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When we moved to Iceland I knew it was going to be problematic
finding some things, especially specialty parts and quality goods.
In the midst of that dawning situation I was also staring at my
hobbies filling multiple rooms, offices, the basement and garage.
We were moving from a very large 5-bedroom home to a cozy
apartment. If I wanted to keep active on a hobby, I thought, then
it should serve a purpose and fit in our space.
I love waterproof, locking, stackable containers. I have a bunch
of the 20 gallon ones that we use in the move and in storage (no
worries about flooding!). I have smaller ones that stack and sit
on an industrial metal shelf beside my office desk. In each of
these containers is a hobby. That's the space I give them,
generally. Flutes all fit in one with the music books. All my
electronics fit in another. All my spinning tools, accessories,
and fiber in a 3rd (the wheel itself is a special exception). Our
hand-tools and sharpening stones fit in a 4th. Everything in its
place.
I also debated on bringing my 3D printer to Iceland since it
seemed extraneous and extravagant, but later decided it would be
useful to 3-D print parts that were hard to source in-country.
So now that I've been living with this stuff for 7 months, how is
it working? Well, I've done more sewing by hand here in Iceland
than I did at home with a machine and a full room dedicated to it.
I'm constantly repairing the kid's clothes, creating stuffed
animals, toys, sleeves for tools, and so on. I 3D printed sturdy
handles for our shopping bags since we walk to-and-from the market
a kilometer twice a week. My wife's chromebook's touchpad stopped
working this week and I opened it all up, cleaned everything,
re-seated leads, and it's like new. I'm even spinning wool
regularly now!
Maintaining things is a joy. Fixing them up and not wasting money
on new things means more freedom from work. We can subsist on
lower incomes and spend more time enjoying life this way. The
world has less waste. My hobbyist yearnings are itched. Life is
good.
Now if I could find a reliable tabletop RPG group, life would be
perfect! |