Hunter gatherers. For over 5 million years this is how humans lived in harmony with the Earth, following herds, water supply, and moving from a area defiled by excrement, insects, and vermin to an area that has recovered from human habitation. Owning very few personal possessions - no more than you could easily carry around. What we are doing now is what the Earth cannot accommodate, and in only 10,000 short years since the onset of farming, which allowed us to stay in one place long enough to overpopulate and ruin it.

Obviously we are not going back to hunter gatherer lifestyles. But for me, just being able to "walk away" from the spot where I bathe, sleep, and store a few things is the way to go. I have lived in two-man tents for 7 months at a time on long bike tours with only the possessions I could carry. I was much happier doing that than owing a house. And of course my house got flooded after Hurricane Katrina because it is FIXED to the danged ground. Fires are burning up houses as we speak in the Western USA because they are fixed to the ground. You never heard of a Plains Indian (native American) city burning to the ground or flooding because those people MOVED away from areas at times when they were prone to floods or fires.

Anyway, aside from the cultural anthropology lesson, my life was 100% better before I owned a house. Outside of my job, if I had one, all of my time was free time. I did not have any work to do around the house, in fact, I was FORBIDDEN to do any work to the structure aside from dusting the place and cleaning the bathroom. My (our) house was acquired more or less by accident. Long story. I have gutted the thing TWICE since acquiring it and would burn it to the ground if not for my neighbor's house might catch on fire. Hopefully when my wife retires in two years we can move on from this disaster that owns us.