Life Advice — Chapter Three — Where will you Live?

The principle, "she who sleeps on the floor will never fall out of bed", is about the wisdom of immediacy, simple and humble lifestyle, close to the earth. 

Building on that one wisely forms one's community, whose company affords the protection and encouragement necessary for the journey, as well as enhancing perspicacity by pooling knowledge, intuition and insight.

The next question is where to live. This is important.

I have lived in a variety of homes, and none were expensive. I've lived in a rented apartment, occupational accommodation, a caravan, an apartment I owned, and various houses that I (or we) owned.

In every case I looked for particular characteristics.

1. Good windows that opened for effective air circulation (sash windows are best) and afforded good natural ight to the living space.
2. A wood stove or open fire. This is important, because if push comes to shove you can keep warm and cook by burning rubbish (discarded cardboard packaging and wood pallets or old fencing etc) and foraged twigs, boughs and fir-cones.
3. Some possibility of off-grid water storage. We've used water butts to harvest rain water from the roof, and we collect drinking water from the spring in the park (we filter it). A bath, not just a shower, is a good idea. If water outages are frequent you can store water while it's on, and you can do your laundry in it.
4. Solar panels, preferably with a house battery. This is going to become more important in Europe and the UK if Net Zero goals remain in place, because of the power outages that will result from the instability (surges as well as deficits).
5. Good public transport links to minimise the need to run a car. If several of you share a home you can get by with just one car, and do without altogether if money is tight.
6. Some outside space to sit outside in the sunshine and fresh air, dry laundry, and for a compost heap and to grow some vegetables and herbs. If you can have a garden (rather than just a small yard), this better allows space for humanure to be neutralised of pathogens and safely composted in an urban environment, should you wish or need to do so. If you can manage to get somewhere with a big enough garden to grow a few trees, they are a better choice than vegetables; not only is fruit more expensive than veggies, but you can eat weeds for veggies so you can get them elsewhere than your garden, and trees let you use the space twice — you can walk or play or sit in it at the same time as growing food there.

With these measures in place, you are well placed to live frugally and to pass through the disturbances of utilities disruption as calmly and evenly as possible. 

The right home makes freedom and flexibility considerably more realistic. The best location (in my opinion) is a quiet residential street near to a main road or central area, so you can walk to the grocery store and the bus/train station, there will be be a post office and doctor/dentist nearby, but your actual house is just set back from the hustle and bustle. It's worth saying that if you (like us) live on the coast, you need to be a mile inland and up a hill so your cellar doesn't flood in the spring tides and the salt air and gales don't force you to keep painting the windows and walls. 

Direction makes a difference, too. There's a lot to be said for an east-facing bedroom to get the morning light, a south-facing garden for growing plants and enjoying the passive solar heat in your sitting room that overlooks the garden. A north-facing pantry is a valuable asset as well.

Inside the house, hard flooring is better because you can sweep or wash it, no need for a vacuum cleaner and lasts longer than carpets.

How you live inside this house is up to you, but the fewer possessions you have the more room there is for the people, and the less clutter and less soft furnishings or curtains, the less vulnerable you will be to beetles and mould etc. Also the less stuff you have the less curation is required, so you can deal with house-cleaning with little effort and simple equipment, making money go further and channeling your attention into more interesting things.

If you prioritise these choices, and add to it the habit of wanting what other people don't — so you can pick up the fruit that drops unheeded from their trees, gather for your salad and omelettes the nettles and dandelions others don't bother with, pick mushrooms and blackberries in season, and make use of fly-tipped items and other things thrown out by your neighbours to furnish your needs, then you can make a very little money go a long way. Only this week, lacking a laundry basket I was pleased to bring home a large plastic bin with a lid someone had fly-tipped full of their rubbish (which I sorted and dispose of appropriately); and I found a lovely blanket thrown out on the pavement, getting wet and dirty in the rain. I brought it home and washed it, and it is both soft and beautiful, perfect for these frosty nights.

I think in writing about this I've moved on from choosing a dwelling to how to go about living in it, but these seemed to be all housey things, so I put them together. 

Next I want to say something about currency, and then I think I'm almost done for life advice.