2 weeks in the 5th wheel

Can you imagine living in 2000 sq ft 4 bedroom home for 8 years and then downsizing to 300 sq ft?! It took us about 5 months to complete however we did it! 

I KNOW some of you are probably shaking your head thinking we are CRAZY! That's OK! I don't mind being weird, different, crazy. I was meant to go against the grain. My dad even says it was a poor decision to sell our home. It's NOT the norm and I get that and I totally get that many will never agree or understand! Just like unschooling we do with our kids. It's def NOT for the rule followers!

It's been a little over 2 weeks living in the 5th wheel. It's actually been great! I didn't know what to expect however I went into it with an open positive mind.
What I am finding out: 

• organization is a must 
• the gray water tank fills quickly
• quick showers are a must and turning the water off when shampooing and shaving is a must!
• the 6x12 enclosed trailer is housing crap we haven't used since we packed.(not totally accurate, we took out the Halloween and camping boxes and will take the winter coat box out for our trip to Tennessee ;) still a bunch of $H!T we don't use.
• The small space is actually enough for a family of 4. 
• The fridge/freezer is SMALL however it has worked out great! (we had two in our other house)
• We still have a few cabinets not being used(I know, weird! Every cabinet was full in our house)
• I walk my dog 3-5 times a day(we had a doggy door to the dog run, so he RARELY was walked)
• No ice maker, back to old school ice trays. and only 1 cause it's a tiny space! lol
• I'm ready to explore another RV park!
• Smelly farts don't take long to fill up the airspace. hahaha
• you have to fill the toilet with water before taking a poo.
• gas burners are awesome!
• have to move stealthy like a cat in quiet hours, the whole place shakes and is loud, 7 and 8 year old boys do not get that, lol 
• The neighbors are pretty nice and are outside a lot. Most are northerners and are in vacation mode. Who isn't happy on vacation! 
• My cat has continued her normal visit with me while I'm using the bathroom. I swear she waits for me to get in there!
• Most things can be left outside without worry of theft. 
• We don't have a good Internet connection so daily trips to the club house is important. It's really not an inconvenience as I thought it would be. The kids are riding their bikes or walking daily.(more often than at our old house)
• This is the perfect time to be in an RV. Weather is PERFECT now!
• The boys are happier. They have their brother moments however overall it's better!
• I feel free. 
• We have to decided to be full time RV'ers and are currently looking for a Class C! OMG! lol

All in all, the pros outweigh the slight cons by far.

If you would have told me 2 years ago I would be living in an RV, I would have said you were CRAZY! My how my life has changed. I am learning more and more about me and what is important. I'm LIVING my life the way we want, not the way society has deemed normal.

This lifestyle is not for every one. However when you start living minimally you really learn to appreciate life a little more, love a little more, care a little more, understand a little more, change your priorities to what is truly important, use less of your energy, the list goes on.    

Looking forward to traveling soon. It's an adventure that my kids will never forget. It will live with them forever and maybe even inspire them to live the same outside of the box life and BE who THEY want to BE regardless of societal pressures of conformity.

I would love to hear your thoughts and questions! Leave me a comment! 

The Next Chapter!

WOW! Talk about a change of lifestyle! We are getting settled in to our temporary home! These past few days have been a little stressful however not overwhelming as I thought. It is amazing how much stuff we have collected over the past 8 years. I am happy that we started purging our stuff in May, however we did not know we were going to sell our house! The past few days we made 3 FULLY PACKED trips to The Kimberly Home(thrift store), and I think there has been over 10 trips total in the past few months. Sold a lot at our garage sale and craigslist. I feel like this huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It feels freeing! I have been told by many that I an inspiration for doing the things I do from unschooling(type of homeschooling), minimizing, selling our house and living in a 5th wheel temporarily. I am getting use to making huge changes in my life and it's getting easier and easier. I think about how I use to live my life, in a boring, monotonous way and can not imagine going back to that. I am LOVING my new found freedom to do what I want to do when I want to do it. In the past I have felt stuck. Stuck in an ever changing world. Humans were born to move forward and it feels great being in motion. It all goes back to those darn beliefs about life that held me back. It has been said that most of your beliefs are ingrained by the age of 4! That is crazy! Our beliefs hold us back or propel us forward. The good news is, beliefs can be changed and at ANY age might I add! Imagine evicting all those negative beliefs about yourself! It's a fantastic feeling and I am transforming every day. 

I feel really good about this move. Am I scared, sure to a certain degree however it won't hold me back from doing these uncommon things. It feels like a challenge to me to do the things that most people won't, to stand out from the rest. The sale of our house has given an opportunity to invest in our future. It has also freed up over $2000 a month as well. At first it was hard to give up the luxury of having this beautiful house. I thought about the hold this material possession had on me. I was about to let a house prevent me from an awesome opportunity. I will tell you, what helped me was getting rid of the small material things in my life first. It eased me into letting go of the house. 
I have felt so much better living in this smaller home. We have really utilized most of the space and it does not feel overwhelming taking care of it. I didn't really know what to expect but it's been great! There is plenty of room even with our dog and cat. LOL

In my old house I would just let my dog out in his small dog run and rarely walked him and now I walk him 3 times a day. It was so easy to be lazy and now it feels different. Convenience is not always a good thing and it gives an excuse to be lazy. The people here in the campground are really nice and they are outside often. There is just a different feel in these places. The snow birds are slowly showing up and it's getting busy! Zak even went swimming today! The boys also road their bikes around. 
I am SO thankful to my parents for loaning us their 5th wheel. It means a lot! Their generosity has always been like this. I remember my dad letting me take the 2 jetskis when I was 18. Yes I pulled them to the destination, put them in and took them out with no problems! LOVE YOU TWO!!! 

All I can do is smile these days. Alex and I's relationship is stronger than ever. We have spent the past 4 days together and it has been fabulous and I want MORE time with him! The bond between the boys and I have grown. Life is really really good. I'm happy I didn't let doubt and thought of failure among others run my life. 

THIS is the life I love! It's a work in progress and it's exciting.
Once you start living the life you want, it opens up unimaginable opportunities for success, love, connectedness, laughter, romance, wealth and above all happiness inside and out.  

Cream Puff

We sold our SAAB and bought this cream puff! HA! What you are looking at here is the trailer that will house all of our belongings from a 4 bedroom home. lol what ever doesn't fit will be sold or given away. I can imagine some of your thoughts at this moment. Believe me, I'm a little shell shocked too. However both Alex and I feel this is the right move to make and it has opened up a door for adventure!

 For about a year now, I have had this feeling like something HAS to change. I felt a disconnect with the house. I kept feeling like we had to sell it. I expressed myself to Alex numerous times the past year about this feeling I had. It was very strange. In May, I came across a Minimalist website. Both Alex and I for 30 days got rid of over 800 items in the house, from numerous packages of dental floss to items we have had since childhood. It felt great to get rid of the physical and mental space those items were taking up. We didn't stop there, the past 30 days we have really downsized a lot. I would ask myself, do I really need this to survive and 9 times out of 10 it was a no. Now we are taking downsizing to the next level. Friday night we purchased a 6x12 enclosed trailer. It will house our life for a little while. We have no home to go to after the sale of our house on October 20th and yet I feel a sense of relief, a sense of freeness. For some of you it would probably give you anxiety! lol I may feel some when the time comes to leave our house however I am looking forward to change. 

Today I was thinking how this feeling I had to sell has finally come true. It is amazing!! We are creating this new chapter, this new adventure. We are not selling our house because we can not afford it anymore, we are selling to buy an inexpensive house and live mortgage free, invest in other opportunities in real estate with the profits made and do some traveling. The American dream tends to favor 30 year mortgages and debt. Our American Dream is living mortgage and debt free with plenty of time to focus on the important things in life, our family. 

Our American Dream:A life with freedom of time, freedom of money, and freedom to live like we want. 

The KATZ Family Diaries

My quest for happiness through Minimalism and the 30 day Challenge!

First, what is Minimalism?

Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.

There are many flavors of minimalism: a 20-year-old single guy’s minimalist lifestyle looks different from a 45-year-old mother’s minimalist life. Even though everyone embraces minimalism differently, each path leads to the same place: a life with more time, more money, and more freedom to live a more meaningful life.

Getting started is as simple as asking yourself one question: How might your life be better if you owned fewer material possessions?

Now on to my story :)

Have you ever felt deep down inside that something needs to change, you don't know what and that there HAS to be someone out there that has felt the same way and has found the answer and it's JUST what your inner soul desires and needs. Here walks in Minimalism. I came across a website about Minimalism when researching "simplify". WOW! Never really heard of this before but it MADE TOTAL SENSE! I knew my ANSWER was out there, but just couldn't put my finger on it until NOW(the world wide web can be a wealth of information or the black hole of death.LOL)

I have been doing a lot of soul searching and cleansing of my life lately and this was the perfect addition to the cleanse! So, I have been trying to rid my life of excess clutter. Clutter that takes up not only the physical space in my life but also my mental space too. All these "tangible objects" that I have emotionally attached myself to had taken over my life and were not adding value but decreasing value in my life. By the way, those items, like something from your grandmother and she has passed that are hard to let go, they are just material items. What really counts is the memories you have associated it with. The memories never lose importance. And minimalism is NOT all about getting rid of everything! Like to walk down memory lane, take a picture and store it on your computer(the computer is ANOTHER issue with clutter, but there are ways to simplify that too;) 

I could FEEL the mental space these items were taking up. Sentimental items that had been given to me from my kids, my family, friends, items that were my grandmothers that I felt I had an obligation to keep. Cards, stuffed animals, cd's, plastic fake birds with glued on feathers, empty cosmetic containers, shoes and clothes that I didn't like anymore, doodads and gadgets. You name it, I had it or have it. I have always felt a NEED to keep things because I was assigning too much value to it. I have to reiterate that last sentence. I WAS ASSIGNING VALUE TO MY ITEMS. I AM IN CHARGE OF THE VALUES I PLACE ON ANYTHING IN MY LIFE. There it is. I AM IN CHARGE. I am the one and only one that is in charge of what I place VALUE on. And certainly I own many things that do not add value to my life, hence this journey I am on now. :D 

Our beliefs are part of our foundation of life. Those beliefs are cultivated by our surroundings starting immediately upon arrival to this world. Your parents, your teachers, society and anyone you come in contact with has a HUGE impact on your belief system. And of course then there is YOU that make this cultivated belief system, true. (which by the way is easy to change and easy NOT to change!) This is GOOD news!! We ALL have the ability to change our beliefs! YAY! That is, if you're willing and wanting to do that ;)

So anyway, back to minimalism! (I sometimes see squirrels.. hoo hoo haha hehe ho! just reading that should put a smile to your face;) I have been assigning value to the WRONG things! In this world we live in we CAN get caught up in the rat race of life. Before I knew it, I lost what was of REAL value to ME. It's not like I didn't know what I was important but it had been placed on the back burner because of SO many things taking up space in my life and for what?! To have MORE items, to have the best of the best?! Do I really need an extra gizmo that does this and that!? Buying, keeping, wanting, hoarding and yes you, you so called organizer you, the one that has 100 pens but have them in order in a drawer(hidden)(you are also a hoarder, it's just organized hoarding ;)(by the way, I am describing me too, it's just NOT with pens ;) lol. We are a byproduct of society and belief system. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW and FULLY understand I am in charge of making our own decisions but I tell ya, it can be REALLY tough to avoid buying or keeping "things" I think I "need" or "Just in case" items for that one day in the preconceived future! I kinda relate the over abundance of buying material items to a drug high, the high is never enough. After my high has been met(buying shoes or a shirt or whatever), I want more and more and that satisfaction bar just keeps getting raised(kinda like our country's debt ceiling..lol) In all seriousness, clutter and unnecessary items can and will take up space over time. 

This website had something REALLY exciting for me, a blog about a game! It says to sell, donate or trash the items. I decided to take on the Challenge! They suggested to have a friend join you and make it like a contest. As a Beachbody coach, I run challenges for fitness and health so I was ON IT!! I opened up a group on Facebook and got the word out to see if anyone wanted to join! To my surprise, I have 20 people including me in the group and we are on day 10 of 30!!! At the end of the 30 days we will have rid our lives of over 400 unnecessary items. It has felt great everyday of this challenge and the people in it are having FUN with it! I have found that most people want to rid themselves of life's clutter but it is the getting started part which is the hardest and then it's the getting rid of the "emotionally attached" items that is the next hardest! What is cool, is that we have all started to see that we are placing needless value on too many things. Those AH HA moments are priceless! It's funny to read, "WTH was I thinking keeping this?!" LOL 

I have really adapted to this subject of minimalism. In my journey to happiness, this is an area that needed to be dealt with. It makes sense to me to  really "clean" out my life like this and I am glad I have others doing this along with me! I am a Sapphire, motivated by FUN so this is right up my alley!
Need to clean out your life and want a little challenge or the motivation to get started? Let me know and I will add you!

If you are on the same path of cleaning up your life, I highly recommend you don't go through everything all at once even though you may feel the want to get rid of more items as you are finding them for day 1, day 2 and so on a so forth. I know for me it was overwhelming at first because I wanted to DIVE right in(and get overwhelmed in the process and possible, quit!) So I am following the directions, mostly! haha This 30 day Challenge is a simple process that will help keep that overwhelm at bay. You didn't acquire everything over night and you won't get rid of everything over night either!

 Day by day, your awareness will grow and you will learn a lot about yourself like your triggers, your reasons for keeping things and why it's OK to let go. We are all in this together! LET'S DO THIS!!  Let's clean up that freaking clutter and make room for things that ADD VALUE!

I was told a story by my 75 year old neighbor. A polish man from the old world. Funny guy, he keeps telling me I'm his secret lover(hey you, in the peanut gallery, you can just hush now..LOL) Everyday I pass his house, like clockwork, he is busily working away in his garage, making nicknacks made mostly from wood scraps. Even though he is busily working he ALWAYS takes a moment to wave and yell hi every single time I pass by and of course I yell and wave back! I have acquired a few of his prize homemade items, including a wooden lazy susan and a purse made from a Florida license plate, among a few other unmatched and scattered items. He offers me Krupnik on occasion too, which I kindly pass, every.single.time..LOL Back in the day when I smoked, he said to me, "I used to smoke. Ahh yea, smoked all the time back in Poland. Then one day, I looked at this white stick and thought, damn it, why am I letting this little white stick have so much control over me. I'm not going to let this god damned(I am quoting him:) white stick control me anymore. That was that, I threw out ALL of them at that moment, the whole carton, in the trash, and never once, did I smoke again."  That story goes through my mind every time I feel like I can't control my life. He made a decision to take control and took action. I always try to find a valuable lesson from people's stories and this one really stuck with me. 

In my quest to keep happiness within me I am learning that there is not one single aspect that makes one happy. It's the combination and cultivation of many aspects that will lead to happiness. By clearing the clutter from my life's path, I can make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth and contribution.

My family, including my mom, sister, husband and kids have joined me too :)

The Slight Edge of my life. It worked against me and now it's working for me.

                                                                          

 When you look at where you are now, do not get discouraged. The compound effect is an amazing thing and it DOES WORK!
I want to share with you my compound effect. Next month it will be my 2 year anniversary with Team Beachbody! I have LEARNED and have GROWN so much over the past 2 years.

 I used to hate myself. I hated the choices I made, the way I looked and hated my life at one point questioning WHY I even was even on this earth, but I didn't CHANGE a DAMN thing for the better. I took to alcohol and drugs to "escape" my life. Yea, I was the one to drown out my stress from my kids with wine and/or pot instead of actually learning to make a happy family. This is the life that I was choosing to live. I had NO direction other than down at the time and NOTHING seemed close to reach but alcohol. This was the compound effect in FULL MOTION! NOT the one that I wanted, but I didn't KNOW what else to do, not even after the DUI I got in 2011.
 
So finally after reading The Slight Edge, I realized that I AM IN CONTROL of my future! Making small positive steps CHANGED my life! Fast forward to today, right now. I LOVE myself MORE than ever! I NEVER thought or knew I could love me SO much and NEVER knew HOW important it would be to love thyself. That is something that will stay with me forever! I am NOT perfect but I am perfect in every way that makes ME, ME! I have been sober for just over 2 years, I quit drugs and smoking cigarettes. I am making GREAT choices to better my future and that all trickles down to my family's future as well! THE ONLY WAY I WILL EVER GO NOW, IS UP!
The Slight Edge or Compound Effect can work for you or against you, but it's YOUR choice on which way you want it to go!

Not only did my family and social life do a TOTAL turnaround my financial situation did too!
I was making a measly $345-$425 a week and after costs associated with having a job outside the home, I was left with about $200 a week and that is if I didn't take sick days(I was sick a lot). I was losing PRECIOUS time with my family. Life seemed to be RUSH RUSH RUSH and for WHAT?! $200 a week! But I NEEDED that money. I had a job with a friend being a secretary and I was very grateful for what she made available to me but I NEEDED more. The NEED I wanted was FREEDOM of TIME! NOT the busy working family that had no time for each other! I was STUCK, well, that's what I THOUGHT! I started working diligently on myself when I joined Beachbody in 2012. I was working on the HEALTHY ME! Within 2 months of working on ME, I decided THIS is what I want to do. I want to HELP people like me find themselves again. I want to give inspiration to those that have dark days and give them hope that it IS possible to see the light again. Those moms that lose themselves after kids and don't even know who they are or what they want anymore. So I started sharing MY journey and others related to me and found hope that there is a new day, a new beginning. That NEW beginning is for EVERYONE. I call it a mulligan! LOL Everyone deserves a MULLIGAN(and like me, I NEEDED many!)
I WILL always be that light for others even when they can't see that light because one day,I KNOW they WILL.

I share my earnings with you because it's part of the compound effect of my life, one that would NOT have happened if I didn't change my circumstances. 
First month's pay: June 2012. I made $170.
Jan of 2013 I made $916.
Jan of 2014 I made $3357
As of right now(March 6th) I have made my highest earnings at $1300 for the WEEK! Your pay is directly related to the number of people you help!
It's an unreal feeling to know that THIS is only going to go up and my team is benefiting JUST like I am. It gives me piece of mind to KNOW that I have that freedom of time with my family now, I am supporting them financially and I am working on making the happiest life I can for all of us along with helping others! A WIN/WIN for SURE!!
Would I say that Beachbody changed my life?! HELL YEA IT DID!
Would I recommend YOU do the same!? HELL YEA I DO!
I hope my story gives someone hope for their future, to know that others have changed their life and it is POSSIBLE for them to do the same. 

Want to design the life YOU deserve? I CAN help! Make that connection with me and I will help you plan that life you want!