Between the two of us, Brett and I got rid of [more than] 930 belongings in the month of June – and we didn’t even get started on the second story of our shed OR the kids toys!
Since we had an unexpected trip to Kentucky the last few days of June, we combined the last few days into a couple photos.
We needed 387 items for last week, but we ended up getting rid of 499, which brings our grand total for the month to 1,042 items gone!
This month, I’m doing the #MinsGame again, but with the kids’ stuff!
I CAN’T WAIT! [Which is good because it starts today.]
When we moved into this house [18 months ago], I brought with me every writing utensil that was in our last home and I was super proud of myself for gathering them all into this one organized [and even labeled] plastic container.
My goodness, how things have changed.
Anyway, today was the day to go through this EXCESSIVE amount of pens, pencils, markers and highlighters and PURGE!
First, I needed to determine how many of them actually still work.
The vast majority still have plenty of life in them. The ones on the lid [a grand total of 58] are empty and headed for recycling.
Of the ones that work, I have chosen to keep these:
The sharpies and colorful pens are for craft and art projects – which have been the only reasons I have reached for this container in the past year.
Everything else is getting donated.
The grand total came to 109 utensils to donate and 58 to recycle.
Sad thing about recycling, though, is that I need five pounds [or roughly 350 pieces] in order to mail them in to TerraCycle…so, anyone got some empty pens they are looking get rid of? Realistically, I will probably have to find a place that collects them because it will probably take me the rest of my life to use 300 more pens.
[As a side note, if you work for a big company that is not currently recycling their pens – you should encourage them to start. More info in recycling pens RecycleNation.com.]
As for the ones that are still good, I’m going to donate to the gym I work at which is run by the park district [they seem to ALWAYS be short on pens], or to a school maybe, or to PenGuyArt.com, or …well, I’m open to suggestions.
We fell behind for a day or two [so I guess we technically “lost”] but we just kept right on going, sometimes reaching into the organizers in our closet and just grabbing handfuls of hotel shampoo bottles we’ve apparently been hoarding for years in order to reach our quota [which at one point was a total of 66 items] for the day.
Tip for you aspiring gamers – DON’T FALL BEHIND! The numbers get overwhelming really quickly.
Also, the game has basically turned into a joint effort to reach our collective goal each day since Brett doesn’t have the time to find all these items. That means that today I am finding 40 things to accompany the 8 that Brett picked out before leaving for work this morning.
I’ve learned more interesting things about donating foreign coins and recycling half used bottles of lotion. We also are up to six different organizations who are [hopefully] benefiting from our purge.
I did throw away a small bag of little things that can’t be recycled and couldn’t be sold in a thrift shop or even reused. Sad, but it had to be done.
And the greatest challenge is yet to come because not only do we have a whopping 378 items left to go before we reach the end of this madness…but we are leaving town on Wednesday so we have to get rid of them all in the next THREE DAYS.
Ever since I first heard of a CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] program, I have been wanting to purchase a share. But, because my financial priority was always to buy the cheapest “healthy” food possible, I never felt that I could afford to pay share prices. The vegetables at the grocery store were healthy enough and fit in my budget.
[I haven’t actually done the research to determine whether store vegetables are cheaper – I just always assumed that they were.]
But, now that we’ve adjusted our financial priorities to reflect our true values regarding food [sustainability, healthfulness, and quality over…everything else], not only is a CSA suddenly affordable – it is literally the very best option BY A MILE and one that we will likely choose for the rest of our lives [assuming we always have a CSA available in our community].
Here are some reasons why I love it – and why you should give it a try:
Sustainability: Owning a CSA share is extremely sustainable. I picked up my share this week with my own canvas bags. There was literally no paper exchanged, no plastic bags or film around the food, no twisty ties, no produce stickers [hallelujah, cuz those little buggers are so unnecessary and wasteful].
Healthfulness: A CSA share provides the healthiest produce for my family. Each week, I am picking up food that is local and in season and just harvested the day before. I know exactly where it was grown, how it was grown, even the people who are growing it.
Variety: When I go to the grocery store where literally every vegetable is available to me all year long, I can easily just choose my favorites and eat the same vegetables my whole life [not to mention that I don’t even consider where this cucumber must have come from or how it has been preserved so well after being shipped half way across the country or how long ago it was picked OR how does it look so perfect anyway???? …but I digress]. With a CSA, I don’t even get a choice. Whatever is ready to be harvested that week – that’s what we’ll be eating. It makes so much sense. I can’t wait to experiment with a wide variety of foods – some that I have never even heard of before – and hopefully discover some new favorites!
Today was the first pickup of our 20 week share and I was so excited that I almost woke the baby up early from her morning nap so we could get going.
At the farm, the kids had fun petting and feeding the goats and chasing the chickens.
Oh, how we would LOVE farm life.
We picked up our food and thanked our farmers.
This just feels right.
Ever since Brett and I started rethinking how we wanted to live our lives, I have been wanting a simpler existence and more intentional, cooperative relationships with the people in my community. A CSA share feels like the biggest step we have made in that direction so far. And it feels good.
Now, I have to go figure out how to prepare kohlrabi for dinner…
So far, Brett and I have rid our home of 272 unnecessary belongings. Thanks to regular trips to various donation drop offs and a few trips to friends’ homes, we have actually removed most of these things from our home already. It feels great.
Here are the photos from this past week.
Finding things to get rid of is still easy. My house is literally full of unnecessary stuff. And I haven’t even gotten started on the kids’ toys yet!
Truthfully, I have never been very attached to my belongings and I’m not very sentimental about “stuff,” so it is probably easier for me than the average person. In fact, when we moved into this house, I threw out my wedding dress without even a second thought. Why keep a dress that I will never wear again?
In an effort to keep an open mind, I recently picked up this book at the library: The Things that Matter by Nate Berkus.
It’s my nature to question everything – especially my own ideas – and though I feel strongly that minimalism is key to a happy and meaningful life, I do want to understand the importance people place on their possessions [since I apparently missed this gene]. I’m already reading a lot of books about minimalism and waste reduction, but when I saw this book I realized that there is another side of my belongings to consider.
This book reads like an autobiography but subtly shows how a collection of things – even mundane and seemingly meaningless things – can serve the purpose of connecting us to people and places that we love.
[I should mention that this book isn’t saying anything about how many or what kinds of possessions one should or shouldn’t own. It isn’t against minimalism in any way, nor is it for it. It is just stories about lives and the possessions that accompany them.]
It doesn’t change my perspective on minimalism or make me suddenly want to hang on to my middle school artwork, but it does give me a broader perspective. When I bring things into my home, I want them to be purposeful, yes, but maybe it’s okay if they are just plain beautiful or meaningful to me.
I don’t know if I’ll find many things like that, but it’s good to keep an open mind. 😁
Besides reducing waste and clutter, I have also been slowly eliminating processed foods from our home and replacing them with homemade alternatives – in an attempt to simplify our eating habits. But I wanted to stop buying pre-made foods altogether – immediately. It took some time, but Brett [miraculously] agreed to give the idea a trial run during the month of June.
100% whole wheat bread that I make every ten days or so. Takes me 2 hours, including rise and bake time – and I knead by hand so a stand mixer would make it even faster!
So, Rather than buying pre-made, packaged, and convenience foods, I am only buying the foods that I cannot make myself. Everything else, I am making from scratch – or doing without. I am still buying milk, cheese, meat, seafood, seasonings, and the basic baking necessities [i.e. flour, sugar, yeast, baking powder, olive oil, etc.] – which are all “processed” to a degree, but that I can’t process myself. Unprocessed foods that we buy are fresh fruits and vegetables, raw nuts, legumes, grains, and seeds, pure honey and maple syrup.
This change will [hopefully] allow us to improve our health, reduce our waste, and save some money in the grocery department.
Homemade rosemary and sea salt crackers. Took me 20 minutes to make one batch which was the perfect number of crackers for my kids’ afternoon snack.
This means more work for me in the kitchen, but it’s not really as bad as it might sound. I started very small about a year ago, with just making my own peanut butter every two weeks. Over time, I’ve added things that I can easily fit into my schedule. And now I am making jam, bread, yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce, vegetable stock, pasta sauce, salsa, hummus, crackers, tortillas, potato chips [baked, of course], donuts [also baked and on rare occasions], granola bars, muffins, biscuits, pesto, nut milks and even vegan cheese. Some things I make regularly to keep stocked, and other things I make as needed. Pretty much anything we could need, I can make with just the basic ingredients I keep in my home. It may sound time consuming, but most of the things I make don’t require very much hands on involvement from me.
[I know that a lot of people work full-time and aren’t able to dedicate much time to making food from scratch, but you may be surprised at how many things are quick and easy to make – like peanut butter, which only takes three minutes to make in my Ninja or the cashew milk below.]
Cashew milk I made for breakfast smoothies yesterday. Took all of three minutes to make, not counting soaking the cashews overnight.
I’m doing this partly because it is the simplest, healthiest way to eat and partly because it significantly reduces our waste AND partly because I’m curious to see if this will be more expensive. The most common reason I hear for not eating healthy foods is that it’s too expensive. Since healthy, natural, organic foods are typically more expensive than their processed counterparts, I’m curious to see if it costs us more financially. I suspect that healthy eating actually saves money, but costs more time. [Then, of course, “time is money” to some people, and that is exactly why convenience foods were created in the first place.] Regardless, I doubt I’ll regret the change because the healthiest thing is always best – even if it does cost more money and more time.
Besides all that, making things from scratch is rewarding and makes my fridge look clean and organized! [If my 20-year-old self could hear me now, she would probably pass out from shock. I guess I’m proof that people can change. 😁]
Well, we made it through the first week of the Minimalism Game. Even though I know it is supposed to get harder as the days progress, I feel like it is actually getting easier to find things to toss. Now everywhere I look I am seeing things we don’t need or use.
The hardest part has actually been figuring out how to get rid of all this stuff responsibly.
The worlds of minimalism and zero waste overlap in a lot of ways, but this process has made it tough for me to please both of these internal desires. Both care about the environment, but have different primary goals. Reducing what you own to a minimum and only buying what is absolutely necessary creates very little waste and purchasing everything waste-free often ends up being very minimal, out of necessity. BUT the process to get from where I currently am [or was] – a wasteful hoarder – to where I want to be – a waste-free minimalist – is creating a lot of trash.
The minimalist in me says “GET RID OF IT,” while the eco-friendly hippie in me chants “REUSE, REPURPOSE, RECYCLE.” [I imagine these two internal personas as little angels, one on each of my shoulders, shouting into my ears.] Every time I select something to get rid of, the hippie says “Maybe you could use that in some other creative way.” And then the minimalist says “You know you won’t use it, so just let it go.” And then the hippie says, “But you don’t want that to end up in a landfill, do you?” And the minimalist says, “You don’t want to carry that around with you for the rest of your life just so it doesn’t end up in a landfill, do you?”
Do you see my struggle?
So, what do I do?
Well, I’m trying to compromise. I have to get rid of the excess, AND I have to do it in the most responsible way that I possibly can. And that takes some time. Some stuff may end up in a landfill. I feel badly about it, but I can’t redeem every bad purchase or every superfluous possession. Something will inevitably have to go in the trash. But for everything that can be repurposed or given away or donated or recycled, that’s what I will do – even if it takes me a little longer. We are supposed to be getting rid of the stuff each night, but, honestly, that doesn’t feel responsible to me. I have to take the time to appropriately dispose of all this stuff. I have to do research to find out how and where and what to do with some of these things. I have to think about whether I should repurpose old t-shirts into dust rags or whether that would just be making more clutter. I have to ask friends and family members if they could put some of these things to good use. But some things I just have to let go.
Like, for instance, Brett’s senior picture proofs – all 75 of them.
These can’t be donated or recycled or even burned and even though I wouldn’t ordinarily want to get rid of old photos, I do not want to hang on to 75 photos of Brett’s 17-year-old self.
[We did read about a way to reuse old photos as game pieces by cutting the heads out and placing them in binder clips, which is hilarious and brilliant, but won’t help me reduce my clutter.]
So, into the trash they went. [And they take up quite a bit of space in our new small trash can.]
All except two, which I use as bookmarks now – partially because he is nicer on the eyes than the Bed Bath and Beyond coupon I had been using and partially because I like to laugh at his baggy clothes.
Anyway, here are the photos from this past week of the game.
On the plus side, the house is already looking better, and we’ve still got three weeks to go!
The game is played by each person getting rid of one item the first day, two items the second day, three items the third day, … you get the idea. Whoever is able to make it the furthest in the challenge wins – though the only thing at stake is bragging rights – and whoever makes it to the full 30 days will have rid themselves of 465 unnecessary possessions. If Brett and I both complete all 30 days, then we will have gotten rid of 930 items from our home in one month – a great start on the road to minimalism!
Truthfully, we probably won’t make it that far because Brett is doing this reluctantly to begin with and already on day one he tried to get rid of our baby monitor [that was currently in use] and my brand new running shoes. I’m not sure he understands the point of the exercise. Regardless, I’m going to have to set some guidelines [if you ever saw Brett and I play a game together, you would understand why written rules are an absolute necessity].
The 30-Day Minimalism Game Rules:
#1: No tossing the other’s personal belongings [but kids’ toys and things we share are free game].
#2: No tossing things that we are actually currently using and serve a good purpose.
#3: No tearing a piece of paper into however many pieces and trying to count that as your day’s quota.
#4: I can’t toss clothes unless they are in addition to my 26 items already getting donated each month.
#5: Items must be donated, recycled, or given away to friends/family [in other words, not trash]. Things bound for the trash should just be thrown in the trash and not counted for the game.
I’ll be posting our donation items periodically throughout the month so as not to drive everyone crazy by posting every single day.
So, on day 1, I chose to rehome our beautiful bassinet, which I love. But it is too big for our space and won’t get any use until I have another baby – which may never happen. So it might as well hold another little baby rather than serving as a second laundry basket in my bedroom. I am hoping to find someone I know who would like it and use it [please let me know if you are interested!], but if I can’t I will donate it to a local Crisis Pregnancy Center.
Brett chose the kid’s old race track which has been replaced by a “new-to-us” track [Thanks, Aunt Mary!].
Our day two choices weren’t as exciting. But, as always, if you see something you want/need, let me know! Free to a good home. Otherwise, it is all being donated.
I can already tell that this is going to be an eye-opening endeavor…
No Makeup Mama 