Neglecting Our Personal Resources

I spent fifteen minutes this morning shaving my daughter's favorite sweatshirt. It was getting pretty nubby, and not really looking good anymore. In years past this sort of thing might have been reason enough to get rid of the sweatshirt (especially if it were mine, not someone else's). Now, I want to keep the things I have as long as I can, for a couple of reasons.

First, I want to keep things looking nice because I want to keep using them. I don't want to go shopping for a new sweatshirt. In years past, going shopping was just something I did. I could pick up a sweatshirt because I was going to be at the store anyway. (Since I mostly use thrift shops, it wouldn't even be that expensive!) If I shave this sweatshirt once or twice, I may not need another sweatshirt until she grows out if it!

Second, I am concerned about the environment impact of the things I buy. I know thrift shops have more goods than they can sell in many cases, but they don't need me to donate a nubby sweatshirt because I no longer want it. Hopefully, more and more people are utilizing the second hand market. I see more consignment stores now than I did just ten years ago. I know we, as Americans, still tend to buy more new things than ever before and I cannot explain our ravenous appetite for stuff.

I didn't grow up taking care of my clothes, really. I mean, my mother washed my clothes and made sure they weren't stained, but that was about it. I had play clothes to wear after school so I wouldn't ruin my school clothes, but I wasn't aware that there was something I needed to do other than throw clothes in the washing machine. I don't know if I was just unaware, or if this was something people didn't do in the '80's. I'm sure my great-grandmother mended, and combed, and brushed her clothes.  As a result, her clothes lasted. I want to make things last. I want to spend the little bit of time now to save my things from being wasted; I want to prevent waste through what my great-grandmother would have called neglect.

I only recently bought a sweater comb and started using it. I bought a cashmere sweater that started to pill after a season of constant wear, but I didn't want to throw it away and look for another. I had to look for another solution. I didn't want my sweater to look old, worn or neglected.

Neglect is a word we don't use much anymore. Maybe we should.

DailyDeclutter

Today is a "not-at-home" day - the last scheduled "not-at-home" day for this semester of dance. My daughter's class will be changing to nights, so we will need to create a new family schedule since she will need to be driven to class, and we will not be able to sit down to dinner at the regular time. We'll see how that works out, but we will need a schedule so the whole family will be able to have time together.

On a different not, I decluttered by not receiving a tablecloth and napkins from a friend who was decluttering her house. The tablecloth would fit my table, but I've been getting by without it, so I don't need to store it. But, oh, I was tempted! Free stuff! That I can use! I'm glad I had the willpower to resist.

The bar in my kitchen is mostly clear. This is the first time since we've lived here that the bar is remaining clear without my specifically clearing it off. Apparently, making the decision to deal with things NOW instead of waiting is actually working. It's working for other people in the family as well. My husband found a bottle of glue on the bar and put it away, rather than let it sit there until the whole bar was cluttered. I have read that a cluttered space attracts more clutter and a clean space is easier to keep clean. There may be truth to that!

The thing that was really different about today, though, was my free time during dance class. While my daughter dances, I usually use Monday to run errands. This means go shopping. I shop for clothes my kids have grown out of, groceries, birthday presents, anything that needs to be done. Today I didn't need to shop. I did all my shopping Friday and Saturday. I didn't need to go look for clothes without my kids, because they have enough. If they grow again, I'll take them with me. I had totally free time! So I spent an hour walking around the park, and half an hour calling people I needed to talk to. (I even took a couple pictures of blooming flowers, that hopefully I will use later.) When I got home I didn't have phone calls to make, groceries or other purchases to put away. I was able to just be at home, and I was able to spend time with my family.

I wish I had tried scheduling shopping sooner, but I'm glad for the time I have freed up now.

The Future of Screen Time

I was listening to the the TED radio hour on NPR this afternoon, talking about screen time, and how it is changing people. One of the speakers was working to develop technology that would read our emotions. She wants our devices to say things like "Are you ok? You haven't laughed in four days." Another speaker suggested that we are becoming a new type of animal, different from Homo sapiens because our tools have changed so much.

It makes me afraid to think that people are becoming so dependent on technology that we need technology to evaluate our emotional health -- instead of friends being concerned about us. Amber Case discussed that the screen is an evolution of the tools our Paleolithic ancestors used to extend our hands (hammers), teeth (knives) and brains (cave paintings). But the episode also talked about how differently we think when time is altered by constant communication from our screens/phones. We are eternally receiving messages about deliveries arriving elsewhere, actions we have to take some other time. We aren't living in the present and some of us are un-learning to live in the present, in my opinion.

I'm not saying that all technology is bad. I'm terribly fond of a great deal of it. But I am concerned about how dependence on screens, and technology, can separate us from people just as we think it is bringing us together. Perhaps a minimal use of technology is a more prudent approach -- use as much as we need, but don't let the technology become an end in itself. Much as so many things are better taken as a means to an end, and not the end in itself.

So I will put away my computer, and spend the evening with my family. A friend gave us a blackberry apple crisp, and I will go enjoy it in real time.

Daily Declutter

I spent most of the day away from home. Grocery shopping, dance class, visiting with friends. But I did get rid of a big piece of clutter. I finally sold the canoe!

The canoe has been sitting in my yard for months and months now. I have never moved it, except to take a picture for Craigslist. It was of no benefit to me -- in part, because it was so difficult to move. But this morning I got a message from someone who wanted it, and was willing to pay for me to deliver it.

I had a very generous friend come over to help me load it in my old work truck. Exactly half the canoe stuck out the back, over the tailgate. I wish I had taken a picture! I felt absurd, and probably not legal to drive the freeways. I spend almost an hour driving (it's usually a half-hour drive) to deliver the canoe. The guy who bought it said he'd now have a "red canoe story," so it must have looked absurd to him, too.

But the best part is being rid of the canoe. I'm rid of the guilt. I will no longer look at it when I walk outside and think "I really wish I could get rid of that." I will no longer feel bad for letting it rot in the front yard, when surely SOMEONE could use it. I'm free, I'm free.

Most clutter isn't as loudly annoying at this canoe was, but I think this is a good indicator of why the whole "minimalism - thing" is so appealing to me.

Daily Declutter

Clutter has been sneaking up on me. I put away a couple of skeins of yarn that had been sitting out. I moved a box of magazines I posted to ebay back out to the shed. I had a book sitting on my nightstand for not less than six months, just looking at me accusingly. I finally moved it to a bookshelf where I won't hear it's accusations "you never finished reading me!" My husband threw out a calculator that didn't work. (We had to discuss keeping it. Some of us thought it might just need a new battery, but since no one had done that in months, and he was going to put it back in the drawer in favor of another calculator, he decided to throw it away. This is how clutter sneaks up!)

I washed laundry, though. I'm still enjoying my tidier laundry area, with room for my laundry baskets. My family is dealing with lost socks living in their sock drawers. Did some house cleaning, which is not the same thing as decluttering.

Made my menu for next week, and started grocery shopping. I'll finish tomorrow. This may be my new pattern, because I like some of the shops near home better than the shops I can get to on Saturdays. As long as I don't go out all day, every day, I will count it an improvement.

We've been busy living. We went to the circus yesterday evening! If you have the circus in your area, GO! I hadn't been since I was a child, and the circus is very different than I remembered. For one thing, our circus had no animals. The performers were amazingly talented. The clowns we not in makeup, and they were hysterically funny. I do not remember the last time I laughed so hard! We saw Circus Vargas, but check out the circus near you.

What to do when you're not decluttering

I talk a lot about decluttering. But that's not my life, and I don't want my life to be all about getting rid of stuff. For one things, that would mean at some point I'd have to start bringing stuff into the house so I would have something to declutter.

Minimalism is a concept that has various meanings for various people. But I keep seeing people talk about how minimalism is about the quality of life you live, not about the number of things you own.

My path to minimalism is largely about my relationships. I want to make the best use of the time I have with both my children at home. In order to do this, I need to prioritize our time together, and I need to prioritize their interests. As a result, dance, robots, Legos and chickens take up time and space in my life. Legos take up a lot of space in my house, even if they aren't a decorating decision I would make otherwise.

I am spending some of my time serving God through my church. I am hoping to improve the lives of people in my community through my service there. If other people are able to better enjoy their time with their children because they have better access to food or other necessities, that is a good use of my time.

I do need to decide some other uses of my time. If I'm not going to spend all my time running to the grocery store (still thrilled with the new system, thank you!), what do I want to do with my time. I spend some time blogging, some time keeping the house reasonably tidy, some time keeping my family fed. But I need to decide what relationship-building activities I find most important. What does my family want to do together when we have an afternoon or weekend free of commitments?

Commitments that do not support our true priorities are clutter as much as physical objects are.

If minimalism is making space for the important things in life, we each need to decide what those important things are, to us. With so much environmental static, with so many messages crowding in on us to be this, buy that, do the other thing, we really need to quietly evaluate what is important to use internally. We need to have the environmental quiet to hear our authentic selves tell us what we really want to surround ourselves with. It's probably not clutter.

So go out and discover what you're interested in being, and pursue that when you're not decluttering.

Daily Declutter

I feel like the sloth is my spirit animal. I'm just not moving forward the way I would like. Sometimes, that's just the way life is. I've been busy with church activities, orthodontist visits, parenting and family activities.

That's why I need to simplify the physical aspects of life. A big decluttering project isn't in the cards at present.

I have been working on tiny things. I got rid of the pens I hate from the jar near the phone. Next time I need to jot something down I won't scowl at the pen I grabbed, put it back and rummage around for another one. I'll be willing to use the one in my hand. I'll have a pencil there as well, because sometimes you just need a pencil you can erase.

I glued a broken decoration back together for my daughter. I left it on the counter for only one day, instead of leaving it there for weeks. I had to go outside to get the glue, which seemed insurmountable at one point. I was done in minutes, and it feels good to have that off my counter and off my brain.

I spent a large portion of yesterday doing laundry and hanging it out. I found a torn handkerchief, and instead of putting it back into the bag where we store them I deposited it into the fabric recycling container, so no one will pull a ragged scrap out to blow their noses in front of people.

I've been thinking I really need to take pictures for the blog, to make it prettier. But I really am dedicated to living in the moment, and the recurring thought that "I should photograph this for the blog" takes me away from the moment. We spotted a rainbow the day before yesterday, and I'm glad I enjoyed it with the kids rather than running in the house for the camera. Because how many kids their age still enjoy looking at rainbows? So I'll be sticking with the simple structure, at least for now.