Number Game

If we play a numbers game with Minimalism we get:

assuming our house has the average 300,000 items and we want to get rid of 2/3rds of it- that is 200,000 items to purge.

and if I use kitchen sized white garbage bags, averaging 20 items per bag. That is 10,000 bags I have to purge.

If I do it at a rate of 10 bags/month (that means I actually had 1 day to clean, plus regular get rid of accumulations) that means I'd spend 1,000 months or 90 years to purge that much.

Wow, do Americans have a lot of stuff.

I've been reducing stuff in my house since I started Flylady.net in 2003. But a major cleanout came when I read Marie Kondo's book. I loved the "spark joy" aspect of it. It is easy to hold on to things because they can be useful, but when you hold or try on something that actually sparks joy- you get it. It's the feeling of loving how you feel with it. Once your wardrobe is 90% spark joy (and 10%, I need it and would have to replace it if I got rid of it) dressing is a happy thing every morning, now if we can just replicate that feeling with everything in the house.

And don't be afraid to get rid of the can opener that can't and replace it. Your life is too valuable to waste fighting with can't openers. :)

Minimalism win

We only mow the part of the yard we play in, the rest is left to grow wild. Well, my brother has borrowed our weed whacker, so the edges around our rock beds haven't been whacked. But this morning, after a night of rain, we had wildflowers- tall with crowns of yellows and whites edge our yard with butterflies dancing around them. My son went outside and said. "Mom, I think this is what Eden must have looked like."

Summer Kitchen

My house is wonderfully insulated. We have 12" outside walls- mostly styrofoam and windows on the inside and outside of that- creating very insulated windows.

In the winter all I have to do to heat the house is bake some cookies/muffins/whatever I want and the house stays warm all day, and night.

But in the summer- the house also keeps all of its heat/cool. We live in northern Minnesota, so most of the time we need nothing more than fans in a few windows to keep cool, if I add no heat to the house by cooking.

Every get tired of cold meals? After a nice week of 80 degrees, I get really want a hot, cooked meal. ( and due to my food allergies, restaurants don't provide much for me).

So I decided to build a summer kitchen. They used them often 100 years ago. Mostly it was an outdoor tent/bower with a cooking fire/stove. Jelly, jams and other preserves were often done outside all summer long, along with their regular food production.

So I came up with the crazy idea to build my own.

A friend was selling a screen tent- I bought it. Yesterday I set it up. Inside the tent is our picnic table, and I will pick up a work surface at a second-hand store- some kind of table/counter/desk. I bought a spray handle for my garden hose and will grab an outdoor extension cord from my garage. That way I can use my toaster oven/crockpots/rice cookers. I also plan to bring out my Coleman camp stove and my camping dishes. It should be awesome.

Of course it is raining all day today- so using it/working on it is going to have to wait another day.

Shopping today

I went clothes shopping today- for myself. For a minimalist that is a huge thing. Of course, it helps when your mom goes with you and does all the paying.

I based my wardrobe in navy back when I started teaching at Bemidji State U. It has simplified everything a great deal. And instead of just simplifying my work clothes the color scheme bled over into my homework/play clothes too. One thing about navy is that is not black, I can't wear black near my face, it washes me out, but I could do navy, and just like black it matches almost everything else- and some things like my favorite purples and pinks really well.

Anyways, summer came on here overnight, and it was hot. In Minnesota some summers it only reaches 80s a few days, but today it was officially 88, and most signs read into the 90s. Yesterday was almost as warm and tomorrow will be 85 or higher. My summer hot days wardrobe officially consisted of 2 pairs of capris and 1 little black dress (organic cotton).  Well, one of my capris finally gave up the ghost. It only handled 8 years of life, and about a dozen repairs before it ripped beyond salvage as a piece of clothing. So I knew I'd have to replace that. So we headed out today to Nisswa, MN which has a nice selection of women's boutique clothing shops, and probably the best selection of decent wearable items for people who can't manage clothes from Target.

Ideally, I was looking for 1-2 pairs of nice navy capris.  But I was actually open to anything that could improve my summer wardrobe situation. Now, there are a few things you should know about my preferences, one is I prefer natural fabrics, I run from the slinky rayon/spandex blend like mosquitoes from garlic, two is that I am taller than average, and often wear talls.  I am also mostly modest, prefer to not always have sleeves (at least a cap sleeve, and like my skirts and shorts to reach my knees).

Searching for things that are appealing (minimal bling please!), and that comply with all my other requirements made browsing fairly fast. First, I found a Navy T-shirt dress. Simple, right color easy to dress up or down. Lots of possibilities so I bought it. It also had pockets. I turned down a striped overshirt, the cut of it suggested pregnancy and I don't need any help in empathizing my post babies belly. The only shorts I even cared enough to try on was a pair of legging capris. I bought it because it was better than nothing.

But the last store we hit actually had quite a lot of interesting items of things worth trying. And after trying on 20 pairs of shorts/capris. I actually bought 3. I pair of plain denim, 1 blue short (bonus, it was organic cotton), and 1 pair of linen capris with some floral design, that picks up some blues and pinks. Then we went back into the clearance section and I fell in love with some organic wool sweaters in men's xxl. Perfect to wear with leggings (I'd actually been keeping a lookout for sweaters to wear with my favorite wool leggins/longjohns.)

7 items??? How does that even classify as minimalist?

Well, I am hoping they are as well made and versatile as they look. that will give them 8-20 years in my wardrobe, being worn in all hot seasons. They match my color schemes and replace items that have worn out over the last ten years.  I was very careful in my selections, and if these pieces work as well as I am hoping they might be replacing a few things I haven't gotten rid of yet.

So careful shopping- planned, local, buying at least half my pieces of organic fabrics. and not much just because it fit or somebody else liked it on me.

One of the pitfalls both my Mom and I recognized is when we shop we our moms we buy things because they like it, and we never actually wear it.  It sure made it easier to explain that a piece wasn't really me, when Mom's had the same issue too.