I am a tiny person who has dreamed of living in a tree house.

Perhaps I fell in love with the Ewoks' village community-driven living arrangements when I was a little girl, it was the only thing I loved about Star-Wars. Then I saw Lord of the Rings, the hobbit's homes definitely intrigued me and I soon began reading up on Earthships. Heck, Winnie the Pooh Bear even lives in a tiny space inside the trunk of a tree! So tiny eco-friendly homes are possible in Canada! You knew he's originally Canadian, right?

Farces aside, earlier this week Eric posted an article to my Facebook timeline on the concept of Tiny Living. It included the following infographic:

IMAGE SOURCE

We have been discussing downsizing, we need to get out of debt. Selling our home at the price we paid for it three years ago would allow us to do that. Attracted to community living, the idea of sharing responsibilities and interests with another family with young children is VERY attractive. There are so many pros on top of saving money on bills and rent: she loves yoga, as do I but I'm not motivated to get up early enough in the morning to stretch and meditate. We could motivate each other and my commute to work would be shorter so I'd have more time to do it. They eat organic whole foods, we do too. They like gardening, we think growing food is vital to our sustainability. I need more positive feminine energy in my life and this would all be a beautiful adventure for our children, including my 12 year old step-son to whom I keep talking to about the importance of working together as a team.

The part that I don't know how to tackle is the "getting rid of stuff" part! I attach feelings to everything. Heck, I'm still wearing a piece of orange yarn on my wrist, which served as a festival bracelet when I went to Bhakti in the Woods more that three weeks ago. I like wearing it because to me, it represents the peacefulness. serenity and beautiful connections felt while I was at the event.

I also have large plastic containers at home holding pen pal letters dating back to elementary school. It feels like it would be a disgrace to get rid of them. I can't bring myself, yet, to dump them into the recycling bin. Then I keep ribbons, gift packaging, egg cartons and boxes for craft and entertainment purposes. Eric sorts and gets rid of stuff when I'm not around and we've had more than one argument about this in our seven years of cohabitation.

Is it because I grew up with a fear of lack and am still holding on to it? Perhaps but I've done lots of work to overcome that feeling already and see myself as abundant.

I'd like to know your thoughts on all of this. Do you hold on to your stuff, or "crap", as they say in the article? If so, why do you do it and if not, what makes it easy?