There isn't much that needs to be said about this bit from the legendary George Carlin. He says a lot of things that just make sense and don't need me to prattle on about. He must have been a minimalist.

Warning to young or sensitive viewers, this is George Carlin. He swears.

-D

Five Minimalist Things & One Minimalist Fail

In this semi-regular post to the blog, I will tell you about five minimalist things I've done recently.

1) I'm walking to work on days when I know that I won't need a car for work-related purposes. Score! More on this experiment here.

2) I checked out some entertainment from the library in the form of a couple of DVD's I've been wanting to see. I also checked out a couple of audiobooks from the library app. When I was done, I was able to return them without adding to the physical clutter of our lives.

3) I ate out of the fridge even though I reeeeeallly wanted to eat out. This cut down on food waste, emptied out the fridge and kept dollars in my pocket for more important things.

4) I cleared out some old shoes that were worn out and small items that I hadn't used in over a year.

5) I started some clippings of family succulents. They make terrific hostess gifts without adding something wasteful to someone's home.

What have you done to support your minimalist values this week? 

Minimalist Experiment: Going Without a Car, Part I

I have been working my way gradually into a more minimalist lifestyle for many years. This usually takes the form of small personal experiments. I ask myself, "Can I live without this?" Or "What if I changed this habit?" Then after some trial and error, I weigh out the pros and cons and decide if it is a step toward my minimalist ideal.

It sometimes takes a little reflection to decide if a change benefits my overarching goal or adds unnecessary complication to my life. If the experiment works well, great! If not, meh, it was worth a shot right? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Past experiments have included not replacing my rarely used hair dryer when it finally bit the dust after more than ten years of service. (I've barely noticed this change.) I've experimented with simplifying favorite recipes to get them down to only the most important or in-season ingredients. (This experiment is well worth the effort in my opinion.) I've made many other tiny tweaks to my everyday life, which add up to a carefully edited daily existence moving toward Minimalism with tiny deliberate steps.

The experiment I plan to implement next is to bike or walk to work for the next two weeks. To many of you, I'm sure that this will seem like no major undertaking. Especially when you learn that my work is just 0.7 miles away from our apartment.

However, I must explain that I am very much a foul-weather-wimp. Living in the northern Midwest, we experience all sorts of strange weather, often without any notice at all. And I really dislike arriving at work disheveled, sweaty, damp or uncomfortable in any way.

It just seems like a terrible way to start any day, especially when I interact with a lot of people throughout the day who would have to put up with a sweaty, gross me. This just isn't the kind of appearance that I wish to share with others.

I feel I must add that my tough and athletic spouse puts me to absolute shame on this front. He not only bikes to work semi-regularly but will do so in almost any weather conditions and his employer is quite a bit farther away from home. Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk? He'll bike it. Cold enough to shut down most schools? He'll bike it. Raining cats and dogs? He'll bike it. Need to bike through a neighborhood of questionable safety in order to reach work? He'll bike it. I am so impressed by this. I'll ask him to write a little about his experiences as a bike-work-commuter for you all.

But in the meantime, here is my modest experiment. This week I plan to suck it up! I feel strongly that using my car less in general is a step in the right minimalist direction. It means a smaller carbon footprint and an act of care for our planet. It saves money in the form of gasoline and wear-and-tear on my vehicle. It improves my own health and wellbeing through healthy activity. In addition, it is a move toward a future life as a one-car household or maybe even a no-car household at some point.

I'm taking it pretty easy on myself for this experiment. First off, I'm not starting this experiment in January or February when I know that several inches of snow/sleet or even rogue sheets of ice and risking serious falls wouldn't be unusual. Instead, I'm starting this experiment in early May.

Early May around here is typically about as good as Midwestern weather ever gets. A bit rainy. Sometimes unpredictably cool or warm but generally as mild as can be hoped for. This next week is predicted to be in the 40's/50's Fahrenheit and quite rainy/windy. So not perfect walking/biking weather, but definitely a far-cry from risking either frostbite or heatstroke.

I'm also giving myself an excuse to drive rather than walk/bike under one particular instance: if I know that I will need my car for a work-related activity. For instance, if I know that I will need to attend a work related meeting across town, I will drive to work that day. I don't have coworkers I can carpool with and public transportation in our area leaves a lot to be desired. So a car is a necessity for instances like this.

However, I will grant myself no other excuses. This means I'll have to get up an extra 20 minutes early. I'll have to make sure that I pack a lunch because I won't be able to drive somewhere to get food if I forget to plan ahead. I'll additionally have to plan for any odd weather that might blowup without notice in the form of umbrella, raincoat, extra sweater, water resistant walking shoes, etc.

Maybe I should stash an extra bar of deodorant in my work desk this week? Hmmm...

I'll let you know how the experiment pans-out in a future post. In the meantime, do you ever walk/bike to work? Any advice for someone new to the experience?


- L

A Productive Morning

I always pretend that I'm going to sleep in on the weekends. I'll kid myself by setting my alarm clock for 9:30 or 10:00AM. Then I'll wake up at 7:30 (my usual wakeup time) anyway.

This Sunday followed the same routine. Saturday night I set my alarm for 10:00AM, but then I'm up at 7:30 Sunday morning. However, this Sunday was a little different in that I awoke with a bundle of energy.

Wanting to capitalize on this unusual early morning energy, I rolled out of bed immediately, got dressed and went for a walk down the river-walk. As I strolled through one of the parks lining the river-walk trail, I noticed two things. First, I saw some yellow spray paint graffiti and secondly I noticed a trash bin overflowing with plastic water bottles. The day before, there had been a walk for some disease/cure fundraiser, so that's where all the bottles came from and there is occasionally graffiti at various parts of the park.

This is where I got pretty productive.

I take pride in my local park and want to help keep it a nice place. So, I walked home and grabbed a can of black spray paint, and a garbage bag. I walked back to the park and stuffed as many plastic bottles from the park garbage bin into my garbage bag as I could fit and tied the bag off. Then, I walked over to the graffiti (gang tags and not cool artistic graffiti) and then I spray painted over it, covering it in a layer of black paint that matched the black post on which the tag was located.

I walked back home, and then dropped the bag of bottles off at my local recycling location. I got home from that short trip and realized it was still before 9:00AM. It would be another hour before my alarm clock sounded.

Something I've noticed is that occasionally people will excuse their lack of apathy by seeing apathy in others and saying, "Well, it's not like anyone else is doing xyz, so why should I?" However, this is just an excuse for laziness. There are always people out there working toward bettering themselves and their societies. We just don’t always see it. However, even if there weren't, there’re no reasons why we can’t try to be an example for others.

What do you do that you don't get credit for? How do you work to improve yourself or your community? Now is your time to brag! Leave a comment.

-D

Underground Guerrilla Recycling Ring

The college I work for doesn't have a recycling program. With over two thousand students and probably a hundred employees on campus the waste is, well -- a waste.

I've reached out to the campus administration multiple times about getting a recycling program in place, but my requests always fell on deaf ears. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands, no excuses.

I started small. I began making a daily round to my office area colleagues and asking if they had any cans or bottles. One by one I explained to my coworkers what I was doing and why. While not everyone understood my reasons, no one has given me any trouble about rummaging through their garbage cans once a day.

I keep a large garbage bag in my office (safely hidden out of sight) and fill it with the daily recycling until it is full, which usually happens in just a few days, and then I take it to a local recycling drop-off.

After a few months of making my rounds, I had somehow and unintentionally trained some my coworkers to bring their bottles and cans to me. I still made rounds to my other coworkers and dove into a few hallway trash cans in my area, but increasingly people are bringing me their recycling.

I decided to expand my operation. I enlarged the area from which I collected. I brought in people from other departments and my daily collection has increased dramatically. Now I have a point person in another department. She collects the recycling from her area, then brings it to me every few days, so that I can add it to my collection.

The college administration still hasn't gotten on board with my pleas, but they haven't gotten in my way either. Sometimes, you just have to take matters into your own hands. It is a little extra work for me, but I don't mind it. It is a small action, but I truly believe that every little bit helps and I feel good about myself by doing it.

If your workplace doesn't recycle, try to start a program. If your administrators aren't on board, then do what I did and begin an underground guerrilla recycling ring. You'll feel like a Star Wars Rebel and make a contribution to your workplace and society.

Have you committed any acts of random kindness? Have you perhaps planted an urban garden on the sly or created your own recycling program? If so, we'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment.

-D

Tiny Apartment Living

Today it is driving me CRAZY.


My spouse and I live in a tiny-apartment. By this I mean that by square-footage, the space would qualify as a tiny-house if it were indeed a house (far less than 1,000 square feet). However, it is an apartment and not a house. It’s located on the second floor of a building, the first floor being a business. The second floor is divided into three apartments with five tenants in total.

This has some major advantages. We share space and resources which feels ecologically responsible and keeps our footprint on this planet smaller. The rent is fairly affordable which has allowed us to focus on other financial priorities like paying off student loans and travel. It helps to support our minimalist goals because we can't accumulate a lot of unnecessary stuff even if we wanted to because we don't have the space for anything that isn't being used regularly. So there are plenty of good things about our tiny apartment (I remind myself grudgingly.)

We are also fortunate that the space available is fairly well laid-out and flexible enough to accommodate some experimentation which has been very important. Since moving in together, we have been pretty much CONSTANTLY experimenting. Moving things around, adding and subtracting objects, etc.

Sometimes the space feels like enough. Other times, like this past week, it feels like we might burst at the seams. In addition to the two of us, we both have a few hobbies/activities that take up a good deal of the available living space.

We also need to accommodate a large desk and multiple plastic tubs of art supplies (mine). A kayak, weight bench and hockey gear (his). Then we have two bicycles, multiple stringed musical instruments, and an elliptical (ours).

We live with some communal furniture like a queen size bed, a couch, two chairs a couple of footstools (that double as storage) and a TV stand.

With all this stuff in one small apartment, some days (like today) I just want to scream.

The reason the space issue is pushing me over the edge today is that a small problem, like the clogged kitchen sink which we have recently been dealing with, will often turn into a MAJOR hassle. The clogged drain means emptying out the storage under and around the sink for the plumber and finding somewhere to put it. Well, there is often just nowhere else for that stuff to go! It can't be moved to "other" storage because there is no "other." So it ends up in the middle of the living space, on top of the bed or blocking access to other things that we need/use regularly. This necessitates a period of literally tripping over a fire extinguisher  and cleaning supplies while the sink problem is sorted out over multiple days or weeks.

Days like this, I envy those with something as simple as a garage, a little yard space or a basement. It is an envy so strong that it does, indeed, make me look quite green. It's enough to make me seriously question the importance of such everyday objects as a couch. (If I got rid of the couch could I just sit on the cleaning supplies and avoid tripping over them for the third time today...?)

What creative ways do you use the space in which you live? Ever experience an inconvenience which makes you seriously question your minimalist lifestyle?


- L

The Right Number of Underwear

What's the right number of underwear?

A lot of minimalist conversations center around what the right number of something is. How few objects should you own to consider yourself a minimalist? What is the right number of shoes, forks, or toilet paper rolls? Is 1,000 the right number? 100? 33? The opinions vary greatly and change depending on the item in consideration, the question that plagues my mind and keeps me up at night is -- what is the right amount of underwear?

This is a surprisingly important question for my everyday life for several reasons. First of all, I hate having "too much" underwear. I don't like having cute little undies too uncomfortable to actually wear or unloved homely briefs staring at me from the back of the drawer every morning.  Extra, unworn underwear causes me guilt.

Underwear are important! Depending upon the weather, you might go without socks and instead opt for flip-flops. A dress isn't functional in every situation. A sweater might be optional depending upon the time of year and while a good tank top can get year-round use, it doesn't go under every type of top. A well-fitting comfy pair of underoos, however, are essential every day of the week.

To me, they are the essence of functional clothing. If they aren't being worn regularly, they are completely useless objects. They are just scraps of cloth united by elastic, sad and useless unless fulfilling their function. A waste of money and a waste of space.

By the same token, having too few pairs of underwear also causes me a personal dilemma. I MUST have a clean pair on hand when getting dressed in the morning or I will be calling into work sick and doing laundry. Going commando just is NOT a viable option in my opinion.

Because of this personal rule on mandatory undergarments, I learned early in my adult-ing years that the day I pulled the last pair of clean undies from the drawer was also laundry day. I will cancel evening plans to stay in and stand at attention next to that favorite of household conveniences, the washing machine, if necessary. Laundry will be done. No exceptions and no procrastination.

As a result of this habit, I have built my wardrobe around my undies. If I have 5 pairs of underwear, I will do laundry every 5 days.

Now the important math. This laundry cycle means that I require 3 pairs of pants, a skirt and 5 tops in my wardrobe to make it from laundry-day to laundry-day.

However, if I have 15 pairs of underwear (three times more than the example above), I will need three times the number of pants, skirts and corresponding tops to get me from one laundry-day to the next. It will not occur to me to attend to the laundry until that last pair of undies is pulled from the drawer. See how this math works?

As a result of this very complex laundry-psychology math, the right amount of everything in my wardrobe hinges on having the correct number of undies at any given time.

Now, that being explained, I would like to announce my perfect number of underwear. The amount that aligns perfectly with my astrological chart and pulls the feng shui of my wardrobe into perfect harmony with my ideal life. I would like to... but I can't.

I don't know the magic number. I've lived with as many as 30 pairs in my college (no time to do laundry) years and as few as 5 in the more recent past. I want to know the perfect number but can never quite hit the right balance. I'm still continually on the undergarment see-saw. However, I'm still hopeful that I might one day find that illusive "perfect" number.

On that day, perhaps I will also win the lottery, solve global climate change and have tea with J.K. Rowling. (All very unlikely, but boy, wouldn't that be great!)

What is your correct number of underwear? (Yes, I really want to know.)

Is there anything in your life that you are searching for the right number of?