Last year, my husband and I moved from Austin, Texas to a little log cabin in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We changed our entire lives over the course of 20 days: quit our jobs, sold most of what we owned, and moved across the country. Not to mention, I was seven months pregnant at the time.
We did all of this because we wanted a slower pace of life and to be able to spend more time in nature. We dreamt of raising our son in the cabin with the mountains outside his front door and plenty of countryside to explore.
在搬到这里之前,我们也认为小木屋的生活更简单。我们将把房子缩小到650平方英尺,搬到乡村——城市里不再有交通、商业和拥挤的人群。
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But what we found was that cabin life has plenty of quirks of its own. It’s taught us lessons that we never dreamed — about ourselves, the cabin, and life in the country.
If you’ve ever wanted to move to a cabin, this list is for you! It’s what I wish we had known before we moved.
1. You Need Less Than You Think You Do
When we moved to our cabin, we downsized from a two-bedroom apartment to a 650 square foot, one-room space. In order to make everything fit, we sold about 90% of what we owned. All we brought with us was our car full of things. Luckily the cabin came fully furnished.
这尤其具有挑战性,因为我们刚刚搬回奥斯汀的一间更大的公寓,刚刚为我们即将到来的宝宝建立了一个育婴室。我犹豫地转卖了我花了几个月挑选的所有完美搭配的婴儿家具。除了所有的家具,我们还卖掉了我的车、大部分衣服,以及几乎每天不用的东西。
Do We Really Need That?
Selling many of our personal belongings felt funny at first. Didn’t we need these things? But what we’ve found is that we need less than we think. Even if there was an initial fear of parting with certain items, we haven’t missed the things we’ve sold. To be honest, I don’t even remember most of them now.
Getting Creative With Our Space
舱内空间有限。这意味着我们引进的每件东西都必须有一个目的,以证明它将占据的平方英尺是合理的。由于空间紧张,我们现在在购买东西时更加慎重。
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更少的空间也教会了我们对自己拥有的东西更有创造力。我们已经学会了重新利用现有的物品,而不是购买新的。这在一定程度上是出于需要——附近没有大型商店或购物中心。我们不去购物,而是努力让我们的空间变得有创意,重新想象我们已经拥有的东西。
2. Take Advantage of Your Surroundings
More than in the city, the surroundings of your cabin define your days. Especially in our case. We’re located in a valley at the base of the Tetons, and the weather here can be extreme. We’re submerged under many feet of snow during the winter and in the summer, the sun blazes until 9 or 10 p.m.
We’ve learned that if we don’t work with the weather, and plan our days according to the forecast, we miss out on opportunities to take advantage of our surroundings.
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小屋的独特之处在于它们沉浸在自然之中,这也是吸引我们的部分原因。驼鹿、麋鹿、狐狸、土狼和鹿都曾在这里出没。小屋的一边是山(大提顿国家公园),另一边是国家森林。
Incorporating Nature Into Our Daily Routines
After a year of cabin life, we’re far more likely to take advantage of nice weather days when we get the chance. If possible, we try to incorporate going outdoors into our daily routines: coffee on the porch, time spent playing in the yard, or going on walks.
Our first winter here was long. There was record-breaking snowfall in February and many subzero days. We’ve learned to not take the beautiful days here for granted and to enjoy our surroundings while we can.
3. Keep on Top of Your To-Do List
Lastly, a year of cabin life has taught us not to procrastinate when it comes to our to-do list. This may seem straightforward, but you’d be surprised how even the smallest tasks can creep up on you! “I’ll just do that tomorrow,” may seem innocent enough, but with the pace of cabin life it can result in disaster!
有一个常量决定了舱室生活的节奏:季节的变化。特别是,冬天的到来意味着有很多杂务你不能再完成。这意味着在下雪之前要提前做好准备。
How We Learned to Not Procrastinate
Perhaps because we are both born and raised city-dwellers — or because cabin life is still new to us — my husband and I put off a few crucial items on our to-do list this year.
例如,当冬天来临的时候,我们等木柴的时间太长了。Surely it won’t snow yet …we both thought in October. And then it did! That first snow didn’t stick, but it had us getting our firewood quickly and making a note to get it much sooner next year. We also ran out of firewood a couple of times during the winter, but that’s a different story!
Cabin life can come with frequent chores and a long to-do list. Take it from experience, it’s best to tackle them as soon as you can. The weather and seasons change quickly, and if you don’t get things done right away, you might not get the chance.
Cabin Life Continues to Teach Us
Overall, we found what we were looking for in cabin life: a simpler, slower pace of life and a new appreciation for nature. All things considered, our first year has gone smoother than we thought it would — blizzards, a new baby, and lots of wildlife encounters included.
Even though we’ve learned big lessons, I suspect we still have many more to learn. The more we discover about cabin life, the more it has to teach us.
这些关于船舱生活的课程是你所期望的吗?你自己有吗?请在下面的评论中分享你的想法。
梅根和丈夫、儿子住在怀俄明州杰克逊霍尔的一间800平方英尺的小木屋里。为了寻找更简单的生活节奏,梅根和她的丈夫辞掉了工作,卖掉了他们所有的东西,搬到了他们的山腰小屋。Megan blogs about her all things cabin lifestyle atThe Cabin Diary.
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