Day 26: Decluttering the Kitchen (Part One!)

The Task:  We've been decluttering from the kitchen since the beginning of the project (the knives, the polka dot dishes, the microwave!) But the kitchen really needed a big overhaul.

The Why:  We've come to see that stuff begets stuff.  The more we accumulate, the more we think we need. A serving bowl to match that serving plate, a pretty tea towel for the new bread basket, a set of martini glasses to use with the cocktail shaker.  By getting rid of stuff we aren't just making our kitchen an easier place to cook and clean and entertain in, (and investing in a lifetime of much simpler moving days!) we're also choosing to be content with just enough and learning to be honest with ourselves about what we need and use.

The Plan:  Both Luke and I felt that it was important to go through the kitchen stuff together.  We both love to cook and bake and entertain, so we both needed a say in what stays and what goes.

So last night after getting the kids to bed, we decided to take every single item out of the kitchen, discuss whether to keep it or not, wash out the cabinets and put everything we were keeping back.  We wanted to take everything out rather than do a cabinet at a time so that we could really get a feel for how much stuff we've accumulated.  Then I was going to take pictures of my fabulous new minimalist-ish (I know that's not really a word) kitchen to share today.

The Reality:  We underestimated what a huge job it would be.  Where did all this stuff come from???

At quarter after ten the house looked like this... (and there's Luke, taking a well deserved break!) 

By 12:30 I was lying on the kitchen floor trying to do the math to figure out whether the narrower/deeper casserole dish or the wider/shallower one holds more food.  Luke wisely suggested that we give up and go to bed. 

Here's all the stuff we've committed to get rid of so far.  But we aren't done!

So tomorrow will be the minimalist-ish kitchen tour.  Today I'm going to drink good strong coffee and calculate the volumetric lasagna potential of all my casserole dishes.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 25: Switching to Paperless Billing

The Task:  To switch all of my paper bills and account statements to electronic bills.

The Why: I could probably wax poetic about how switching to online bills is so much better for the environment and will save trees, and of course all of that is true and good, but honestly my motivation here is to avoid the counter clutter and have less stuff to file away every month!

Besides, after sorting through all the books on Monday and dealing with the sentimental stuff yesterday, I needed an easy task that wouldn't tug at my heart too much, ya know? 

The How: I've been putting this off for a really long time (like,um....a year) because I thought it would be this big annoying task to go through all my bills and make the switch.  But apparently my bank has a service that allows you to switch all of your bills to online bills without even leaving their website....which kinda made me feel like a fool for putting it off for so long.

Total Time Spent: About 20 minutes.

The Verdict:  Some of my accounts were charging me a small fee for my monthly statements, so this switch is going to save me a few dollars every month.  And now when I stroll down to the mailbox at the end of my driveway it will be filled with only happy things like cards and letters and coupons!

But mostly, it's about the counter clutter.

You can read about the environmental benefits of switching to online bills here.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 24: Dealing with the Sentimental Stuff

The Task: To sort through my box of sentimental items I've been storing in the basement

The Why: I am not a very sentimental person.  I rented my wedding dress and have never regretted it, I recycle birthday cards upon receiving them, and my husband lost his wedding ring during our first year of marriage and it didn't create any real marital upset.  (He lost the replacement a couple years later, too.  He's now on wedding ring number three!)

Nonetheless, I do have one box of items in the basement that I haven't known what to do with. It's time to sort through that box.

The How: In order to remain in our home, all sentimental items must now be used, displayed, or properly archived (in the case of favourite photos and love notes.)

Here are a few things I try to keep in mind when sorting through sentimental stuff:

• We are not obligated to keep anything that is given to us.  Period.  Not gifts, not heirloom gravy boats, not my children's Sunday school craft projects.  Nothing.  That doesn't mean that I can't or won't keep some stuff, but I am not obligated to.  If the person who gave it to me wanted to forever control it's destiny they would have kept it.  I am the gate keeper to our home and our home is not a museum.

• Just because somebody passed something down to us doesn't necessarily mean that they treasured it.  I think sometimes that we are playing Old Maid with family heirlooms. Stuck with something they don't particularly want but would feel guilty shipping off to a thrift store, a family member passes the "treasure" on to us.  We are then stuck with it for the same reason until we can find somebody to pass it on to, and the cycle continues.  I don't want to play that game!  If it doesn't bring us joy, I need to send it off to the thrift store so that it can find its way into the hands of somebody who will treasure it. 

• Stuff is always just stuff.  The emotions attached to the item are not actually in any way attached to the item!  People are not memorialized by their stuff, either.  I look around my house and definitely am not hoping that one day my friends and family will treasure all the stuff I've collected.  I hope they will treasure memories of time spent and love shared, not serving dishes and picture frames and tea pots.  If we don't want to be memorialized by our belongings, why do we tend to think that our ancestors wanted to be memorialized by theirs?

•  Using our sentimental items will keep them sentimental.  We have a beautiful set of wedding china that was given to us by my (now passed) grandfather.  We use it every single week. We use it when the whole family gathers for a birthday, we use it to plate fancy desserts and serve tea.  My two year old has used it, my friends have used it, we have even broken a couple pieces.  One day when we are dead or ill, and my children have the task of going through our belongings I would rather them encounter a partial set of china that they have used countless times than a full set that sat behind glass their whole life. And if one of them chooses to take those dishes home that day, they will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are free to use (and in time, break) those dishes. 

• Which brings me to my last point: One day our kids will have to sort through every single item we have chosen to keep. I don't want to burden them with a house full of crap I couldn't bring myself to get rid of!

 The Verdict: There are a couple small items sitting on my counter while I decide what to do with them, but for the most part this task was easier than I expected.  Some old staff t-shirts from a job I loved have been added to the thrift store pile (I considered searching pinterest for a way to turn them into something, but it is time that they go), some childhood letters sent to my husband from his grandparents are in the family photo album to be read and enjoyed.  My raggedy thread bare baby blankie was way beyond being used for anything and became trash.

The tote is empty and I feel good about that.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 23: Purging the Books {Gulp.}

The Task:  Purge our book collection until it is a carefully chosen selection of books that we love, use, and refer to often.  The rest are going to the local library!

The Why:  I'm a homeschool mom.  And I like books.  When generous friends and neighbours pass their gently used children's books on to our family I act like I just found the gold ticket.  Instead of carefully sorting through the books and keeping only what we need, I hoard them in my basement for all of eternity.

I've tried to sell some in yard sales before.  I put a box of books out early in the morning, and throughout the day I find myself walking past the box thinking "oh, no, I can't get rid of this one." and "hmmm, I think I'd like to read this one again" and by noon half the box has made it back inside. This happens every. single. time.

Oh, and just for fun I decided this morning to go through my amazon account from the last year and discovered that since this time last year I have purchased  (please don't judge me...) seventy-eight books!  No wonder the UPS guy has started asking questions!

What we're keeping: 

and

 

• Books we want to read again (like, um, immediately)
• Books we intend to (actually) use as part of our children's education
• Cookbooks we use at least once a month
• Reference books that contain useful, up-to-date information and that are fun to browse through.
• Children's books that are delightful family favourites.

Books we aren't keeping: 

 and...

 

• Books we might maybe sort-of want to read again someday (If we ever really do decide to read them again, we can borrow them back from the library!)
• Books that look "educational" but we've never actually used.
• Cookbooks that only contain one or two recipes I really use (I'm copying the best recipes into my recipe binder and getting rid of the book. Why keep the whole book for just a few recipes?)
• Mediocre reference books.  (Almost anything can be looked up on the Internet at a moments notice) 
• Books full of pretty pictures but little information.  (I kept 2 decorating books, the rest are going to the library.  If I feel the need to drool over some pretty rooms or fabulous table settings or fantastic landscaping, isn't that what Pinterest is for?)

The Verdict: I have the books boxed up and ready to go as soon as the library opens tomorrow morning.  I'm surprisingly okay with this. I like knowing that many of them will be available at the library if we ever need them, but in the mean time they will be read and used and enjoyed instead of collecting dust.

And I don't need to store them anymore!

I've decided to start following the one in, one out rule for books.   When we bring home a new book, an old one must go.  Because we do school at home and have kids in different grades I think I will have to waive this rule for curriculum and the occasional reference material, which means I'll have to be all the more ruthless about the rest of the books in order to avoid ending up on an episode of Hoarders.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 20: We Cheated.

The rules (which were arbitrarily created by us the night before the project began)  clearly state that we aren't going to eat out unless invited as part of a social occasion.  Today we cheated.

It wasn't even a little accidental cheat like a drive through coffee and a muffin. It was a full blown we're-only-half-way-done-our-errands, the-kids-are-hungry, and-it's-too-rainy-for-a-picnic... rules shmules, we're going to Pizza Hut for lunch sort of cheat.

It just seemed...simpler.

And then we ran into the grocery store for a couple things, including lemons so that I could make fresh lemonade for my husband's birthday party this weekend and....

I forgot my reusable produce bags.

So today was kinda a big fat fail.  I'm going to go feed my kids banana smoothies and popcorn for supper.  It's that kind of day....

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 19: Cleaning out the Cleaning Products

The Task:  Today I'm decluttering and making cleaning day simper by only surrounding myself and my family with products that I feel are safe and friendly!

Over the last year or so I have become increasingly careful about the products we use in our home.  But for some reason I was still hanging on to some commercial cleaning products, even though I refuse to use them!  (Please don't call Hoarders, I promise I'm getting rid of them!)

The Why?  I've read lists of most dangerous cleaners in our homes and some of the products I have in my cleaning basket were on those lists....but instead of ditching them I held on to them"just in case".   I have a can of a certain bathroom cleaner (hint, it rhymes with bubbing scrubbles) that I haven't sprayed in over a year.   What just-in-case situation was I saving it for? Just in case vinegar becomes illegal? Just in case I start to miss that burning sensation I get in my throat when I use it?  Just in case of what exactly?

The How:
 All my half used cans of  commercial cleaners have been boxed up and are ready for the next hazardous waste collection day in my community.

I now have a total of six cleaning products that meet all of my cleaning needs:

• a gentle dishsoap (I use this, in warm water, to clean almost any surface: cabinets, walls, the inside of my refrigerator.  And it's super for cleaning bathtubs.)
• vinegar (I put a splash in my mop water. I mix it half and half with water for windows. I use it full strength in a spray bottle to clean toilets)
• baking soda (Great for cleaning the kitchen sink)
• Peroxide (I mix with baking soda to make a paste for heavy duty cleaning, like cooked on stove top gunk and dirty grout lines)
• Rubbing Alcohol (for cleaning the microfiber sofas!)
• Tea tree oil (for disinfecting)

On top of being great cleaners in their own right, every one of these products has another use around the house as well.  Meaning less bottles of junk stuffed under my sinks and in my cleaning basket.   Yay for multi-purpose items!

{By the way, I wrote a guest post for a friends blog a couple months ago about how I clean my whole house without nasty chemicals.  If you want more info on how I do my chores using the 6 household products mentioned above, check it out!}

The Verdict:
If everything we knew about cleaning came from television commercials, it would be easy to think that we need a specific product to clean every surface in our home. Tub and shower sprays, toilet cleaner, counter spray, window and glass cleaner, specialty products for leather, stainless steel, stove tops,ovens and floors!  But really cleaning can be so much simpler than that.  People had clean homes long before grocery stores devoted whole aisles to cleaning products and television commercials started telling us that we could buy magical cleanliness in a can!

In my opinion, many of those commercial cleaners are often just selling us an illusion of clean.  Sure, a heavy duty spray on cleaner can make our tubs sparkle, but if it leaves our bathrooms coated in toxic chemicals,  that is not my definition of clean!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 18: Umm....We Got Rid of our Bed

The Task:  Okay, we didn't get rid of the whole bed.  Just the bed frame.

The Why:  There isn't any deep spiritual meaning or underlying concern for the environment on this one....I was just really sick of cleaning under the bed.  I hate how dust accumulates there.  Why not just ditch the dust bunny zoo altogether and be done with it? Sounds like a good step to a simpler life to me!

Here's what it looked like under our bed the day we decided to ditch the bed frame.  I think I see a corn chip. Ewww.

I've wanted to do this for ages,and I finally got hubby on board.We removed the bed frame a few days ago and so far we love sleeping closer to the floor!

The Pros: 

• No more dust gathering under the bed.
• No more socks disappearing under the bed.
• No bed skirt to wash.
• The bed is easier to make, no tucking necessary.
• If I don't make the bed very nicely and just throw the duvet cover over everything haphazardly it looks more like a spread from the Anthropologie catalogue than a big ugly mess.
• It's safer for the kids who climb into our bed in the wee hours of the night and occasionally engage in middle of the day tickle fights, wrestling matches and unsanctioned trampoline competitions on our bed.
• I like the relaxed bohemian sort of look it gives to our bedroom
• The bed doesn't make any noise when we, um, you know....

The Cons:

• It's a little unconventional (which isn't exactly a big motivator for us anyways).

Also, we found we weren't using our nightstands for much (and they were too high without the bed frame raising the bed up) so we replaced them with one little basket to keep the books we are currently reading.  We had a sofa table in there too because we had nowhere else to put it...we got rid of that as well. The only furniture left in our bedroom is the bed and one dresser.  I love how big and open and relaxing it feels!

 The Verdict:  I realize this isn't for everyone, but I am thrilled to not have to clean under the bed anymore or squirm under there in search of lost socks.   Why keep something that just adds unnecessary mess and work to my life?

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 17: Decluttering the Makeup Bag

The Task: Dispose of expired makeup!

The Why:  I read yesterday that makeup actually expires. A quick Google search of the matter confirmed it.  Make-up doesn't last forever.  Duh.

I mean, it makes sense.  Ingredients break down over time.  Moisture breeds bacteria.  It just never occurred to me before.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that I acquired at least one of the lip glosses in the photo above when I was in college!  I'm not going to tell you how long ago that was, but I assure you, it was far more than the recommended one year shelf life of lip products. 

The How:  I just threw it all away.  I'm not a big wearer of makeup, as evidenced by the fact that the picture at the top is my entire makeup collection and that not one of those items was purchased within the last year.   Given all the undesirable ingredients that go into makeup, I'm not in a frenzy to run out and buy more.

The Verdict: Like I said, I'm not a big makeup wearer anyways.  If I really miss any of these products in the future, I will do some research on the Skin Deep Database or the GoodGuide to choose a product that I feel is safe and ethical. I know that giving up makeup altogether is not for everyone, but I really do recommend you dive into your makeup drawer and consider disposing of anything that may be older than your student loans...

Also, right now the idea of having a few less items to stash somewhere makes me giddy!  

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 16: Minimalizing the Bath Toys

The Task: Reduce our children's bath toys to a few small items.

The Why:  Okay, so I've been reading this book, The Joy of Less by Francine Jay.  It's basically a complete guide on how to get rid of all of your junk and become a minimalist.  While reading I am constantly torn between reading one more page and jumping up to dispose of half my house.  In fact, where I live it is a holiday today and my husband asked me yesterday "What do you want to do on the Civic Holiday?" and I said "Go through the entire house from one side to the other and get rid of....nearly everything?"   And in his profound wisdom and deep desire to relax and barbecue something, he said "um....no." 

Anyways, all this to say that I am really coming to see the whole "less is more" thing come to life in my home.  The more we declutter, the more we enjoy what we have. All my stuff is shaking in it's boots right now.

The How:  I kept three rubber duckies.   And got rid of 2 toy boats, a plastic frog, 4 more rubber duckies, a bunch of fishy toys, a plastic Winnie-the-Pooh and a set of washable bathtub crayons (oh, how I loathe those "washable" bathtime crayons!)

The Verdict: Honestly, I don't think my kids have noticed yet.  We boxed up the extra toys and put them in the basement weeks ago and my kids have been playing with the duckies and washcloths and the soap.  They pretend the duckies are boats, or sisters, or see monsters. They dip rubber duckies under the water and squeeze them to fill them with water and turn them into loaded water weapons. I will often sit on the bathroom floor and read to them from the Little House Series or my husband will read to them from whatever organic gardening tome he is currently reading.  Bath time is fun and relaxing and the extra toys are definitely not missed, which means that today that little box in the basement is making it's way into the donate pile.

Also, three little toys are easy to tuck away in a cabinet, easy to get out at bath time, and if they accidentally get left out on the edge of the tub they look cute, not messy!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 13: Ditching The Microwave Oven

The Task: Get rid of the microwave.

The Why:  Why-oh-why would anyone in their right mind (that's debatable) get rid of their microwave?  We have a number of reasons!

1. We rarely use it.  With the exception of frozen veggies (which I've always cooked on the stove anyways), I can count on my fingers the number of times we've bought something with "microwave directions" printed on the package.  I want to get away from the notion that we have to have something just because everybody else seems to.  We don't.
2. I read once that you will use more energy in the life of your microwave powering the clock than actually heating things.  It doesn't really make sense to us to have an appliance that is sucking energy in standby mode for 23 hours and 58 minutes every day. Especially since our kitchen doesn't need another clock.
3. There are some serious reasons to be concerned about the health consequences of using a microwave oven.  My friend Beth has a post on her blog listing a bunch of articles that swayed her, and eventually our, opinion of microwave ovens.
4. And finally, food is not supposed to be fast.  Part of simplifying for us is to see food for what it is and appreciate it in it's natural forms and to take the time to prepare it correctly and healthfully. The microwave oven just doesn't seem to mesh with our goals anymore.

Plus, the top of our fridge looks so much happier and tidier and pleasant now that there isn't a big ugly microwave on top of it! 

 

Here are some of the things we formerly used our microwave for and how we are getting by without one:

• Melting butter or chocolate for a recipe:  We will often use a small pot for this instead, and it isn't difficult or time consuming. My oven is electric and has a heat vent under one of the back burners, so if I have the oven on for another reason I can melt or soften butter in a bowl placed on that back burner without using any extra electricity at all!

• Reheating coffee:  Reheated coffee really isn't stellar anyways.  I'm trying to just drink my coffee while it's still hot, which with 5 kids demanding my attention isn't always successful.  Sometimes, if our french press still has quite a bit of cooled coffee in it we will put it in a pitcher in the fridge and later make iced coffee with it.  Yumm!

• Making microwave s'mores when nobody is looking: Don't judge me, I know you've done this too!  But I've concluded that the inability to do this is probably a good development for my overall health.

• Heating leftovers: For things like soups I've discovered that it is actually much faster to reheat it in a pot than the microwave. Thicker things like casseroles I heat up in the oven, often alongside whatever I am making to accompany the left overs.

The Verdict:  In retrospect, I'm not certain that the microwave was ever actually adding any convenience to our lives at all.  And I really, really like the look of my kitchen without one!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 12: When Decluttering Hurts (for all the wrong reasons)

I want to have less.  Less to care for, less to wash and sort and organize, less to steal my attention away from the things that matter.

And the more I give away and get rid of, the more I want to give things away.  I'm filling big rubber totes full of stuff for a local shelter that helps abused women get a fresh start.  I'm piling things in totes for a good friend's young cousin who is having her first baby. I've carted bags of gently used clothing to the Salvation Army Thrift Store.

In fact, we've gotten rid of so much stuff that I have a stack of empty totes and baskets in the basement.  When you radically declutter, all your organizational strategies and storage compartments start to become useless.  In fact, they turn into clutter!

And then I came across some cute teal polka dotted baking dishes. Collecting dust.

They make my heart swoon.

I've used them once.  Tiny little casserole dishes aren't of much use to a family of 7 (and growing).  They just aren't. The truth is, I bought these on a whim, and I shouldn't have.

There's nothing wrong with owning cute polka dot casserole dishes. But I don't need these, I don't even use them.

And I stand there in the kitchen, wrestling with my own heart.  A heart that wants cute little polka dotted dishes.  A heart that still confuses stylish and cute for what is truly beautiful.

The truth is, decluttering should be hard.  I should be standing in my kitchen with tears streaming down my face, beating my breast and calling out to God over all the times I wandered through stores full of fragile items, justifying myself as I put things I don't need into my cart.   I should be on my knees repenting for caring more about polka dot dishes than starving orphans.  I should be begging God to never let me forget again that we are here for something so much better than spending and consuming and storing up treasure here on this broken earth.  We are here to touch lives. We are here to spend our lives on HIM.

How many more children could we have sponsored through compassion international if we weren't so busy filling our home with trinkets? How many people in our community could we have reached out to if we weren't spending our time trying to find a parking spot at the mall?

But instead I stand in my kitchen wondering whether I want a more authentic walk with the maker of the universe, or some really cute polka dot dishes.

And this realization, this conviction, brings me to my knees.  Lord, break my heart with the things that break yours.

Today, 21 000 children will die because they are in poverty.  Today's task is to commit to take that knowledge with me every single time I stroll through an aisle of pretty shiny things I don't need. I'm choosing to live simply so that others may simply live.

This song has been on my heart all week:

"Give us clean hands,
and give us pure hearts.
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh God let us be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob..."

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 11: No Dryer Month

It's August 1st and our first month long challenge begins today.  For the month of August we will be choosing not to use our dryer at all.  Are you planning to join us?

I love using my laundry line, but as a mom of a large-ish family, I do regularly depend on my dryer.  On sunny days I often put the first load of laundry on the clothesline and the second in the dryer.  This month will definitely require some extra care and planning on my part.

From comments and emails I've received since announcing no dryer month I've discovered that dependence on a dryer is really a North American thing.  Many people around the world don't even own dryers, and if they do, they consider it ridiculous to use it in the middle of summer. Many of these people live in rainier climates than I do and don't have a backyard. This was convicting.  Here I am taking on this big challenge and it turns out that many people in developed countries all over the world have never even seen a dryer! 

I promised last week that I would share with you how to avoid crunchy towels when you're not using your dryer.  Line drying leaves clothing a little more crisp than the dryer does, but sometimes clothing can end up undesirably crunchy.

Excessive crunchy-ness is caused by laundry detergent left behind in the clothing.  The conventional advice is to add some vinegar to your rinse cycle, which is very useful.  It helps strip clothing of any extra soap residue, and your items don't come out smelling like vinegar, I promise.  But the truth is, I often forget to add vinegar.  My washing machine doesn't beep or anything when it gets to the rinse cycle, and it's not like I'm just standing there waiting for it, so I often miss the vinegar rinse.  But that's okay, because the ABSOLUTE BEST WAY to avoid too crunchy towels is this: use less detergent.

You really don't need as much detergent as the detergent company wants you to believe.  Experiment with less and find the amount that still gets your clothing clean but doesn't leave any residue.  For my detergent, that is a little more than half the recommended amount. Not only does it prevent too crunchy towels, it saves money too!

By the way, I've shared my green laundry routine before, on my other blog.

I know some of you have other questions about line drying, and I am definitely not an expert on the subject, so if you have a question please ask in the comments below, and if you are an avid line-dryer please take a second to answer some of those question if you can! 

Are you taking the challenge? You can get a banner to share on your blog or facebook here.

 We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 10: Giving Away 100 Things in 100 Days

The Task: Give away one thing a day for 100 days.

The Why: Because a challenge is a fun way to encourage some accountability.  And because decluttering every single day changes the way we think about our stuff and causes us to take pause before bringing something new into the house.

And because it is way more fun to give that cute pair of shoes away to a good friend who will wear them than a thrift store!

The How:  I created a facebook photo album on my personal facebook and called it 100 Days of Decluttering.  Every day I find an item around my house that isn't getting as much use as it ought to and I take a picture and post it to the album.  My friends can comment on the pictures to call dibs on an item they want.  It has been a lot of fun, and in the 13 days I've been doing it I've freed our home of a pair of shoes, and extension closet rod thingy, a basket, some decorative items and throw pillows, a number of books, clothing accessories, various dishes, a lamp and a vase.

The Verdict:  I find I'm thinking about the items in my home through a whole new lens.  When I open my kitchen drawers, I actually see the items I don't use instead of ignoring them all together. I'm also a lot less inclined to buy something I don't truly need with the daily reminder that eventually stuff just gets in the way.

And it's fun.

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 9: Using Cloth Napkins

In our house, we call these serviettes.  Luke prefers to reserve the word napkin for, um, well....it's other meaning.  But Wikipedia tells me that the word serviette is mostly just a Canadian/UK thing, so for this post I'll say napkin.  Even though it makes Luke cringe a little.

The Task:  To stop using paper napkins entirely.

The Why: I read recently that forty percent of all household garbage is paper!  Forty percent!?  Since paper napkins in our house almost never make their way to the recycle bin or the compost, we've decided to do away with them all together.

It's not only about the wastefulness involved in disposing of napkins after every meal, but also the waste involved in production, packaging and distribution.  I've been reading The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard and have been finding my eyes opened to just how much of the earth's resources are used and wasted and damaged in the making of all our stuff.  Only in our crazy throw-away culture would we think it is easier to cut down trees, turn the trees into pulp,  turn the pulp into paper, make the napkins, package them, ship them around the world, and buy them at the dollar store than it is to wash a few extra cloths every day! 

Besides, cloth napkins are nicer.  Every meal is a little bit fancy with a cloth napkin!

The How: We've always used cloth napkins for nice sit down dinners with friends, but we've resorted to the paper ones often for bigger shindigs and too often for everyday use. So the good news is we already own a few mismatched sets of cloth napkins.

We have a party coming up in a couple weeks, for which we would normally buy colourful paper napkins. Instead,  we are going to take the money we would have spent on paper ones to our local thrift store and get a few more cloth napkins so that we have enough for parties.  The only problem with this is that I've discovered in the past that people are hesitant to use cloth napkins (not because they are concerned about the safety/cleanliness of them, but because they don't know if they are allowed to dirty them!) and oftentimes don't even see them when they are on a buffet.  If I had a dime for every time somebody with ketchup on their face was standing in front of a basket of cloth napkins and shouted "hey, Kelly, do you have any napkins?" I would have....several dimes.  Seriously!

The Verdict:  We actually much prefer the cloth napkins, and are really glad to be making the switch for good!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 7: Shopping the Farmers' Market

 

The Task:  We've always enjoyed Saturday morning trips to the farmers' market as a sort of novelty, but this year we want to start treating it more like a grocery store and less like a field trip!

The Why:  A few nights ago, my husband was reading aloud to me and the children from Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin and Mr Salatin stated that the average morsel of food in our culture has traveled farther than the farmer who grew it.  And that got us thinking and talking about how much is affected when the food system is dysfunctional.  

When we choose to shop at the farmers' market, we aren't just buying better food for our family, we are buying a better environment, a stronger local economy, and voting with our dollars for small-time farmers who are forced by nature and necessity to farm in a more sustainable manner.

My husband bought 5 different types of garlic!  Most of us have probably only ever eaten 2 varieties!  The woman who sold it to us told us about the different varieties and which were her favourites.  Shopping the farmers' market encourages farmland biodiversity too!

The Verdict:  I've heard people say that the cost of good food shouldn't matter because the earth and our health are important.  In theory, I would like to agree with that, but the fact is that cost is a very real issue in our lives.  I can only report on what I've experienced at my local farmers' market in my fertile corner of the Canadian landscape, but honestly, the farmers' market prices here are very similar to the grocery store.   Some things, like meat and cheese and berries are much more expensive (and even so, there are ways to afford it.  For example, I cannot afford a 17 dollar grass fed steak, but I can afford a couple pounds of grass-fed stew beef at 3.50 a pound!) But most of the veggies are reasonably priced. And oh so good.

We did stop off at the grocery store on the way home for some pecans and milk (can't buy milk at the farmers' market.  Or, if you can, I don't know the right people and the secret password...) and we were quickly reminded that the farmers' market is a far more enjoyable way to do the grocery shopping!  

This afternoon I'm headed to a party with some pretty pies I've made from fresh Ontario peaches and organic blueberries from a farm in town. Have I mentioned that I love summer? 

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 6: Making Reusable Produce Bags

The Task:  Sew some reusable produce bags. 

The Why: Even though I bring reusable shopping bags to the grocery store it is still so easy to come home with a lot of extra packaging waste.  Using reusable mesh bags for produce will cut down on some of that waste.

I know that it's possible to buy reusable produce bags, but they seemed easy enough to make myself.

The How:  I purchase 1 metre (a little more than a yard) of sheer fabric.  Sheer curtain fabric is often much wider than ordinary fabric, so 1 metre was more than enough to make 8 produce bags.  You could also recycle an old set of sheer curtains for this project!

Step one: Cut a square of fabric that is approximately 22 by 16 inches.

 

Step 2: Fold one edge in and stitch to make a casing for the drawstring.

Step 3: Fold in half and stitch side and bottom closed.  Be careful to stitch only up to the bottom of the casing you just made.  You want to be able to get your drawstring in later!

Step 4: Zig-zag stitch around the bottom and side that you just sewed to prevent fraying.

Step 5: Turn the bag right-side-out and use a safety pin to push a piece of  ribbon or string (I used scrap pieces of bias tape) through the casing and tie the ends together.

Done!

Total time spent: Using a sewing machine, less than an hour to make 8 bags.

Total cost: 4 dollars worth of fabric.

The Verdict: These were super easy to make, and if they save us from using 8 plastic produce bags a week, that's 416 bags a year!  If we can inspire 1200 other people to do it, that's half a million bags a year!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 5: How Many Knives Do We Really Need?

The Task: Pare down out kitchen knives to three.

The Why: I could never find a knife.  We would use a knife and put it in the dishwasher (I know, dishwashers are bad for knives...what can I say?  These things happen....) and when we needed a knife there wasn't one even though we had 4 (yes, 4!) different chefs knives, 3 paring knives, and 2 serrated knives!  I don`t even remember where we got all of them!

So for weeks now we've had three knives.  One chefs knife (for slicing and dicing), one paring knife (for peeling and paring), and one serrated knife (great for cutting bread and slicing tomatoes).  And when we use one, we wash it by hand, dry it, and put it away immediately.  There is always a clean knife in the drawer when we need it.  Less really is more.

What about table knives?  We have 4 steak knives.  We once had 16 because we were given a mega set of them, but I realized a long time ago that if we're having 16 people of knife wielding age over for a meal, I am going to be serving something cheap like spaghetti, or casserole, or stew....NOT large cuts of meat!
We do have alot of butter knives, but we use them regularly for entertaining, so we've deemed those worth keeping to avoid the use of disposable cutlery. 

The  Verdict:  I actually love having less stuff in our drawers and cupboards.  The more I get rid of the more I want to get rid of!  Having less stuff really is good for us.  And washing something and putting it away immediately after you use it is strangely good for the spirit.

I'm also realizing how much false security I was getting from my stuff.  This project is really about so much more than kitchen utensils and clothing and throw pillows.  It's about a heart that is so broken and confused that it thinks it wants more stuff, when what it needs is to be more like Christ.  It's about our God given need for safety and rest and how we can so easily get consumed trying to find those things in our homes and our favourite housewares store instead of at the center of God's will.

All this to say that I am loving this process and am both excited and anxious about the three hundred and sixty days to come!  Thanks so much for following along!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Announcing The August Challenge: No Dryer Month

Every month we will be encouraging you to join us in our pursuit of radical simplicity by doing one small thing with us for a whole month.

August's challenge is No Dryer Month.   We will be committing not to use our dryer at all for an entire month. Will you join us?

Did you know that...

• Dryers are among the top 3 energy consumers in most homes, along with the fridge and the water heater?
• Line-dried clothing puts less stress on clothing, causing it to last longer?
• Line-dried bedsheets smell heavenly?
• The suns rays actually kill germs and whiten whites?

On August first I will share some tips to help avoid using the dryer (like, how to keep your line-dried towels from being crunchy!) and encouraging all of you to share your tips as well so that we can all go into this project confident and prepared!

If you're planning to take the plunge with us, I've made a banner (it's 300 x 300px) for you to display on your own blog.  Just cut and paste the code below.

<a href="http://theyearofless.blogspot.ca/2012/07/announcing-august-challenge-no-dryer.html"target="”_blank”"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9IEmXTOEHHg/UBA4n6hDNWI/AAAAAAAADTI/XlorA4zA128/s300/no%2520dryer%2520month%2520300px.jpg" /></a>

Or you can let all of your friends on facebook know that you are taking the challenge by visiting this photo that I've uploaded to our facebook page and clicking the "share" button!

Thanks so much for taking this challenge together with us! We can't wait!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 4: Cancelling our Catalogues

The Task: Recycle all of our current catalogues (FYI: I'm not spelling it wrong, I'm Canadian and that's how we spell it...) and ask the companies to no longer send them to us. 

The Why: Nearly every company has an online catalogue you can browse, making the concept of sending paper catalogues around the world every year really wasteful and kind of silly.  (Catalogues in the US alone are reported as using 53 million trees a year!) Plus, when I need an item I should be shopping only for the item I need, not leisurely browsing through every item the company sells.

The fact is that catalogues are designed to sell us things we wouldn't otherwise buy. If they weren't, companies wouldn't send them to us every single year for free, right?

And finally, catalogues take up space.  If we don't have them, we don't have to store them anywhere!

The How:  I gathered up all of my magazines, and one by one visited the websites of each company to send an email requesting that they no longer send me catalogues.  I assured each company that we will browse their online catalogue when we are in need of something! Then I disposed of all of the catalogues in the recycle bin.

There may have been some I've forgotten about, so I'm committing to immediately cancel any catalogues that arrive in my mail in the future.

Total Time Spent: About 20 minutes.

The Verdict:  Honestly, as a geeky homeschool mom, I'm kinda mourning the loss of my Curriculum catalogues.  But I know that it's better for me to search the website for the things we really need than to go through their entire inventory with a highlighter and a cup of tea. 

The habit of always shopping and constantly browsing for things to buy does not help us to cultivate a life of radical simplicity!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 3: Minimizing our Wardrobes

The Task: Reduce our clothing to the bare (haha, pun intended) necessities.

The Why: By not putting reasonable limits on the clothing we own we find we are always kind of in shopping mode.  We walk past a store, or see a good deal, and think "why not?"  By reducing our clothing to what we really need and wear we can set a cap on our clothing possessions to save money and avoid stress when getting dressed.

Plus, all of the things we don't need will stop being wasted in our closets and can go to a thrift store where somebody who needs them can buy them for next to nothing.  My extra maternity clothes will be sent to a pregnancy crisis center.

The How:  It's easiest to trim down your wardrobe, I think, if you have a sort of uniform that you wear most of the time.  A go-to combination of clothing types that you can mix and match to wear on an ordinary day.  For example, a typical uniform for a stay at home mom could be a pair of jeans and a nice fitted t-shirt.  For me, it's a skirt (normally a long flowing hippy skirt!) a solid color t-shirt, and a pretty accessory like a scarf or colourful headband.   This means that if I have 4 skirts, 4 t-shirts, and a few scarves I can keep myself dressed in an array of fun combinations while only needing to launder my clothing twice a week.

What We Kept:  Keep in mind that we live in a climate where weather ranges from frigid cold to heat-wave hot.  Plus, I'm pregnant, so I need to keep maternity and non maternity clothing.  I think all that considered, we've achieved our goal  of keeping the clothes we need and ditching the ones we don't.

Kelly has:
4 skirts
4 sleeveless shirts
4 regular short sleeved t-shirts
4 maternity short sleeved t-shirts
3 regular long sleeved shirts
1 maternity long sleeved shirt
3 sweaters or cardigans of varying warmth
2 cute summer dresses
1 sweater dress
1 formal dress
2 sets of pajamas
2 pairs of running shorts
bras, underwear and socks
5 scarves and a funky headscarf
1 swimsuit

Luke has:
1 vest
3 pairs of work jeans
3 pairs of nice jeans
3 pairs of black pants (2 casual, one formal)
8 t-shirts! Some for work (he works in construction), and some nicer ones for leisure
3 polo shirts
3 casual short sleeved button up shirts
2 casual long sleeved button up shirts
2 white dress shirts (one short sleeved, one long sleeved)
4 sweaters
2 pairs of casual shorts
4 pairs of work shorts
ties, belts and 2 fedoras
2 pairs of pajama pants
underwear,socks  and undershirts


The Verdict:  For the first time in my life as a mommy I feel like getting dressed is a simple (and fun!) task. I grab a skirt, a seasonally appropriate solid coloured shirt and pretty scarf!  Easy Peasy.

And my absolute favourite part of getting dressed is picking out a pretty scarf to wear.  If you're worried about trimming down your wardrobe, consider a few nice accessories.  Five scarves can turn a small-ish wardrobe into seemingly endless possibilities!

We are doing one small thing every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!