Christmas

Whew, the holidays can wreak havoc on a person trying to live with fewer things. But luckily, I also had a chance to get rid of random things in my room to make room for things I got as presents. First, I have obviously failed at my initial plan, and while I have not gotten rid of one thing every day, I still have the motivation to live with less and less. Getting back to Chicago with twice as much stuff as I left with did not encourage me in my goal to continue to get rid of things, luckily a lot of that was candy and other edible things so it won't be staying around long. I did go through all of my old school things and get rid of notes I will no longer need, and organized my shelves to that everything fit neatly (it probably won't stay that way). Friday I plan to go through my closet again, with new clothes from Christmas who needs years old clothes from previous Christmases. I have begun to realize that I buy very little of my clothing items, and I don't mind that so much, my style is easily recognizable in a store and the quality that others by for me is higher than the quality that I would buy for myself. However, I still have a lot of extra items that I will not be needing with new shirts and dresses from Christmas!

I have been looking into moving into an apartment by myself next year though. I love to come home to just my pets and not have to think about washing the dishes before my roommate gets annoyed, even if I'm usually the person who would get annoyed with dirty dishes first, the freedom of not having to wash dishes before bed is totally worth it. If I do end up living by myself next school year I hope to be able to live in a nearly empty apartment, it is so much easier getting rid of things when you move into a new place than once you are settled, and living by myself I can live like that.

Enough for now about randomness, but I am still hoping to reduce my items a considerable amount by next school year, so the anniversary of this blog. Even if it is not the equivalent of one item a day, I think I will still have learned something about the materialistic ways I can live while still wanting to be a minimalist. So hears another crack at reducing my things, hopefully next time I write I will have good things to report!

Reminder

So, I was reminded in the last few days about this blog, and I decided I should update everyone on my life a bit. In the getting rid of department, I threw out a bunch of garbage paper I've been holding onto, I always seem to keep old mail that I don't need, and I broke my water bottle :( so I threw it away too. I only broke the top, because that was the plastic part, but the bottle is only useful as a cup anyway. I did however acquire a few things, a belt, and a rain jacket. Minimalism is slowly slipping out of my grasp, but I think if I lived in a temperate climate I would be able to get by without most of my jackets, coats, and sweaters.

I have been running though, and while I don't know if I will actually run a half marathon one day, I am training with a girl who plans to, so I might be able to. I also recently got a job for a research company related to transportation. They own a car sharing company (which I am already a member) and are big in promoting transit. I'll be helping to map transit access around the country. But the most exciting part is that in the interview they actually asked me what my opinions on sustainability are, and they wanted to make sure that I felt strongly enough to fit in with them about general sustainability. While I am not a super hippy kind of person, I think that generally I am a "sustainable" type of person, I like to turn off my lights when I'm not using them, and I try to unplug my chargers when I don't need to charge things. But generally I think that not overusing things is important for everyone. Just being asked that made me want to think more about sustainability, it mad me realize that I like to try to help save the earth (even if I am sure I destroy it with my lifestyle also.

Since moving to Chicago, I have become more of an advocate of public transit, partially because I realize that I actually love people, even the weird ones (maybe especially the weird ones). Yesterday I rode on the bus and was told someone's life story in the process of waiting for the bus to come. The way people live their lives and need to talk to random people at bus stops amazes me. I can't imagine that anyone could be lonely in a city when there are so many people to meet. I also know though, that without any friends to talk to on a regular basis I would probably be lonely as well.

Rick is still thinking of moving to New York. Cities and sustainable living can go hand in hand, and I think New York, being giant and dense and amazing may be the perfect place to go after I graduate. What better place to start work on transportation planning than New York, with a fairly well established public transit system and still a lot of traffic congestion. I am glad I am doing transportation, now to find a way to get rid of more stuff so if I end up moving to New York I'll be able to fit into an even smaller apartment.

Check in

So today I avoided going out to eat with a friend, not because I don't like her, but because I don't want to spend so much money. However, I am still of the mind that I want to just allow myself to spend money on cooking when I want, I need to hold back from random luxuries for a while. I just bought my ticket to Brazil. In December I will leave the USA for the first time and enter a country I have always wanted to go explore. I do plan to travel around while I am there, so I am trying to decide how I will pack in the minimum to still be able to have fun. It will be an interesting test of minimalism for me because I will have to balance socially acceptable means of travel with personal needs. If it were just me, I would probably pack only a few shirts, and a few bottoms, and a bathing suit, along with necessary undergarments and toiletries. While that would probably pass over fine with my travel mates, I may also need to pack "going out gear" and other random essentials. Hopefully I can keep my packing down to one backpack so that when we traverse the random parts of the country I won't need to carry too much.

On another note, I have successfully gotten rid of a few clothing items, and the small brown suitcase that I had. I love suitcases, but I know that I don't need small hard cased ones for general purposes. However, I did acquire a bicycle, a bicycle helmet, lights, a lock, and a pump.... sigh... a few more things to add to the list of things I own. I am beginning to wonder what is acceptable to re-gift as well. For Christmas I have some valuable things that I don't need anymore, but were given to me as gifts. I don't want to donate them to a random charity, but I also don't want to keep them around building up dust when I cannot use them. So I will begin to ask the gift donors if it is acceptable.

Also, Chicago is getting cold, and I am actually not minding the weather at all, I have a sweater and a jacket and a coat and that should get me through the winter along with two hats, some gloves, and a scarf. As the days get colder though, I will have to decide to do laundry more often to maintain normal hygiene with my limited underclothes.

Minimalism

First, I'm going to say I haven't written in a while. It's been a busy week, and I've been rethinking my priorities with this blog. I do think getting rid of things I no longer use, or that are not important to use is important, but I am starting to realize that using the things I have, even if I could buy one thing to replace three, is more minimalistic in a sense, than getting rid of those three things to buy another. So while I will continue to get rid of things, and post them up here when I do, I will try to think more about how I can use what I have to do things that I would usually want another item for. For one quick example, I did go buy these, but today I wanted to make cupcakes, but there is no muffin pan in the house, so I had to go buy one. First I shopped around and checked out prices, but eventually I realized that muffin pans are really one of those items that you can only use for one thing, but ramekins are like little bowls that can be used for ice cream, pinch bowls, who knows what else, and baking cupcakes! They are a little larger than traditional cupcake pans, and in the future I will fill them less and maybe put in two loads of ramekin cupcakes, but today I made (the most amazing) cupcakes ever in ramekins, that I can now use as any number of things, and they are a lot easier to store as they stack into the cabinets very nicely. Also, 8 only cost me $6, and they are pretty!

I did however go through a few days trying to widdle my things down to 100 things to follow in this guys footsteps so to speak: http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html.

I thought about it, and as it is I only have about 12 shirts, and I only wash clothes every two weeks, while his schedule seems to be every one week, I started counting my things, and with my furniture, clothes, bathroom stuff, etc, I only have about 210 items (I'm not sure of the exact number any more) and I could reasonably get rid of about 30 or 40 items and not affect my way of life, so I will get rid of some of these items, others I will keep for sentimental reasons, and I

will continue to try to reduce my item count over time. So today, I get rid of a large number of things, not only because I haven't written in over a week (I'm not such a good blogger) but because I think getting rid of things while I am in the mood for it is easier than holding onto things that I want to get rid of just so I can wait until the next day to blog about it. That is another thing I have had problems with with this blog, I want to get rid of a large pile of things at a time, so maybe I will write about piles of things more rarely, but I will be downsizing my life, but not forcing myself into anything. But on the thought of 100 items a day, I will still try to not get anything that I do not need, and I may include my unusual uses for things I already own in my blog, when I attempt to make-do with an unconventional items to get a job done.

Also, make cupcakes, they make everyone feel better!

Buttons (pictures will be added this evening)

With getting my life back on track I am also getting rid of useless things that are just funny. I went to an art show with Rick a long time ago and they had buttons (pin buttons not buttoning buttons) that say "Take Off Your Pants" so of course we ended up keeping a few of them. I still have one, even after all this time of purging I have somehow held onto this. So here it goes, out with everything else I have gotten rid of. And I find another button hiding underneath it. This one from the county fair. Sydney and I used to work the fair every year, taking entries, setting them on display, helping guard them during the weekend, and, of course, taking the displays down and getting the entries back to the people who brought them to the fair. Each year we met new and interesting people from the county. One year it would be the crazy lady who entered her flower display in the wrong category, didn't win anything, and demanded to know why, another year it was the kids who cried when we took their craft projects because it was their favorite one. But one person who stood out the most, was a lady who walked in with a brown paper bag full of buttons. Each button from a different event, and each with its own saying on it to inspire others. Setting up a display for this collection was one of the most difficult displays we had to work with, but one of the most fun. We laughed at the different sayings, chose which ones were the most entertaining and moved them toward the front, and put those pins everwhere we could find to place them on the board. When it was time to give the buttons back, the collector allowed us to choose our favorites to keep. I chose one about being excited (as you can see). The pure joy in just having a small part of a lifelong collection of fun sayings and happy feelings allowed Sydney and I to feel more like participants in the fair entry than when we were simply the workers in the background.

The people who enter collections and projects into the county fair have always interested me. As a child I would enter crafts and had no concept that these items were examined by groups of workers, and exclaimed over when they were good. As an adult, I saw the rapid decline in the number of entries, and the pure need for the community to participate in the fair. I still have yet to enter anything into a county fair since high school (and even then it was only one entry of jam that did not win), but I always think how much fun it would be to go see my collection, or my artwork displayed for all to see. The photographs are the most interesting part to me. Some people choose to take typical pictures, but many in my local community take artistic pictures of places we see every day. These are the ones that allow me to see a new beauty in my surroundings, and give me the opportunity to appreciate what is already there. While I'm minimizing my life, I will maximize my view of the world in this way (at least I hope).

New Inspiration!

So, I have been slowly running out of motivation to get rid of things. I've decided that first, I haven't watched an episode of Hoarders in a while (but I talked about it recently and that inspired me some) and second, I began to feel more connection with the things I do have because I moved away from my friends and family and everything that I owned when around them became sentimental. Luckily, Rick found a website called use it or lose it and they have a program where you can upload pictures of everything you own, or whatever you feel like uploading, but it is out there to encourage you to look into everything you have. I plan to eventually upload pictures of everything I own (except personal things like underwear and stuff... that would just be a little.... strange) and that way I can pick from there what I will get rid of, as well as see what I have. I may watch an episode of Hoarders this weekend to get re-inspired again. But on that website they have links to similar stories of getting rid of things, or feeling the need to rid yourself of stuff, one of which I feel that I particularly agree with http://paulgraham.com/stuff.html. While I don't agree that books are necessarily something you need to accumulate, because how often do you really read a book you have, and I have a kindle, so it is spaceless accumulation for me, I do agree about everything else. Most people need things in their lives, I don't feel that I do, nor do I want to feel that way. So I will begin again, with a new feeling of hope that I will continue to get rid of things every day, and maybe more than one thing a day as time goes on. However.. I do need to update my wardrobe a little as well, like a sweater that isn't so brightly colored it will clash with everything I wear, who would have thought I need one of those?!

So today I will get rid of an anklet that Rose gave me for Christmas. It is from France, and is probably from H and M because I'm pretty sure this was the year she discovered H and M (but I plan to one up her and get my sweater from there, just not the France version of the store). It may in fact be from somewhere else, but the point is I wear this anklet about once every two years (which means I've worn it twice the whole time I've owned it) and obviously I don't need it. So thrift store bound this anklet will be. Hopefully the joy of getting new jewelry cheap will provide someone with some happiness, but also hopefully someone will want to wear it all the time.

Working

It seems like I always have a few more hours to put in for my work-from-home job, or a few more pages to read for a class. I never realized how busy my life could be when I haven't worked out a schedule yet. This week I wrote up a schedule on google calendar that hopefully will help me stay with it and get everything done before Sunday every week. I think I deserve at least one day off from work and hassle, besides, it's nice to have a relaxing day. I also found a free yoga class on Sunday afternoons that I am going to try out, I haven't done yoga in a while though, so it will be an interesting thing to see how I do in my first few classes back, but I was beginning to miss it. I am also really getting stiff from running and I think one class a week of yoga will help me stretch out some.

I decided to start cooking some of the recipes on my list. Tonight I made a recipe with green beans and garlic and couscous (the recipe actually called for farro, but I couldn't find any, not even at whole foods). In the process I had to run to Whole Foods to find spices that they don't really sell at the other grocery stores. First I stopped by Dominics (the local version of safeway) and looked for the spices. They had many of them, but I feel like I don't use enough cumin and garam masala to buy a giant bottle of it, so I hoped Whole Foods would have bulk versions where I could buy just enough for a few recipes. Voila, they did, and was it ever a great find. I never want to be cheated out of my money for something that I don't know if I would notice the difference between slight quality differences in. I wrote down the per ounce price of the spices at Dominics and skipped across the road to happily discover that even per ounce Whole Foods is cheaper for all of the spices I needed (at least in bulk). So I walked home with $7 worth of couscous, garam masala, star anise, and many many more spices. I think it is time to start looking for a spice rack.

I also discovered today a small trove of pictures from before I left Austin of things I got rid of but have not blogged about yet! Score! It's cheating a little bit but I was worried I would have to start throwing out things I may need. I didn't plan the timing of this blog too well with my two-suitcase move to Chicago. I still think it is forcing me to think about what I have and what I am keeping though. So two items today since I didn't blog yesterday (this seems to be a theme for

me)

First: A rock from Bethany from the freshman time capsule thing I talked about in my last blog

with the bracelet. Bethany was a friend from middle school through high school. She moved into the area and joined the group seamlessly, I don't even remember her joining, I just know she

was not in our group before 5th grade at least. She was quick to laugh, adventurous, and interesting. Her family life was the part that made her the most quirky. Her mother was crazy (literally, but we didn't actually discover this until later) and she lived with her grandmother. She had one younger sister and 5? maybe more, older siblings, all from different fathers or mothers depending on which parent they belonged to. She joined our girl scout troop and stuck with it all the way through seniors at camp where she quickly became one of the most popular seniors. We watched movies all the time, had parties at her house, crossed the state line for my first time with her, and I even read Harry Potter because of her. I also have not talked to her since I graduated

from high school. I have a terrible track record of keeping up with friends, and yet I remember them as they were when they fit into my life. There are a few friends that I would love to stay in contact with forever, but unless they call me I seem to easily move on. I think that humans are wired that way so we can survive after so much moving around and change in interactions. So here it is, a rock, with an inspiring quote and a symbol of friendship. Bethany, wherever you are (Santa Cruz, thanks to Facebook I know this), I hope you are doing well and enjoying life.

Second: Another friendship related gift from a friend. Diana was the first friend I made in college at UT. She sat next to me in class one day, we were in the same FIG so we had three classes together that first semester. We were both relatively shy and spent our weekends baking or cooking, and watching movies and TV shows. After the first year with me in the dorms we moved in together along with Jamey, who was more her friend than mine. I'm not going to lie that Jamey and I were both a little rude after that first year in picking out our next year roommates and house without even consulting Diana, but I am glad that we

remained at least on speaking terms. It ended up that she moved back to El Paso to take care of her mom who had terminal cancer and started school there instead. I think she functioned well in El Paso, I went to her place before Christmas my freshman year so she would have someone to drive with on the way home (she fell asleep at the wheel once anyway, scary! we were both exhausted) and met her family and some of her friends. She knew her place there, knew the culture, and loved everyone. Now her family has moved out of the area, she's living in her childhood home all by herself, and many of her friends have moved away as well. For someone who is quick to laugh, she told me the other day that she cries a lot because she is lonely. I never know if I can attribute loneliness to idleness or to a lack of people, but I think in her case either would work. She graduated, but has not found a job outside of Best Buy, so she is just working retail, and has nothing to come home to except two little dogs. After years of having two brothers and all of her friends around all day it would be hard to adjust to a new empty life. Anyway, she gave me this friendship bracelet my freshman year, and we actually superglued the knot closed because the string kept slipping off, and I wore it until after graduation three years later. I'm not sure when I finally cut it off, but after I did I had a tan line where it used to sit and still could not bring myself to throw it away. Today though, I will toss this out, but hopefully not my memory of my years in college with Diana, and not my friendship with her.

I told you I am bad at staying in contact with people.