Day 55: Decluttering the Clutter Busters {ha!}

The Task: To get rid of some of the racks, dividers, totes and baskets that are now useless because I'm no longer trying to cram as much stuff as I can into our space!

The Why:  Today's task is as much a celebration as it is a chore.  In the last 55 days of decluttering we have made a huge stack of empty totes, bins, and organizers in our basement. 

Minimalism is turning all those storage solutions that we thought would fix our clutter problems into clutter!

The How:  I am keeping a few favourite baskets until we are done decluttering/reorganizing because I may find that a certain basket is useful in a place I haven't dealt with just yet.  I'm also keeping some large totes because they make for a great place to brood baby chickens (if you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay)  but for the most part, these things can go. I can't believe that just 2 months ago we had enough stuff to fill all of these baskets and totes and bags and bins!  

I'm giving away some of these things to friends on facebook and I'm packing up our thrift store donations in reusable bins, the thrift store can either sell the bins or use them!

We talked about saving the bins until we move, but there isn't a move on our immediate horizon and free cardboard boxes are easy enough to come by.

The Verdict:   This just makes me smile.  It feels like a reason to celebrate.  I no longer stroll through stores looking for clever ways to stash my stuff.  Our closets have tons of room because they aren't filled with things that add nothing to our life.  I am loving how much easier it is to keep our spaces tidy and organized with less stuff.  Hooray!

Plus, I feel a little bit like we're "sticking it to the man", so to speak.  We are solving our clutter problem without making a trip to a fancy home store or buying the latest clever storage solution.  We're learning that the answer to a more peaceful, cozy, welcoming home is not about having the right stuff, but less stuff. 

What about you guys?   I know many of you are following along, radically minimizing your own belongings as well. Do you have a pile of totes and storage devices that are evidence of how far you've come?  Are you finding your home easier to keep tidy and organized with less stuff around?

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 54: Choosing a Better Thrift Store

Not everything we're getting rid of is going to a thrift store.  Some things are passed on to friends and family, some to people we know in our community who need them, some to shelters, pregnancy crisis centers and other charities.  A few large items have been sold online (with the caveat that we must immediately give away or put the money we receive from it towards our debt!)   But many of the things we are decluttering are going to the thrift store.

In the city near our home, there are a number of thrift stores.

There is one that is situated in the fancy, shiny, commercial part of town.  It's a giant department store style thrift store that sells things for just a tiny bit less than they would be new. It's not uncommon for dollar store items to be priced at 99 cents or a pair of jeans to be seventeen bucks! 

This store is really easy to donate to.  They're located across from the mall, around the corner from our church.  They are open long hours every day of the week and they have one of those bells that rings when you pull up to the donation centre so that a store person can come out and help you unload all of your junk.

Up until recently, we didn't give it much thought. We just took stuff to the convenient donation centre at the side of the great big fancy thrift store. Our motivation was to get the things out of our home, not to see them redistributed to those who need them.

In contrast, all over the city there are small not-for-profit thrift stores that are intentionally located in the parts of town where they are needed most.  These places have a reputation for selling baby clothes for a quarter and giving deals to single moms with armloads of back to school clothes.  Many of them use the proceeds from the thrift store to fund valuable community services such as food banks and shelters.  They aren't as convenient to donate to, they have fewer hours of operation and no extra staff members to help you unload.  But for us, once we thought about it, the decision was easy.

The word redistribution has been on my mind a lot lately.  Some of us have way too much while many have too little.  We are carefully choosing to take our unneeded items to a store that was designed to redistribute these things to those who need it, and it's desire is to serve and bless the community.

So that's today's task.  To be more intentional about where our stuff goes.  And to give things away with reckless abandon knowing that it will end up in the hands of somebody who needs it far more than I do. 

By the way, this post was originally slated for yesterday. But then Luke's work crew, who was planning to be out of town on a job all week finished their work early and Luke came home unannounced 2 days early,  surprising me with a few flowers and fancy truffles from a lovely little chocolate shop on route. 

 So I ate chocolate and snuggled my man instead. 

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 52: Sorting and Storing Kids' Clothes

The Task:  To radically reduce the amount of kids clothes we have stored in the basement.

The Why:  Our 6th baby (a girl!) is due in December, less than a week after my oldest child will turn 6.  That means that we are approximately one week short of having six kids in six years.  When you are perpetually pregnant, you acquire a lot of baby clothes. 

It isn't uncommon for friends who are done having kids to give us big black garbage bags filled with clothes. We've also received clothing as baby gifts and I've been known to browse my local thrift store for great deals, especially when that pregnancy nesting urge causes me to swoon at the sight of anything itsy-bitsy.

 My solution, up until now, has been to immediately donate any items I know for sure that I won't use and to store the rest in totes, sorted by size.  This "solution" has resulted in us collecting hoards of children's clothing.  It's like a Baby GAP outlet in our basement.

This is embarrassing...

Eeek!  Insane, right?  Yesterday I had to haul all of this up from the basement (in my pregnant, tired, grumpy state) tote by tote and sort through it all.  I swear that the best way to become a minimalist real quick is to haul all of your crap a long enough distance from where it was hiding that you just don't want to haul it all back!

The How:  My favourite decluttering technique that I've embraced on this journey of less is to set limits for our stuff.  It allows us to keep only what we've decided we can reasonably use and store, and it discourages shopping because we have a limit on how much space our stuff can fill up.

So I set a limit of four bins of clothing for our kids to grow in to: one for the baby girl on the way, one for our twin girls, one for my little boy, and one for my two oldest girls (who are close enough in age and size that things get handed down without needing to be stored anywhere in between.)

I'm giving away all of the clothing items that I never particularly liked or that we have too many of.  Very worn and ratty things are becoming rags.

Also, I'm giving away all of the boy stuff my son has grown out of.

*sniff*

I asked a good friend yesterday if she would like some of the baby boy clothes for her son and she responded by asking me the very thing I had been asking myself.  You're getting rid of the baby boy clothes? But what if....?

What if we have another baby after this one?  And what if it's a boy?

The math of the matter suggests that if we have another baby after this one (undecided) and it's a boy (turns out the whole "it must be a boy, since you have so many girls" thing is not actually scientifically sound), my son will be nearly 5 years old by then. That is a long time to be hoarding adorable little boy clothes, just in case.

It should be a crime to keep spiffy little outfits like this hoarded in the basement when some other little man could be wooing hearts in it. No?

The Verdict:  I know I told you all a while back that I'm not very sentimental, but I'll confess; packing up the little boy clothes choked me up a little bit. I'll get over it.

I have 5 big blue recycling bags full of clothes to take to the thrift store, plus a box of girl stuff for a friend having her first baby girl this winter and a box of the best of the boy stuff for my friend's little man.

And I'm left with my 4 totes of clothing plus 3 smaller totes of winter gear such as snow suits and boots.

And my favourite part: because I got rid of so much stuff, I'm able to store everything I'm keeping in matching totes.  Yes, that's the kind of thing that makes me giddy!

The Lessons We're Learning:  Honestly, decluttering is a hassle.  I don't want to do all this work and then keep collecting and consuming stuff and have to do it all again in another 5 years.  We don't want to spend our lives moving our stuff around, and having yard sales, and finding versatile organizational solutions so that we can cram as much as possible into our storage areas.

We need to be more careful about what we bring into the home, pickier about how many hand-me-downs we accept (although we are certainly grateful for them!), and quicker to redistribute things we don't need. 

Oh, and free stuff is never entirely free.  It costs time, energy, space, and sometimes even a trip to the mall for a cute little cardigan to go with it.

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 51: No More Answering Machine

Can I start by letting you all in on the embarrassing truth that every single conversation Luke and I have had, ever, about an answering machine has resulted in at least one of us breaking out in the chorus of this ridiculous song.  It's actually been stuck in my head all morning. Now it's stuck in your head too. You're welcome. 

The Task:  Ditch the answering machine (and the double handset cordless phone it's attached to!)

The Why: 

1. I'm home, like, 95% of the time.  Seriously, it's kind of sad. 
2. Pretty much every time that I don't answer the phone because I'm busy snuggling a baby to sleep or changing a diaper and I think to myself  "I'll just let the machine get it", the caller doesn't leave a message.  And then I'm mad at all of humanity for no good reason.
3. We really don't need to be accessible at all times. Do we?
4. If it's important, they'll call back.
5. Or they could call Luke's cell phone, or email me, or facebook us. Or drive to our house and leave a note on the door.
6. And if somebody isn't able to do any of those things to contact us they are  probably just calling to sell us tickets to the circus, or invite us to take a short customer satisfaction survey.

The only reason we have an answering machine is because somebody gave us one for free and then it broke, so we replaced it.  And when we replaced it we bought one that comes with two cordless phones because that's the kind of phones people have these days, right?  But then we had to keep our cheap 7 dollar no-electricity-needed phone  for the not uncommon occurrence that the power fails in our rural community.

So now we have three phones.

In a 1000 square foot house!

And the really funny part is that the cord on the cheap 7 dollar phone is so long that you can actually walk pretty much anywhere in the house with it, making the (two handset!) cordless phone purchase kinda, um, dumb.  I don't know what we were thinking.

The How: We listed the cordless phones with answering machine for sale on kijiji, and plugged in our zero-electricity old-fashioned plain-jane wall phone.  Although the energy savings from this switch won't make a noticeable difference on our electricity bill, I like that we aren't wasting electricity on a completely unnecessary device.

And imagine how much electricity we would save as a society if everybody ditched the electronics they could happily live without?

The Verdict:  I can see why answering machines were a great thing when they were invented. There was a time when it was difficult to relay information to people.  But with cell phones and email and facebook, I think we are far more likely to suffer from being too accessible than not accessible enough!

And if I'm snuggling a baby and the phone rings and I choose not to get it, I can be pretty sure that I'm not missing out on anything more important than the precious moment I'm enjoying.

New here? Welcome!  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 48: Wash Your Dish (Lessons in Mindfulness)

Sometimes I feel like my life is spent rushing from one task to another, never really able to complete anything.   My life is so often dictated by the next emergency, the next urgent request, the next appointment we're running late for.  And I'm tired. 

It's been a busy week.  And I can't even really do a "Yay, it's Friday" happy dance because there is an even busier week on the horizon. 

But part of this lesson we're trying to learn, this life we're trying to live, this radical simplicity we claim to be growing towards is intentionality.  It's about doing things on purpose, with purpose. It's about serving with joy instead of running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to cross as much as humanly possible off today's to-do list.

As I contemplated this I remembered posts I'd read, like this one and this one.  Wash your bowl.   I can do that.

So today's task isn't some grand project.  I'm not emptying out any cupboards or packing stuff up for the thrift store. I'm not swearing off my dishwasher for good.  I'm just washing my bowl.  I'm mindfully completing one task before moving on to the next.  I'm clearing my sink and my counter because physical clutter is distracting and exhausting, and then I'm moving on to the next task with that same mindfulness, intentionality, and thankfulness for this hectic, busy, beautiful life I've been given!  

Have a fabulous weekend.  And Happy Friday!

New here? Welcome!  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 47: Reducing Energy Use While We Sleep!

The Task: To put our stereo, internet, and router on a power bar with a switch so that we can just turn it off at the end of the day or when we are not home!

The Why:  Our hope is that by finding many little ways to reduce our electricity usage we will eventually see a small decrease in our overall consumption and our electric bill.

But it's also the principle of the matter. Why are we drawing energy for 8 hours at night for things that aren't being used?  And why do we use energy to run a wireless internet even when we are away from the house for the entire day?

There are extra benefits to this simple switch too.  The surge protector will protect our electronics in a power outage, which is especially convincing for us because our stereo is down to only one speaker after a recent momentary power outage blew the right speaker and left it smoking and emitting a putrid burnt rubber smell!

The Verdict:  Flicking the switch takes about two seconds.  It was easy enough to do while locking the doors and turning out the lights on our way to bed last night.  And even if we never see any decrease in our electricity bill (I'm not holding my breath for that, this is a very small change!)  it is a step towards being more intentional about the resources we use, which is a big part of what this year of less is all about.

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 45: Completing (and abandoning!) Projects

The Task:  To collect all of the projects I have on the go and either complete them, make some progress on them, or abandon them along with all of their accompanying craft clutter.

The Why:  I have a confession to make:  I like to plan for and shop for a project more than I like to actually work on a project.  My craft closet was stuffed to the brim with the makings of some great (and some not-so-great!) craft projects than never came to fruition.

Plus I occasionally put off mending a torn piece of clothing for so long that by the time I finally do mend it, it no longer fits the child it belonged to when I first said "oh, no big deal, mommy can just sew that...."

When we think of clutter we often think of knick-knacks and useless kitchen gadgets, but to me the absolute worst type of clutter is to-do list clutter.  Projects that hang over my head undone stress me out and make me want to avoid working on projects at all!

The How:  I unloaded the craft closet into my laundry room (I wish I'd thought to take a picture.  It looked like the craft store went binge drinking with your grandmothers fabric stash and together they threw up all over my laundry room.)  Then I went through each item and decided which projects I would complete and which ones should be abandoned.

I spent a couple hours today working on the projects I decided to keep and was able to mend a stack of clothing and make some real progress on a couple sewing projects I am excited about.

And I have a mostly full tote of craft supplies to give away.

 The Verdict:  I feel so liberated! All of those projects I had planned for and shopped for and then lost interest in are no longer hanging over my head!  The only half done projects left in my craft stash are ones I am super excited about.

By completing some projects and abandoning others I was able to move most of my craft stuff to just the top shelf of the craft closet, making room to use it as an organized homeschool closet as well!  Woohoo!

And it is so nice to be caught up on all the clothes mending.  In fact, I just might like this feeling enough that next time I say "mommy can just sew that button back on..." I will actually do it, like,um, that 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 44: Restaurant-less Date Night

This weekend we had dinner on the patio of the cutest little bistro around.  Our own home.

 We put the kids down to bed, and by some miraculous act of God, they all went straight to sleep.

A candle in a mason jar, a flower from the yard, our best linens and dishes, and Serena Ryder on the stereo.  Sounds like date night to me.

We sat and talked and laughed together in the candlelight for hours until the mosquito chased us inside.

A simple, quiet, delightful evening on the porch.  A fabulous restaurant-less date night. 

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 42: Eat Your Pantry Month

Today is the first day of September, and that means the first day of September's Eat Your Pantry Challenge! 

 The Task:  To eat all the stuff that is in our pantry.  (With the exception of almond, vanilla and coconut extracts, meringue powder, salt and corn starch...we don't have to finish those things!) We will be endeavoring to eat the beans that have been there for a year, the chickpeas and split peas of unknown vintage, pastas, barley, and specialty flours.  Whether we like it or not, we are going to muster up the creativity and courage and turn them into dinner.

The Why: We are spoiled.  I am guilty of standing with the pantry door open and exclaiming that there is nothing to eat for dinner.  And what I really mean is that there is nothing that I want to eat.  Or that I failed to plan ahead enough to make something great from scratch.

Even though the shelf life of some of these dry pantry items is supposedly as long as 6-8 years, at the rate we're eating them (which is pretty much not at all) they seriously run the risk of going bad in our pantry.  So we are going to do what we should have done from the beginning: be thankful for a pantry full of (mostly) nutritious food instead of wishing we had something more delectable. 

The How:  You can create whatever ground rules you want for your own Pantry challenge.  You could plan to eat from your pantry 3 nights a week, or to make a soup from scratch every weekend using what you can from your pantry and freezer.

For us, I've moved all of the pantry items so that there is one big empty shelf in my pantry.  This is where any new things will  go: a bag of flour I need to get, some fresh potatoes, that sort of thing.  The rest of the shelves are the ones we need to eat up.  And eat them we will!

There is no rule against buying new things. We will need to buy fresh veggies and dairy products and meats to go with our pantry adventures, we just need to make a point to eat what is in the pantry.  And to be grateful for it.

So, what inspired pantry meal is kicking off this challenge in our household?  Black bean soup? Enchiladas? Split pea and brown rice burgers?  Errr....Um....well, actually we are grilling beef burgers with friends today!  But I had to do something to commemorate the first day of eat your pantry month, so I'm simmering some chickpeas (and then roasting some garlic, YUM!) so that I can make some homemade hummus to go on the burgers.

Are you joining us?  What are your rules to help you eat your pantry this month? 

P.S.  If you know of any recipes containing beans that are so yummy that even this avid bean-hater will like them, please leave a link in the comments below! And don't forget to get the button to share on your own blog if you're following along!  Thanks!

New 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 41: Putting a Limit on the Scrapbooking Supplies

The Task: To fit all of this...

into this....

(after some serious purging, of course!)

The Why:  I use Project Life to keep my scrapbooks simple, in theory.  Project Life combines the simplicity of a photo album with the flexibility and creativity of a scrapbook.  The problem is that I had collected so many scrapbooking items that getting out my supplies was an ordeal, and sorting through my options was overwhelming. 

I love the strategy of creating limits for our stuff.  By having a single bin for my scrapbooking supplies, I not only make scrapbooking simpler and more fun, I also prevent myself from buying more than I need, since I can only keep what will easily fit in the bin!

I have to actually use my craft supplies before I can shop for more.What a novel idea!

The How:  I have a general look that I'm going for in my scrapbooks and use many of the same items over and over again. I use a lot of brown kraft paper and white pens, paper doilies and labels.   So I just went through my craft stash looking for items that go well with my scrapbooking style.  I basically created a customized kit that is full of things that delight me. 

The most time consuming part was to go through photos and only keep the good ones that I actually plan to scrapbook.  My new rule is that if a photo isn't good enough for the scrapbook, it isn't worth keeping!

 The Verdict:

I did it!  I created a compact little kit full of scrapbooking supplies that I love to use.  It's easy to take out and use, and then put away when I'm done.

Having a little container full of embellishments I love is really so much more fun than the huge selection I had before.  I open this happy little container and start dreaming of the possibilities!

Last night I was eager to use my new little scrapbooking station and loved that even when everything was laid out on the coffee table in a jumble, I was still able to see and use everything!

 

The scrapbooks sit on a shelf in my living room.  One of them holds my unused page protectors.

If you're wondering, I use the White Signature Binders and the Clementine edition Journaling cards (although the new cherry edition looks super nice too!), along with a wide array of the photo pocket page protectors.

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 39: Bath and Beauty Products

The Task: To reduce our bath and beauty products and to choose safer products.

The Why:  First of all, moisturizers are having sex in my linen closet.  It is the only possible explanation for why I own 11 different moisturizers.  Either that or people who don't know what to give me for Christmas or my birthday pretty much always give me moisturizers and lotions.  Maybe I look dry?

But seriously, there are a lot of weird ingredients in the products we are marketed and sold for the sake of beauty.  Go ahead and type some of the ingredients in any ordinary shampoo into the Skin Deep database and you'll see what I mean.

Maybe it's because I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to consumer and marketing issues, or because I don't own a television and haven't seen a cosmetics commercial since 2006, but I really think that it is kind of strange that we rub products that contain dubious chemicals all over our bodies in the name of beauty.

I would like to opt out of a consumer culture that is constantly trying to sell me (and my daughters!) the right products to make us all look like supermodels.  In fact, I know this is a little counter-cultural, but I want to embrace the idea of growing old with grey hairs and laugh lines.

Well, I do most of the time, anyways.

The How:  Since this project started we've been reassessing our products as they run out.  When a bottle of a certain product became empty we would ask ourselves if it was really necessary, and if so, what is the safest product we can find to do that job. We've been using GoodGuide.com to choose items that we feel are safe enough for our family.

Today I went through and disposed of products we won't be using (such as the absurd amount of yummy smelling moisturizers).  This is what we are left with:

This is every bath and beauty product we own!

1. Shampoo.  We chose  Aubrey Organics Blue Chamomile Shampoo because it is currently the second highest rated shampoo on GoodGuide.com. It's mostly just for the kids (since hubby and I have dreadlocks and wash our hair with soap).
2. Soap.  We use Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap in Almond as a body wash.  Luke and I use it (diluted) to wash our dreads, and I've been using it to wash my face too ever since I ran out of face wash, and I am very pleased with the results. 
3. Deodorants. Because of the available selection at our local stores, Luke and I settled for deodorants that were safer than many other options but still have some questionable ingredients.  In the future, we may order a safer product online or consider making our own, but for now these are a step in the right direction.
4. Razors and Shave gel.  I've always been too cheap for shave gel, so I've been shaving my legs with just soap for at least 10 years.  I'm pretty sure Luke just buys whatever shave Gel is on sale.  We've both chosen razors with reusable handles because it seems awfully wasteful to throw away a perfectly good handle when all we really need is a new blade.
5. Moisturizers and lotions and creams.  We kept three.  It's interesting to note that the regular grown-up lotions that we happened to have scored much better on both GoodGuide.com and The Skin Deep Database than either of the two "gentle" baby lotions we had!  We also kept a Bee Silk bar and some Sweet Almond Oil.
6. Toothpaste.  We've been using Tom's of Maine Fluoride-Free Toothpaste for ages now and love it. My favourite flavour is Fennel! (My kids don't like the fennel flavour that much, but our bathroom isn't a democracy so I buy the fennel anyways!)
7. Lip Balm. We are using a Peppermint Lip Balm by Made On Skin Care. It contains only 4 ingredients: coconut oil, shea butter, beeswax and peppermint essential oil.
8. We also have plain ol' hand soap in our soap pumps. I wasn't sure if that counted as a bath and beauty product, so it's not in the photo.

Things we are happily doing without:

• Specialty dandruff products.  We've discovered that an apple cider vinegar rinse can help with dandruff.  Put about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a 250ml mason jar, fill the jar with water, and slowly pour the mixture over your head.  Let it sit for a minute or two, and then rinse it out.  Although your hair will smell like vinegar when it's wet, I find the smell goes away once the hair dries.
• Specialty kids' products.  I have found that kids products such as baby soaps and lotions and kids toothpaste almost always score worse for the safety of their ingredients than the grown up counterparts!

The Verdict:  The other day I had to go to the drug store for some razor refills and I was pleased to see how little I needed in that store.  It felt good to take my one little item up to the cashier and be in and out in minutes.

And I really don't think that our larger selection of bath and beauty products was really ever doing anything to make us cleaner or better looking. Between you and me, I think it's all just a scam....

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!

Announcing The September Monthly Challenge: Eat Your Pantry Month!

Each month we encourage you to join us in our pursuit of radical simplicity by doing one small thing with us for a whole month.

The September challenge is a dare to eat your pantry!

If you are like us, you have things in your pantry that have been there a while.  Foods that have been sitting there for months (or years!) because we lack the imagination and creativity to turn them into dinner.

When I stand at the pantry door and exclaim that there is nothing to eat, what I really mean is that there is nothing I want to eat.

This month we are going to clean out our pantry the old fashioned way, by actually eating the food we have.  We expect to see our grocery bill to go down, and maybe even learn a thing or two about contentment while we're at it.

And by actually eating the food, we insure it won't come to the end of it's safe shelf life while still sitting on a shelf.

Obviously there will have to be some exceptions.  We don't plan to use up the almond extract of corn starch.  But the three different types of dried beans I've had for, well, um, ages?  We'll be eating them this month.  Even though I hate beans.  (Don't ask why somebody who hates beans has three types of them in her pantry...I can't explain it.)


Will you join us? Will you commit to eating those beans and lentils and split peas in your pantry this month?

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.com/2012/08/announcing-september-monthly-challenge.html"target="”_blank”"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kFfLLh7FUdU/UDzbUPHwA7I/AAAAAAAADxU/0upetTde7yo/s300/pantry%2520banner%2520300.png" /></a>

OR

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

Day 37: Downsizing the DIY Dreams

The Task: Downsize my pinterest boards to contain projects I really might actually do some day.

The Why:  Does anybody else feel like they have too much inspiration and not enough time?  Sometimes I get stressed out about all the projects I want to complete even though they are completely optional projects that shouldn't have the ability to stress me out at all!

Plus, I think sometimes pinterest convinces us to make something we really don't need or even really want, just because it's a neat idea.  Just because I can make a handbag out of my old tank tops doesn't mean I should make a handbag out of my old tank tops.  It isn't up-cycling if the finished project is clutter I don't need!

And the convenience of curating all the ideas and inspiration in one place lost it's actual convenience around the time my Pinterest pins exceeded 1000.  It was becoming easier to search Google for a new recipe than to find one I had pinned!

The How:  I created a few new boards and moved all my favourite pins into those few boards.  I left a couple boards alone, like my "recipes I've tried" board, which is uber handy when I'm looking for that peanut butter cookie recipe I know I tried but never got around to writing down.

I made a point of asking myself questions like "Does this project/idea/inspiration fit well with the life we're trying to live."and "Is this a project I may actually want to tackle in the coming year?"

The Verdict:  I went from 51 boards and 1477 pins down to 12 boards and 245 ideas I really think I might use someday. I was reminded of some great projects and recipes that had lost their appeal amid all the digital clutter.

By the way, you can check out my pinterest boards here, if you want!

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!

How is No Dryer Month Going?

We've almost made it.  The August monthly challenge, No Dryer Month, is over after next week.  And as I plan to share with you the September challenge in the coming days, I thought now would be a good time to check in and ask: How is no dryer month going?

Us?  We've loved it. mostly. There have definitely been a few humid and rainy days that I have wished I could just pop things in the dryer.  And we've had a couple toddler meltdowns over blankies that aren't dry for nap time, but other than that I don't miss my dryer much at all.  In fact, I really hope to continue not to use it, at least not on a regular basis, after this month is over.

So, for all you fabulous people who took the challenge with us, please take a moment to leave a comment and let us know how it's going!

Day 34: Dreadlocks!

I know that many of you are following along each day, trying to accomplish the tasks as we do them.   Consider this a day off.

I know it's not for everybody, but my husband and I recently decided to get dreadlocks!

The Why:  We have been trying a number of natural ways to wash our hair, things that didn't involve nasty chemicals.  We tried the baking soda and apple cider vinegar method and gave it a couple weeks because apparently your hair needs a couple weeks of a new routine for the PH to balance out or something like that.  We tried a shampoo bar and found it left an awful residue that made our hair feel heavy and dirty.  We bought an expensive natural shampoo that works nicely, but is just too costly considering how much hair we have. And both of us, for ages, have wanted dreads.  As we struggled against our hair to try and get it silky smooth without using any of the chemicals that make it silky smooth we finally just decided to get dreads.

I had dreadlocks when we met, and I spent weeks conditioning them and tediously washing and combing them out 7 years ago because I felt that it was time to start looking like a responsible grown up.  I am so over that.

Dreadlocks are a journey.  They are a practice in patience and contentment.  They take time to become what they are going to be, and in the mean time you just wear a lot of bandannas!  They are controlled chaos.  Instead of using products to get your hair to look a certain way, you just wash dreads with regular soap and let them do what they naturally want to do. I don't just love our new dreads, I love the idea of dreads.

The Verdict: I know that a lot of you have actual jobs that require you to look professional.  I know that this isn't for everyone, that many of you are shaking your heads right now and writing us off as crazy hippies.  But for us this is a letting go of what we think we ought to be.  For us, this is a stepping into freedom.

Besides, let's face it: Luke is a construction worker with a passion for organic farming.  He reads Joel Salatin and Wendell Berry and will go off on tangents about Monsanto and Walmart if you let him.  I am a tattooed homeschool mom who wears clothes I made myself and writes about giving away all our stuff....we weren't really ever in the running for normal anyways!

The kids, by the way, don't have dreads.  They are using Aubrey Organics Blue Chamomile Shampoo (It is currently the second highest rated shampoo on GoodGuide.com, a site that rates products according to their safety to our health, environmental effects, and social impact).  My five year old is asking for dreads, but we just aren't sure.  We've told her to ask again when she's six....

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 33: Purging the Children's Toys

The Task: To limit the children's toys to the ones they really use and enjoy

The Why:  If you have young children, you know that kids toys seem to multiply in the toy bin.  When friends who are new moms ask which toys are best to buy for their kids I tell them not to buy anything, toys will mysteriously appear in their home and in a few years they will be looking around the living room asking "Where did they all come from?"

The How: First of all, I should point out that my kids have grown up with a mom who regularly reorganizes and declutters.  In our home, phrases like "less is more" and "when in doubt, throw it out!" are common.  So they are particularly good at purging and decluttering.  They know that getting rid of things they don't use actually makes the things they do use more fun. 

We starting by laying a blanket on the front lawn and taking every single toy outside.  We grouped toys together by type, throwing away anything irreparably broken as we went.

We decided that the favourite toys pretty much fit into 4 categories;  mega blocks, the tea party and dress up stuff, the trains and cars, and the playsilks.  With only a couple exceptions (including a small basket of baby toys), we are donating almost everything else.

Here is what we've kept:

Plus we have a drawer full of mega blocks by the kitchen.  This is a great way to keep our busy twins occupied for whole minutes at a time.

And we piled all of the dolls and stuffies on the living room floor and let the three oldest kids take turns picking an item to keep until our "stuffy basket" was full.  This turned out to be a fabulous way to do it, the kids all got a say in what was kept and the tangible limit set for them helped them to part with what was left over.

The Verdict: We got rid of one giant Rubbermaid bin heaping with toys as well as a recycling bag full of stuffed animals. All in all, I think we've reduced our toys by at least half.  My kids are pleased with what we chose to keep, and I am so pleased to not have to pick up/trip over/curse at a million toys every day. 

Also, it gave us an opportunity to discuss with our kids why we declutter.  We talked about not storing up stuff on earth, and about how too much stuff makes it hard to enjoy and care for and appreciate what we have.  We talked about kids in developing countries who are thrilled to receive one tiny shoebox full of toys each year, and how our own gratitude for how much we have should be demonstrated through generosity. 

Of course, our kids still have a ton of other things to play with.  We have craft supplies and board games, books, puzzles, and bicycles. We have a sprinkler and kiddie pool for hot summer days, and I let them use my loaf pans to make snow bricks in the winter.  They even have a swing set and a slide in the backyard, a fire pit for roasting marshmallows on cold autumn evenings,and a garden to tend and explore. These kids definitely are not suffering from a lack of things to do!

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 32: Journaling

The Task: To start and keep a journal.

The Why:  I've never been much of a journal keeper.  I've tried, but I've always been so overwhelmed by everything I think my journal ought to be.  I get hung up trying to write the right words in beautiful handwriting with nothing scratched out or misspelled.  My perfectionism gets in the way.

But God is doing something big in us right now and I want to put it on paper.  I am the type of person who likes to make lists and mind maps, I don't feel like I fully comprehend something until I've brought pen to paper. And part of this project is to be more intentional, more aware, more authentic. Regular journaling sits well with those goals.

I was moved by this post.  It was inspiring and freeing to see a journal that was colourful, and creative.  I longed to have a time of reflection and creative expression as part of my morning ritual.

The How:  I'm using a notebook I already had and a great set of colourful pens.  I keep notes on what I'm thinking, reading and praying.  I make doodles and mind maps and lists.  I tear pages out and scribble over mistakes and I'll probably glue stuff into it sometimes too.

 I like to sit on the back porch in the morning with my journal and my bible and whatever book I'm currently reading. (Right now it's The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.  I totally recommend it!)  I do this while the kids play in the backyard and the laundry dries on the line, and it's a part of our morning that we all look forward to.

The Verdict: Ann Voskamp describes her journal as "a place to place a day, so it won’t get lost in the dark."  That resonates with me.

 In the past, all my attempts at journaling have had a specific focus; a prayer journal, a journal for sermon notes or notes on a book I'm reading.   But that feels so contrived now.  The books I'm reading, the thoughts I'm thinking, the prayers I'm praying, they are all a piece of this journey I am on.

And I'm finding that taking some time daily to reflect on what is moving my heart and changing my mind is refreshing for this sometimes weary mama.

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 31: Cleaning out the Inbox

The Task: I promise that tomorrow I won't talk about email.  But after yesterdays post about scheduling e-mail times I decided I should probably deal with all of the stuff currently in my inboxes.

The Why: The email I use frequently had 73 emails in the inbox; all stuff I had read and failed to do something with.   My other email, the one I use mostly for newsletters and people who still send me forwards of cats and midi music, had a whopping 764 emails in the inbox, largely unread.

I was still receiving regular emails from a big-box store that we resolved last New Years not to shop at anymore.  We haven't been to this store in 8 months, and have no plans to ever go again, but I didn't think to unsubscribe from their emails?***

I even still had my confirmation email from when I signed up for myspace.  MYSPACE!?  Wow.

The How: So I went through my emails, filed things into appropriate files, deleted a lot of stuff, and unsubscribed from a bunch of mailing list, including all the mailing lists that well meaning people had signed me up for against my will so that I could receive all those handy coupons and junk mail.  Oy vey.

Time Spent:  The whole thing took me about an hour, but only because my husband has the day off today.  If he were at work and I was alone with the children I'm pretty sure the project would've taken me a day and a half. 

The Verdict:  So now, each day when I spend time dealing with my emails, I can empty out my inbox. Stuff that may be needed for later reference can be filed in appropriate folders, and everything else can be deleted once I'm done with it. No more junk hanging over my head.  I have clean and happy email inboxes ready to be used for actual communication.

Now if only I could unsubscribe from cute forwards filled with pictures of cats...

***(I'm not going to tell you what store it is, but it rhymes with, um... Doll-Cart.  Just Sayin'.)

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 30: Scheduling E-mail Times

The Task: To set a time each day to deal with e-mails efficiently.

The Why:  One of the things we are trying to accomplish this year is more intentionality in how we spend our time.  We want to be purposeful about where the minutes in our days go, and we want to be more present to those around us.

This is hard for a busy mama.  I am so accustomed to doing two or more things at once.  The problem is that my activities often suffer a little bit from not having my complete attention.  My e-mail inbox is a good example of that.

My e-mail inbox is one of the tabs set to open every time I open my browser.  Which means that even if I'm just turning on my computer to look up a recipe for dinner or check the weather report, I always have that little tab telling me whether or not there are any new e-mails to attend to.  And more often than not, there are.  But instead of waiting for a time when I can deal with the e-mail properly, I quickly skim it, and often mark it as unread so that I don't forget to deal with it later.

This is not only hugely inefficient, but also a whole lot of mind clutter!  It's like I'm inviting my work into every part of my day!

 The How: I am setting up two times a day to check my e-mail; once in the morning, and once during our afternoon quiet time.  I've removed my e-mail account from my homepage tabs, so that it no longer automatically loads when I open my browser.I have to actually go to my e-mail to check my e-mail.

This way I will only be dealing with e-mails when I have time to respond to them and archive them appropriately.

The Verdict: I already feel more free! And I believe that by scheduling times for tending to e-mails I will become better at promptly and efficiently doing so.

I considered having a third e-mail time in the evening, but I've decided that since the evening is when Luke and I spend our time together, e-mails can wait for the morning. 

And finally, I have one less thing to procrastinate with when I should be working on something else.  For example, I wrote this entire blog post without  once drifting over to my inbox... I think I just made personal history!

Do you have a scheduled e-mail time? 

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 27: Decluttering the Kitchen (Part Two: The Minimalist-ish Kitchen Tour!)

Welcome to the longest post in the history of blog posts.  Don't say I didn't warn you...

As I mentioned yesterday, Luke and I have been working hard at radically decluttering the kitchen.  We are eager to embrace the less is more philosophy in this space that we spend so much of our time.

But I'm hesitant to call it minimalist.  We are a large family that cooks from scratch, entertains often (just last weekend we had nearly 40 people at our house for a birthday party!) and decorates cakes for fun...what is minimal for us would be excessive for many others.

We did try to eliminate multiple items.  We've really discovered that having one of what you need, washing it and putting it away is far more efficient than having half a dozen of them that could at any moment be in the drawer, the dishwasher, the sink or the counter top.  So we have one wooden spoon, one casserole dish (for a baptist homeschooling mom, one casserole dish is pretty radical!)  and one turkey roaster (Yes, I had two of them.  Don't ask....)

I'll confess that a few times I found myself wondering "would a minimalist have this?" and I had to remind myself what we're doing here.  It's not about roughing it or having some bare minimum list of essentials, but about only owning the things that are helping us to lead the extraordinary life we're choosing to lead. It's not about having less for the sake of less, but refusing to consume more for the sake of more.

So come, snoop through our maybe-sorta-kinda almost minimalist-ish kitchen.

We are keeping 1 casserole dish, 2 muffin tins, 2 cookie sheets, 4 cooling racks, a cast iron skillet, 2 pizza pans and a big beautiful woven trivet tray thingy.

I took a very scientific approach to deciding which  casserole dish to keep....I kept the prettiest one!

 

I suggested to Luke that we probably don't need to own chopsticks and he suggested that we don't need any silverware except chopsticks and I took that to mean that the topic was not up for debate.

In our cooking utensils drawer we have 3 knives and a knife sharpener, kitchen shears, a pizza cutter, a cheese grater, citrus press, 1 flipper, 1 wooden spoon, 1 ladle, a kitchen scale, a set of  measuring cups and measuring spoons and miscellaneous small tools like the vegetable peeler, can opener and meat thermometer.

We had a whisk too, but I broke it yesterday making buttertarts and discovered that a fork accomplishes the same task pretty well. 

I use dollar store cork tiles to keep things from slipping around inside the drawer.  This doesn't work if you slam the drawer, but if you're gentle it works quite nicely!

I finally have a baking drawer!  I've always wanted to put all my baking supplies together in one drawer but have never been able because I had too much stuff!

We have 4 mixing bowls, a dough cutter, a pastry blender, a set of biscuit cutters, 4 ramekins, 3 spatulas (probably a little excessive, but I like them all...), a funnel, some measuring bowls, tea towels for covering dough while it rises, and some cupcake liners.

That nifty white device is a whipped cream dispenser. You put cream in it and it comes out like store bought squirty cream but without all the weird additives. Which may seem rather indulgent but we are kinda whipped cream snobs;  in our 7 years of marriage we have never once purchased a can of processed squirty cream, and we wear that fact as a foodie badge of honour!

We kept only one frying pan, but it's a huge one! We also have a set of 4 pots (we keep two of them on the pot rack, along with a colander), a sieve, a steamer basket and a stick blender.  I heart my stick blender....

Some bbq tools and 3 flexible plastic cutting boards.

We didn't declutter the spices at all, but we probably should because I can't remember the last time I put marjoram in anything. Ever.

By streamlining the number of cake and dessert pans I own I believe I have also greatly streamlined the amount of curse words I will need to utter when retrieving my spring form pan. Just sayin'....

 

For small appliances I have a kettle and a french press coffee maker, a stand mixer (with some attachments), a food processor (with a blender attachment), a salad spinner, a toaster, a crockpot and a hand crank ice cream maker (which, um....we used three times last week...)

One thing we did that we should have done sooner is we got rid of all of the food processor attachments we never ever use.  We've been housing parts for years that we don't have any interest in using, just because they came with the food processor.  Ditching them was somehow freeing!

We have 2 tea pots because I have a favourite and Luke has a favourite and if we had tried to figure out which one to keep, one of us would have been sleeping on the couch.

I have everyday white dishes plus white china dishes that we use frequently.  When we have both of our families over for one of the kids birthdays we rarely need to use disposable dishes, so I consider our massive amounts of dishes to be a great thing!   The baskets hide the kids cups and baby bottles.

That cake plate on the top shelf is probably going to get donated to the thrift store, I just put it there for the picture because that shelf was empty....

All of my cake and cookie decorating supplies now fit in two labelled shoe boxes that I store in the pantry.

We also have a stock pot, a 22 x18 sheet cake pan, and a turkey roasting pan stored in the basement.

The verdict:  We are donating 4 diaper boxes and a laundry basket full of kitchen stuff!

 I think we will probably eliminate even more as time goes on.  There were a few things we were uncertain about, so we kept them tentatively in order to avoid a massive case of purger's regret sending us frantically to the store. 

After this experience I would say that emptying the entire contents of your kitchen for a big giant purge is A) a little bit crazy and B) a great way to do it.  After having the entire contents of our kitchen laid out to be seen all at once, neither of us has any doubts about whether or not we own enough stuff!

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!