I'm doing 27 things
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1 week ago
It’s hard to live simply if you’re a slob, a bibliophile, and are married to a packrat. But we’re working on it.
Here are some things we did/are doing.
- If you don’t need it and don’t love it, don’t buy it.
This works great. We’ve lived here for three months, and still no sofa. :D
- recycle
Taking care of the environment is important. We have a pick-up recycling service that takes away our cans, paper recycling, etc.
- give up TV
No TV here. May have something to do with having no sofa…
- use Freecycle.org to donate unused items.
Minimizes clutter and makes me feel warm and fuzzy to find good homes for my unneeded treasures.
- give up cellphone.
We do have a prepaid cell for emergencies.
- do a wardrobe purge
I purged/sold/donated 80% of my clothes. Now my wardrobe takes little space and ironically I have more to wear.
- Set up automatic billing.
Minimizes paperwork.
Still to do:
- Minimize and organize paperwork.
We’re simply not good at organizing. Maybe we need professional help.
- update the library.
Between the two of us we own thousands of books, and have no more shelf space/money for new additions. A good strategy would be to sell some books we no longer need and instead get new (well, second-hand) books. I actually did quite a lot of this, but my husband refuses to part even with a single volume. We use the library all the time now instead of buying books, unless we absolutely have to.
- be neater and cleaner.
If pigs could fly.
- switch to all organic/non-toxic cleaning supplies.
We’re doing moderately well on this one – the dishwashing powder, soaps, and floor cleaning liquid are now Seventh Generation. Coming next: detergent.
