You may remember the Minimalism Project that turned into my very first "blog". It had a overwhelmingly good response, because I was super in love while I was writing. It was actually how I discovered my narrative as a writer. Someone asked me this past winter how I write well. "I don't consider myself to be a good writer. but thank you for the compliment. Just write as if you're writing Love Letters", I said. "Only write them to the Entire Universe. Make it your job to fall in Love with the entire universe every day."
Hey. It worked 5 years ago.
and like Dr. Phil says, people do what works.
Hey. It worked 5 years ago.
and like Dr. Phil says, people do what works.
inspired by the 100 thing challenge! April 14th 2011
if you try to call me, I will not come.
I am liberated of the phone!
Your text will bounce back? or whatever texes do...
I have dreamed of this day since I was 17 years old and my Dad said I "had to" have a phone.
I feel so ridiculously free and awesome right now!!!
So. Yesterday I read an amazing book called the "100 thing challenge" in which this fellow tries to live with only 100 possessions for a year. This is an idea I have been fascinated with increasingly, even since before the purchase of this house... Due to not enough space to put "stuff".
Dave lays out his ground rules; He doesn't impose this on the family. Shared items (couch, kitchen table) don't count. Socks and underwear don't count. All of his books count as "one library" etcetera.
I am guilty of loving "stuff". I am surrounded by it. I hadn't gotten rid of anything pretty much my whole life up until the last few years. My parents saved everything from my childhood it seems. "Oh here honey, its a folder of all of your schoolwork from grades 2 through 4, now you have a house to store it in you have to keep it."
Ugh. its sweet, but its trapping. I would like to travel.
I would very much like to travel.
The care-free freedom of the freegan anarchist kids is what really set me off.
Here I am trapped under a mountain of junk I am not quite done paying for, and those guys are off having adventures.
Grrr.
But I neeeeeed all this junk.....
Even as I read Dave's thorough account of his challenge, I thought, I can't do this. I love my stuff...
But I decided I could start out differently. Tweak the ground rules to suit me... For Example.
Rule #1. Books don't count (as a birthday present to myself, that day I spent much of my time organizing my bookshelves. *twinkly eyes*)
Rule #2. Shared stuff doesn't count. (I run a household where people come and go intermittently. Furniture and whatnot is communal)
Rule #3. Kitchen stuff doesn't count. (Because I need 3 Blenders. I can also justify this by saying it belongs to the household...)
Rule #4. I am allowed to have a bunch of socks and underwear. I also love fashion. I own hundreds of different and strange articles, yet I wear the same pants and sweater every single day. I have given away about 6 large garbage bags full of clothes in two months and still am surrounded, so I will probably re-visit this topic soon.
Rule #5. Pajke's stuff doesn't count, what's given to her is hers. On the contrary, this is not a warehouse for outgrown infant outfits and baby contraptions, so they do get passed along.
Rule #6 Music falls under the category "library" like Dave says, I have One Library!
Okay. so that's a start. I also decided today as I pondered how I would approach this, that Instead of attempting to own "only 100 items" I will try and get rid of at least one thing every day for a year.
Day One. Phone!!! *checkmark!*
Stay tuned for day 2... Plastic bags and containers!!!
