Personal Update: Family Weekend

This weekend has been especially busy for us. After working all week, we got together for a Family Game Night at my parents. We stayed up way later than I'm used to, and on Saturday we slept in till noon. 

In the afternoon we drove out to a neighboring city's Pro-Minor League Baseball Field, where I was set to sing the  National Anthem before the game.

My husband, family, and a handful of friends attended the game. After I sang, we stayed for the rest of the game. We were out fairly late, but it was an evening game. 

Then today, Sunday, my parents had a gathering at the local city park for family (and friends) to visit with my brother and his family before they leave the country in August.

Quick background: 

My brothers and I grew up in Southeastern Michigan. Both my brothers are older and studied language in the Military, afterward my oldest brother got a degree in Slavic Studies. He went on to attend programs in St Petersburg, Russia, where he met his wife. 

My other (middle) brother met his wife in Windsor, Canada, where they performed in a musical together. He now lives in Canada with his family. I am still in the states, about 10 miles from my parents. Our older brother comes in to visit when he can, usually about every three years. My other brother is able to visit more often.

So after I worked a short shift, my husband and I walked over to the park, which is not too far from our house. We had a nice visit, and a good sprinkling of rain. And after a few hours we left to claim the remainder of our Sunday evening.



As you can imagine, I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on my cleaning projects with such a busy weekend, but I thought I would share what was going on with you. I will update with our progress soon!

I hope everyone who reads this is also having a wonderful summer - building memories, taking photos, and spending time away from social media when you can. Have a good evening (or morning!)

Approved List

As promised, I am posting our Approved Shopping List for the Year of Spending Less. These are items we will need to replace, or have already decided on purchasing, that will be allowed over the course of the next year.

Approved Shopping List:

• A new (used) car
• New laptop (probably refurbished)
• Protective laptop case
• Work Gear (husband)
• Guestroom futon 
• New Mattress/Bed/Foundation Support
• A tattoo (both of us, me for sure) 
• Updated Gaming Console (preferably used) 
• Messenger Bag (for my husband) 
• Sustainable Items (to replace plastics and one-use items) 
• Candles (only one per month, if desired)
• Plants/Supplies for Herbal Cooking Garden
• Outdoor/Biking Gear (as needed for trips & planned activities)

Notes about the list...

The list was compiled in no particular order, but I did decide to list the more necessary items at the top. We will need a second car in the coming months, and a new laptop has been on our list for some time. Work gear is expected but unknown, as my husband is changing directions. And we have plans, once we clear things out, to purchase an affordable futon (that we've already shopped around for and chosen) for our guest room.

The candles are not necessary, as I have a collection I'm working thru, but I listed the option because I do use them regularly and I believe there is a good chance I may run out in less than a year. The "herbal garden" is a future plan as well, for when the house is cleaned up. I have always wanted to cook with fresh herbs available, so I've included it for when the space is ready. I don't expect everything on the list to be purchased immediately, but making this list did bring our priorities to light. Seeing everything we actually wanted listed out, we could also see that our money has been wasted on stuff we didn't really care...

Other than this list, and basic consumables, we'll be focusing on not purchasing anything new for our home. Books and videos will be rented from the library or borrowed. I will be cancelling my Audible Account for the year, which will be hard. We have canceled our underutilized gym membership, and we will be looking at the necessity of any subscriptions we currently have.

We have decided to keep our shared Spotify account, because we use it daily, and for the $10 per month, we believe it's worth it for the content. We don't have cable or internet at our home, and unless it becomes necessary for income purposes, we will keep to just our cell phone data service.

Avoiding Temptation

Something that Cait did her book (link to previous entry about this) that I thought was really smart, was that she unsubscribed from all digital adverts. She stopped receiving emails about sales, and anything that she might want to shop for. It will take us a moment to get ourselves off of every list that we have subscribed to, but we are planning to do the same.

My only exceptions for this are emails from Kroger (where we buy most of our groceries), and emails from the company that I work for... Even though the emails are advertising sales and new products, I still plan to review them in order to stay informed for our customers, everything else will have to be cut.

Clearing Out Clutter 

As for our excess of physical items, I will be clearing things out using three options: Throw Away, Donate or Sell. I think there is a lot of junk and paperwork that can just be tossed. A fair bit of it can be donated and used by someone else. And for some nicer items, I will try to resell them at a marked down cost to put toward savings.

I'm going to try to Throw Out or Donate most of the clutter, because it's too easy to put higher value on stuff than it really deserves. I don't want a whole room of stuff that I'm keeping, because I'm waiting tosell it. My planned limit is one month, and after that time I will donate any items that haven't sold.

I will still be using Poshmark, and possibly FB marketplace, to sell my items, but I will not be shopping in these forums. Hopefully, as I pare down my closet, I will feel less in inclined to shop and add more stuff back to it.

What do you think? Do you have any questions about our plan? Is there anything I haven't addressed that you'd liked me to share or keep track of? Please comment below, I'd love to know your thoughts!

Spend LESS Year

To kick off our journey to a minimalist lifestyle, my husband and I have been discussing a "no spend year".

This was inspired by my recent audiobook purchase of A Year of Less by Cait Flanders. Her story had popped up into my awareness from time to time for the last several months. It would be mentioned in an article, a book I read would reference it, or it would come across my feed on social media in some way. Finally, I decided to download the book on Audible, and I was not disappointed.

Beyond the initial story of her spending restrictions for the year, the author went into a lot of her personal life as well. She struggled with events that were going on outside of her control, she explained her process, and she even changed jobs in that year. Overall, the story inspired me to make a drastic change in my own life. I decided to take on a challenge that we had never attempted before.

Not only do we have a house full of stuff to go through, but we also have debt to pay down. And we also have expensive items that we need to replace, like the laptop I've been operating off of for the last decade that was a refurbished model when I bought it 10 years ago.

I've decided to coin this a Spend Less Year because we're not going to stop purchasing items all together, but what we do choose to purchase is going to be well thought-out and agreed upon OR already listed on are pre-approved shopping list. (We've been working on making that list for this past week)

If I'm being honest, I'm a little nervous about telling my family that we're doing something like this. I think they would be supportive, and at the same time I think that they would see themselves and their priorities as exception to what we are doing. I feel like they might not understand if we said we can't participate in something because we're not spending money in that area... We're also not planning to go over the top with Christmas this year, but gifts for holidays and birthdays are still listed in our approved spending.

Our goal is to get on a better track with our debt payments. Have a couple of accounts we need to address that are not even getting payments right now, and there are other ones I know we could be paying off a lot faster. We also have a number of things that we need to upgrade (Hello laptop that works without a power cord!) and we like to focus on "where our money is going".

Our Spend Less Year

Starting August 1st we will ONLY be allowed to purchase the following items: 

• Basic Pet Care Items (litter, food, etc.)
• Groceries that we Meal Plan for 
• Basic kitchen supplies (bags, foil, paper towel)
• Toiletries (toilet paper, shampoo, etc)
• Cleaning supplies (detergent/dish soap)
• Cosmetics (if I run out, nothing extra) 
• Gifts (limited to Holidays, Birthdays & Special Events)
• ONE Souvenir per trip we take (optional)

We are NOT allowed to buy...

• Fastfood (unless on a trip out of town)
• Coffee On-the-go (unless traveling on a trip) 
• Craft Items (unless a specific item needs to be replaced/purchased then we will discuss it) 
• Home Decor Items (an issue of mine)
• Books
• New Clothing (unless it is in replacement of a worn out piece) 
• Hair color/Beauty Supplies*

*Hair color is a funny one for me, as I have a boxfull of colors I really need to use or get rid of, so this is really challenging me to use what I have before running to the store for something new. I also work at a store that sells makeup, hair care and acessories, so I'm really challenging myself to NOT spend my paycheck there.

We will be keeping a close eye on money spent on food. We are limiting our "eat out" budget to One Meal per week, (unless we're on vacation out of town). We will be meal planning for what we buy, and I'm hopeful we can go grocery shopping once every two weeks. Going to the store less will help us avoid temptation in purchasing stuff we don't need, and it should encourage us to eat what we have at the house.

As I'm sure you noticed, fastfood and coffee on-the-go are out. That will help our health and our budget. We've made some allowances for things we might need to do if we are on a trip out of town, but for the most part we would like to keep those items to a minimum.

As for our "Approved Shopping List", we are still solidifying that, so I will post the final version in my next post.  ^_^

Starting Over

For the last eight months I've been trying to keep things going on my social media platforms. I have multiple blog entries that I started, and never got around to finalizing... So this blog hasn't gotten very far off the ground.

It all started last September, when I finally attempted to start an Etsy Shop. This was not just on a whim, I really thought things through, really considered what my business would stand for as well as what it would provide.

Then I traveled over 600 miles to help settle my grandparents estate after their passing. And Then I got sidelined by just how busy my "part-time" job had kept me from October on. And THEN I made the difficult decision to change directions in the spring. 

Even though I had started my blog in December, I still held out hope that I was going to be able to roll into launching my Etsy business soon. But with everything I had going on with my work hours, and the state of my house, I knew that it wasn't going to be possible.

I say that it was difficult to change directions, because for me it was. I have been wanting to open an Etsy business for years, I have considered a slew of different products that I could make well enough to market them. And this time, beyond just fantasizing, I had spent time creating my own personal brand, considering products I would make with natural elements, and designing a logo for my new store.

I began to promote first on Instagram, and gained small following. I also established an account on Etsy, to make sure that my business name would be available. Stepping away from everything without even launching, made me feel like a flake. I worried it would appear like I didn't care and I wasn't serious. But my schedule had gotten so busy (even since we got married the previous summer) that I had gotten sick at every break we took. 

When we went away for our 1st Anniversary  in July, we stayed at a B&B. My husband, who never gets sick, ended our three-day weekend with a sore throat and congestion. He was better in a matter of days, but I followed him in getting sick and raised the bar to a full-body flu. I did not fully recover from that for a couple weeks.

About the time that I had looked to start my Etsy account, things had started to slow down... Or they felt like they might. And then I went out of town for 10 days to help with the estate, and when I got back my work hours took off. (I was working 50+ hours the week of Thanksgiving, as part-time help!)

When we finally had a break on Christmas Day, I got sick again. I knew heading into the new year that I was not going to have downtime to make any crafts, let alone market them for a business. I decided to focus on my blog.

Unfortunately I didn't have as much time for that as I had hoped either. I started posts and left them in draft. I started other posts, covering other topics I wanted to touch on, and left those in draft too. Eventually, I defaulted to posting a few things on Instagram every so often, so that I would not disappear completely in the constant wave of new updates. And I hoped I wouldn't lose my followers all together.

Now in mid-July, almost a full year later... I'm starting over. I have a new, informed approach. And a new job. 

I have been wanting this blog to be a resource for people who are in my position, to help them become minimalist. But let's be fair, I am not minimalist myself. 

I have a goal of becoming minimalist. I am mentally minimalist. In my head, I can picture a calm open space in my home, and a schedule that feels uncluttered, where I have time to do most of the things I enjoy. I can imagine not wasting my time shopping for things I don't need, or ordering take-out for dinner because I'm too tired to cook.

But I'm not there yet... And it's foolish for me to write a blog as though I already am. I'm not sure what made me approach it that way. I guess because I started with the idea that someone else who felt like me could come here, read it, and know that they are not alone.

I want to write a blog on the subject of going minimalist, from the perspective of someone who has a lot to tackle. Not just some extra stuff, or out-grown baby clothes around the house that can be donated. I, personally, have a lifetime of boxes, a mountain of paperwork, fluff dander from a long-haired cat that gets all over our rugs if we don't vacuum regularly enough, and spaces in my house that I am not fully utilizing because of all of the objects I have to sort through.

But I am also NOT a hoarder...
And I will tell you why.

This is not a skill I was taught. Periodically sorting through my personal items and  donating or getting rid of things was never a regular thing in my life. My parents, in all of their wisdom, did not have the skills to teach me something that they did not know how to do for themselves.

Ever since I was a small child, I have been surrounded with messes of my own creation. My room never had a clear floor, and the space under my bed was always full of random toys, clothing, paper and whatever else. Whenever we would "clean" my room, my mom would collect everything that was on my floor and place it in a bag or box for storage, then she would tell me that "once my room was kept clean, they would bring that box or bag of my stuff back". I don't recall a single box or bag ever coming back to my room.

Our family also went through a bankruptcy when I was very young, like Elementary School age. I don't personally remember it very well, I didn't really understand what was going on and my parents did a good job of sheltering us from most of the anxiety and work they endured when going through that process. But I do know that I was always attached to "things". I always wanted to keep things "just in case". I was always afraid that if I got rid of something I would find out that I needed it, and I wouldn't have the means or capacity to replace it. I suppose that's how it feels to be a child, you don't have much control over your environment.

My family even claims that when I was a kid I told one of my relatives, "I like trash". I'm sure I was referring to the fact that I liked to collect things that other people would toss aside, with a vivid imagination of what I would use it for or turn it into, but that's the only statement that they all remember.

So here I am, in my early thirties, married with no children, owning two cats, in a small two-bedroom apartment that is technically considered a condo as it is one-story with separate entrance access. And everything from childhood through High School, through college and beyond, has followed me into my new home.

At one point we had filled a 20x20 storage unit. Lined with shelves and furniture, with boxes and bins of objects to sort, prior to us moving into our own place. But we decided to move those items into our apartment, since we had an extra room, instead of spending nearly $200 a month to keep it somewhere else where it wasn't being sorted. 

Since then, I have also recieved wedding gifts, inherited heirlooms from my grandparents house, and purchased furniture and other household items. We donated extra furniture that did not work for our space, and we have a few pieces stored with family that we don't yet have room for.

Even though we have donated car loads of clothing and objects, thrown away countless full garbage bags of junk, and reorganized our clutter time and time again, our house is still a mess. I don't consider myself a hoarder, because I don't want it. I would love open space over the piles of paperwork I have to sort, but it's a process. And there are important items hidden in that mess that I would like to find before tossing out the rest.

I am still a consumer, and I do use retail therapy from time to time to make myself feel better, and that does not help the issue. But I have a solution for that too.

So stay tuned, because I am ready to share the nitty and gritty. All of the fun and sour moments, the strides forward and any missteps along the way. I'm turning this blog into a documentary of my journey, not an instructional guide to where I haven't been.

And one day, when someone is in same position that we're in now, they will see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel... once I've made it though.