I’ve been on a minimalism kick lately. You wouldn’t know that to look around my home office, or my home in general, but really – I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about minimalism.
Maybe the key word in that last sentiment is “thinking.”
Faith Janes wrote an article entitled “Experiments in Simplicity.” That got me thinking ...
Let’s face it – it’s not going to take a single weekend to declutter over four years worth of stuff. And that’s only the amount of time that I’ve lived in this house with my husband … I don’t even want to THINK about the stuff I’ve brought with me through my 10+ years of adulthood. Or the stuff that’s still at my parents’ house.)
Ms. Janes talks about the “baby steps” that one can take towards living a more simplistic life – cutting out clutter in areas like online or magazine subscriptions (!). Reducing your personal library (!!). Pack away unused clothes and dishes.
You’ll note that I have a few exclamation points by a couple items listed above. The (!) for magazine subscriptions reminds me that I have, oh, umpteen issues of magazines that are in a pile by my favorite chair. Just as fresh as the day they were delivered months ago.
The (!!) talks about my personal library. I’ve been known to get rid of books now and then, but this causes a little grief in my married life. The husband and I LOVE books. The foundation of our relationship is rooted in the poetry of T.S. Eliot and shared copies of “Beowulf.”
But the fact that I own almost all of the books in Charlaine Harris’s “Southern Vampire Mysteries” series? (Those are the books that the HBO series “True Blood” is based on, for those of you who aren’t glamored by all things having to do with vampires.) That was a pretty great phase in my life, but now that I look back on it … why do I own those books? Same thing for the three out of the four “Twilight” books that I own. I went through a Janet Evanovich phase too and bought the Stephanie Plum series in paperback … I got rid of those years ago.
So yes – there are books that I could part with …
Eliminating the Extras from Your Budget
But the part of Ms. Janes’ article that started causing me more personal grief?
The idea of eliminating some of the extras that take a toll on your budget. These items include Starbucks coffee, manicures, car washes and the like.
Well, my car – the Tank – is rarely washed. Heck, these days, the Tank is barely driven, so I don’t need to worry about the money I’m socking away to make sure that my ride is sparkling. I even considered to donating the car since Tank just sits around.
I’ve spent about five minutes writing and deleting my feelings about coffee and manicures ...
My addiction to the bean is well known amongst my friends … and while I don’t drink a Starbucks latte on a daily basis, I drink them frequently enough that I do not want to know what my monthly coffee budget is.
As for manicures? I’m not your typical girly girl … I worked in an office where I was surrounded with (gorgeous) women who made manicures and pedicures a regular expenditure. However, I’m going to be getting a manicure/pedicure in the next week – it’s a reward to myself for meeting and exceeding a weight loss goal. I’m also terrible with my nails. I use a regular ‘ol nail clipper to maintain them. I don’t file, sometimes I buff under dire circumstances and the last pedicure I got was in June. Plus, I’m heading to Denver for work next week and it’s a weird little confidence booster that I invest in.
So the long and short of this ramble is this: I love the idea of simplicity and minimalism. My husband and I trucked a trunkload of items to our local Savers last Sunday, I’m sure there will be parts of this upcoming weekend that will find us decluttering. But there are some things that I haven’t given up yet. And there are some things that I’m not ready to give up yet.
What are some things that you won’t give up?
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