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Striving For A More Simple/Minimalist Life Tribe - Page 5

post #81 of 177
5/4/10 at 9:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amys1st View Post

I am reading "The Radical Homemaker" right now. Anyone read this?
I have this on my Kindle and am a bit into it. Very interesting so far!
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post #82 of 177
5/5/10 at 2:08pm
Can I join in I am JUST starting out to work my way to a minimalist lifestyle. (and when I say JUST I mean as in today LOL) I am in the middle of a seperation and I am realizing what I truely want for myself and my children. We currently have alot of clutter that I am going through and getting rid of! I am excited about this journey and hopefully it will not take me to long to get to my goals of living more simply!!
post #83 of 177
5/5/10 at 6:08pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lactivistmama View Post
Can I join in I am JUST starting out to work my way to a minimalist lifestyle. (and when I say JUST I mean as in today LOL) I am in the middle of a seperation and I am realizing what I truely want for myself and my children. We currently have alot of clutter that I am going through and getting rid of! I am excited about this journey and hopefully it will not take me to long to get to my goals of living more simply!!
Plenty of room for you! We have minimal stuff here LOL! Welcome!
post #84 of 177
5/5/10 at 9:13pm
Welcome lactivistmama!
post #85 of 177
5/5/10 at 9:31pm
Great job everyone...very inspirational. I must say divine intervention at it's best happened. I live near Nashville and the flooding is HORRIBLE, people have lost everything and the water is still leveling off. I had 4 bags filled to go to Goodwill but didn't have the time last week. I now am donating them to the local church for the flood relief. It is amazing the turnout in this community. It's wonderful....
post #86 of 177
5/6/10 at 3:46am
I have yet another trunk full of stuff to go away. I don't know where it comes from, I really don't. We don't BUY things! Yesterday I combined my kitchen utensil drawer and my silverware drawer and got rid of a few things we hardly ever used. Libby decided we could get rid of the plastic bath ducks, they always frustrate her that they don't float upright. It's all random stuff like that.

I am trying hard to simplify my kitchen, the things I make, the containers I store food in, the ingredients I buy. It's really fun. We are canceling our trash service, so right now simplifying in the kitchen means cutting down on trash big time!
post #87 of 177
5/6/10 at 7:55am
Just curious about the canceling your trash service? What do you do with the trash then if you don't get it picked up?
post #88 of 177
5/6/10 at 9:16am
This is probably going to fall into the "one persons minimal is another's excess" category, but I am down to just four purses/handbags now. That is after weeding out ... well, more than I care to admit to

Ideally I'd like to just have one that I love and works for all seasons, but for now I picked one I really love for each season and that feels pretty good

My husband and I recently gave the kids the biggest bedroom, which means we also gave up the bigger closet. Even our already simple wardrobes are getting paired down to suit our space (a good thing) but the shoe/purse crazy gal in me has never had to cut back before. It is good for me, I think. I can simplify in other areas of my life, but this is my weak spot
post #89 of 177
5/6/10 at 9:58pm
We are trying to produce no trash! We use cloth everything, diapers, pads, family cloth. We compost, have chickens, and do worm composting. We have flushable cat litter. I am trying to buy food with no packaging or that can be recycled. I love bulk food. : ) I am starting to can food too. We can drop off the recycling for free and trash for a fee at the landfill, so that's what we will do for anything that we can't reuse or compost (like broken glass, I am always breaking dishes). We have a can that we own out in the side yard, and I will probably pick up another for recycling. We also burn paper/cardboard trash in our wood stove. It's $35 dollars a month for recycling curbside pick up and on call trash for an extra $5 a pick up. I only put the recycling can out every month or more and have not yet filled up my outdoor trash can, so it seems silly to keep paying when we can drop it off for just a few dollars in gas.

I kind of understand the purse thing, I only have 1 purse, but I have a bunch of slings/baby carriers, they are like my baby purse!
post #90 of 177
5/6/10 at 10:10pm
OK I see now Paigekitten it sounds like you really have your act together...well done!

I have about 7 handbags, but only really use two of them most of the time! The others include 2 winter ones which seem too good to throw away, and 2 oroton summer ones, and a small evening oroton one with strap...ones I would only use occasionally. I think I should get rid of one of the winter ones as I really don't like it anymore....despite it being high quality.
post #91 of 177
5/7/10 at 8:43am
Paigekitten, what an inspiration! It is nice to know that such a thing is possible. It is so alien to the rest of our society but it sounds like it's totally doable! As it is, we have the smallest garbage can available and only fill it up about halfways most of the time. When I went to stay with my grandpa for a few weeks I was astounded at how much trash they produce - trash is picked up twice a week and they fill 2 or 3 (small) cans each time! Not trying to say that in a judgemental way, I'm sure that is what most of our country does, and there were special circumstances (illness, so some medical supplies and more prepared food) that created more trash...but still. Just imagine all that...multiplied by so many people...in the landfill...ugh.

I think even the amount of trash my family produces is probably excessive. When we move I'm going to try to take steps to decrease it, but we're probably going to have an apartment dumpster so it'll be a lot less measurable.

Anyway, way to go!
post #92 of 177
5/7/10 at 11:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lactivistmama View Post
Can I join in I am JUST starting out to work my way to a minimalist lifestyle. (and when I say JUST I mean as in today LOL) I am in the middle of a seperation and I am realizing what I truely want for myself and my children. We currently have alot of clutter that I am going through and getting rid of! I am excited about this journey and hopefully it will not take me to long to get to my goals of living more simply!!
I just started a blog with a focus on minimalist single-parenting -

http://simplysingleparent.wordpress.com/

I'd love it if you would like to join the conversation and add your insights there as well. Best of luck to you and keep in touch -
Julie
post #93 of 177
5/7/10 at 8:39pm
i would love to be trash free. we are getting closer. we put out on plastic grocery sized bag of trash per week for our family of 3.
post #94 of 177
5/8/10 at 12:24am
Introduce yourself
I'm B, married to my best friend, Mama to DS (4) and DD (1)

Discuss what brought you to this place
For the first 10 years of our marriage, we have been in a buying/collecting/filling our life mentality. I started the decluttering challenge and got rid of 2010 things in about 3 months and it made me realize that I don't want all that stuff and I need to look at why I buy. Wanting less stuff has led me to want to live altogether more simply, with less of an imprint on the world around me.

How is this path and what has it taken you to?
Right now I am still in declutter mode, I feel like I have so much to do around the house to make my house seem manageable. Life feels overwhelming often and I want to feel in control and like I have plenty of time for my kids, my husband and myself

Is it material things, an overabundance of too much in your life or something else?
Mostly material things, after we had our first child our (social) priorities completely changed and we no longer wanted to spend time with people we were not close to. Sometimes we feel like social outcasts, but at the end of each day when I have spent a nice afternoon playing with my kids outside I never have regrets.

I want my children to be conscientious people, that means loving them unconditionally, spending quality time with them, and living by example. Recently seeing 'The Story of Stuff' heavily influenced me. I am trying to take little steps to change our lives, but it is a constant battle with myself and members of the family.
post #95 of 177
5/8/10 at 4:12am
We aren't quite trash free, but we produce so little it's exciting. Today was my monthly grocery shopping so after getting home and putting everything away and pulling off the packaging I had about 1 grocery bag of plastic wrap. That is about the most we have at this point and I am still looking for products in different packaging.

I also cleared out some more kids books. They have one shelf of books, but I wanted to put a basket of art supplies on that shelf so Libby and I cut it down by almost half. She has her favorite half dozen books that we read over and over, and she enjoys the library, so it seems silly to keep anything we don't absolutely love.
post #96 of 177
5/8/10 at 9:38am
Hi all, just checking in while I am thinking of this thread. We have had a terrific spring so far.

My successes so far:

Growing some of our own food. Our garden is absolutely flourishing this year and we have eaten many, many garden veggies this past month. It has been so much fun to send the kids out with a big bowl and cook up all of the lovely greens they pick.


Paying down debt. Since we are buying fewer vegetable, our grocery bill has gone down a bit. So, I have applied a little more cash to our debt. Nice to see that balance go down.


No plastic shopping bags. I have been stashing my cloth bags in the van and really using them for every trip to any store.



Next goals:

Less TV. I know many here are TV free. We do watch some in our house, enough that I would like to watch less. I have been in school this semester and after a long day of classes and studying, my brain is toast and I tend to slump for 2 hours a night and watch junk after the kids are in bed.

More exercise. My last exam is this Monday and I have big plans to use my evenings to get out and take a run. The exercise is sooooooo good for me and I would like more movement in my life.

Continue to clear closets/cupboards. We have cleared out so much stuff! I have taken bags and bags and bags to the thrift shops and it has been wonderful to open up space in our home. Must keep up with this. I have a hard time getting going, but once I am working I get so much done.


And thank you, thank you to all of the wonderful posters here!!!! I love reading everyone's stories and progression.
post #97 of 177
5/9/10 at 11:24am
We had a very last minute, thrown togther yard sale yesterday! I made $226!! Not bad for about 8 hours to prepare and get everything to my father-in-laws!! Now I am motivated LOL!! Too bad I have to spend the $$ on bills LOL. But that literally was only a small fraction of what I have! I did sell 3 furniture pieces, 2 which were in a corner of my basement and hadn't been out for years!! So that brought my total higher, but I am excited!!
post #98 of 177
5/9/10 at 3:16pm
wow, simple is cool. I'm loving it.

It's my birthday today, and I had a birthday dinner with my dad yesterday. Normally, with both my parents, present giving (any occasion) is a huge smorgasboard of materialism. they wanted a birthday list, so I cobbled a small one together, with a note about how I'm trying to simplify, but there are a few things I'd love (my parents have been trying to simplify over time.)

My dad got me a cookbook I've wanted for years, and he's going to take me shopping for a new dress. I'm AMAZED by how much more special it seems when everything is lower key, and there are less presents. Instead of a pile of presents taking up all the table (as a child) or a quarter of the table (as an older teen), I got a book and a gift card (not an electronic gift card or paper, one from him). Instead of having a "more more more more more" attitude towards the presents, then vague disappointment when they're all opened, I was thrilled, and overjoyed with the two simpler presents. this really reaffirms for me that when we have kids, I want to keep things simple, even present giving.
post #99 of 177
5/9/10 at 6:22pm
cool. magelet, how did your redesign/storage solutions for your entry go?
post #100 of 177
5/9/10 at 8:13pm
they haven't happened yet. I haven't made it a high priority, so have been spending money that could be spent on lumber or something to build it on other (useful/nessicary) thing instead. For a while, I though we were going to move this month, so it didn't make sense to make furniture custom to this apt. since it looks like we'll stay here a while, I may try to get going.

(... after we get the honey for our wedding mead, since it needs to age a year or more... that's the next "not absolutely nessicary" expense)
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