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Visiting Kinvara in Ireland and living in a tiny house

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Visiting Kinvara in Ireland and living in a tiny house. Our first time staying on the west coast of Ireland, and our first Airbnb! Since we rented a car specifically for this trip, we thought it would be the best time to explore a smaller town, and really get a feel for Irish countryside. Kinvara did not disappoint.Our first time staying on the west coast of Ireland, and our first Airbnb! Rob and I were keen to see what the west coast had to offer, but were not so keen on staying in a busy city. Since we rented a car specifically for this trip, we thought it would be the best time to explore a smaller town, and really get a feel for Irish countryside. Kinvara did not disappoint.

Because we were traveling in winter, Kinvara as little country town, was very quiet – a lot of the restaurants were closed in the evenings. If you want to travel around Ireland in winter, it is important to remember that a lot of tourist spots are closed or have winter opening times. Read this post I wrote about the benefits of visiting the west coast of Ireland in winter.

Kinvara, County Galway, IrelandWe really just wanted to get away (with our dog) and just road trip around Ireland a little bit. We didn’t have much in the way of a bucket list of things we wanted to see, but rather the main goal was to unwind and relax. For us, Kinvara is the perfect place to just chill out. We did a few walks as a little family (Jack included) and took some time to just sit and read and drink wine too. It was the perfect amount of explore and recharge.

Tiny house living, Minimalism, Off the grid CabinWe found a great little Airbnb that has gone almost 100% off-grid, with a wood burning stove, solar powered lighting, and composting toilet. The cabin is small, 6m x 3m so it really gave us a real taste for tiny living – something both Rob and I are very keen to do long term. The cabin had a little cooker and we cooked our meals at home to save a bit of money, but also it gave us a lot more one on one time. Time to just hang out as a little family.

pet friendly airbnb, kinvarra irelandOne of the best parts of this cabin, apart from the tiny living feel, was that it was pet friendly! Jack absolutely loved his stay here, the cabin shared a little outside area with the cabin next door. There was no one staying in the second cabin which meant Jack had free reign to explore the garden – which he absolutely loved.

The nights were cooler, but the stove inside honestly worked such a treat. Rob accidently put several logs on the stove at one time on the first night we were there, and it ended up bringing the temperature inside the cabin to almost hotter than a summer’s day in South Africa. We were sweating that first night, but it made for a good laugh, and we just hydrated with extra wine. It will always be a fond memory of our time in Kinvara.

kinvara irelandTiny living is definitely something I want for us as a family. Since we have moved overseas to Ireland, we have learnt to scale back what we have in our own home. This tiny cabin experience in Kinvara really brought home the fact that we don’t need a lot to survive. And if organised cleverly, you can have the right amount of storage areas to hide away the things you do need. The cabin was fitted with a lot of cool features like a little kitchen nook where we ate our meals; shelves under the bed for storage; and a drying rack that could be hung up on the wall when we had finished using it.

going off grid, tiny house livingThe only real challenge was the compost toilet. I think this is something you have to wrap your head around if you ever plan on going off the grid (or in this case, renting this particular Airbnb). I won’t go into graphic detail about it, but it did take some getting used to. A composting toilet means that there is no water or drainage to flush things away. It basically stores it, and you then have to remove it once it fills up. The mechanics are a bit like a porta-potty, but it doesn’t smell or stink up the place. We thankfully didn’t have to remove or replace the unit while we were there. I am just not sure that sort of contraption is for me, I could handle visiting there, but not for the long term. So maybe going off grid entirely is not for me, but I do think I would love to live in tiny home.

All in all, our time in Kinvara was lovely, if not for being very low-key. That is part of slow travel that I enjoy the most. You don’t need to always be going to still enjoy being away. We had a great time, all three of us, and it was the perfect time away we all needed.

HAVE YOU BEEN TO KINVARA? WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT A WEEKEND AWAY?

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

p.p.s. I try post varied content once or twice a month, to be sure you don’t miss out on the new post you should sign up and get all the news straight in your inbox – Sign up now!

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Visiting Kinvara in Ireland and living in a tiny house. Our first time staying on the west coast of Ireland, and our first Airbnb! Since we rented a car specifically for this trip, we thought it would be the best time to explore a smaller town, and really get a feel for Irish countryside. Kinvara did not disappoint.

A Minimalist Christmas: 5 Ways to Slow Down This Year

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A Minimalist Christmas: This year we want to try create new Christmas traditions, ones without gifts. We want to really focus on the things that matter most to us.Christmas has always been my favourite holiday of the year. I love decorating the tree, baking treats with my mum, and being at home with family. Growing up I used to love the presents too. In fact, even last year – I wanted a million presents under the tree. I love lots of small parcels – it means you get to spend loads of time wrapping and unwrapping gifts. I used to look forward to what treats family and loved ones would buy me, and also, what I could buy them. I love getting thoughtful and sometimes sentimental gifts, as well as the occasional funny gift too. But this year has been a bit of a game changer for us. For one, we have learnt how to declutter our home and closets. Secondly, we have learnt how to live on one salary, which means our budget doesn’t really account for loads of present -giving this year. And lastly, we are trying to really get out of debt, we finally paid off both of our credit cards just a few weeks ago. So this year we are trying something a bit different… this year we won’t be buying any gifts. Not for each other, or for our family. We both know that we can’t really afford to buy gifts, especially when the best gift would be if we were completely debt-free. And we think our family and loved ones will understand, since we can’t be with them, and sending presents in the post always makes it that much more expensive.

This year we want to try create new Christmas traditions. We want to see how creative we can get with the festive season, and really focus on the things that matter most to us. Being with the ones we love, spending time with each other and enjoying the holidays together. That’s why I came up with some free things to do over December in Dublin.

We are going to try to be more present with each other. We are not perfect, not as individuals or as partners. We want to take some time this year to really be present with each other. Really listen to each other.

We want to laugh more, with each other and with our friends. This year will be the first year that we will be spending the holidays with our friends instead of our family. We have really great friends coming to visit us here in Ireland, they haven’t been here before so it means we get to show them a little bit of our town while they are here too.

We want to be kinder and more gentle with ourselves. We want to lower the expectations we put on ourselves to be all and do all over the holidays. We want to slow down and just live in the moment of enjoying our time together and with loved ones, and really give our hearts and minds time to process the year we have had and our hopes for the new year ahead.

We are going to stop comparing our journey with everyone else’s. Comparison is a strong game that we are all guilty of playing. This year we want to really focus on what we want for ourselves, and worry less if someone else’s way looks better. It is so easy to look on the outside and make presumptions about how other people live, but speaking from experience – what you see on social media is often not the full story, you have no idea what kind of troubles worry them at night to maintain such a life. We can’t choose only the good bits of life, we have to learn to manage the shitty bits too.

We may not be buying or giving gifts this year, but that doesn’t mean we are going to have any less of a Christmas. We are happy enough to sit on the couch, holding hands, watching the twinkly Christmas tree lights and listening to Christmas tunes. Christmas should be about being present, not just buying presents.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS TRADITION?

Unlock the simple life,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

p.p.s. I try post varied content once or twice a month, to be sure you don’t miss out on the new post you should sign up and get all the news straight in your inbox – Sign up now!

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A Minimalist Christmas: This year we want to try create new Christmas traditions, ones without gifts. We want to really focus on the things that matter most to us.A Minimalist Christmas: This year we want to try create new Christmas traditions, ones without gifts. We want to really focus on the things that matter most to us.

What I learnt about Minimalism after the 30 day #Minsgame Challenge

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Last month, I decided to try The Minimalists “30-day Minimalist Challenge”. But aside from the 465 items I managed to throw out throughout this challenge, I learnt a lot more about what Minimalism means to me.Last month, I decided to try The Minimalists “30-day #Minsgame Challenge”. The idea behind the challenge is to get rid of the excess in your home – cut down, declutter, and only keep what is need or love. The rules of the game are simple: on day 1 you remove 1 thing from your home; day 2 you remove 2 things and so on; all the way to day 30 where you need to throw out 30 items. The items you choose each day can be big or small. You can throw the items out in the trash, or donate them to charity, give them to someone who would love them or even sell them, but it must be out your house by the end of that day. At the end of the 30-day challenge, you will end up throwing out, donating or giving away 465 items! It seems strange to think that I managed to throw out so much, but the thing about this challenge is more about what I learnt about Minimalism and what it means to me.

When I started the challenge, I thought it should be easy enough – over the last year, I have really gotten quite ruthless at letting go of things and I find it relatively easy to ‘declutter’ things I know don’t serve a purpose in my life. Before we left South Africa we sold most of things online.  What I didn’t account for was the frustration I would feel when I still managed to find things in my home that I should have gotten rid of a long time ago. I guess you think that if you are a minimalist then you should have zero things to get rid of. Yet somehow, I had overlooked things, and they had managed to stay in my home when I didn’t really need to keep them around. An example is that I found over 20 USB flash sticks in all sorts of places in my home. A lot of them were promo sticks that I thought I would need or found to be useful to keep at the time. But in nearly a year of living here I hadn’t used or thought of using them once. Further to that, some of these USB sticks I had held onto for over 3 years back in South Africa and had never checked or used the content on them.

30 day minimalist challenge, #minsgame review. I think that is the biggest lesson I have learnt on this journey to a simple life, filled with less stuff. That it isn't as simple as not holding onto anything. Minimalism is not about throwing absolutely everything out either. What I think minimalism is, is having space to breathe. A way to sift through the clutter and see only the things that spark joy.

I think that is the biggest lesson I have learnt on this journey to a simple life, filled with less stuff. That it isn’t as simple as not holding onto anything. Minimalism is not about throwing absolutely everything out either. What I think minimalism is, is having space to breathe. A way to sift through the clutter and see only the things that spark joy.

Minimalism isn’t about stuff. It's about the joy of not having to worry about stuff. Click To Tweet

What I learnt about minimalism after this challenge is that minimalism isn’t about stuff. It’s about the joy of not having to worry about stuff. You can fill your home with trinkets and knick-knacks and all these beautiful wonderful things – if they serve a purpose and that purpose brings you joy then that works for you. You can still be a minimalist with lots of “things” – in fact, I know plenty of girls with huge closets filled with clothes – and I know for a fact they wear them all. Then that works for them. It’s the ones who have price tags on clothes, never worn outfits because they don’t fit, or they feel guilty because they bought it and then decided they didn’t like it. That is what we need to work on. Minimalism helps you work through the guilt your things hold over you. Minimalism helps you to let go of fear and guilt and start thinking about what it is you actually want. Do you want to run into debt by buying pretty things for yourself or because you want to create this illusion that you are happy on the inside? Minimalism strips away those insecurities. It leaves you open to feeling and thinking differently. It lets go of expectations and assumptions on what you think you should have and do. Frankly put, you start not giving a fuck. That’s what I love about minimalism. For the first time in my life I am not living up to be like the joneses. I’m living how I want to live. I am not buying the one trend statement piece for my home because it’s in every decor magazine. But I can buy it, if I really want it. The key with minimalism is – what do you really want?

And so that what this challenge revealed to me; that I am still working on what I need and want to hold onto – and what I want to let go of. It’s a journey I am not sure it will ever really end. It’s not like in 30 days you have thrown out all you need to and now you are a minimalist for life. There will always be something you can find that you don’t need to hold on to. When you do eventually let go of clutter, I am sure you will feel more at peace. But first it will be uncomfortable. Because when there is no clutter between you and your thoughts, that’s when you have the chance to really look at your life, be reflective and think about your next move.

Last month, I decided to try The Minimalists “30-day Minimalist Challenge”. But aside from the 465 items I managed to throw out throughout this challenge, I learnt a lot more about what Minimalism means to me.

Sorting out clutter is different from decluttering, and decluttering is not the same as minimalism. For me, decluttering was the process that sparked the minimalist lifestyle. I am nowhere near where I want to be, but I am moving towards a life a really want to live. I am a work in progress, and I guess that means that some days I may find a ton of things I need to let go and get rid of, and other days I may focus on how far I have come. How much minimalism has given me this peace and calm – and how I am trying to surround myself with love, kindness and joy.

If you are looking for the same, then I highly recommend you start with looking at what you want most out of life – don’t worry so much if it’s different to what I want, or what your family and friends want. And don’t focus on getting rid of a certain number of things. The truth is, even after 465 items, you might be nowhere near being a minimalist. Start by focusing on what makes you happy. The rest comes fairly easy when you learn to listen to yourself first.

WHAT DOES MINIMALISM MEAN TO YOU?

Unlock the simple life,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

p.p.s. I try post varied content once or twice a month, to be sure you don’t miss out on the new post you should sign up and get all the news straight in your inbox – Sign up now!

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Last month, I decided to try The Minimalists “30-day Minimalist Challenge”. But aside from the 465 items I managed to throw out throughout this challenge, I learnt a lot more about what Minimalism means to me.

Capsule Wardrobe Challenge Review: over 50 outfits out of 30 clothing items

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A review of my capsule wardrobe challenge. Spoiler: I got over 55 outfits using 24 clothing items.

A few months ago I decided to document how many outfits I could wear out of my capsule wardrobe of 30 clothing items. So many of you were a bit baffled that I had cut my clothes down to such a “small” number. I think when you think of 30 clothing items, most just thought that would be like 15 outfits, and how could anyone be OK with wearing such few outfits. The truth is, long before I cut down all the clutter in my wardrobe, I was probably only wearing about 30 items of clothing on a consistent basis. I would wager a bit that most of us have our favourites we like to wear frequently, and that there is a lot of stuff we hold onto “just in case”; or “maybe one day”. I used to sit on the edge of my bed in my towel, wondering what could I wear today? The outfit selection and options used to overwhelm me, to the point that I often said I don’t have anything to wear! Since cutting down, and clearing out, my wardrobe is breezy and easy to see what I have and what to wear. Most importantly, I only hold onto things I love to wear and make me feel good!

A quick recap on the clothing items I used for this challenge:

  1. Black work skirt
  2. Navy blue work skirt
  3. Blue jeans
  4. Dark blue work jeans
  5. Black pants
  6. Mustard yellow pants
  7. Black jeggings
  8. blue hoodie
  9. orange jersey
  10. green jersey
  11. black long sleeve top
  12. floral dress
  13. black and white tunic top
  14. Red blouse
  15. Green blouse
  16. Cream blouse
  17. floral blue blouse
  18. floral pink blouse
  19. Black and white blouse
  20. Short blue work blouse
  21. Short floral blue top
  22. Black print top
  23. Spaghetti floral top
  24. Blue 3/4 top

A few months ago I decided to document how many outfits I could wear out of my capsule wardrobe of 30 clothing items. Here is the review of this challenge. Over 55 outfits using 24 clothing items

I had a few items extra, which I threw out as the challenge went on. I wasn’t keen on wearing them, or they didn’t fit well. So I gave them to the local charity shop instead. I also had a black dress, a jumpsuit and a fancy dress that I put in storage (since we don’t go to many fancy outings, it didn’t seem practical to keep them part of the 30 outfit count). I have left my wardrobe on 24 items, to give me the opportunity to add some more warmer items as winter approaches. I also don’t think you need to be so rigid to keep 30 items because it really doesn’t matter what the number of items you own is, what matters is that you wear what you keep and you enjoy what you wear.

Review of my recent capsule wardrobe challenge! Over 55 outfits using 24 clothing items! Click To Tweet

Throughout the last few weeks, I have been wearing the above items exclusively, and found a few key outtakes from going through this challenge that I thought I would share with you:

  • No one cares what you wear. Not one person noticed if I had worn my red blouse the previous week, or if I had styled a completely new look.
  • I no longer spend hours getting ready, less options means it takes quicker to get ready.
  • I feel so light when I open my cupboard and can see everything I own clearly.
  • for a capsule wardrobe to really work, you have to really love the clothes you keep. Not kinda love – really love. It is possible to create multiple looks with only 24 items. I got to over 55 items, but definitely can think of more.
  • If you plan on owning less, then make sure you buy quality stuff that lasts. Own some quality basic pieces (like black pants, jeans etc). You will wear these regularly, so its important that they last.

SO NOW THE QUESTION IS, WILL YOU IMPLEMENT A CAPSULE WARDROBE FOR YOURSELF?

Unlock the simple life,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram.

p.p.s. I try post varied content once or twice a month, to be sure you don’t miss out on the new post you should sign up and get all the news straight in your inbox – Sign up now!

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A few months ago I decided to document how many outfits I could wear out of my capsule wardrobe of 30 clothing items. Here is the review of this challenge.

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