Once upon a time… I owned the beautiful antique reed pump organ in these photos*. It was black walnut and oak with intricately carved panels and delicate calligraphy lettering on the red velvet encased stops. It provided a workout when played, because the air forced through it to create sound was produced by pumping its large pedals. It was one of the first antiques my mom purchased back in the 1960’s and it was the first “piano” … Read More
I think deep down I’ve always tended towards the idea of less being more. I was the kid who actually wanted the smallest bedroom and who loved to declutter and rearrange my mom’s cupboards. I was the college student who thrived within the confines of a dorm room, where life was all about living tiny and having only what you needed and loved. The first home my husband and I purchased, a 600 square foot condo in … Read More
Why Do You Shop? Have you ever thought about why you shop? If not, I urge you to give it some thought. We all shop for different reasons. We shop because we need things like food or shelter. We shop because we want things, like tools to make our lives easier or trendy clothes so we can feel stylish. We may even shop as a means of coping, what some term “retail therapy.” There was a time … Read More
We recently started what we hope will be our last round of home renovations. As you know, the first stage of any renovation project is clearing everything out of the spaces being renovated. I’m noticing that clearing out the master bath, guest room and my office is giving me a great opportunity to continue Phase Three of our minimizing process. You may recall that during Phases One and Two my husband and I whittled down our belongings by … Read More
I need to buy a new computer this year. I have a six-year-old Mac with a 512K hard drive and it’s not long for this world. I was planning to upgrade to a terabyte of memory, but was shocked to learn that doubling the memory would cost me $400! This quickly made me wonder how much storage space I really needed. If you’ve been reading for a while you know that I’m minimizing the rest of my … Read More
It seems everyone I’m coming in contact with lately is adding one more task to their list or one more activity to their calendar. There’s even a commercial on tv that challenges us, “Who wouldn’t want more?” As someone who is actively minimizing I’m paying close attention to the idea of “more.” We’ve been conditioned to believe that more is better. My husband and I often joke about one of our college accounting professors instilling in us … Read More
It’s been almost a year (September 2015) since I shared with you in this blog. In September 2015 my husband and I were on the verge of minimizing our world by moving to a smaller house nearer the city center and closer to my husband’s office and our favorite activities. It was a move that would allow us to experiment with living a life more closely aligned with our emerging values of a healthier lifestyle, simplicity, a smaller … Read More
I’d like to share a comment from a reader who played the #MinsGame in February. She was excited to report the release of a significant number items and sent me the following message: Hi, Andrea – week one of the challenge – Collected things throughout the week and escorted them out of the house today. 28 items and 40 more pounds gone – YAY!!! Items included blouses/shirts, a mini trampoline, my cross-country skis (I used to have so much fun … Read More
February has come and gone. A number of you played the #MinsGame along with me in February, venturing to release 406 items over the course of 28 days. Today I’m anxious to hear your success stories! What was it like attempting to meet this goal? How many items did you end up letting go of? What are you most proud of releasing? What did you learn about yourself in the process? I’ll get us started. As I look back over … Read More
This is a big month for releasing! I’m playing the #MinsGame with a number of you this month. If you’re like me and you value the environment it’s important to keep as many discards as possible out of the landfill. Today I want to share a few of my favorite tools for more environmentally friendly disposal of your cast-offs. 1) One of my favorite tools for helping my local clients find an ideal release site is the Cuyahoga … Read More