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.