My name is JING, I was a design manager for a Shenzhen clothing company 3 years ago
Working in front of a screen all day everyday almost cost my eyesight
So I decided to quit
I moved to the Wutong mountains in Shenzhen when I was 30
I spent two years with next to no income
I rented the ground floor of a farmer’s house
The rent is about 3,000 yuan a month
I live by myself in this 120-square meter apartment
After 950 days and 3,500 yuan
I renovated the apartment with my two hands
When I first moved in here,
I was a little intimidated by the coarse roughcast
I only bought some basic tools
Such as paints
90% of the stuff in my apartment is recycled
The renovation is still in progress
Waste bins are actually magical
I find unexpected treasures in them all the time
Once I found a discarded sofa besides a waste bin downtown
And I wrapped it with wornout jeans
It acquired a completely new outlook
I like the tatami in my bedroom
It is made from 4 pallets and 18 pairs of jeans
Which are sewed together and made into a mattress
These two camphorwood cases are also collected from streets
They are spacious containers
I also use it as a dresser or a desk
This is a door knob where I hang my clothes
The hangers are made from branches I collected in the mountains
I have two roommates, a dog and a cat
They love the smell of their master
So I made them a nesting place
With my wornout T-shirts
About 15 T-shirts
My mother was unhappy about how I live my life
Because neither do I have a job or a husband
And I went from a designer to a scavenger
But seeing me so happy
She starts to understand me
I live a simple life in the mountains
I wake up naturally at 5am
And go walk my dog at about 7am
And I will pay attention if there is anything good
That I can bring back home and recycle
I go to bed before 10pm
These three years
I spend less than 1,000 yuan a month
And I recently have started to do design work for recycled clothes
So I have some income
I did experience anxiety when I was running out of money
But it was fleeting
Materials are less than essential
If you can think of nothing but making money
Or anything that makes you anxious
You can’t be happy now
But now is good, so I live in the moment