Escaping Urban Overload

We traded this...

Cities are great places. They are exciting and interesting hives of activity. I lived in a city of a million people for almost a decade, and I mostly enjoyed it.  

However, it is my hope that I will never have to live in a large city again. Or even a small city.
About 55% of the global population currently lives in cities. That is over 4 billion people. The UN projects this will rise to almost 70% by 2050.
Around 80% of Canadians live in cities, meaning the rest of the land is virtually empty. That is where I will be found.
Don’t get me wrong. I love people. I just don’t want to live around a whole busy bunch of them. For my nervous system, that is urban overload.
That is why my dream has always been to live in as remote and beautiful a location as possible.

...for this. No traffic jams here.

Currently, I live in an amazingly quiet and beautiful district in Nova Scotia with 4.4 people per square kilometre. 
The largest city I have ever lived in has a density of 1,550 people per square kilometre.
I’m headed in the right direction.
If you're plotting your own escape, start small: Pick a day for a "rural reconnaissance"—drive, hike, or research a low-density spot that appeals to you. 
No commitments, just some testing - sense the quiet, note what your nervous system is telling you. 
A low-stakes audit can turn dreams into coordinates, like it did for us.
How about you? 
Are you a city person, or does rural living appeal to you more? 
Have you had enough? Are you planning to escape the urban overload?
Let us know your plan in a comment below.

Bucket Laundry: My Not So Scary Experiment in Simple Living (That Built My Biceps)

It’s hard to even imagine a frightful life without conveniences like a clothes washer, let alone adapt to such a scene of horror and hardship. 
To get a taste of that life, I did some laundry in a bucket with a plunger.
My experiment was also functional as my washing machine lost its mind and started turning off and on, beeping uncontrollably all on its own. 
It’s haunted. By obsolescence.
That’s alright. As a renter, all I needed to do was contact the property owners, and they handled the rest. But there was that laundry to be done, and I was keen to test the bucket method since I already had everything I needed.
It was labor-intensive compared to the mechanical machine we all know and love, and I worked harder than a cat trying to get its Halloween costume off.
I used a plunger to agitate the laundry, water, and soap in the bucket for a few minutes, then let it sit and soak for 10 minutes.
When I returned to the bucket, I changed the water and agitated the laundry again to rinse. I felt like a laundry zombie as I chanted "clean clothes" as if they were as desirable as fresh brains.
At that point, I was only partially done with my monstrous task—the bucket load needed to be wrung out in preparation for drying (I used the dryer because it was raining out). My biceps felt like I’d just arm-wrestled a the Hulk. 
I quickly came to appreciate the spin cycle of my washer now that I was the one strong-arming the water out of the sopping laundry.
Results? The bucket method got the job done quite nicely. I was more than satisfied with how it performed, and for what it did for my upper body strength.
I’m looking forward to the washing machine being repaired or replaced soon, but I wouldn’t mind doing more in the bucket/plunger again. 
As it turned out, it was more treat than trick, which was counter to what I was expecting. It wasn’t scary at all.
Doing laundry by hand—something that millions of people do every day around the world—felt more satisfying than passively loading and unloading a washer. I felt like I really accomplished something that mattered, and that I upped my resilience factor.
Knowing I’m not completely dependent on technology felt good. It made me feel positive about the future, and that is better than a pillowcase full of candy.
What’s one convenience you’d ditch for a day to build your own resilience? Share below—we love to hear your stories.
Happy Halloween, simple livers!