Who Am I?
Hello! I’m so happy that you have found my blog. My name is Georgina Caro.
Since 2013, my family and I have been on a mission to drastically change our lives.
Our ultimate aim was to minimize, simplify and just enjoy life more. It has been a hard and long process but we finally feel like we’ve got to where we want to be.
Now I want to help others with their sustainable & simple lifestyle journey.
Our Story
In 2011, 6 months after our second child was born my partner and I decided to move 250 miles away from Kent to Devon. A job opportunity came up which meant we could finally take the plunge.
We started in a modest 3 bed semi but after 6 months we decided to move again. This time to a large 4 bed detached house because that’s what you do when you’re a proper grown up right? You buy a bigger house and then spend all of your spare cash buying stuff to fill your house. Then you spend all of your spare time maintaining all of that stuff. Endless cleaning, polishing, washing, working, raising kids, eating healthy and trying to maintain some sort of social life so you don’t go completely bat shit crazy.
Looking back now it seems like madness.
Decluttering
By 2016 I’d had enough so I began the process of decluttering our life. It was a long journey but I’m now proud to say that we got rid of over 75% of our stuff. It was life-changing! You can read more about our decluttering journey in these blog posts…
How I Finally Got our Home in Order Once and for All!
How The Marie Kondo KonMari Method Of Decluttering Changed Our Life
Downsizing
In 2017 we finally took the plunge and downsized our home. It was, hands down, the best decision we have ever made!
By moving to our ‘downsized’ home we paid off all of our short-term debt and reduced our mortgage by 10 years. We also dramatically reduce our monthly outgoings. With the extra money, we intend to make over-payments on our mortgage to further reduce the repayment time.
Our aim is to be mortgage free by the time I’m in my late forties. By reducing our overheads and minimizing our life we have taken a huge amount of stress out of our daily life.
We like to work on the basis that…
Simplifying
Once we’d moved into our downsized home I then started to focus on simplifying other areas of our life. I made changes to our daily rituals, simplified our diet, organised our entire home, simplified my beauty routine and created capsule wardrobes.
We have become a household that lives for experiences, rather than wasting our money on things we don’t really need.
Minimalism has had a huge impact on our lives. We now think twice before every purchase. Do we really need this? Will it bring value to our lives? Does this offer us an experience? If the answer to those questions is no then we don’t get it.
We currently live in Cornwall in the UK and enjoy spending our time exploring this beautiful county mainly by water on our boat. One day we may even sail away and not come back!
You can read more about our simple lifestyle journey by clicking the links below…
9 Ways I Have Simplified my Life
Our Minimalism Journey So Far
Why Sustainable Lifestyle?
In my past, child-free, life I was working towards my Masters in Advanced Architecture: Environmental & Energy studies. I was especially interested in straw bale building.
I got to go out to Italy to work on an amazing straw bale house, it was great fun. I spent 8 years working for Cancer Research UK and I use to live in a cabin at the bottom of my parents garden.
Before children, I was very eco-conscious but then I lost my way. Having two children in two years was all consuming. I opted for convenience over sustainability every time. Now the kids are older I have more time to think about the kind of life I want to lead and the examples that I want to set for them.
This blog has become my way of documenting my trials and errors towards living a more sustainable lifestyle and dragging my other half along for the ride. It’s certainly a journey, not a destination.
After the recent, rather disturbing, report by the IPCC I have doubled my efforts to live more sustainably. We Have 12 Years To Limit Climate Change Catastrophe.
I’m by no means perfect, no zero waste trash jars in our home. But I do wholeheartedly believe that lots of small changes can have a huge impact.
How Can I Help You?
Did you recently watch a TV programme about the environment (think Blue Planet II, Fashion’s Dirty Secrets, Drowning in Plastic) and start to think about what changes you could make in your life?
Did you do a bit of research online and then get completely overwhelmed with all of the ideas?
Do you struggle to know where to start to live a more sustainable lifestyle?
Well, that is what Gypsy Soul is here to help you with.
Making Sustainable Living Simple
My goal is to help you lead a more sustainable & simple life by breaking it down into simple steps to avoid the overwhelm.
I’m really excited to join you on this journey.
Join us today on our mission to lead a more sustainable & simple life.
The 9 R’s Of Living a Sustainable Lifestyle
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Just stumbled across your blog and I love it – you seem mint! haha Im tots joining in your linky…thriftiness is my life pursuit haha and oh yes, I get bored easily and still trying to figure out what I want to do in life haha x
Hi Mary, Thank you for stopping by! Please do link up any thrifty posts you have I’d love to see them.
Love it…a cool mama that lives in Devon…I’m a single mama that would love to start a blog about being an authentic single mama the highs the lows, what helps me, being thirty, days out that don’t cost a lot, meeting up with fellow mums but I know nothing about blogs…would you be willing to share some tips…just want to help other mums who may be stripuggling sometimes X big love to you and your fam a lam x
Hi Nina, Nice to meet you!
I have loads of tips in an ebook that I’m currently writing but it’s not finished yet 🙁
A lot of bloggers start with a free blog on either WordPress or Blogger and just go from there it depends on what you want to achieve really. If you just want an online journal, documenting what you get up to then a free blog is the best way to go. If however you’d like blogging to become your new job and earn a living from it then you would need to get a self hosted blog which means you have to pay for hosting each month. I hope that makes sense?
Happy to answer any other specific questions that you have 🙂
Hello Gina,
I am the co-founder of a new eco-conscious online department store which is championing UK brands who have sustainable values. Our mission is to change the perception around what it means to live sustainably by making it easier to shop consciously without compromising on quality or style. Everything we will be selling is sustainably and ethically made as well as being completely cruelty-free and vegan-friendly.
As part of our site, we are going to have a lifestyle blog where we will have guest bloggers write about eco-friendly living tips and experiences which will be of our interest to our community. We are looking for like-minded bloggers and after looking through your blog we think it would be great if you were to write a blog post on our site.
If you are interested in writing a post for us get in touch including any potential ideas you have and we can discuss.
I look forward to hearing from you 🙂
Kind Regards,
Edward
Hi Edward,
Great to hear from you. I have just sent you an email 🙂
I can totally relate to the children close together being all consuming! And I have very itchy feet too, I constantly want to move! Love following your zero waste posts, look forward to reading more x
Hi Hayley, Thanks for stopping by. Glad to hear you like my zero waste posts. There will be plenty more to come 🙂
Oh Gina, I had no idea what an interesting life you’ve lead, so inspiring! I’ve lived in the same house for 13 years & the same village for 32 years & it’s driving me nuts! You’ve definitely given me the kick up the bum to be more adventurous after reading your blog.
Of course, I want to bookmark your blog. Have an awsome day!
Great article on countryfile
Hi Eddie,
Thank you. Glad you liked it 🙂