Warm Minimalism: Blue and Yellow Bathroom

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When decorating your house, think color, paint and wallpaper rather than displaying decorative knick-knacks. This bathroom has tons of personality just through the unique color of the lamp and the wallpaper. No other decoration is needed.

Butting Heads with Consumerists

For Christmas, my husband received a gift from an estranged relative: a decorative ashtray made out of a nautilus. At least, we think it's an ashtray. Maybe it's a paperweight. Hard to tell.

"Do you want this?" My husband said to his sister. "I have no use for it."

My brother-in-law threw up his hands and said, "What are your poor future children going to do, when you throw away their toys because you 'have no use for them'?"

Yes, he actually said that. See, brother-in-law is an enthusiastic consumerist and bit of a hoarder. He doesn't understand why we would throw things away, or why we would choose not to buy something that's on sale. When we get rid of things or sell things, he thinks that we are cold, uncaring, unsentimental people. I think he actually worries for our future children, afraid that they'll be deprived of toys and presents.

Maybe my brother-in-law feels threatened by our minimalism. I don't know. I want to tell him that it's not that we don't like stuff, it's that we choose to keep only what we love and use most. But as you may have guessed, this particular relative is great at arguing, poor at listening. It doesn't bother me much; except that this particular relative has a big mouth and who knows how he is describing our new lifestyle to other family members. "Don't give them any presents, they'll just throw them away."

On second thought, that may not be such a bad thing. Ha!

The post-holiday stuff purge

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I just returned from my parents' house for the holidays, and so far my husband and I have received mostly useful, consumable, or small gifts. A minimalist win! However, we still haven't visited my mother-in-law, who tends to shower me with more cosmetics, body lotions, shower gels and perfumes than I can possibly use up every year. Several months ago I gathered up a whole bunch of them and donated them to a homeless shelter.

I feel another decluttering urge coming on, to make room for these new things we've received. Do you ever need to go on a stuff purge after the holidays?

I Enjoy Christmas

So many articles these days are about how to slow down and enjoy the holidays, how to have a stress-free holiday. Recently I blogger whose posts I enjoy wrote, "I still feel that we all struggle to truly enjoy Christmas."

Nope.

I am not a busy person. Life brings me occasional busy periods, like anyone else, but they're the exception rather than the rule. I dislike busyness, and I love Christmas! Here's how I've been preparing for Christmas this month:

• Make a list of gifts for friends and family
• Purchase and wrap said gifts
• Mail gifts and cards
• Bake snickerdoodles
• Mail snickerdoodles to lucky friends
• Set up nativity scene

It wasn't hard, it wasn't stressful. It was enjoyable.

I realize that some people struggle during Christmas because of finances, or because they have to spend time difficult family members. But for the most part, I don't understand why people stress out about Christmas so much.

Minimalist Holiday Decorations

image via Martha Stewart

Recently I've discovered that one of my friends is also a minimalist! We had a long conversation about the lifestyle, and she asked me what I thought of holiday decorations. She comes from a family that goes all-out for the holidays.

Personally, I think that if holiday decorations make you happy, then decorate! Just keep the store-brought decorations to a minimum. Not only do store-bought decorations tend to be, well, kind of kitschy, but you have to store them for 11 months of every year. With a little creativity, you can decorate without adding to your possessions. Instead, try decorating with organic items and disposable items.

image via Martha Stewart

By organic items, I mean go out and find some nature! Pinecones, acorns, sticks, autumn leaves, pine branches and eucalyptus branches. Pile them up in glass jars or wooden bowls. Bare sticks in a vase can look surprisingly nice! If you don't live surrounded by nature, you can find pumpkins, squash, poinsettas, and unshelled walnuts at the grocery store. Natural objects always classy and beautiful, never kitschy, and you don't have to store them.

image via Martha Stewart

Disposable items and consumable items are another way to decorate. Paper snowflakes, popcorn garlands, and other paper crafts can be enjoyed during the holidays and then recycled. My mother used to take all the Christmas cards we received, staple them to ribbons, then drape them from the banister. After Christmas, we'd recycle the whole thing.

image via Martha Stewart

Candles, candy canes and gingerbread houses can be consumed (don't eat the candles, please). Your wrapped Christmas gifts and stockings can count as decorations, too!

image via mommyknows

Celebrating the holidays doesn't have to mean buying things from a store, and keeping multiple boxes of holiday decorations in the attic. Likewise, being a minimalist doesn't mean forsaking the holidays altogether. Use the items you already own, go outside and find some natural items, light some candles and display your holiday treats. Enjoy the holidays, then clear it all out with the New Year.

Warm Minimalism: Simple Patterns

image source unknown

I don't know what those little cards are above the bed, but they're so cute!

Overdressed: Or, Why Your Closet is Full

As an aspiring minimalist with a love for fashion and shopping, Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline was right up my alley. I read it in a few days, and I recommend it to everyone interested in fashion, simple living, minimalism, or who is just curious about how clothing is made.

Have you ever opened your closet and wondered why you barely have enough room to store all your clothes, but also feel like you have nothing to wear? Fast fashion companies such as H&M and Forever 21 make their money by selling extremely large quantities of clothing. To get those large quantities out the door, they convince us to shop more often by encouraging a constant rotation of trends, so we want to buy more often. By creating clothes as cheaply and flimsily as possible, they can offer us clothing at incredibly low prices, so we can buy more often. That clothing wears out quickly, giving us another reason to shop more often.

The result is that most Americans buy more clothing than we know what to do with. Clothing is so cheap that we don't put a lot of thought into buying it - this shirt is only $10, sure, why not get it?

Obviously, this is unsustainable. When clothing is cheap, we throw it away rather than repair it, burdening the environment. And instead of enabling skilled tailors and seamstresses to make a living practicing excellence, we are encouraging companies to find cheaper and cheaper overseas labor, cutting corners in safety and quality whenever it can save a few bucks.

I was so impacted by this book that I was soon thinking to myself, "what do I do now?" I love shopping for clothes!

There are several ways to shop more purposefully, and I am currently working on a list of fair trade clothing and jewelry companies. But one simple answer is to just buy less. All of this mess is created because companies are simultaneously trying to meet and inflame America's bottomless appetite for stuff. They'll keep up the supply as long as we keep up the demand.

Buy less. In the book, Elizabeth Cline, the author, points out that even if we all continued to shop at fast fashion stores, if we just bought less than we do now, it would make a difference.

Sometime soon I'll post a list of fair trade clothing and jewelry companies, for those who are interested!

Warm Minimalism: Polka dot pop

When you have an all-white room, colorful artwork really stands out. I love how, in combination with the simple polka dot duvet, it creates a cheerful feeling.

You can see the entire charming, warm minimalist house here at The Design Files.

Please Throw It Away

I found this on awfullibrarybooks.net , and I just thought it was funny. I could write some post about the true meaning of "objects of lasting value", but I think this really speaks for itself.

What is that yellow lamp thing, anyway?

Minimal Girl Considers Black Friday

Today my husband sat down next to me.

"Now, I know we both dislike Black Friday," he said, "but I was just thinking: if there's something we need, maybe we should see if it's on sale on Friday."

I agreed. So we sat there thinking about what we needed.

Nothing. Zip. We needed nothing.

The only thing I came up with was a Microsoft Surface Tablet - which I have been coveting for several months now - but we agreed that was more of a "want" than a "need," and could wait until later.

When I decided to become a minimalist, I was worried that I would feel constantly deprived and sad about not having new things. But instead, this realization that we need nothing was incredibly freeing! Here we are, a pair of freelance artists, making an average income, living in a single room - and there's nothing we need.

So what will I be doing on Black Friday? Sleeping in and eating leftover pumpkin pie. Maybe my husband and I will go for a hike, or maybe we'll go for a date at a cafe. I dunno. All I know is that we already have everything we need.

When you love what you have...

8x10 print by K.Barteski $30

"When you love what you have, you have everything you need."

A nice minimalist statement in beautiful typography!

Confessions of a minimalist

When my husband and I moved over six weeks ago, my attitude towards stuff radically changed, and I realized that I had far, far more than I wanted or needed. I started learning about minimalism and started this blog.

One struggle I have been having is learning to live with friends and family who are...um...not minimalist. In fact, the family members we're living with now are the most materialistic people I have ever met - shopping constantly and keeping everything. When they run out of room in their house, they take the things they don't want and put them in a storage unit. It's the opposite of everything I'm striving for in my own life.

My attitude towards others tends to swing between self-righteousness and envy. Self-righteousness as I think, "thank God I'm not as shallow and worldly as they are," and envy when I see the pretty new things they bought, wishing I could have new things too. Hypocritical? Absolutely. I'm just being honest with you guys.

I know the answer, of course, is to simply accept people for who they are, and remind myself of all the reasons why I've chosen to live with less. It's just easier said than done.

Has anyone else struggled with this?

Learning to Think in Multiple Dimensions

Most of us, when we see something in the store, our default is to only ask one question:

1. Do I want it?

For other people, their one question is:

1. Is it cheap? (Or on sale, or a "good deal")

Ever look around your house and think, "where did all this stuff come from?" This is how it happens, because we're only thinking in one dimension when we shop. Becoming minimalist is learning to view things from multiple dimensions. When shopping, ask yourself:

1. Do I have space for it in my house?
2. Do I have one already, or something similar?
3. Can I make this or something similar from what I already own?
4. How often am I likely to use this?
5. Is it difficult to clean or upkeep? (Has multiple small parts, needs to be dry-cleaned)
6. Is it heavy or bulky? (Important if you plan on moving often, like me)
7. Has a family member asked me to stop buying things like this?

Answering these questions honestly - and placing a product back on the shelf - is one of the most difficult parts of becoming minimalist. Advertisements and shiny packaging are designed to create so much desire that they totally override this questioning process. But once you become aware of this, I've found that asking these questions get easier over time, like strengthening a muscle.

Warm Minimalism: Rustic Entryway

I have a thing for Southwestern patterns these days, and I love the rustic look of the bench! Check out the whole enviable apartment here - every room is a perfect example of warm minimalism!

You Are Not Your Stuff.

Today I was helping my grandmother with her garage sale. She was selling a lot of the junk that belonged to her deceased ex-husband. An older woman came into the open garage and was very talkative.

"I just saw a sign for a garage sale and dropped by," she said. She started flipping through the moldy vinyl records, talking to us about all sorts of things.

"I keep everything," she said. "My daughters tell me not to, but I say to them, 'when I pass away, you'll go through all of this stuff and then you'll know me. If you don't, you'll never really know me.'"

I felt heartbroken when she said that. This woman's identity was totally wrapped up in her stuff - to the point where she felt like she couldn't have true relationships without it.

But really, when one day she passes away and leaves a house full of garage-sale, thrift-store "memories," as she called them, are her daughters really going to go through each piece, lovingly, carefully, reliving each of their mother's memories? Probably not. They'll probably look at the cluttered house as a burden and a chore, and estate sale the whole thing - not because they didn't love their mother, but because stuff is just stuff.

You are not your stuff. I want to shout this message to the whole world. You are not your stuff. Be free.

Warm Minimalism: Wall-to-wall bed

How moving into a dorm changed my view of stuff

I was a bit of an isolated kid in high school. My bedroom was my sanctuary, where I collected a lot of sentimental items, decorative items, and hobbies to keep myself entertained. They comforted me when I felt lonely.

When I moved into my first college dorm room, I brought boxes and boxes of stuff with me. Things like childhood books and momentos; I don't remember exactly what, just that it was a lot.

Those first few weeks of college were totally exhilarating. I quickly made friends and thoroughly enjoyed my newfound independence. I soon realized that I didn't need as many hobbies and books as I did before. I didn't need to surround myself with so many sentimental items, because my present was full of new friendships and memories and adventures. On my first trip back to my parents' house, I returned a lot of stuff right back to my childhood bedroom.

And on the next trip.

And on the next trip, until I probably returned over half of what I had originally brought with me.

I learned a few things from this experience:

1. Whenever I focus on the present and the future, I find it easier to let go of things.
2. If I'm feeling happy and confident in my relationships, I find it easier to let go of things.
3. I never need as much as I think I'm going to need.

Does anyone else feel an inverse connection between healthy relationships and the need to keep things?

Never Enough Space

My friend, D, collects Star Trek memorabilia. Anything Star Trek related he has to have. He actually has an entire room of his house completely dedicated to Star Trek - but his collection outgrew the room and is gradually taking over other areas of the house. Every birthday and Christmas D receives an avalanche of Star Trek merchandise, and he buys more throughout the year. He absolutely refuses to discard anything. If it's Star Trek, it's sacred.

"You'll just have to expand the Star Trek room!" one of D's friends said.

"Maybe I'll just take over a neighbor's house and fill it with Star Trek!" he joked.

That's when I realized: D and his wife will never, ever have a big enough house. Even if they expanded the Star Trek room to quadruple it's current size, it would quickly fill up.

To me it seems like a sad cycle to be stuck in; being eternally dissatisfied with the state and size of your home, but being unable to part with anything, and always wanting more.

But D insists that his stuff makes him happy. I wonder if it really does.

My Minimalist Wardrobe

These are all my clothes. Not pictured: socks and underwear.

When my husband and I moved, I got rid of any clothing I didn't really love. As a result, my wardrobe is pretty dang minimal. I was quite proud of the fact that my husband and I were able to fit almost all our clothing into a single suitcase. Here's what I currently have:

Tops: 15
Bottoms: 7
Dresses: 6
Coats: 4
Swimsuits: 1
Total: 33

These days I'm rotating between a few warm-weather tops. On the plus side, getting dressed is easy, and every day I get to wear my favorite clothes. But to be honest, after five weeks of this minimal wardrobe, I am getting a little bored, even though I haven't been shopping or looking at fashion blogs. My husband can wear the same shirt for several days, but apparently I cannot.

How do minimalist girls avoid wardrobe boredom? Any tips?

Warm minimalism: colorful quilt

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It's always nice to find an example of minimalism that isn't white-on-white-on-white. The brass lamp really compliments the warm colors of the quilt well.

Bracing for the holidays as a minimalist

Somehow the single room my husband and I share is slowly becoming cluttered, even though we haven't purchased anything new. A lot of the clutter is paper and mail, which I just need to deal with. It makes me dread the holidays, just a bit. Usually I love Christmas and I love presents - but we seriously do not have room for more things.

Around family, I am trying to slowly, subtly make references to me and my husband's new lifestyle, so that it sinks in before my relatives start buying us Christmas presents. I'm not announcing "we're minimalists now!" because that would be awkward, you know?

This weekend my brother-in-law had a birthday party, and my husband and I were offered party favor bags full of little plastic trinkets. We politely turned them down. Almost immediately the teasing ensued. "Oh, so our party favors aren't good enough for you?" they joked.

I felt bad. I considered accepting the party favors and then later secretly tossing them. But this way, my husband and I are sending a message that we are serious about not acquiring more stuff.

My mother-in-law mentioned that she is already collecting our Christmas presents. Reflexively I said,
"Well, we really don't have a lot of room right now, so-"
"I'll make them small things." She said, kindly.

It's a step in the right direction, I guess.

Warm Minimalism: A Floating Bathroom

I love the weightless simplicity of this modern bathroom. The bare lightbulbs and weathered mirror give it a slightly industrial look. This bathroom is from a stylish apartment in Berlin, and you can see more photos here. Imagine how few toiletries and beauty products you'd have to own to keep a room like this tidy!

How Stuff Makes Us Happy or Unhappy

A lot of minimalism blogs say "stuff can't make us happy," but I don't think that's completely true. Yes, ok, material objects can't provide true, lasting spiritual joy. But I still like stuff, and having new stuff. It makes me happy in a small way. For example, one of my favorite possessions is this bud vase from Crate & Barrel. It's beautiful and I really like looking at it.

We all like stuff, let's admit it. Stuff can make us feel temporarily happy, but more stuff does not equal more happiness. More stuff can make us miserable. People who suffer from hoarding disorders or cluttered houses describe it as "suffocating", "claustrophobic", "overwhelming" or "like drowning." That's pretty serious unhappiness!

We've all done it: we bought something that we thought would make us happy. We bring it home and have nowhere to put it, because our house is full. So we put it in a corner to deal with later.
Then it stays in the corner, making us feel bad every time we look at it.
When we do look at it we think "I would deal with it, but I'm just so busy."
We trip over it and stub our toes.
Other family members start to complain about it.
When guests come over we feel embarrassed and apologize for the mess.
We push it back further into the corner so we can have more space.
We feel guilty about the money we spent on it.

Eventually the stress it brings has more than outweighed the happy feelings we felt on buying it.

Not pictured: happiness. image source

So, weirdly, the key to enjoying your stuff is having less of it.

That's my approach to minimalism. I don't think I'll ever stop liking stuff or buying new stuff - although I am working on becoming less obsessed with it. My goal is to have less stuff, so that when I look into my closet, or sit at my desk, or pack up to move to a new place, I feel happy.

The one where I don't buy anything

I went shopping today, just for fun, for the first time in a month. My sister-in-law and two of her friends invited me to go to an antique shop with them. I enjoy looking at antiques, but generally don't feel a need to buy them, so I figured it would be "safe" for the recovering consumerist that I am.

And indeed, the antiques were mildly interesting but I lost interest about 40 minutes before the other girls did. I did find something really cool - an antique Turkish rug in pristine condition, with a bright pink pattern on it. Immediately I envisioned it in my future minimalist home - the fresh colors contrasting with the pure white walls and shining hardwood floors. It would really pop in a totally awesome way.

But I don't have that chic, modern home, and possibly never will. That's something I came to grips with in my last move. I realized that I had been keeping all sorts of stuff with which to decorate my future home - vases, decorative pillows and picture frames. But my husband and I are probably several years from owning a home, and until then we plan to live a semi-nomadic existence.

So I decided not to weigh down my present with items for the future.

Besides, the rug was $400. So....yeah.

On the efficiency of kitchen gadgets

Recently I was trying to prepare dinner in my in-law's kitchen. My in-laws own a lot of kitchen gadgets and gizmos meant to make cooking easier, such as onion slicers, banana slicers, tons of tupperware, etc. While I was preparing ingredients, I sent my husband on a quest to find the slow cooker. He had to search through cabinets, taking out all their contents, to unearth the slow cooker. Then he had to replace the items in the cabinet. It seriously took him five whole minutes.

"You know," my husband said, "Maybe these things save a little time in cooking food, but I bet they spend way more time just looking for them and digging them out of the cabinets!"

That is minimalist thinking!

One Month Without Shopping

So it's been one month since my husband and I moved from our spacious two-bedroom apartment into a single room. During that time I have not done any shopping, except for groceries, a single e-book, and a few other necessities. Nothing "fun," like clothes or makeup or chai tea lattes. I have not visited any of my favorite clothing websites or fashion blogs.

I have thought about shopping every. Single. Day. In fact, I've thought to myself that I should buy myself something nice to celebrate this one-month anniversary.

When will the consumer cravings subside?!?

But here's something that keeps me going: I am saving up my monies to take my friends out to a nice lunch. I've often wanted to treat my friends, but I never did because I had spent my money on things for myself. At the time I felt vaguely guilty about it, but not until now have I really realized how selfish I was.

I guess it's impossible to be generous when you're greedy.

Shopping is not Saving

When I was in high school, my mom put me through this personal finance class. I don't remember much of it (sorry mom), but here's the one thing I remember.

Advertisers use the word "save" differently than we do. They'll tell you that, by spending money, you are actually saving it. TV commercials are pretty blatant about it - in the commercial, maybe a couple is talking about how the economy is rough and they need to save money, so they go to the big sale! They bought everything they wanted while saving money!

The problem is that stores will say anything to make you feel like you're "saving." They could price a decorative pillow at $20. Or they can price it at $30, then say there's a deal going on for $20, so you can "save" $10. Either way, if I buy the pillow, I didn't save $10, I spent $20. The $10 "savings" is just a partially imaginary number at the bottom of a receipt.

The author of the blog The Unextreme put it this way, writing about extreme couponers:

For one thing, just because someone brags that they have saved $60,000 in one year (using coupons), doesn’t mean they didn’t spend any to get that savings. If you have $60,000 worth of merchandise, you have actually spent too much money. You have paid too much for coupons, too much gas, too much wear and tear on your vehicle, too much time, and too much on items that you don’t use!

Obviously, if there's something that you really need, buy it on sale if you can! There's nothing wrong with looking for a good deal on things you need. Just remember that shopping is not saving, no matter what the advertisements tell us.

And that's what I remember from my high school personal finance class.

Warm Minimalism: A Charming Corner

Gran Wallpaper via Fine Little Day

I don't think there's any way you'd be able to use a wallpaper as bold as this one if you had a lot of stuff. It would be too much noise. The artwork is also super cute and reminds me of a children's book.

It's proof that minimalist interiors don't have to be boring. In fact, without a bunch of clutter, you're free to make some pretty crazy design choices!

He told me so

The other day I mentioned to my husband that I had blocked all my favorite clothing websites from my computer, so that I wouldn't be tempted to buy things I don't need.

He gave me a high five! And not even like a sarcastic high-five, like a really happy high-five.

Three weeks ago I finally realized what my husband has been trying to tell me for years: that I was spending too much time, energy and money on shopping, and my desire for things I couldn't afford was making me miserable. I always bristled, annoyed at him for being "judgmental." Fine, maybe I'm a little obsessed with shopping, but at least I don't leave my clothes all over the floor LIKE SOMEONE I KNOW.

But a quiet corner of my heart knew he was right.

It took a big move and a shopping fast (currently ongoing) before I came to this realization on my own. Looking back, I see that my husband was right. He was not being judgmental, he was being honest.

Now that I've come around, instead of saying "I told you so," he gives me a high five.

I should listen to this guy more often.

My Story: We sold our stuff

When my husband and I moved three weeks ago, we sold a lot of stuff. Here's a breakdown:

A webcamera: $20 on Amazon

Three college textbooks: $60 on Amazon

Two canvases: $30 on Craigslist

Our tv: $80 on Craigslist

An Xbox 360 controller: $20 on Craigslist

My desk chair: $40 to a friend

A board game: $50 on Amazon

...and various pieces of furniture.

Between all of the things we were able to sell, we raised enough money to pay for the moving van rental! Which was awesome! Less packing, more money!

In some ways, selling things is painful because we can rarely sell things for even half the original price. It makes us feel the pain of stupid purchasing decisions. However, one surprising exception was the board game. It had gone out of print, so we were actually able to sell it for about $10 more than we bought it for!

The college textbooks were "I might need it" clutter from my husband. In our first move, he sold about half of  his textbooks and kept the other half "because I might need them." But this time, he was ready to get rid of them all. Good thing, too, because they were thick, HEAVY books! So glad I didn't have to pack those!

Warm Minimalism: a Mid-Century hallway

As a lover of mid-century furniture, I love this minimalist hallway. While many interiors labeled "minimalist" can feel cold and sterile, this one is warm and has some color, too.

My Story: Giving Up Shopping

photograph by birdandbloke

I didn't think I had a problem.

In my early twenties I discovered fashion blogs. I began to spend a lot of time browsing fashion websites, interior design blogs, and then clothing retailers and furniture stores. Because my husband and I live on a tight budget, I was careful about what I purchased. However, I was always window shopping, planning the next thing I could buy, wishing I had more money, wondering how I could get more money, envying the nice clothes and pretty houses my friends had.

Out of a need for cheaper rent, last month my husband and I moved from a two-bedroom apartment to a single room. We are extremely limited as far as storage space goes, so no more shopping for me. No new clothes, new shoes, new books, new decorations. I blocked my favorite shopping websites from my web browser, and installed an app to block their advertisements.

I didn't think I had a shopping problem. But now that I can't shop, boy oh boy do I feel it. I had no idea how much I used shopping as an antidote to boredom and dullness. I had no idea how much I relied on it as something to look forward to when I felt down. Like an addict, I miss the very thing that made me unhappy.

I worry that I'm missing out on things I wanted.

I worry that I'll become frumpy and dated.

Basically, I worry that I'll become unattractive.

To fight these feelings, I am trying to keep myself busy with hobbies. I've picked up knitting again, and my sister-in-law gave me the yarn so I didn't even have to buy any! I am also looking for a good book to read.

It's going to take a while to get used to this. I hope that, like an addict, the craving for shopping and new things will decrease over time. I need to be strong.

Girl Becomes a Minimalist

image source

Last month my husband and I moved from a two-bedroom apartment to a single bedroom. Not a single-bedroom apartment, a single bedroom.

And thus, a minimalist was born.

Sort of. Not quite. See, for the last two years I've been really into decluttering. I made many trips to the donation stations of Goodwill and Salvation Army. I threw away bags of stuff. I sold things on Amazon and Craigslist. Our apartment was fairly tidy.

And yet, when we moved, we packed all our stuff into a 14" moving van and I was dismayed by how much we still had. "How can we have this much stuff?!" I groaned as I looked at the towers of boxes. "I got rid of so much!"

That's when I realized that "decluttering" wasn't enough. At least not the kind of decluttering we read about in Oprah magazine or something. I needed a whole new mindset towards things, stuff and shopping.

And that's when a minimalist was born.

I'm going to record my thoughts about minimalism, consumerism, decluttering on this blog. Join me!