I have just returned from the depths of our living room closet where I attempted to pull out our Christmas stuff. To my surprise our "Christmas stuff" turned out to be 5 large tubs and a medium sized fake tree of stuff.
I really had no idea we had that much. And I am using the term "we" loosely since it's pretty much all mine.
Oh the shame...
Now to get it down to 1...maybe 2 bins.
A girl can dream...
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Clutter series: Where stuff hides...
Since Ryan and I have started to try and pair down our belongings I have begun to notice all the crazy places that my stuff hides. I will be focusing a couple of posts on where I found stuff and what I did to sort and get rid of it.
The first place we tackled was our 2 bookcases. We decided that we wanted to get all of our books down to one bookcase. This doesn't seem like a huge goal at first glance, but for us it was a place to start.
The first thing we did was a quick first sweep of the shelves and pulled out all the books that first caught our eye and could go. For me this included books I had already read and didn't want to read again, books I had for a long time and had still never read, and books that I had borrowed and could be returned to their original owners.
Just by doing this we got rid of probably 20 books.
Next it got harder. My mom is a librarian by trade, so she imparted to me a great love of reading and books. So I had a lot of books that I had read many, many times, but didn't want to get rid of, because I love them, they mean something to me.
I remember packing my copy of Pride and Prejudice when I went to France in high school. I remember reading it sitting on a bench outside Notre Dame : that EXACT book. How can I let that go? For now I didn't, I couldn't.
I believe being a minimalist doesn't mean getting rid of everything you own, it means getting rid of the stuff that doesn't matter to you, that doesn't deserve the precious space of your home or your heart. For me Pride and Prejudice was something to save. For now.
I kept going through the shelves over and over. A book a couldn't get rid of on the 3rd pass, by the 5th pass got tossed. It started to feel really good.
Ryan had a different kind of debate. Most of his books were instructional text books. When going through his books he asked himself "how often do I reference this book" or "what use do they have for me now or in the future". Books about hobbies he was once interested in got tossed, out of date books that now had more current information got tossed.
Using this method we ditched 4 boxes of books and now have just one book case with all of the books we own.
One of the other benefits was that now we had space on the shelves to display some of favorite items and family photos. Also there is now a place on the bottom shelf for our cats to curl up on, they love to snuggle in tight places.
Everyone benefits!
The first place we tackled was our 2 bookcases. We decided that we wanted to get all of our books down to one bookcase. This doesn't seem like a huge goal at first glance, but for us it was a place to start.
The first thing we did was a quick first sweep of the shelves and pulled out all the books that first caught our eye and could go. For me this included books I had already read and didn't want to read again, books I had for a long time and had still never read, and books that I had borrowed and could be returned to their original owners.
Just by doing this we got rid of probably 20 books.
Next it got harder. My mom is a librarian by trade, so she imparted to me a great love of reading and books. So I had a lot of books that I had read many, many times, but didn't want to get rid of, because I love them, they mean something to me.
I remember packing my copy of Pride and Prejudice when I went to France in high school. I remember reading it sitting on a bench outside Notre Dame : that EXACT book. How can I let that go? For now I didn't, I couldn't.
I believe being a minimalist doesn't mean getting rid of everything you own, it means getting rid of the stuff that doesn't matter to you, that doesn't deserve the precious space of your home or your heart. For me Pride and Prejudice was something to save. For now.
I kept going through the shelves over and over. A book a couldn't get rid of on the 3rd pass, by the 5th pass got tossed. It started to feel really good.
Ryan had a different kind of debate. Most of his books were instructional text books. When going through his books he asked himself "how often do I reference this book" or "what use do they have for me now or in the future". Books about hobbies he was once interested in got tossed, out of date books that now had more current information got tossed.
Using this method we ditched 4 boxes of books and now have just one book case with all of the books we own.
One of the other benefits was that now we had space on the shelves to display some of favorite items and family photos. Also there is now a place on the bottom shelf for our cats to curl up on, they love to snuggle in tight places.
Everyone benefits!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
My Journey - Ryan
Well, I guess that the idea of minimalism has always intrigued me. Looking at the word in all aspects of the word. The lightest wheels for my car or the lightest sunglasses even by a few grams. How to go a little faster, to be a little more efficient. But when it came to my clothing and other possessions it took a different course.
I come from a family where you didn't get rid of things, even if you didn't really need them. Its kind of hard to get that out of your head. So, I started to thin out my possessions about 5 yrs ago. More than 3 yrs ago I moved with all my worldly possessions in two SUV 's. Then I moved all those possessions in with my fiance, Susan. Then we moved into a bigger apartment and acquired even more property. Now we have come to a point where enough is enough.
In an effort to lower our stress, our financial responsibility, an our global impact we are turning to a minimalist lifestyle. We are eliminating the bulk of our excess property, reevaluating our housing situation an our car ownership situation.
As this blog progresses we will both highlight our learning how to live this lifestyle and what this means. Any input would be helpful. Thanks.
Ryan
I come from a family where you didn't get rid of things, even if you didn't really need them. Its kind of hard to get that out of your head. So, I started to thin out my possessions about 5 yrs ago. More than 3 yrs ago I moved with all my worldly possessions in two SUV 's. Then I moved all those possessions in with my fiance, Susan. Then we moved into a bigger apartment and acquired even more property. Now we have come to a point where enough is enough.
In an effort to lower our stress, our financial responsibility, an our global impact we are turning to a minimalist lifestyle. We are eliminating the bulk of our excess property, reevaluating our housing situation an our car ownership situation.
As this blog progresses we will both highlight our learning how to live this lifestyle and what this means. Any input would be helpful. Thanks.
Ryan
Monday, November 8, 2010
My Journey - Susan
First off - I NEVER thought about becoming a minimalist until about 6 months ago. But looking back over my life it really begins to make sense that I would come to this point.
I have moved a lot. Not so much as some people - like military families - but since college I have probably lived in 5 or 6 places, and I have been out of college for 10 years. Every time I pack up my possessions I get this overwhelming sense of frustration. I have often yelled out loud "WHY DO I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF!!" But it never occured to me that I DIDN'T need to have so much stuff. I just collected things over time. For about 6 years I was a missionary. I made practically no money, so if someone gave me something I kept it. I told myself "You will never be able to buy nice things" so if i received a 'nice' thing I would keep it, even if I didn't need it.
Eventually I started buying things of my own, never getting rid of anything else. When I moved out of my apartment a few years ago, I had about 10 bins of "stuff" that didn't fit in the new apartment, so it got stored away.
When my boyfriend - now fiance - moved in with me, he brought all his stuff too! It definitely didn't fit, so we did what everyone does : we got a bigger place.
I was pretty proud when we were able to fit almost all of our stuff in a 10 foot moving van. Forgetting of course, that Ryan had been moving box after box over to the new place when he wasn't working. So now we have a spacious 2 bedroom apartment with a den. Then - we bought even MORE stuff, shelves, cabinets, dressers, chairs anything that caught our eye at Ikea basically. We also got 2 more members of our family - Booth and Fiona - our cats. But they don't take up too much space.
I think it started when we decided to try and eat organic. We started reading blogs about organic living and cooking. Then one day Ryan stumbled upon Tammy Strobels Rowdy kittens . He kept talking about something called minimalism, and tiny houses. Well, tiny houses sounded cute, so I looked up Tammy's site. I became a person obsessed. It was like a missing piece had finally after some twisting and turning fit into place. This is what I was looking for, in a phrase - LESS STUFF. It could be done, you mean - I don't HAVE to own tons of books. I can cook with just one pan? 2 plates for 2 people? Insanity!!!
But it fit, it felt good, and so we were off and running.
With about 6 months left on our lease of our huge (well now if feels huge to us) apartment we are seeking to figure out what the next step is. Do we buy a small house? Do we rent a studio apartment? What does a minimalist wedding look like?
We hope this little blog will be an inspiration to others, we called it 'mini minimalists' because we are far from knowing what we are doing, we are making up some of the rules, and we are no where near living in a 80 square foot house (although we do like to look at floor plans)
I hope we can help other to eliminate some of the clutter from not only your house, but you life and spirit as well. We have found so much freedom in just the few things we have done so far, we can't wait to see what is next!
I have moved a lot. Not so much as some people - like military families - but since college I have probably lived in 5 or 6 places, and I have been out of college for 10 years. Every time I pack up my possessions I get this overwhelming sense of frustration. I have often yelled out loud "WHY DO I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF!!" But it never occured to me that I DIDN'T need to have so much stuff. I just collected things over time. For about 6 years I was a missionary. I made practically no money, so if someone gave me something I kept it. I told myself "You will never be able to buy nice things" so if i received a 'nice' thing I would keep it, even if I didn't need it.
Eventually I started buying things of my own, never getting rid of anything else. When I moved out of my apartment a few years ago, I had about 10 bins of "stuff" that didn't fit in the new apartment, so it got stored away.
When my boyfriend - now fiance - moved in with me, he brought all his stuff too! It definitely didn't fit, so we did what everyone does : we got a bigger place.
I was pretty proud when we were able to fit almost all of our stuff in a 10 foot moving van. Forgetting of course, that Ryan had been moving box after box over to the new place when he wasn't working. So now we have a spacious 2 bedroom apartment with a den. Then - we bought even MORE stuff, shelves, cabinets, dressers, chairs anything that caught our eye at Ikea basically. We also got 2 more members of our family - Booth and Fiona - our cats. But they don't take up too much space.
I think it started when we decided to try and eat organic. We started reading blogs about organic living and cooking. Then one day Ryan stumbled upon Tammy Strobels Rowdy kittens . He kept talking about something called minimalism, and tiny houses. Well, tiny houses sounded cute, so I looked up Tammy's site. I became a person obsessed. It was like a missing piece had finally after some twisting and turning fit into place. This is what I was looking for, in a phrase - LESS STUFF. It could be done, you mean - I don't HAVE to own tons of books. I can cook with just one pan? 2 plates for 2 people? Insanity!!!
But it fit, it felt good, and so we were off and running.
With about 6 months left on our lease of our huge (well now if feels huge to us) apartment we are seeking to figure out what the next step is. Do we buy a small house? Do we rent a studio apartment? What does a minimalist wedding look like?
We hope this little blog will be an inspiration to others, we called it 'mini minimalists' because we are far from knowing what we are doing, we are making up some of the rules, and we are no where near living in a 80 square foot house (although we do like to look at floor plans)
I hope we can help other to eliminate some of the clutter from not only your house, but you life and spirit as well. We have found so much freedom in just the few things we have done so far, we can't wait to see what is next!
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