Unencumbered- Thoughts from a Reformed Packrat

 "Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying.  The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things."  ~Elise Boulding

So often in conversations of simplifying, or living with less, or downsizing, the focus tends to be on everything one must give up. To me, living with less and having (relatively) few possessions is not about deprivation- I think an apartment or home that is more empty than full feels amazing. I get so many palpable benefits of doing so that I don't see it as a chore, I see it as something that gives me freedom. When Bobby and I moved this last time, we were able to pack our entire house in about 6 hours, including breaks, singing stupid songs, eating, and dawdling a bit as we sorted things and really took a ruthless eye to a pre-move culling session. Plus, since Bobby was having to physically move, I told him he only had to pack the study and the outside shed, so one person did the brunt of packing and it still went by pretty quickly. We took the following two pictures after we were done. You're looking at everything we own, minus our bed, Bobby's computer desk, and the dining room table- all of which we were still using up until the day of move out.

View from the dining room plus my creepy face

View from the kitchen plus my creepsauce face again

This includes all of the gear and supplies for all of our hobbies- both of our bikes, exercise equipment and yoga paraphernalia, books, yarn/materials/sewing supplies, Bobby's tools and saw, and a crap load of camping stuff. I know, compared to some super simple living gurus, that this is still a lot of stuff for two adults. But I think, on average, it is far, far less. Because of this we don't have to spend more on housing than we need, we don't have to rent storage sheds, and most importantly it is a lot easier to maintain our relatively nomadic lifestyle. Moving is usually not very fun or easy, regardless of how little one owns, but I can tell you, as a reformed pack rat, that it is much more fun and easy without having to break one's back over boxes of crap that are, in the grand scheme of things, useless.



Speaking of useless crap, I'm a big fan of quarterly culling. Four times a year, I sift through my possessions and glean out that which is no longer serving me. Sure, it usually ends up just being a few items, but I'd rather have a few items that I can easily drop off at Goodwill on the way to the grocery store instead of having to dig through mountains of stuff every few years. I've also found that this makes me a lot more ruthless with getting rid of things- if it's not seasonal and it hasn't served me in the last 3 months, why am I paying rent on it? I know that so many people (myself included, for many years) are afraid of getting rid of something and then needing it. I'm here to assure you that I have been ruthlessly bootin' my stuff to the curb (ok, not really the curb, Goodwill or friends who need/ want it) since 2005 and I have never, not once, given away something that I later needed/wanted back. Never. And you know what? If you give something away and you really, really need it then at least you know you really, really need it and you can get another one. Craigslist, thrift stores, and people like me are good places to find free or cheap goods if you really need to replace something you tossed aside a little too hastily.

I know many people have very sentimental attachments to things, for various emotional reasons, but I personally don't, with very few exceptions, which I can count on one hand. To me, the only things I cannot replace in this life are pictures and various very personal mementos like diaries or letters from loved ones. That's precisely why I undertook the photo project that ended up taking far longer than I ever could have imagined. But now it's done, the pictures are safe in digital form, and a huge chunk (maybe half, at last count) have been given away now that I'm not the only person holding the keys to my family's cumulative picture memory box. I'm about to start scanning in my old diaries, so that I can get rid of them as well (most are written in spiral notebooks in pencil which is starting to fade, anyway). Don't get me wrong, I still have a beautiful, small cedar chest that my Great Granny gave me, which holds things like said diaries and mementos. But you know what? I cull from that, too. Because trust me, the things I thought I would treasure forever at 18? Yeah, some of them went straight in the recycling bin last month when I sorted through it.

If you had told me at 18 how very different I would be in terms of material possessions by 22, I probably wouldn't have believed you. And if you had told me at even 22 how different I would be by 28, I wouldn't have believed that, either. The point is that sometimes you have to force yourself to just do it, to start choosing to live with less, get rid of some things, and stop accumulating more things. And very soon after, you might find that you don't miss it at all. I want to reiterate that I am FAR from a simple living guru. There are tons of great blogs out there on that topic, and I certainly can't claim to have whittled my possessions down to 100 things- and I don't desire to (at least not now, we'll see where another 5 years gets me). In the end, I just know that I am so glad that I am not drowning in stuff anymore.

Salt, Oil, and Nuts: How to Be a Hygienic Hippie Without Resorting to Patchouli

I think it's valid to recognize that our skin is our largest organ, and as such whatever we slather all over it will get absorbed into our body. There's a reason birth control and morphine patches work, after all- the drugs are readily absorbed directly through the skin. With this in mind, in the last year I started thinking that as great as free toiletries from CVS are (I played the coupon game, and got pretty much everything to do with bodily hygiene and makeup for free) the ingredients list isn't that great, plus there is a lot of plastic waste associated with those products. I started my foray into natural replacements for conventional products with deodorant. Mind you, this wasn't something I took lightly, because I really didn't want to be that stinky girl that everyone was too nice to say anything to. I looked into Tom's of Maine, but honestly their products were not that different from Secret or Dove. That's when I found crystal stick deodorant- or, to be more accurate, salt stick deodorant.

The sticker on the top proudly trumpets "No aluminum chlorohydrates! Here's a basic overview of what that means. When it comes to body odor, our underarms smell because of bacteria that live on our skin. That bacteria interacts with and breaks down our sweat. Traditional deodorant has various aluminum compounds that serve as anti-perspirants. In addition, there is usually a fragrance to cover up any smells that may arise should you sweat in spite of the anti-perspirant. Salt stick deodorant however, is just that- a stick of salt. It works by neutralizing the bacteria that cause bad odors. It doesn't serve as an anti-perspirant, but I've never had a problem with excessive sweating so that's fine by me.

Basically you wet the top and swipe it under your arms. Conversely, you can swipe it on your wet underarms when you get out of the shower. Either way, after using give it a quick rinse and then dry it off and you're good. I purchased this for $5 at Sprouts over a year ago, and I have barely used 1/4 of it. I also don't have to worry about it melting in the heat. On very hot summer days I'll go back to my old standby Secret as a just in case precaution, but between the two I haven't purchased deodorant in over a year. The salt stick thing totally had me dubious, but it works, and it's cheap and all natural, so for me it's a great option.

About a year ago, I made a second replacement- I ditched my frou frou, scented Bath and Body works lotion and got myself a jar of coconut oil. 100%, pure, organic oil made from nothing but coconuts.

 I also picked this up at Sprouts, and it was on sale for about $7. It's lasted me (and Bobby, since he uses it too) 4 months so far, and I use it every other day.

For ease of use (and to keep it pure since I also use it for cooking and love it for that purpose as well) I scoop out about 5 spoon fulls and put it in this little blue cup, and then keep it on our bathroom counter. I also use it for lip gloss, and at night I put it around my eyes where my skin can get really dry. In all these uses, it rocks. It goes on pretty greasy, but almost immediately dries. I've also melted this down in the microwave to mix in drops of vanilla for a subtle scent. Speaking of scent, you don't smell strongly of coconuts, at all. Honestly I think we've all become so accustomed to hyper strong, fake coconut smell that we've forgotten how subtle real coconuts smell. I would recommend this to anyone as a far superior product for lips and skin than lotion. Also, it's edible. Wink wink.

I made the third replacement around the same time as the second. I had been looking for an all natural replacement for laundry detergent, to avoid the chemicals as well as the problem of the packaging waste. In my search, I came upon soap nuts. After researching them for some while, I decided to give them a try.

 Back in July, we ordered a one pound bag for $18, which included shipping. We still have a little less than half the bag left over- and we do a lot of laundry. Side note- I was pissed that it came in this bag because it was advertised in a canvas, re-usable bag. Oh well...

 Soap nuts are totally natural- they're just dried out fruit, which contains saponins. You can use them in one of two ways. One, you can put about 7 or 8 in a small canvas bag and toss it in the wash with your laundry. I wash all our clothes in cold, but usually I'll give it a quick burst of hot to release the suds. With this method you can re-use the soap nuts about 3 times. You can check if they're "tapped out" by rubbing the canvas bag under the running water- if it suds up, you know they're got some cleaning left in them.

Alternatively, you can make a liquid detergent by boiling a handful of soap nuts in water for about 15-25  minutes until the saponins have boiled out into the water. This liquid can be used in cold washes as well, eliminating the need for a hot blast of water. The amount suggested to use varies, but I just dump in approximately 1/4 of a cup. I've never had a problem with clothes not being clean, and women who cloth diaper their children rave about the cleaning power of soap nuts.

I like all three of these replacements because they are frugal, they are truly all natural, and they work just as well as- if not better- than their traditional counterparts. Once the last of my free-thanks-to-the-CVS-coupon-game shampoo and conditioner runs out I will be switching to the no 'poo method. You can google no 'poo and find hundreds of hits, but here's a good overview of the general idea. The best part is that coconut oil is also great- in very, very small amounts- as a hair conditioner with this method. I already have all the ingredients on hand, I just need to wait until my shampoo/conditioner cache runs dry.

If you try any of these alternatives- or if you have any questions!- let me know. When I give the no 'poo method a try I'll do a second part to this post. In the meantime, at the very least, go find some coconut oil- it's fantastic and is far superior to any lotion/chapstick I've ever used.

Thrift Stores, or, How Hipsters Ruin Them

I love thrift stores. I started off frequenting them as a teen, when I was trying to make my summer job money stretch as far as possible when buying school clothes. The love continued through college as I began using craigslist and freecycle (not quite thrift stores, but online approximations) and in Japan there was a crazy second hand shop where I acquired all sorts of random things, including a respectable acoustic guitar for only $10.

Upon returning to the U.S., all of the apartments I had with roommates and by myself were furnished with secondhand goods- either loaned to me or purchased from garage sales and thrift stores- and when Bobby and I moved up here to Colorado we furnished our entire apartment for less than $200. Since I haven't posted pictures of our new place yet (and we've been here almost a year, which might require a change in the adjective "new") I'll be doing a series on our apartment and where we discovered our little second hand cast off furniture. In the interim, I wanted to share what I got at the thrift store a few weeks ago when I needed some new winter clothes. I generally dislike sweaters, so I prefer to layer long sleeved shirts under t-shirts with a hoodie on top. I had blown holes in the elbows of several long sleeved shirts, and they were also all about 4 years old. I plan to make them into t-shirts, but in the meantime I needed replacements. Here's what I found...

 I ended up with 3 long sleeved shirts (two had tags on them, all of them were name brand), two cardigans, and a pair of almost brand new Levi's. Total cost- less than $18. I know that thrift stores often conjure up images of dank, dusty, funky little places filled to the brim with random crap, but if you look hard enough you will usually find one that you love. In fact, my favorite thrift store is run by the Salvation Army in my hometown of Brownwood, TX- population about 30,000. They regularly had "Ten Cent Tuesdays" where most of the store's items were on sale for 10 cents.

In light of 10 cent clothing, I'd like to take this moment for a short rant- the recent trend of "thrifting" and "vintage" that is anything but thrifty. I'm sorry, but spending $65 on a vintage dress on Etsy is not "thrifting". Sure, it's used, yes, it's vintage, congratulations, but it kind of defeats the entire point of thrift store shopping. Here are some examples from one of the overpriced, hipster-iffic "thrift stores" in Wicker Park in Chicago...

EXHIBIT A: 6 pairs of used leather boots, in various colors. Folks, you're looking at over A THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of boots. No, I'm not kidding. And yeah, I saw more than one girl with a ridiculous headband and feather earrings and a vintage dress swooning over them, ready to drop over $200 a PAIR for these things. Beat up, stinky, used leather boots are selling for the same amount of money that we spent on everything in our entire apartment. What. The. Hell.

EXHIBIT B: Here's my friend Jo, modeling a familiar 80's looking style jacket. How much was this little gem? Why, only $250! What a bargain! Yay, let's go thrifting! Seriously, I thought I had seen it all until this...

EXHIBIT C: Those. Are. Pants. And they cost $150. Here I'm modeling them as a quirky, "ironic" headdress, with the requisite duck lip pose that is an integral part of any hipster get up.

The point is, there is most certainly a glorious, frugal middle ground between junkyard collection thrift stores and over priced trendy thrift stores. And don't get me wrong- I like vintage, funky clothes just as much as anyone, but I have boundaries as to what I'll spend. Case in point- I found this dress at a thrift store in Japan for $10.

 It was my birthday, so clearly bunny ears were in order...

It also came in handy for a friend's art project.

 

It's in perfect condition, fits like it was made for me, and it's lined with silk. The tag in it was from the 1950's. Something like this would have probably run me into the triple digits on Etsy, and Sweet Hipster who knows how much in a trendy "vintage" shop. But at a real thrift store, it was logically and reasonably priced.

If you've never given thrift stores a try, or if you've been burned in the past, try giving them another chance. There are definitely some really, really bad  ones out there, but if you can find "your store" it's worth all the searching.

Empty

When I graduated college at 22, I gave away about 75% of my things when I moved to Japan to teach English. It was liberating, and addicting, and totally out of character for this former packrat. Of course, due to my being a former pack rat, I still had quite a bit of belongings, though none of them were furniture- I had a lot of arts and crafts boxes, random boxes of memorabilia, too much kitchen stuff, and 8,462 books. Approximately. Upon returning to my homeland a year later I moved in with my parents for about 9 months, and then moved into a fully furnished apartment, using a borrowed bed and desk. This was where the first culling took place, reducing my 25% of belongings down further. After that year, I moved into another apartment, again with second hand furniture, and did two cullings over the course of that year. Then, I moved from that apartment into my efficiency, which of course entailed another culling...

Then, I was laid off. I sublet the efficiency, whittled myself down to two suitcases, and two laundry baskets of necessities, and flitted about the country and wrote my thesis while desperately seeking a job. After living with a fraction of the fraction of things I had, I realized yeah, most of what I had left could go as well. So, when I had to move back in to my efficiency- and yay, I got a job less than 4 miles from it!- I thought to myself "self, you've done without these clothes/shoes/accessories/books for almost 6 months, get rid of it". So, I did.

My apartment is pretty damn empty as a result- and I love it.

I already didn't have a T.V. or a microwave, and now I'm in a 545 square foot efficiency with a bed, a desk, and a table and chairs. I have empty shelves in closets, entire racks with no clothes on them, empty floor space everywhere, 3 of my 6 desk drawers are empty, there are only cleaning supplies under my sink, and my cabinets are nowhere near overflowing...

Empty. It. Is. Glorious.