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.
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