maintenance

Minimalism: Approaching Maintenance

/ rachelgoes262 / Leave a comment

My minimalism journey is now entering its 12th year. That’s a long time. For those of you feeling discouraged with your decluttering efforts, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. That’s how much stuff I had to get rid of. I spent over 30 years accumulating, and over a decade trying to pare it all down.

The one area of my house that I am still working on minimizing is my CD collection. As you know from previous posts, this is the most difficult area for me due to my love of music. For the longest time, I would declutter anything in the house EXCEPT the CDs. 

My thinking now is that I only want to keep albums I truly enjoy. Those CDs where you pop them in the player and truly enjoy the entire disc. I’m not keeping a CD if there is only one or two songs on there that I like. We have YouTube for things like that. I’m not a huge fan of digital music, but I find it easier to just Youtube one song on the rare occasion I want to hear it instead of holding onto an entire CD for just one song.

One strategy that I use frequently in my decluttering efforts is that I will only keep items that fit in the space available. For example, if I don’t have enough room in the cupboard for all the coffee mugs, then it is time to declutter the coffee mugs and only keep what fits in the cabinet.

In decluttering my CDs, I have done the same thing. However, with CDs, I used to have 3 different pieces of furniture holding my CD collection. I am now downsizing my CDs to the point where there is only one piece of furniture holding my CD collection. That is two pieces of furniture I can get rid of also.

Once my CDs are minimized, I will be at maintenance minimalism. Maintenance minimalism is all about being a good gatekeeper. At this point, my goal is to only bring into my home consumables (food) and things I absolutely need.

Do I have some items that are completely unnecessary to the point they could be considered” clutter?” Yes, I do. I have 5 squishmallows. Do I need 5 squishmallows? No. They are probably considered clutter. However, they bring me joy and have use as pillows when needed. I enjoy them, so they stay. 

There is still a room full of donations upstairs. Everything in that room needs to leave and be donated. It will have to wait until spring when the weather is better and when I can find places to donate items. Some larger pieces, like the bookcase and extra outside chairs will just go out front with a “free” sign. They are too large to fight with to transport in my car to take someplace to donate. I could fit them in my car if necessary, but I don’t want to deal with it.

Apart from emptying the donation room and completing the minimizing of my CD collection, I am done. I am officially at the maintenance phase of my minimalist journey. 

There are a few random items that will be donated or trashed when I move. Some things in this house I am using now but will not take with me when I leave. However, I feel that I have now downsized this house to the point where I am either actively using everything here or the item brings me so much joy (hello, squishmallows) that they are staying.

My biggest challenge right now is going to be getting rid of everything in the donation room this spring. Donation centers in my area have closed. It is extremely difficult trying to figure out how to get rid of things, so they do not end up in the landfill. I also have a small box of electronics that I must figure out how to recycle.

While I may be approaching the maintenance phase of my minimalism journey, this blog will continue. There are always things to minimize in life including routines and digital items.

My goal with minimalism is to make this house and my surroundings as easy to care for as possible so that I can enjoy life. I don’t want to spend all my time cleaning. I want to spend my time with those I love.

That’s the true goal of minimalism – not a set number of things. The goal is to make life about love and not about stuff. 

Lost Races & Pixies

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I despise selfies, but here is the pixie.

With my pixie, I can fly. At least, according to Peter Pan, all it takes is pixie dust to fly. I had my hair cut into a pixie last week. I have never before had my hair shorter than a bob. This is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I wish I had done this, oh, say 7 or 8 marathon medals ago.

I’m quite overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility I have right now, so I am trying to make myself as low maintenance as possible. Since I have to take care of everything and everyone else, this way I don’t have to worry about taking care of me. To add onto the increased responsibilities, I have been having trouble with my health. I don’t feel 90% anymore. Each day is a struggle.

When, I had my stroke in 2016, that was the Lost Year when I did not have a race. Unfortunately, after only a half marathon in 2017, I have another Lost Year  – 2018. Let’s not make a habit of this.

With the financial burden of paying 65% of my income in rent over the summer, I was not able to properly fuel (read: buy groceries and eat enough) or even drive to the running trail to be able to train. With all my money being sunk into getting this house and preventing us from becoming homeless, I also do not have the funds to travel to Connecticut for the race I had planned.

Mostly, it is lack of training. When you are barely able to afford food to eat every day, you cannot keep nutrition up to be able to train for a full marathon. It’s just not possible. Being a person with multiple severe food allergies, that meant that food pantries are not a resource to me. While my mortgage is quite a few hundred dollars less than the rent increase that was thrust upon me in May, I can’t train for a full marathon in less than a month.

Combine that with the health problems I am currently having, and I am not even able to salvage a half marathon. I was hoping to run a Veteran’s Day race, but that is not happening. Training for a half would have had to start at the beginning of September, and I am only able to do about 2 miles a few times a week right now. At least I’m running. That’s always a positive.

Another Lost Year is both sad and it pisses me off. I had a solid base of 4-5 mile runs multiple times a week and was all set to start marathon training when the housing crisis hit. So, I guess this year is the Lost Year due to the housing crisis. I hate the feeling of knowing I am registered for a race that I am unable to run.

On the plus side, since my financial situation has improved with the house, I finally had the extra $25 for a hair cut. This pixie is the best decision ever. I hate bangs. I hate hair in my face. This hair style is perfect. I don’t fight with my hair at all anymore. It is literally wash and go. Running with the pixie is amazing. I need to keep the pixie for my next full marathon. This is the best running hair cut ever.

My one concern is that people still know I’m female. I figure if someone thinks I’m a boy, I can always put a bow on it like Hello Kitty. So far, no one has mistaken me for a boy. Everyone has either made a positive comment or kept their negativity to themselves.

I figure since the house is my midlife anti-crisis that this new hairstyle can be my midlife crisis. I just didn’t wait the six months until my 40th birthday in March. I may not believe in pixie dust, but with a pixie haircut, I sure feel like I can fly when I run.

Since 2016 was the Lost Year due to my stroke, maybe 2018 is the year of Lost Races & Pixies. Hey, if I think about having two lost years, I’m going to be depressed, so you have to put a little creativity in it somehow.

My goal right now, if I can get my health to cooperate, is to at least be back to the solid 4 mile base before the snow flies this winter. I am also looking to swim this winter for my cross training. We will see how that goes. My stamina in the pool is not great. Swimming will definitely help work other muscles and increase my endurance. The only challenge is finding a pool schedule that works with my work hours.

Swimming in the winter with a pixie should be a good choice as well. The pixie dries fast, so I won’t have to worry about the hassle of swimming with long hair in the winter.

I have no regrets about this pixie. I have had no tears and no sadness over my hair. It’s a little odd. I have gotten bobs before, and cried and threw a fit trying to “style” it out of my face for running. With the pixie, I have none of those frustrations. This is literally the best hair cut ever.

For the record, when she cut all my hair off, it was more than halfway down my back going down to my butt. Now its short and spiky. I love it.

So if this is the year of Lost Races & Pixies, then so be it. That just makes my 40th birthday something to look forward to in 2019. That means the 2019 running season will have to be amazing. Hey, I got the pixie to fly.