21 days of minimalism or negative 231 things

Howdy, neighbors! (Wilson from Home Improvement, anyone?) I have a few things in the blog pipeline, but this minimalism thing is at the forefront. You might be tired of hearing about this little adventure, but I'm not tired of talking about it. Check back in May if you can't take anymore of these shenanigans.

I have purged 231 things and it feels ah-mazing. Things started getting a little difficult in the 'teens' days, but now I think I have started an avalanche of sorts.

Until last night, I was getting rid of nicknacks, clutter, nail polish, unused beauty goop, books, dusty craft supplies, and the like. Last night, though, I had a backlog of 4 days and decided to dive into my sentimental stashes. Yikes. It was difficult at first, but I started realizing that these things didn't add anything to me or my memories. I kept only the most important things: letters from Henry, a couple of cards from my dad, and pictures. The rest of it: ticket stubs, middle school notes, etc. all went away. I don't need the ticket stubs to remind me of how much fun I had in high school. The movie was hardly the point (no no no, I watched the movie, I just liked hanging out with friends and the movie was the catalyst... jeeze). Henry thinks this part is some form of self-torture, but I thought it was really liberating. These sentimental things must not be that important if I am letting them gather very literal piles of dust. I'd rather have a few very important things displayed prominently than boxes of things hidden away. Also, I couldn't remember why I kept at least half of the things in the box I went through last night.

I was feeling a little conflicted last night, but I found these minimalist blogs to be very very helpful:

http://www.theminimalists.com/sentimental/

and

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/how-to-simplify-your-stuff-and-honor-your-memories/

In the comments of my last post, a friend of mine gave some sage advice: "Don't keep things just to keep things and don't get rid of things just to get rid of things." This was really valuable advice yesterday. I have a few things that are so important to me and I want to be able to display those all the time. To do that, I need to get rid of the less meaningful things taking up that space. 

After last nights catch-up, I have this itch to keep going. It's possible I'll finish the 463 things before the end of the month. I'm on a roll now... 

12 Days in the #Minsgame and How Beer Helps me Eat Better

Howdy, folks! You are in for a two-fer! First, I thought I would give an update on the minimalism game I have been playing in April. Second, I had a bit of a personal revelation today about the things I have been eating lately and how I came to like them.

So, the minimalism game. As a reminder, the rule of the "game" is to get rid of a number of items everyday corresponding to the calendar day. 1 item on the first, 2 on the second, and so on until you have purged 463 things. As of today, I have gotten rid of 78 things! It started getting a little difficult today. I mentioned in the last blog that Henry was on board, but it seems that was only true in theory. The other day he said, "This game makes me nervous. I feel like you are getting rid of things just to get rid of things." I responded with, "I feel like you are keeping things just to keep things." Which I think deserves a touché. I think he likes the end result of minimalism: owning and buying fewer things means that we can spend more time and money having fun and doing the things we want to do. I think his biggest hurdle is "what if we need it". That is obviously valid, but I don't want to keep a bunch of things that haven't been useful in the last 4 years but might be in the next 6. We keep 95% of our things in one bedroom and we just don't have the space to think like that. I want to enjoy what I have, not live in an apocalypse preparedness bunker.  I'm hoping we can strike up a compromise, but part of me wants to be the kind of minimalist that can fit everything she wants and needs in one suitcase.

But then there is my camera collection.

And my 4 foot tall Winnie the Pooh from childhood.

And my 1000lb toy chest.

And the books. So many books.

Can minimalists have collections?

Clearly there is some internal conflict.

Moving on to the beer:

I am a super-taster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster) which boils down to me tasting bitterness way more than normal. I was always a picky eater as a kid... and a teen... and a adult. My step-mother-in-law once asked me to list 10 foods I liked. I started listing all the ways you can cook a potato but she said that only counted as one food. I didn't make it to 10. I think I got to 7 or 8. But then I became a vegetarian (sort of on accident... more on that in a future post maybe) and I had to expand my pallet. I started with zucchini (at this point you are thinking, "I thought she said this was about beer!?!?". I'm getting there, promise) which was the gateway vegetable for broccoli. Broccoli is sort of bitter, but I really took a liking to it and that opened up all kinds of doors. During this time of vegetable-discovery, I started hanging out with people who were really into beer ("Ah ha!", you say, "she got to the beer!"). Not in an alcoholic sort of way but in a hobby sort of way. Think the beer equivalent of a sommelier, which I have just learned may be called a cicerone. I wanted to be a part of that but bitterness is so overpowering and hops are like little tiny bitter powerhouses. Then I discovered wheat beers and sour beers. I love these beers. Low on the hops taste and high in other flavors, but still pretty bitter. Sours are my favorite. Now that I have been drinking these, I have noticed that my reactions to tasting other bitter things aren't as extreme as they used to be. For example, I ate a coffee flavored candy the other day and didn't even scrunch my face up OR ball up my fists! I actually kind of liked it. And yogurt! I eat yogurt now! "What!?!?! You thought yogurt was bitter???" Well, I more thought yogurt was acidic, but yeah. And I had a brussels sprout! I think learning to like beer is making these other bitter foods tolerable. Alternatively, I could just be growing out of being a super-taster. I don't know if that is a thing that can happen, though. Flavor perception does decline with age, but not starting at 25. I really think it is the beer. I better keep drinking it. 

End of March, Beginning of April, and a move toward minimalism

Well, March is over. How did I do on my de-stressing? I'd give myself a 92. I reached inbox zero, figured out what was going on with my drives/dropboxes, cleaned up my work computer and files, cleaned up my ipad and iAnnotate, and put all of my pictures into iPhoto with event labels. So why not a 100? My event labels are pretty vague ("winter 2013", for example) and I didn't quite solve the what-should-I-do-with-my-papers conundrum. I downloaded readcube and imported most of my papers into readcube's library deal (which was sooooo easy!!!!), but I haven't exactly figured out how to integrate readcube with my ipad (or if that is even possible), and the folder labels it imported are wonky and need to be changed. I didn't have the time to really look into those things since I had two abstracts and a poster due in the last few days. But, everything is more organized so moving forward or switching to a new reading system should be fairly painless. I still have some things to sort out, but I'm well on my way and that feels nice. And that was the whole point of this project: getting a handle on the things stressing me out.

So, here is April! The month of fixing cabinets, organizing dishes, and making a habitable patio! Oh, and it's my Birthday this week! Yay 25! (Or, "Yikes 25!", depending on the moment.) I also decided to play a minimalism game from http://www.theminimalists.com/game/. It isn't so much a game as it is a jump start to the life style. Basically, you get rid of a number of items corresponding to the day of the month. On the first, you get rid of one thing, two on the second, three on the third, etc. In April, I will purge 463 things from my life!

Henry and I love each other dearly, but our theories of possession are polar opposite. Most days, I want to get rid of everything I own. Henry, on the other hand on another body far far away, wants to keep e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. This difference between us wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for these letters: A, C, D, and O. He is an ADD type (which he uses to his advantage in school and is the secret to his trivia success, so not always negative) and I have definite obsessive compulsive tendencies that are increased with stress (like graduate school, for example). These two...uh...traits?...disorders?... lifestyles don't exactly fit together. Having ADD means that Henry can't always remember to put things back where they came from and OCD means that Sarah can't live a life with that kind of chaos. I have learned over the last 4 years, though, that Henry can put things away when the absence leaves an obvious space. For example, the cereal will make it back into the cabinet if there is a cereal-box-shaped hole where it needs to go. It will not make it back if it was stacked on top of or in front of something. All that is to say owning fewer things helps us both. It helps Henry find where things are/go which keeps me from nagging and also makes things seem cleaner and neater which is nice for my OCD.

We have slowly been moving towards minimalism over the years by virtue of moving to smaller and smaller apartments. We currently share a two-bedroom apartment with two fantastic roommates, one human and one of the canine persuasion. That is 3 humans and 3 dog-children in one apartment, so we had to purge a lot from our previous apartment (mostly furniture). Henry and I make it work by lofting our bed and keeping our desks underneath. It is a tight squeeze, but it definitely works and looks kind of awesome when it is clean. One stray laundry basket, though, and it feels like an episode of hoarders. We walk a fine line between tiny-home efficiency (side note: I <3 tiny homes) and utter chaos. I think purging more things will help thicken the line, so hence the game.

Beyond helping us control our ADD/OCD riddled relationship, there are some philosophical reasons to live with less. This post is already way too long, so I think I'll save that discussion for a later update. These future discussions will also explain why Henry is kind of on board with minimalism. This post leaves the taste that I am forcing him to accept minimalism.... and I kind of am... but he also likes the idea.

Are any of you interested in playing? I think I'll post my daily purges to Instagram with the hashtag #MinimalistGame to help hold myself accountable.

Cleaning house

I'm going on this journey, guys. I think it was prompted by a sort of quarter life crisis. I made a list of all the things in my life causing me these little stresses that I think add up in a big way. I grouped these stresses into like-domains and assigned a month to fixing each category. March has been dedicated to cleaning up my digital life (facebook, computer files, papers for class, photos, dropbox, other dropbox, google drive, etc.). Next month is dedicated to fixing all these tiny broken things around me like how two of our cabinets are missing screws so the doors don't shut well and how the tupperware is basically a booby-trap and how the pots and pans and their lids are having some sort of cookware orgy in our cabinet. I'm also working on making my patio an oasis where I can ignore such things from time to time. That will be nice. The pots and pans are so noisy.

Anyway, I had this idea of documenting all my stresses for a while, but that seemed like the worst idea ever. I knew the list would be so long and the solutions to these stresses were all tasks I had been avoiding for forever (looking at you, Mr. Your-Device-Needs-Updating). But, I finally gave in one night and it wasn't that terrible. It felt nice to see exactly what was bothering me. And then it all seemed kind of manageable. They seemed to cluster themselves: digital life, closet-of-doom, little repairs, too-many-things. Giving the stresses solutions also helped me imagine how much better life could be. Tiny frustrations add up, you know? And if I have to fight with that cabinet every morning for the rest of my life, I'm going to Hulk smash it. The tiny things add up. I don't expect type of look-your-stress-in-the-eyes-and-squish-it tactic will work for everyone, but I"m cautiously optimistic for myself. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and in case you wanted to see the list, here it is in all it's blunt honesty:

Things causing me stress:

My digital life: {MARCH}
Why aren’t all my pictures in one place
label events in iphoto
Why don’t I use my iPad?
need to update and sync with new dropbox
How should I organize the papers I read for class?
What can google drive do? (Pictures?)
Clean up desktop/drive/thumb drive folders (Yikes)

Why don’t any of our cabinets have the right screws? {APRIL}

Why is walking into our closet like walking into the hell mouth? {MAY}
Need uniform boxes from ikea to make it seem cleaner
Too many little trinket boxes. Need one big box.

Why are the kitchen cabinets such a wreck? {APRIL}
pots and pans need help
need to straighten all cabinets
tupperware needs permanent solution

Why do we have so many guitars? {JUNE}

Why is there so much shit shoved under the bed? {JUNE}
Croquette?? We have played that once.
Maybe all that stuff can go in the closet once we purge some stuff?

What is with all the aloe plants? They need to go outside our something {MAY}

Why is our porch uninhabitable? {EARLY APRIL}
Need to throw away rotting chairs, shoes, and potting soil
cover car supplies with outdoor table cloth (brilliant)
buy a hammock stand (ikea: $70)

Lets talk about the book cases. They could be a little neater. And maybe we don’t need all of them.. or maybe we need more. Undecided. {JULY}

Why do I hate my desk? {AUGUST}
not minimalist enough (too much clutter)
scared to open the drawers
need a new way to organize crafts

46 and Water Bottles

I had 46 page views yesterday. I'm sure a dozen or so were me checking for errors and asking myself "Do I really want to admit that I sang to a dying rat?". Ha. Anyway, to the 34 other viewers, thanks!

This will be a brief blog, and should probably be filed under "first world problem rants".

I have a love/hate relationship with water bottles. I'm firmly against buying bottled water (especially if you live in an area with fantastic tap water), but I do like water bottles. Please note the distinction. Unfortunately, I have had to buy so many water bottles that my plastic consumption probably rivals that of a months worth of bottled water. Here is a break down of my quest for the perfect water bottle:

1. This is the Intak (pronounced "Intake") water bottle. It was so great for so long. The seal stayed tight and it was quiet in class. It also had this neat ring under the cap that rotated to keep track of how many glasses I had consumed. So why wasn't this the answer to my water transportation needs? Mold. I moved to an apartment with no dishwasher and it became physically impossible to wash the bottom of the bottle.

2. This camelback also suffered the same fate. Why did I buy a water bottle that would obviously have the same problems? I bought this one before we moved to the dishwasher-less apartment. It was an impulse buy and I loved it.

3. My third attempt lead me to this rubbermaid container. I liked that it was short and thus could be cleaned and that I could fill it with things other than water. (The camelback is only good for water. Other things make the plastic taste funny and clog the bite valve). Its failure became apparent almost immediately. The awkward shape prevented it from fitting in any cup holder which is a big problem for the gym. Also, the cap became loose within the first week and failed a few times. Terrible.

4. My latest attempt has also been a failure. I was so excited when I got this new bottle last week. It had a screw on top instead of a tension top like the rubbermaid which kept it from falling off. Unfortunately, I think the one I picked is defective and doesn't thread right. It leaks. It just leaked on my laptop which lead to this rant. The internet seems to have no record of this bottle's existence, hence the lack of picture. Why is it so hard to find a good water bottle?

Anyone out there have a favorite water/tea transportation device they would like to share? Or a bad experience you wouldn't mind sharing so others would avoid the same fate?



(P.S. While taking this picture of bottle number 4, it leaked tea on my white duvet, my quilt, my sock, my PJ pants, and it started hissing at me. No bueno.)

Lent: Day 1

My dumpster rat died. That's how I started my morning.

We have had this rat (possibly plural) nesting near our dumpsters. This would make most people recoil in fear or disgust, but my chihuahua/dachshund mix named Meeka takes great entertainment in hunting for the rat. I obviously don't let her catch it or even get near it, but she still looks forward to going on a rat hunt every night. It is kind of cute considering they are about the same size. It would be a fair fight. Anyway, I am a sucker for consistency and I love that this rat is part of our routine. I love routine.

This morning, the rat was laying in the middle of the drive. Meeka thought this was her lucky day. I kept her away, of course, but the poor little thing seemed dead. And then it moved its little brown head. My heart broke. My heart broke for the dumpster rat. I wanted nothing more than to help put it out of its misery. It had provided my dog with months of entertainment and I felt like I owed it something. I cried for the rat and sang a line of "All creatures of our God and King". I cried for the dumpster rat. I'm not usually like this.

I asked Henry if there was anything we could do, but we couldn't think of a quick remedy that would ensure success. When I came home this afternoon, the rat was gone (dead, I'm sure).

Why did I cry over a dumpster rat? Am I that tied to God's creation, or is it my intense desire for consistency and routine? Maybe it is a little bit of both (or maybe it's this new medicine I'm on).

The above anecdote has almost nothing to do with lent. I don't have any specific plans for the season, but I would like to become a more spiritual person in general. I'd like to make more time to pray and spend less time self obsessing and more time focused on pleasing meditations (Philipians 4:8 (NIV) And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.).