Going Minimalist, 10 Minutes at a Time.

A personal account of one woman's journey transitioning to a minimalist lifestyle. 

[10mintominimalist]

9 Simple Ways to Start Living a More Minimal Lifestyle

We've got the beginner's road map for getting on a path to living a more simple, minimal lifestyle at home (and in life).

[wtv123]

I’ve been decluttering a little bit every day in January and I find the above quote  really resonating with me.  It’s amazing how differently a room can feel once you’ve gotten rid of the piles, the chaos, the stale energy, and have infused it with some new life. 

[10mintominimalist]

Nine Months Later

No, I didn’t have a baby.  That’s just how long it’s been since I last posted here.  I really lost sight of my goal of spending 10-minutes-a-day working on some sort of cleaning task.  I picked up big projects in my hobbies, and my minimalist cleaning aspirations fell to the way-side.   I watched the new Netflix series “Tidying Up” with Marie Kondo, and I’m ready to KonMari my house.  Thankfully, I’m already well into that process, having already gotten rid of all but my favorite physical books last year to switch to a Kindle, and having culled my closet/wardrobe down to a very reduced amount (though I still need to toss out the oldest/most worn out socks).  I recently completely re-did my closet with the Ikea Algot system, and am pretty much in love.  I just have to finish moving my costumes back into the space.    After that, it’s on to PAPERS, just in time to get ready for Tax Season.  Seemed like as good a time as any.  

I’m sure all of this is more than a ‘true minimalist’ would own, but I’m fairly happy with how much I’ve managed to compress.  As an artist/crafter/cosplayer, I’ll never be a ‘TRUE’ Minimalist, but I can still use a lot of the principles in my life. In addition to my Minimalist aspirations, I have also started to move toward many of the Zero Waste movement ideals.  As my various daily use items run low (food, soaps, etc) I will be moving toward buying in package-free bulk (or packaging with can be recycled/composted).   It’s a new year, and I’m anxious to seeing how much I can shape my life in the coming months.  

[10mintominimalist]

It’s been months since I last posted in here.  That’s because, I spent roughly 4-5 months locked into perpetual state of Home Renovation.  Now, I am finally easing back into a state where I can start purging things again.  First, there’s surface messes to take care of, and I’m working on that... and once that’s done, I can start digging in deeper again.  I’m down to a lot of things that I’m not OK just tossing to good will, and would rather SELL.   I completely cleaned out roughly HALF of my sewing supplies, and got rid of a set of drawers that were previously full of supplies.  There’s nothing quite like getting rid of pieces of furniture to show you just how much you’ve ditched.  I’ve also recently re-discovered my love of up-cycling and reviving thrifted items.  Once I am finished purging, anything I can think of that I would normally go out and buy new,  I want to see if I can instead buy items from the thrift store, and re-work them.  When I cleaned out my closet, I pulled about half my stash of graphic tshirts, knowing I wanted to turn them into something else.  After picking up old art pieces from the thrift store, stripping out their old outdated artworks, painting them all white, I know have a set of unique wall art.  I spent significantly less money on those thrift store frames than I would have spent on HALF as many of them buying them new from a store like Michaels, or Target, or any other place for that matter.  I used spray paint I already had, and breathed new life into these items.   I still have such a long way to go, but I’m ready to tackle it again! 

[10mintominimalist]

What NOT To Do When Decluttering Your Home

Organizing words of wisdom from a pro.

This is almost more helpful than any ‘how to de-clutter’ list I have found.  I come back to this regularly.   I’m still working on cutting down my belongings, and don’t know when I’ll be DONE.

[10mintominimalist]

Closet and Closer.

I have finally conquered my closet!  Well, ok, more like 95% conquered.  The cosplay stuff has all been washed, vacuum-bagged, and rotated to under my bed, except for the Active stuff.  Even without getting rid of anything yet, this cut my cosplay closet-contents in HALF. I’ve also purged a good deal of the ‘normal’ side of my closet.  I cleared out my dresser and cut down the amount of PJ’s, Underwear and Socks, and Seasonal clothing by about half.  I could probably still stand to get rid of more.   I also cut my shoe hoard down to about 1/4 of what it once was.  If I wasn’t wearing it, it wasn’t a good basic, or I didn’t need it for a specific costume in my Short List Lineup, I tossed into donation.    All in all, I ditched about 2 grocery bags and a filing box worth of donations, and another grocery bag of too-torn-up-for-anything-but-trash (it went into the hoard I’m keeping to stuff my dress form).  I also ditched a vacuum bag of blankets that  haven’t opened in at least 4 years, and all but 2 sets of sheets -- mis-matched pillowcases and etc were donated.  So what haven’t I done? Well, I pulled as many wigs as I can stand to part with, but they are sitting in a tub waiting to be sold -- removed, but not Gone.  There’s also a corner of my closet that’s housing assorted old stuff that need to be picked through, and possibly digitized.  I would like to compress the 3-ish boxes of stuff down to one SMALLER ‘keepsake’ box. There’s also the tub of graphic T-shirts I’ve purged, but still need to re-purpose into wall art, pillows, etc.   However, I can’t really do that until my craft space is back up and running, so, in the tub they shall stay for now.  

I’m slowly getting closed to finishing my renovations.  By this weekend, my bathroom cabinets should be done (since I am painting them during the evening this week) and then we’ll set to work on laying the new bathroom floors, and finishing up the caulking work, so that I can do touch-up paint on all the new trim work.  Once all that work is done, I’ll finally feel ready to tackle the gigantic task of unpacking/purging/re-installing my sewing space.   One step at a time... 

[10mintominimalist]

[10mintominimalist]

These Are the 6 Types of Minimalists

Which one are you?

I am a Mindful Minimalitst.  :)

[10mintominimalist]

Cosplay

As I’ve mentioned on here before, one of my biggest pass-times, is cosplay.  Recently I’ve begun to cut back, so that I can spend more time (ultimately) on other pursuits.  One of the steps in this, is cleaning out, sorting, and dumping some of the stuff in my closet.   I have a decent-sized walk-in closet that is currently split with one side being for costumes, and the other for my normal clothes (minus a slice of that side that also houses my wigs and shoes).  In an effort to figure out what I have, what I want to keep, and what I need to get photos of so I can ditch it, I emptied the entire costume side of my closet (it was going to be the whole closet, but even as large as my room is, I don’t have the space to do that).  The result has been a week of me meticulously hand-washing and hanging-to-dry as many things as will fit on my shower rod each day.   It’s a slow process, given that I can’t really wash and hang stuff to dry until after I’ve showered.  But, I’m getting close!     I don’t know how I have gone this long without pursuing minimalism -- because at the moment, much of my stuff is packed in boxes, and stored in another room... but my floor is covered in costumes.  And it’s driving me crazy.  There’s so much STUFF, I feel overwhelmed!  I want it gone, but am not ready to ;et go of these things I have put so much time and effort into.  Just as I predicted, it’d been one of the more difficult aspects of my life to Reduce.  I’m getting there tho, piece by piece.

[10mintominimalist]

[10mintominimalist]

Home Renovation.

For the last 2-3 weeks, my home has been in various stages of Torn Up, thanks to all of the renovation projects.  One of the side affects, however, is that pretty much everything I own (aside from the mess that is my closet) is packed up in boxes.  While it drives me crazy not having access to certain things, it also has shown me how little I actually need.  Once the house work is done, I can begin the process of slowly un-packing the boxes, and purging as I go.  I’m hoping by the end of it, I will have dumped a lot, re-oriented how all my things are stored, and generally put myself into a better mindset.  I know I have quite a task ahead of me, because a lot of stuff was shoved in boxes, or in drawers of furniture to be moved, and those all need to be sorted out.  Ugh.  I don’t know where to start.  I guess, pick a box, or a piece of furniture, and give it 10 minutes.  or 20.  I have to keep reminding myself, just a little bit at a time.

[10mintominimalist]

Two Steps Back.

It’s been two weeks since I went to Atlanta, and I feel like a total failure.  While I made a little progress on my house when I got back, I quickly fell into an exhausted and unmotivated mindset.  My house right now is something of a disaster, and it makes me feel sick.  I feel like a failure, like no matter how much stuff I get rid of, I’m always going to live in a mess, because I have Depression and that’s just how my brain works.  I’m hoping this is just a small setback in a much longer journey, but I’m feeling the old Anxiety setting in.  I have to start being more diligent, but I feel in a state of constant ‘temporary flux’, because I am anticipating the fact that my house will be torn up starting next week, because of renovations.  On some level, it all feels pointless.  I know it’s not pointless tho.  I need to focus.  Be more mindful, and actually take care of things.  Right now, a LOT of what I’m doing is Temporary, so the work on the house can be done... and maybe I’ll get to do more Permanent work once that’s all finished.  

[10mintominimalist]

How Minimalism Helped Me Regain Balance - Make Stuff Pretty

What's minimalism, exactly? This series is about exploring what minimalism means to you. Let's start with something it means to me: balance.

“Despite being insanely busy, she doesn’t feel like she is getting anything done. Her room is a mess. There are clothes everywhere. She hasn’t touched her art supplies in over a week even though she wanted to make daily creating a habit. She hasn’t slept more than an average of five or six hours per night and you can clearly see it in her face. She’s been eating a mixture of to-go sandwiches and soups, chocolate, chips, pasta with pesto and oatmeal. She can’t remember the last time she had a lovingly prepared home-cooked meal full of veggies and protein.That girl is me.Well, she was me. There comes a time when bad habits begin to spiral out of control.“

[10mintominimalist]

Back on Track

Con crunch is over.  Hooray!  As soon as I’ve decompressed, I’ll be getting back on track with the cleaning and purging. Since my room-mate moved out, I am ASTOUNDED by how much extra visual space I have.  I knew a lot of the clutter downstairs was hers, but seeing it all gone really drives that home.  I didn’t mind at the time, but now that I’ve see it clutter-free... Next room-mate, we’ll have to have some established rules.  

[10mintominimalist]

I feel like a failure.

I took a look at my bedroom the other night, and felt pretty crappy.  I’ve let the laundry get away from me again, as well as creating a new mess with my convention/costuming crunch time.  I feel like I failed, not because I can’t clean it up, but because I had been trying so hard to keep it from getting there in the first place.  This is my first Con Crunch since deciding to go minimalist, and the results have been less than desirable.  I have a mess in my bedroom, a mess in the dining room (which has become my crafting/ironing space because it’s too hot to work consistently in the garage), and then the garage which seems to be in a constant state of disarray.   My room-mate moves out in a just over a week... and as much as I am going to miss her, and the income she brought, I am looking forward to a several month (or, worringly, longer) break where I can purge my home, clean it, touch it up, and re-evaluate the space.  I have also dropped the only other new costume plan I had following my next convention at the end of this month, so once I get back from Atlanta, I’ll be able to exclusively focus on re-cultivating my home and lifestyle.  It’s like I’m Moving, without actually moving.   Ugh.

[10mintominimalist]

Waiting it Out

It’s been a couple weeks since my room-mate told me she was moving out.  Thanks to help from my parents, renovation projects are proceeding as planned, but now with more flexibility on dates.  I’ve completely stopped going through my things because, between convention prep, and my room-mate doing her own packing, I just don’t have the time or mental focus for it right now.   Not even 10 minutes a day.  Instead, I am making my 10-minutes in things like, cleaning up my craft messes, stopping to vacuum the carpet, and other small house-keeping items of that nature.  I still have a lot to purge, but I won’t be getting back to that in any seriousness, until October.  For now, it’s all about maintenance, and I can at least say I have been good about not bringing in anything new to my house, as well as making sure not to over-buy anything that I’ve needed for this costume project.   I may be stalled, but it’s good practice in maintenance.  

[10mintominimalist]

On Hold

Recently, my efforts to clean out my house and work toward that Minimalist dream have come to a screeching halt.  I have a convention coming up at the end of September that I committed to creating all the accessories for an entire group.  On top of that, I had also been scrambling to line everything up for a major renovation week at the end of October,  timed to coincide with when my roommate was going to be out of town.   This week, my roommate informed me she would be moving out on September 14th.  It felt like having the rug pulled out from under me.  My head has been a mess since then, attempting to reorient my priorities, and re-evaluate my plans (especially for the renovations, as many of them were at least half motivated by her presence and accommodating her share of things, and financially were somewhat reliant on the split cost of living).  With this jumble of changes, I’ve basically come grinding to a halt on everything.   It’s my hope that I can get back to gradually paring down all my stuff, but now I feel as though I should wait.  I could benefit from seeing my space with all of HER things gone.  I’m sure we will also have to sit down and parse out what stuff is exclusively hers, what is exclusively mine, and what communally used things I am willing to let her take.