Great Recycling Site

I just found a great website called Preserve Gimme 5. I was looking for a place to recycle my Brita water filters (I couldn't bear to throw the used filters away) and this website will take them. They will also take No. 5 plastics either by mail or at certain locations if your recycling program won't. I got to recycle and declutter something that has been sitting in my pantry for over 2 years. Yay.

Here's a little video from their website:

Defining Minimalism...for me

Over the past few days I've been mulling over what exactly the goal is with this quest for simplicity and minimalism. Of the many blogs I follow, the definition of minimalism differs between the authors. Everett Bogue (Far Beyond the Stars) gave up his car, quit his corporate job, pared down his belongings to less than 100 items, has a location independent career and works, on average, 2 hours a day. Leo Babuta of Zen Habits advocates a similar sort of minimalism but less intense. Simplicity by Sunny is another woman's search for what it means to be a minimalist and her personal journey in figuring out what exactly it means to her.

Over the last 4 months or so, after reading all these blogs, I kind of feel the need to get a clear idea of what it is I'm doing, why specifically I am doing it, and how I will proceed. Right now I'm mostly just decluttering a la 365 Less Things. And so far, I have noticed a huge difference in the free time and space I have created merely by getting rid of, well, crap. Keeping the house clean(er) is so much easier now. There is less guilt about stuff I should be doing (straightening up, filing receipts, clearing off tables and counters) because the things that were giving me work are ...poof!...gone. Yay for me. As a side note, if you like being lazy, start decluttering. It'll give you plenty of guilt free time to lounge around!

There is more decluttering to do and it will keep me busy for the next year, I'm sure, as I only do it for about 5-15 minutes a day. But this isn't the sole focus of my desire to simplify my life. Ultimately, I want more. I want simplicity, I want peace and I want calm. And here is why (this is my first pass at brainstorming and clarifying my goals):
* I want aspects of my life that used to be very chaotic to become simple and streamlined (banking, bill paying, decreasing number of accounts I have, paying off things so there are less bills to pay, going paperless, planning meals, etc.)
* I want to finish my secondary degree.
* I want to focus on my art and continue to improve my skills
* I want to put more emphasis on my art as my career
* I want to travel more
* I want more more lunches and long drawn out dinners with bottles of wine with friends
* I need to know I'm making as small of an impact environmentally as I can by not consuming or consuming mindfully
* When the time and space has been created, due to the void of all the unnecessary stuff, I want and need to focus more on what's going on in my mind, heart and body (It is easy to avoid these aspects of life when you're caught up in superficial, unimportant stuff).
* I want more time to work on compassion, on stepping out of my world to help others in some way.

So, those are my reasons off the bat on why I want to stay on this path. As far as my definition of minimalism...I'm not giving up my car, I'm not quitting the job (hey, I like it and I actually have fun there), I'm not going to try and live off of my blog. I admire those who can do these things but I have to figure out my limits on this quest. One of my goals is to be more self sufficient food-wise and I'm getting there slowly. I have my chickens for eggs, bees for honey, lots of fruit trees, lettuce (when I remember to water them!), sugarcane. I'm saving for a huge water tank to collect rainfall to irrigate the plants and trees. I'd like to buy another worm composter since the first one is doing so well, which will take care of my fertilizer needs. I'd love to get some of our electric on solar but that's a big project for some time in the future.

It's a long winded post but I thought it was important to define what this all means and where it is going. I'm sure things will become clearer and my focus more thought out as I continue.

I'd love to hear anyone else's personal definition of minimalism and why they want to live this lifestyle. And if you're up to it, write a guest post. Just shoot me an email!

Minimalist Gift Giving

A friend of mine went on vacation and brought me back a wonderful gift from the quant town she spent time in. Her comment to me was something along the lines of "I know you're on this minimalism kick so I got you something you could use that wouldn't be clutter." It was homemade soap from Star Lake Soap. What a perfect gift! I could use it everyday, it wouldn't contribute to clutter, and it smelled super awesome. Honey Vanilla. I loved the packaging: just a bar of soap with a brown paper label wrapped around it.

This gift got me thinking about the kind of gifts to give those who are on their way to simplifying their lives. Naturally, food gifts are a great idea (especially homemade)! Soaps or bath salts, tickets to the movies, restaurant gift certificates, or veggies from your garden are a few of my ideas. I can't wait until next year when my bees have made enough honey to provide jars of it to all my friends and family for the holidays.

If anyone has given or received unique gifts that coincide with their minimalist mentality, I'd love to hear your ideas.