Intro

Small Space, Small Footprint

(Cara)-Van Life

A few years ago I decided to leave bricks and mortar behind and move into a caravan. A small, summer touring caravan, German-built in 1983. The construction is more solid than a modern ‘van would be, but it is, ultimately, built for summer.

• Painted caravan

The first couple of winters in here were hard, but there was a feeling of excitement and adventure which made it tolerable. Now those feelings have lessened, but I’ve got better at managing the seasonal extremes of temperature, potential for damp/mould, adapted my cooking methods and so on. Now it’s just normal life.

And that incudes work.

Owning Things

Although I enjoy the caravan, my decision to move into it came from a more general desire for a change in lifestyle.

I used to have a lot of possessions. Having to drag them around with me was a limit on my options in life. Any new flat or house had to big enough. Larger homes cost more. Moving vans have to be bigger. Things need looking after, they get dusty or broken. As they say, “your possessions end up owning you”. I wanted to stop owning so many things and to feel more adaptable.

Now that I live in a tiny space I can’t afford to hang on to things “just in case”, anything I decide to keep has to have earned its place. Storage space is precious.

Minimalism has become fashionable and there are some extremists who treat it like a cult, never the less it contains some ideas which I find appealing. I doubt anybody would call my current living space minimalist, but I have applied minimalist thinking to decisions about what to keep and what to sell/give/throw away.

I am a maker though. I paint, cook, repair stuff, tinker with electronics. So I need at least a basic set of tools and equipment. And my space is really small (about 6ft wide, 6ft tall, 13ft long). So my home will never be one of those white empty halls you see in the pictures of minimalist homes. My space still looks cluttered… but everything in here does belong and has purpose.

Most importantly for me, I’ve changed my level of attachment to things. I still appreciate well-made objects which perform their role well. But I know now that when I no longer have those specific objects, I will pick up new versions. Things I need, to do what I want to do, will come and go. My attachment to the specific items is less than it used to be.

Digital Transience

The modern world of software fits nicely with this mentality. I don’t need hard drives full of stuff. Anything important to me is in git repos (I prefer Codeberg), or is backed up on somebody else’s computer (ie the cloud).

If I lose all my possessions tomorrow, the day after tomorrow (presuming some of my brain is still functioning) I’ll be able to start picking up from where I left off, even if all I can afford is an old Android tablet and Bluetooth keyboard.