I’ve been a bit undedicated on my pursuit of less lately. What with the pretty clothes luring me in and all. But I’ve come a long way since I first embarked on this journey 1.5 years ago by reading The Joy of Less. I have many ways I can improve and much more clutter to get rid of, but I wanted to share a few things that we don’t have or use.
Here are some things we’ve learned to make do without:
1. Holiday decorations. Perhaps this makes me a Grinch (or a Scrouge?), but the only decorations we do for Christmas are the stockings I made last year and our hand-me-down Christmas tree. Ah, yes. And the bowl of lights. We don’t decorate for any other holiday (though I don’t think most 20-somethings do…?) Less decorations means less to store. And less to do. And I am nothing if not lazy.
2. A programmable coffee maker. We used to have a coffee maker that could have coffee ready and waiting for us in the morning. It was nice, but, man, that thing was a monstrosity. Now we just have a French press which takes up considerably less room. And makes considerably more delicious coffee.
3. Alarm clock. We don’t have any clocks in our house – our cell phones, oven, and microwave all tell the time. No need for an alarm clock between my iPod touch and cell phone.
4. Television. Our TV broke three years ago and we just never replaced it. We use our iMac with Netflix, Hulu, and DVDs instead. We’re exposed to fewer commercials as a result, which is a bonus.
5. A large wallet. I have a slim little card wallet that just holds a few cards, my driver’s license, and some business cards. It can fit in my pocket and forces me not to hold onto receipts and to deal with papers right away instead of hoarding post-it notes.
6. A bed frame. One day Mike took it upon himself to get rid of our bed frame. Our bed just sits on the floor. I was worried about lost storage space, then I realized I should probably just get rid of the stuff under my bed because I never use it.
7. End tables. We had end tables in our living room (as seen here), but they just ended up being magnets for clutter. So we got rid of them.
8. Uncomfortable shoes. I have exactly two pairs of heels: one for winter (booties) and one for summer (peep toe lace pumps). This covers my fancy clothes needs. I used to have half a dozen high heels that I never wore. I don’t keep uncomfortable flats, either. If they pinch my feet, keeping them in my closet isn’t going to make me feel less bad about spending the money on uncomfortable shoes, it’s just going to make it harder to find the shoes I do want to wear.
9. A toaster. Sort of like the TV thing, our toaster broke and we just never replaced it. A few minutes on broil in the oven does the trick.
10. A giant wardrobe. I’ve gotten rid of at least half of my wardrobe since I first embarked on the 33-Item Wardrobe. My wardrobe now is small, seasonal, and consists of stuff I love. I’ve shared extensively about this before, so I just want to say: I love having less clothes. I love the reduced pressure on myself to be trendy. I love the reduced stress that comes from less choices. I love how much less crowded my closet is.
11. Two cars. We have one.
– inspired by Miss Minimalist’s Happier Without. (I also just stumbled across her post about moving the holidays away from consumerism and gifts.)
We don’t have a toaster either and people are always so FLUMMOXED by this! I just stick frozen waffles, bagels, bread, etc in the broiler too. Sometimes I feel slightly guilty that this eats up more energy than a toaster (surely turning on the broiler takes more juice than a toaster?) but I just don’t toast things often enough to warrant the SPACE HOG that a toaster is.
We also haven’t had a coffee table (ever) for similar reasons. Clutter magnet, ahoy! (I also find that it’s irresistible for the children to crawl on, bonk heads on, spill things on.) Maybe when I’m an old lady I’ll get a coffee table. I’ll need somewhere to display all these photo books of my kids I’m supposed to be making every year.
I have a goal over my break of just getting rid of tons of stuff. It’s so unnecessary. I feel like I am fairly reasonable already, but could do better. Most of our stuff is books, although now that I’m playing with food photography, I just got more props. Oops. It’s a battle! Anyways, loved this post.
I’m with you on all of these. Well, I do still have a big coffeemaker on the counter though. And I couldn’t have said it better myself about the uncomfortable shoes. I am fortunate to be able to wear jeans or very casual clothes to work (social worker) so I find one pair of dressy shoes for summer and one for winter works just fine. We got rid of some of our end tables when my toddler went through the phase of wiping everything off of them. We have tv but no cable package. I basically use it to watch the news every now and then but could totally do without it. Most people find that to be so strange.
Inspired, and have just done my own (linking back to you, clearly!)
You made me sigh happily with your contentment here. *I’m* simplifying/complicating my life with a new mobile phone. I’m hoping the increased complication now of learning to use it will lead to simplification later, but????
Okay, that photo in your post make me laugh aloud. Have fun with the new phone!!
If you can’t be beautiful, you can at least be amusing! :)
Um, I love this. I have been on a (gradual) decluttering mission for a while now. Living in an itty bitty apartment in NYC helps, but I still feel like I have way too much stuff. Hoping a (potential) future transatlantic move will help me really pare it down, but am promising myself that I’ll do a little each month until then.
I’ve been on this simplification process for the better part of this year, and while I’ve managed to do without some bigger things (microwave, TV, and I’ve been without a car for nearly three years), it’s my 2013 goal to really get serious about the smaller things. I’ve been going through my closet a couple of times a week, pulling a few items out each time. I’ve bought new clothes lately, but they’ve been intentional, purposeful purchases that are meant to replace multiple pieces in my closet, and they have. Shoes are next. I never thought I was a shoe-hoarder until I counted them last night. I have 20 pairs of shoes. I swear, I rotate through less than 6 of those. I could probably get rid of the toaster if I employed the broil trick, but I definitely use a few minutes in a pre-heating oven for warming things up, so why not use it for toast if I need to…
Oh, and I’m currently reading “Joy of Less” right now, which is also very motivating and helpful :)
Woo Team French Press! It really is the best coffee. Also, I’m pretty sure I need to read that book.
I always feel a little bad about not being a minimalist. We didn’t have a toaster for a long time and I really missed it! Of course, we also have room in our kitchen. If we didn’t have space, I certainly wouldn’t try to stuff it into my kitchen. I went a long time without stuff like a toaster when I lived in the city.
But I agree on the shoes. I tend to have 2-3 shoes that I wear until I kill them. And for me, I am NOT a jewelry person or accessories person, honestly. But it more has to do with the fact I don’t have the time or patience to figure out what goes with what. Just give me a top and pants and I’m good to go.
Growing up with my “just in case” mother and nostalgic father, I have become quite the hoarder. Nothing too serious, but I have the hardest time giving anything up. Usually it’s because I feel guilty for having spent the money in the first place for this item I’ve never used… and somehow keeping it justifies the money spent? Even though it doesn’t. I’ve just recently started to break the habit of keeping every. little. memento. from events. It’s really hard, but I always feel so refreshed after purging some stuff (even if it’s baby steps, hah).
This is a great post. Some of those things, I could definitely do without…. uncomfortable shoes for example. I am always so disappointed when shoes “seem” comfortable in the store and then when you actually wear them out, they turn out to be so uncomfortable. Boo.
My programmable coffee maker however is a luxury I enjoy (well, we got it as a wedding gift, so I don’t feel too guilty about having it! ;)) I love waking up to freshly brewed coffee.
I love the idea of simplifying but unfortunately my husband is not at all on board. I could live quite happily as a minimalist – he’s a hoarder. Opposites attract and all that! We don’t have a coffee maker (no counter space!), don’t really decorate for Christmas beyond the tree/stockings and a wreath on the door (this year Topher made one!) and neither of us have a giant wardrobe. Topher has more clothes than we do, and that’s because he gets a lot of them as gifts :)
Wonderful post especially at this time of year when excess seems to be everywhere. I have been decluttering our house since I started working from home 5 months ago. Some of my success is due to the fact my husband isn’t home in the day, so no chance of getting derailed or vetoed on my choices. As a result, I have gained a ton of cabinet space in my kitchen. We use the toaster rarely, but my husband isn’t one to broil his toast. So I simply put the toaster in my new found space and it is out of sight 90% of the time. I know this isn’t the true minimalist mantra, just a compromise. Hubby likes the clean countertop and doesn’t mind pulling it out when needed.. p.s. Holly, my husband is borderline horder. However, I’ve found he doesn’t mind parting with some things as long as he doesn’t have to make all the decisions.. win-win?