we did carry our 39" with us, along with a compact DVD player, which is becoming more and more obsolete. 

It's been a two year odyssey from our former resident job, to the one we have (in this last month) settled into.  We made a lot of new friends, and encountered quite a few characters, many of which are mentioned in other blogs on this site.  

We've come to the conclusion that we will never

again burden ourselves down with things and now keep geared to get on the move with short notice.  One goal we've in mind now is getting set up in an RV to take the show on the road with.  But that's another blog as well.  

I'll have more stories, great innovations we've discovered, and tricks of the traveler to share in future ARK LIFE posts. Life is good in the ARK, because we make it that way! 

Please feel free to leave comments below.  We'd love to hear about your own encounters in this new America.  Also, you can follow this blog by clicking on the "follow" button here on the page, or follow us on facebook, tweet us on twitter, or digg us on Digg.