My Feeble Attempts at Minimalism

I have started subscribing to blogs that promote the minimalist life style and I have decided to give it a try. A simple life is the sort of life that I want.  The only drawback is that I did not consider how hard it is to actually do….reading about it is fine but it is action that counts. I will admit that it is hard when not everyone is the household is on board with getting rid of stuff.

One of the things I decided to try was to clean and organize the silverware drawer and the cupboard.  Over the years, the draw was full of all types of knifes, forks, spoons, and other stuff.  It was getting to the point the drawer was hard to open and close.  The concept is called “one is enough”.  That means that we would only need one fork, spoon, knife, etc. for each member of the household.  After much thought and with a family not on board with this idea, I thought that I would pack away and only keep enough for a service of 8 – only 8 forks, 8 knifes, 8 spoons, 8 plates – you get the idea.  Amazingly, not really, the drawer was much lighter and easier to open and close.  I thought it looked very nice.  Now I did this on the weekend when I am home.  The dishes were washed and there were enough – plenty of all the things that we use everyday.  The problem arose on Monday, when everyone went back to work.  Breakfast was eaten and dishes were rinsed but left in the sink. Luckily, hubby and I are able to come home for lunch but really only have about 30 minutes to eat, talk, play with the pups (really dogs) and get back to work. Well, the habit was just to rinse the dishes and deal with them later.  Well, supper came along and then we were short on silverware and plates.  It was glaringly evident that nobody likes to clean the dishes and we do not clean up after ourselves in the kitchen.  The only way this was going to work was for us to start cleaning the kitchen after every meal.  It is not perfect by any means but now, after we eat, we do wash up after ourselves.

Now the really big thing I am trying is the 333 project.  The idea here is to have 33 items in your wardrobe for 3 months including shoes and accessories.  The starting date for this project was going to be April 1.  I did try to find time to look up on the internet on how to go about this process and I did find some good resources.  However, because I was so busy at work I did not have a good time to go about it as suggested. So, here is what I did….I all the clothes out of my wardrobe. Picked out the clothes that I wear the most and put the rest in a back closet with the idea that I would not get anything out of the back closet. I noted that I did have a lot of clothes.  I did whittle my clothing down to 44 pieces of clothing on April 28.  I know that the true project is to only have 33 items including shoes and accessories and I will try to pair it down more in July.  I ended up with the following items.

1. 3 pairs of jeans – on with sparkles on the rear
2. 6 pairs of black pants – basically what I wear all week long.  Also a little worried that if I did not have 6 pairs that I would not have clean pants to wear to work.
3. 1 blue jean trouser pants
4. 1 brown pants
5. 1 gray sweater
6. 1 white sweater
7. 1 off white sweater
8. 11 shirts – nice T-shirts that I can wear to the office
9. 5 – Tunics
10. 6 –  dresses
11. 1 blue jean skirt
12. 2 long skirts – one black and one striped
13. 1 short sleeve crocheted jacket*
14. 2 dress shirts
15. 1 white denim jacket
16. 1 long maxi dress*

The goal is then not to add to my wardrobe and the pieces would not change until July 1. I did have a moment of weakness this weekend  when I went shopping for luggage for my daughter.  The plan was to go to Kohl’s, look at the luggage on sale and use my 30% off coupon.  The items that have asterisks by them are from my weakness today.

New Maxi dress and crocheted jacket

New Luggage and shoes

Okay…here is my rational for the new purchases.  I had surgery and needed a pick me up.  I have time to look at the adds in my e-mail and have started to “lust” after a new outfit. I was thinking about ordering a maxi skirt for July 1 but now I don’t have to…Most importantly, I have a 30% coupon that I can not let go to waste.  I did feel good that all these things only cost my $137.59.  All these are just excuses…. I know I am casting blame elsewhere so I feel better… I must remember it is a process and the point is to keep on trying.

Maybe my next step should be “breaking it off” – unsubscribing to most – maybe all of those advertising e-mails…..