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
A few months back I shared the story of my sister and I playing #MinsGame (created by The Minimalists and formally known as the Minimalism Game). The basic premise of the game is to compete against yourself or others in releasing unneeded items from your life. In playing the game in October, my sister and I each released 496 items from our respective homes, resulting in not only a win for each of us, but extra breathing room … Read More
I recently attended a monthly meeting where a couple of people stopped to ask me how my holidays were. This wasn’t casual conversation though. They were genuinely curious because they had last seen me in mid December when I shared that my family was experimenting with skipping Christmas in 2014. When I shared the results, one of my colleagues suggested I blog about it, not next October as I had planned, but now while the holidays are … Read More
Have you played the #MinsGame yet? It’s the creation of Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, two guys originally from Ohio who are now known as The Minimalists. The rules of the #MinsGame are simple. A new #MinsGame starts on the first day of each month. On the first day you release one item by donating it, throwing it away, recycling it, giving it away, etc. The idea is to get it out of your house and … Read More
I recently finished Greg McKeown‘s book, Essesntialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less which is essentially about how to live a more purposeful, focused and intentional life. I’ve been experimenting with minimalism: actively reducing my number of possessions and the number of commitments in my life. As such, I was intrigued by the idea of essentialism. If you’re curious about what essentialism is, McKeown provides us with this explanation, “the basic value proposition of Essentialism: only once you give yourself … Read More
This past Sunday began with my noticing the herbs I grow in my Aerogarden were looking like more of a miniature jungle than a garden I’d actually want to eat something out of. Out came the scissors and the pruning began. The photo to the left represents the results of those efforts – a pile of compost fodder and some now recognizable basil & parsley plants. This impromptu pruning set the tone for the rest of that cool … Read More
Many of us with ADHD are virtual idea factories. My husband can attest to how many of these so-called “great” ideas I come up with in a given week, day or even hour. In the not too distant past, impulsiveness would often result in me taking actual steps to push forward new ideas within minutes of hatching them. As you can imagine, or as you might experience yourself, I often overburdened myself with too many hatchlings and … Read More