141

 Things taking shape and ecological living

The past few months have been challenging. For a while I've been thinking about living permanently somewhere else while working for the same university here in Finland. I had a conversation with my fellow human at work, and she was supportive of the recent unfoldings in my life. I moved to beautiful southern Finland from magical northern Sweden in the end of 2022, and it is very likely that I will be moving again soon. Living in two countries is very expensive, and the travelling that comes with it is unkind to nature, so I decided to make one country my home and be in Finland only when necessary.

I am a British citizen, which complicates slightly my relocation within Europe after Brexit. Residence permits are expensive, so some of the money saved via practising extreme minimalism goes towards getting a permit. There is some bureaucracy associated with relocation, and it takes much energy and also time. Living simply and having various sustainability routines helps a lot. Apart from many documents and agreements that I need to think about in relation to my relocation, I think much about the objects I live with. I live with very few items, but I will not take all of them with me when I move. Most of the kitchen items I live with were borrowed from a friend, and I will return them. Some very old items, such as textiles that cannot be donated or given to friends, can be recycled. I will give away some of the objects to fellow humans and charities. It is interesting to see that my so-called sufficiency list, a playful list I sketched many years ago, hasn't changed much: I will take with me only the items that are in that list, as was the case when I moved from England to Sweden and when I moved from Sweden to Finland. It is always interesting to contemplate how little a human being might need to live a comfortable life. 

140

 Home

For a while, my partner and I have been contemplating our future home. We haven't yet found that place but we have decided on the city and the area. For me, the concept of a home is abstract. Since my childhood, I relocated a lot, and then this trend continued when I could make my own decisions regarding where to live. In the past three years I've lived in England, Sweden and Finland, and our future home will not be in any of these countries. I look forward to settling somewhere. I have also been sketching some notes for a paper on being of deep transformations and change as I try to capture the relationship between this mode of being and moving, being exposed to different structures and constellations. 

Ecological sustainability is important for both my partner and for me. We decided to find a small place. I've lived in rather small apartments (20 and 29 sq m) in the past two years, and it's easy to care for such apartments with minimal effort and minimal energy expenditure (less devices). Such spaces stay warm easily in winter, and in summer I simply open the windows to let fresh air in. 

I've lived without a vacuum cleaner and a washing machine for approximately half a year. While I've enjoyed this practice a lot, most likely this will change when I live with another human being. I still plan to clean and wash whatever I can by hand, as it is a humbling and grounding activity. 

Since our home for the next many years will be in a city due to care commitments, we hope to grow some food if possible. We plan to adopt many if not all of my ecological practices in terms of caring for our home, ourselves, and our guests. We also plan to maintain a minimalist lifestyle, though very likely it will not be extreme minimalist. For instance, we will likely have some furniture.