minimizing monday

When do things get to a point that is  recognizably "less"?
I'm wondering about this now, waiting to dip below that critical mass (can you say reach critical mass if you are trying to diminish the mass?)

Despite the items moved out last week...lots and lots of ladybugs items...my home feels quite, quite cluttered.
It's the small things more than the big things--though it's everything. Papers, mail, magazines, books, and shoes seem to be the things that are permanently strewn around creating the feeling of lots and lots of red ants biting rather than lots and lots of ladybugs. I know I need systems to deal with these items. I have been putting off this process until our lovely Attic Addition is habitable, because at that point the bags of tools and pieces of insulation, wood, and Hardiboard lying around (hmm, could be contributing to the red ants biting sensation) will be gone. Then I will have a better idea of the space that is actually here to work with.

However, as the wise Vappu from Life Should Be the Cat's Meow stated, organizing doesn't work if you have too many things. It just doesn't. It takes a tremendous amount of energy with little return. Better to minimize first, and then organize.

I am moving along, moving slowly. This morning I took two coats back to my neighbor, who had given them to us for me and p'tit minou deux but weren't being worn ( I also took her a miniature plum berry pie).
I have three bags of books set aside to sell or donate. One bag of random donations to go out, and another bag of clothing to try and sell (this is so much harder for me, somehow). I also have a stack of maps to go to an artists' materials recycling cooperative that came from the big cabinet. And P'tit Minou Deux and I have a date to make our traditional holiday snowflakes today--we will cut up a map to do it!

It's progress. I wish it was moving more quickly, but it's progress.

lots and lots of ladybugs

I just watched the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. Minou watched it too, and even P'tit Minou Un enjoyed it, to my surprise. If you're not familiar with the film, a lonely, recently divorced writer from San Francisco impulsively decides to buy and renovate an ancient Tuscan villa.

I really liked several of its themes, such as the belief in "signs", and the need to sometimes make impulsive decisions when they feel right. The main character wished for several things in her new home--a wedding, a family, a community. When she made the wish, she envisioned that she would be the one getting married and  having a baby. At the end of the movie, she realized that although that hadn't happened, in fact all her wishes had come true--though not in the way she first dreamed of.

There is another part of the movie I liked. As she searches for love and companionship, the main character is unhappy when it appears to elude her. An older friend tells her the story of searching for ladybugs as a child. She would search and search, without finding a single ladybug. When the young girl finally gave up and fell asleep, she woke up covered with ladybugs. Lots and lots of ladybugs, crawling all over her....just the thing she was searching for, when she finally stopped searching.

Where am I going with this? Sometimes, as an aspiring minimalist living a family life, there are frustrating spells of time. Suggestions of minimizing family possessions are met with howls of protest or solid resistance. So in quiet defeat (so dramatic, I know) I cease to think about it for awhile, taking a break from the downsizing process.

And then one day, my teenage son comes to me out of the blue and says "I don't want this piece of furniture anymore".

And then "These hooks" (which are consummate entryway clutter collectors) "remind me of preschool. Can't we take them out?"

And my husband and son say "This shoe box is ugly; let's get rid of it."

And to top it all off, my husband says "I don't think we need to keep that couch anymore."

And then I load said shoe box and piece of furniture up in the car, and drive them off to donate, hoping that someone can use them. And I enlist said son with the drill to remove the clutter-collecting hooks. The couch will stay a little longer, until after my mother-in-law's visit.
And I enjoy the new space...
Lots and lots of ladybugs.

clear & clear some more

Somewhere, and I can't remember where, I read a blog post or a blog post response about Uncluttering by a mother. This mother said that when her children were small, every day she cleared out 10 things from her home to create a more serene, functional and peaceful space. It could be big things, furniture or clothing or books, or it could be 10 broken pens from the random pen drawer. It didn't matter. Just 10 things.

That's my goal right now, fast-tracking the 365 Less Things. And if I find I can't do 10, well, I'll step it back down. I'm also trying to do the 10 first thing in the morning, because if I do this before bed, I end up staying up too late, mooning around the random pen drawer feeling confused.

Today: clothes. I'm frustrated with P'tit Minou Deux's sartorial selection. Despite his closet full of a resonable number of clothing changes, he has one preferred outfit that he would like to wear daily. My requests for clean and varied clothing are met with "You can't tell me what to do". Ah, 13.

So why keep all those hopefully selected (by me) items in the closet that are met with daily rejection? Why, indeed? If a "How about this?" has been met with an emphatic "Ugh!" at least 5 times, no let's make it 10, I see no reason why said item needs to remain on his closet shelf. Let's clear it out. As he commented the other day, it's true that most of his clothing consists of hand-me-downs (I personally love that frugal solution!). Which does mean that they may not really be to his taste and were not of his choosing. So by making the space in his closet, we will see what he really "needs" and have more room to boot. And hand these clothes along to another friend.

one at a time

I like this concept of simplifying material possessions.
It is much less overwhelming and easier to approach.
For quite a while I have been reading a wonderful and always evolving blog called 365 Less Things.

The founder, who lives in Australia, got fed up with feeling overcrowded and decided to simplify her home, one item per day, for a year. She took pictures of each thing and gave a bit of backstory for it. She was sure that she would be done within the year.

The blog has been around for several years and still going strong.

Our home, approximately 1000 square feet, would be luxurious in many parts of the world. It is certainly comfortable here, but in the area where I live, it's considered "smallish" for a family of four. I feel fortunate to have two bathrooms but would greatly enjoy a third bedroom. Mr. Minou and I feel very Japanese as we unfold our living room futon couch-bed each evening, and fold it back up and stow our bedding away each morning.

Honestly, this is not a big inconvenience--the only issues are privacy related. Sometimes it's nice to have a door to close for a multitude of reasons, whether it be a nap, couple intimacy, a good cry, or just a place to journal. Also, if someone is staying up late doing homework or a cooking project at the kitchen table, it's hard to go to sleep. Other than that, I kind of enjoy the ritual of it.

I'm digressing though--the point of that foray into sleeping arrangements was that we are trying to pack a lot of living into our smallish home. Two teen boys, an active home office (Minou's architecture business), an online student (myself, at the couch/bed or kitchen table), a passle of cats, a big brown dog...you get the picture. There isn't a lot of storage, and even with a minimum of possessions, things seem to pile up all around before you can blink.

I have found it essential to having a more peaceful, serene home to have fewer possessions. (Note: this does not mean that my home actually is peaceful or serene--see above, I have two teen boys with very different personalities). Also, a designated home for the items we own so that they can be stored away when not in use leads to less clutter and more peacefulness on the material plane.
I see how the phsyical state of our home affects the emotional state of the family.

So, with a busy week coming up, here are 7 items that we no longer use/love.

a bathroom basket

 

some souvenir coasters

 

a small coin purse

 

a CPR face shield, have more

 

much mended gloves

 

seldom-used picnic ware

 

terrible liquor from a White Elephant gift exchange

 

 

minimizing monday

If I were packing up to move to Rennes tomorrow (which I am not), what would I ship across the ocean? What would I be willing to pay to keep in storage?

This is my inspiration for my current round of home decluttering. It's the Act As If phenomenon.
I wrote about that concept last year--I was inspired by something another mom said to me, when she declared that rather than give into fears, she had decided to act as if the world she lived in was the world she would want to live in. In other words, she had decided to create her world as she wished it to be. To dream and think and act it into being.

Although I really would love to move to Rennes, I don't think I really want to move there tomorrow (though if I could just transport back to that cozy little creperie Le Sarrasin for weekly Friday evening buckwheat crepes and cider, I would be pretty content...). My boys are happy at their schools and with friends, Minou's business is picking up and taking off, and I have an exciting professional opportunity starting soon (more on that later). However, I want to be ready to move to Rennes in case the opportunity unexpectedly presented itself. I would want it not to be an enormous headache to prepare myself for a transition. Like the inspiring Minimalist Mom, who had already completed extensive decluttering when her husband had a work opportunity overseas... and she was able to move her family with fairly minimal preparation.

So I am still following the slow gradual approach (it works best for me for almost everything, I do believe). Also, I am leading by example. I can not declutter anything that is not mine. I like to think that I have made vast strides...but then I realize that actually, I have more clothes and shoes than any other family member (and this is after making vast strides!)

So here's to go...

Clothing (mine AND p'tit minou 2's rejects)

Bag (from a conference I attended--we have plenty already)

LP records (we have no way to copy these now)

and the hardest of all, books

...the books are either works that I verified the library had, or that my honest answer to the questions "will I read this again?" or "will I read this?" was No.

the organizing itch

Tonight my Mom returns from her longer trip, hopefully in a very good mental & emotional space after two weeks of meditation at Plum Village, a Buddhist retreat center in SW France.

My first week back I stayed in her home since our wonderful house-and-chickensitters were still here. I took a few too many liberties with cleaning--it slipped into organizing mode, which is very dangerous in someone else's house, and I hope that she will forgive me. Cleaning up spilled cat litter led to cleaning out a closet. Doing laundry led to organizing the laundry room. Looking for something for a headache led to a 2 gallon bag full of expired medications. Looking for bathroom cleanser led to organizing the cleaning product cupboard. You can see where this is going...

I have the organizing itch. Not to say that my own home is done--far from it--but I didn't have access to it, and besides my mother's home has so, so, so many things in it...piles of them...I had to restrain myself from doing more. (Which I did; Hi Mom!) It always strikes me how very much easier it is to clean when there is less to clean around. And since I don't particularly like to clean, this just makes sense.

Now I am home, back in my own rather spare space (though much less so since my three Beloveds came home) and it feels good. I was asked rather anxiously by one of the p'tit minous if I had done much minimizing while they were gone, and could answer truthfully (to his relief) that I had not--too busy with work and academics. (I also didn't do any gardening, which is sadly apparent).

However, the organizing itch just must be scratched. Last night I sat on the couch with Minou and p'tit minou deux while they watched an action-hero type movie, and I happily organized my computer files and server storage, deleting the multiple nested duplicate files that I have somehow managed to accumulate over the years (I'm better now, but in my early days of thumb drive use it was all a little bit confusing--I must have had at least five or six copies of all my past teaching files).

And I can't wait to see if my Mom will let me at her closets and not-closing dresser drawers...(with her of course).
I love to spread one of the joys of minimizing: being able to find clean, flattering, well-fitting, not-worn-out clothing without digging through a bunch of not-that.
Do you think I should give her time to recover from jetlag before bringing up the question?!

wardrobe winnowing wednesday

to winnow: [transitive]
a) to remove, to get rid of b) to sift or separate c) to blow on to remove the wheat from the chaff

Working on the wardrobe this week.  In part those pesky aspirational clothes. 7 items for 7 days:

1) sweater with a snag

2) color not quite me

3) stained, plus needs ironing, never a plus

4) love this shirt, but I will never, repeat never, be a size small

5) ditto

6) ditto

7) would need to minimize myself to fit into these comfy passed down corduroys

And sadly, keeping these aspirational clothes around, no matter how nice they are, will not make them wearable! They just fill up my drawers. Sigh.

Off to enjoy a cleaner closet. 28 items lighter to date.

mitzvah monday

mitzvah (noun): a good deed, a charitable or meritorious act

Today's mitzvah is courtesy of one of the p'tit minous, who decided to go through his bookshelf and find 10 picture books that weren't special young-childhood favorites (of either himself or his brother) to donate to the day shelter for homeless families.

mitzvah monday

mitzvah (noun): a good deed, a charitable or meritorious act

This week's mitzvah is very, very, important to me...

...it's an investment in the future. Can you guess what it is?

A big, fat check to the local school district education fund, targeting my boys' two schools.
Not as fat as I would like (someday, if I play and win the lottery, here's where it will go)
but as much as we can right now--a month's grocery budget.
Keeping class sizes small (er) and all the innovative programs in place.

I feel lucky to live where my kids have benefited from a K-12 public French immersion program,
electives like art, music, and P.E., and really good teachers.
They will be able to take advanced placement classes and complete the International Baccalaureat.
I wish all kids had those opportunities.
Check out this short NYTimes article about why kindergarten teachers should be paid triple digits! (oops--I actually meant in the thousands, that is SIX DIGIT SALARIES!)
Thankfully I can feel like my donation directly helps both my p'tit minous and many other p'tit minous.

winnowing wednesday

to winnow: [transitive] a) to remove, to get rid of  b) to sift or separate c) to blow on to remove the wheat from the chaff

Sifting and separating for the week: 7 items for 7 days.

1) passed down to me--still haven't read--will borrow from library
2) decorative, but in 3 months we have not drawn still-lifes, and missing the lid
3) useful but have other, more solid bags
4) 1993 was the year I studied in Beijing and used this
5) not sure where this came from...I did used to make quilts
6) passed down to me--watched once--will go to next year's White Elephant gift exchange
7) doesn't fit!

mitzvah monday

mitzvah (noun): a good deed, a charitable or meritorious act

I went to donate blood on Saturday--something that always makes me feel good. My blood type is relatively rare, so I wait to get that call from the blood center requesting it, and then I hurry down there. Did you know that while about 37% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, only about 10% do so?

However...my hemoglobin was just ever so slightly too low to give up a pint of blood, so I went for a nice long run, had several iron-rich meals with vitamin C foods, and am going back today. Fingers crossed.

100 Today

sunflower tower

Today marks my 100th blog post!
Rather exciting.

ripening alley plums

To celebrate the occasion properly, I thought I would give you all a little glimpse into a topic that has been occupying my thoughts for many waking leisure hours: minimalist-ish living.

(Also, full disclosure: I am feeling a little sad today, really missing my family far away. I'm so happy for all the adventures they are having, yet feel very distant, and truth be told, a little left out from their overseas experiences. However, I promised myself before they left that I would not mope. So, in the interest of keeping the blues at bay, I'm trying to focus on thoughts and activities that are positive and somehow enhance my life & theirs...)

neon calendula--it really is!

I have been lately loving the feeling of space in our little home. I love to think of space as a positive, full of possibility. It feels like there is ample room to dream, write, stretch, dance, draw, spread out a puzzle, cook, wrestle, read, drink coffee, watch a movie, snuggle up...whatever it is you want to do. When I walk into our home and see the airy space, it feels light and free. This sensation has kept me going on my quest to see what else I can live without, or put more positively, to find out how much is just enough for me and my family.

For inspiration, I have been reading a wonderful book (I checked it out from my public library--request it from yours if they don't have it!) by Francine Jay, aka Miss Minimalist, titled "The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Living Guide". The first part is full of the philosophy of minimalist living, the second a guide to the STREAMLINE method of clearing your space, and the third, which I'm just starting,  is a practical room-by-room plan.

This process has already led me to pare down a lot, over the last few years, and I must confess that as someone who does not love to clean, it has made the process of housekeeping a lot easier. But more that that, it feels better...more spacious, more organized, less chaotic. Although I still have a long way to go, I can find things more easily, because they have designated homes. It's easier to clean up for the same reason, as well as not having as much to pick up before sweeping and mopping. Having just the amount of linens and towels needed makes a lot less laundry (hooray!). And having only clothes that actually fit and look good on each family member makes it so much easier to find something to wear in the morning.

We have made a lot of progress. Although I think this process has made my family nervous at times, they have seen that I respect their individual possessions and I think they have benefitted from the increased feeling of calm and organization. (I invite them to weigh in with comments!)

For me, among the items that have been most difficult to let go of are things from my kids' baby days. Considering the age of my boys, we still have a surprising amount of baby and toddler paraphernalia (clothing, blankets, books, toys...) lingering around our home. Minou and I are equally sentimental on this point, which doesn't help (I'm usually much less sentimental about objects). I rationalize it by the times that we have young friends over and pull out the books and toys (which happens at least several times a year), or by thinking that if/when the boys have kids of their own, they might want those adorable little shoes and coats....and certainly the Playmobils...Maybe, maybe not, but for the moment they stay.

What I am looking forward to clearing right now, however, are several large items of furniture that will create significantly more empty floor space. At one point, we had two couches in our little living room. It was very cozy, and avoided overcrowding and brotherly elbowing while watching movies, but it grew a little claustrophobic over time. Since the futon couch can double as a bed, I want to keep it for out of town guests. The red couch, on it's way out the door, made a brief stop in the kitchen during the process of furniture rearranging. And somehow it made a good impression there, and was granted temporary permission to stay, with the excuse that it gave our kitchen an artsy coffee-house feel. It was a little awkward for eating, however; the chin of whoever was seated there just barely cleared the table. So eventually the table moved into the living room, and the couch stayed in the kitchen.

And there it's been for the last two or three months. I'm tired of it. Mostly the cats use it. The couch is so very comfortable, great for naps and sinking down into, but also incredibly dusty and cat-hairish and tends to consume many objects in its ravenous cushions. Once it moves along, the table can return to the kitchen....



...and then, just imagine all the glorious space that will be ours for whatever!

(Ignore that ugly exercise bike--it's on temporary loan for virtuous solo movie-watching). I think I have finally come around to loving the white tiles Minou wanted and I protested adamantly against. We ended up getting them because of a great sale. While they are rarely very clean, they do make the room look light and so much bigger.

At any rate, I will save the next piece of furniture earmarked for passing along for another day's post. I'm going to go and see if I can rustle up a little help and a truck to take Dusty Red to my local Goodwill donation center. I want the house to be beautiful and feel full of possibility for when my boys return.

How about you? Do you have anything that you don't use much, but find hard to part with, or something that mysteriously stopped and stayed on its way out the door?

Donating

Oh yeah! Woo-hoo!

Irrespective of all else I did on my day off yesterday (talk to my sweet boys and sweet Minou, jog, blog, buy a plane ticket, declutter, gather raspberries in M & R's garden)....

I am MOST PROUD of this.

I'm a first-time donor to the local Blood Center.  (they don't say Blood Bank any longer). Better late than never, right? There's always a first time to something new. And I was thoroughly inspired by the portraits of the numerous members of my community who have donated upwards of 100 times. 100 times! They call these individuals "Century Donors".

Maybe one day.

It was easy, simple, painless, and I feel great. Thanks to my neighbor R who reminded me to eat something with protein and drink plenty of water beforehand. And thanks to the patient phlebotomists who answered my 101 questions.