MartinsVentureWest: Reflection: Campers, RVs, Tiny Houses, Boats, and Other Homes (and stuff)

What is the difference in tiny houses, container houses, and camper trailers (or house trailers for that matter), and traditional homes? This question has continued to occur to me as I think about and observe this mode of living. The answer that has finally surfaced is, “How much crap you have”. You can call it crap, stuff, junk, things, or worse. We are defined by our possessions. We are nesting beings. We all want to have a place that is ours, and that we can “come home to”. We are not like birds feathering our nest with feathers or moss. We feather our nest with stuff, and more stuff, and more stuff….. We either have a love affair with stuff, or we begin to rebel against our stuff. We often see people our age (and younger) who start to cast off their stuff. Some of us make a clean break, sell or give away everything, and move into a boat or a travel trailer. That is going cold turkey. Many younger people are joining the “tiny house” movement, and basically doing the same thing. Some people do it more rationally and “downsize” by moving to smaller quarters and outside space, forcing themselves to make their possessions fit their space. Then again, some of us never face our mess. Grandma dies and all her stuff goes into Mama’s attic. Then Mama dies and Daughter is forced to deal not only with Mama’s junk, but Grandma’s junk, too. Finally, out of total frustration, she takes all the remaining crap, divies it into the same number of boxes as siblings, and ships a box to each one. And wonders why Grandma did not deal with her own stuff.

This is what I observe in the world I deal with, where all my friends and the people I know have large spaces and a lot of crap. Then again, out here, in Texas on the road, in and on the peripheries of campgrounds and trailer parks, I see people living in small spaces, many not having a lot of stuff, and others with stuff (Treasures? Trash?) piled all around, some of it living, some of it not. If you see a picture posted that does not have an obvious connection, think “living space”, “stuff”, “why?”, etc.