It Worked For Me | Offbeat Home

This is Offbeat Home's archive of It Worked For Me posts.

Sometimes offbeat living takes strange forms, and sometimes we end up living in a totally different space than we through we would.

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There are many many people who enjoy living in developments and gated communities. They really love the neat and tidy look, where everything yells "clean!", "fresh!", and "friendly neighbors who take care of their lawns and or sand yards!."

I am not a gated-community lover. Where some people see neat, tidy, clean, and fresh, I see suffocating sameness. Where some people see safe community outside the reaches of city life, I see bizarre planned suburbia far far away from everyone else (ideal in zombie apocalypse, not so much for everyday life). Some people like rules; I like being able to park on the street overnight.

Despite all of this, I live in one with my boyfriend (slash landlord), our roommate and good friend, our new betta fish (Billy!), and the frequent weekend guest. I love the people I live with, but driving into our neighborhood is a soul-suck. I get jealously weepy over our friends' homes in neighborhoods filled with character and smaller two-bedroom retro houses close to "everything."

While it's obviously very difficult to complain about anything when faced with reality (internal voice yelling: you have a loving boyfriend, great friends, two fantastic jobs, and you have a nice place to live! What is WRONG with you?!) it's still been an adjustment to find yourself living a lifestyle you never PLANNED to buy into.

While in college, we gave up TV in order to see more of each other. Seven years and two kids later, and we're still without TV — and it's enabled us to live more richly!

I've never been one to amass collections of anything. I've moved…a lot. A lot a lot a lot; over 30 times before moving out after high school a lot. But selling everything I owned to move across the planet was still jarring.

The hospital was my literal home, but I soon realised I had to spiritually embrace my time there as well if I wanted to get out and make a recovery. I filled my room with little things to empower me to say 'this isn't just another nameless, faceless hospital room, this is MY space and goddammit, I'm owning it!' With that ownership slowly came empowerment and a slow, slow process of finding myself again.

My partner and I moved into our first solo place together this summer. Before, we'd lived with roommates, but it was time for us to get our own place. Which in turn meant we were the only ones paying the bills.

Phones? Need them. Car? We're a one-car family so it's all good. Cable? There's no way we're home enough to justify having it. But the internet? Certainly that is necessary for a student and a couple planning a wedding…right?

While we have several quality grocery stores that sell all kinds of delicious, organic, 100% good-for-you kind of food, we tend to opt to shop at our local supermarket instead. And by local, I don't mean locally-grown, I mean… right down the street. We don't do this because it's close per se — the location is part of the appeal, but that's because John, the man who owns the store, employs people who live in and around our immediate area. His store services people who live near us, and we routinely see the same people working and the same people shopping.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, summer is winding down. You may be getting ready for the depressing ritual of packing up the patio furniture, summer clothes, and camping gear for the winter. If only there was a way to elongate the season of outdoor fun! Or at least have less stuff to put away.

Before you pack up your camping gear, take a look at this list of gear you can use all year round. Maybe some of it can be used in ways you hadn't thought of — and can bring little reminders of summer every time you use them.

I needed a longboard. Like, for years, I felt a very compelling need for a cruiser. They called to me, until I finally took the plunge and bought Cloris. Even though I'd never ridden a board in my life…