I have noticed something as I work toward a more simple,
minimal lifestyle. Something that may sound silly or may make perfect
sense.
While simplifying my life and eliminating the dross a
couple of things have happened.
One, my house stays cleaner. I guess it is because there
isn’t as much to clutter the areas now—to get rearranged or dusty, but it takes
less time to clean when I do clean, and I have to
clean less. It just doesn’t get as dirty anymore.
Two, My dishes don’t pile up as much. I have posted in this blog about my dishes in the past, even about failing to keep them washed as I want. However, by simplifying what dishes and silverware I own I am inspired by necessity to keep things washed up, which means I am washing dishes more frequently and so there is less dishes to pile up waiting to be washed. This is a big boon to this girl!
Yes, I could get a dishwasher but I don’t want the
expense, I don’t want the maintenance, I don’t want the thing in my way, I
don’t want another heavy appliance to move—I just don’t want one! Doesn’t
take much water to wash dishes if you use two dishpans and don’t leave the
water running!
I get more accomplished. Even though I have stopped using disposables in favor of cloth and started using a clothesline even indoors to dry things. Even though I have gotten rid of my mixer and other “convenience items in favor of a cutting board. Even though I started a frugality blog so as to simplify my thoughts and not bore you, making for additional posts to keep both active—I still have less to do.
I don’t understand it, yet I do. My life is much
more peaceful with less in it. I think back to all of the years I would hunt
and hunt for things—now I go to a single wall of shelves in my tiny room and
locate it within minutes!
I think back to all of the years I tripped over things in
the floor—nothing to trip over now!
I think back to all of the things that have been destroyed
accidentally by being stepped on, knocked over or whatever—it just doesn’t
happen these days!
I look at this shelf in the kitchen I placed here recently—it was stuffed full and now I may eliminate it from the kitchen entirely soon, for it is almost empty.
Amazingly during this whole process not once have I needed
something that I have eliminated from my life! That’s a big one with me—when I
was a kid my father would hold on to almost everything! He would
become frustrated at all of the junk he had piled around and toss some of
it—only to need something he tossed a few days later (it never failed).
Then there was the common occurrences of having to re-buy something that he
knew he already possessed because he couldn’t find it when he needed it—only to
locate the needed item a week or so later while looking for something else!
The last side effect I have noticed is that while my possessions
have been reduced the quality has increased. I find myself using the “nice
things” that I would never use because I have eliminated the cheap stuff from
my life. I have also determined ways to increase the quality of my food without
increasing my grocery bill. Simply buying a small chunk of meat and
slicing it myself at home has saved me an amazing amount of money—I purchased
5.5 pounds of beef round in a single section for a little over $13 and sliced
it up into thin steaks that normally cost me almost five dollars a
pound! It wasn’t hard, didn’t take any special equipment and I
froze them on a pizza pan (it was the sheet I kept because it was newest and my
baking sheet was in horrible condition) and transferred them to freezer bags
for individual use. So now I have the quality of meat that I adore (the thin,
versatile steaks) at a price ($2.48/lb) that fits much easier on my budget.
By investing less in junk food I have extra money in my
budget for things I prefer, like mung beans from the health food store for
sprouting and all-natural sea salt instead of the bleached regular table salt.
I’m even a bit healthier, by eliminating soft drinks from my daily diet in favor of water somehow I manage to wake up earlier without the help of an alarm clock. Coffee is drank a lot less now, as water is my morning libation of preference. Somehow I find that I don’t miss it. This morning I brewed a single cup—only to find I wanted about half of the little amount I brewed!
I am quite pleased with these side effects thus far, and
look forward to experiencing even more of this phenomena.
