Short Post, Simple Joys: Washline

The other week I was spending some time doing laundry and noticed how beautiful of a day it was outside. Just gorgeous. So I thought to myself, “Why not hang my clothes outside to dry?” and I did! Usually it seems I am always in a rush or the weather isn’t agreeable and I tend to just throw my clothes in the dryer. But I know using a dryer takes up a lot more energy than just hanging your clothes outside for the sun to naturally do the work for you!

It was such a simple thing to hang them up outside, but it brought me a great deal of joy to do so. Being in the beautiful weather was a very meditative feeling with the quiet and contemplation of the procession. It brought just the extra bit of joy into my day. And my clothes dried really quickly and smelled so fresh. I felt good for taking the time to focus on the the simple task and be present, as well as feeling a bit more self sufficient (even though it was something so small as not relying on technology to dry my clothes). I hope to continue the practice and try to apply being mindful to other chores.

 

How I minimalized Pinterest

Well, how I minimalized one of my boards more accurately! ha!

The dreaded Recipe board! What I would consider one of the most cluttered and high volume boards (along with probably Craft Projects and Wedding Inspiration boards!). Maybe for some people having a lot of pins on a pinterest board isn’t a problem (some may like it!) and that is a-okay! I just know that for me it is a bit overwhelming, and if I am trying to minimalize all other aspects of my life this would be no different. Our digital clutter can accumulate just like physical clutter.

My Recipe board had well over 600 pins on it- 600! That is one heck of a lot of pins! After my successful day of cooking this week I realized how hard it was trying to actually find a recipe of what I wanted to make with so many pins in one place! And I knew that I would never get around to making all of them! So I decided my next project after minimalizing Facebook was to minimalize my Pinterest!

At first it was hard even thinking about those six. hundred. pins!!!! SO MANY! Like when you look at a horribly messy room and are overwhelmed and have no idea where to start! It just seems impossible.

But it isn’t. You can do it!

First step: Figure out how you want your pins to be organized.

My fault was probably in making my board titled “Food & Recipes” and just throwing everything food related there. I have seen some people already start out more organized so this is not a very helpful step but worth noting if you are an unorganized person with Pinterest such as myself. I decided I would split up my recipes by type: Breakfast Recipes to Try, Dinner Recipes to Try, and Dessert & Snack Recipes to Try. I added ‘to Try’ so that I would know for sure that I hadn’t made the recipe before if I wanted a new idea. I also made a board called ‘Tried and Tested’- so that when I make a recipe (and like it of course) I would move it to this board for easy access, and that I would know where I got the recipe from! It is really helpful when someone asks you for a recipe and you can find it quickly, as well as knowing you aren’t trying a recipe you have already made when you want to do something new. But feel free to organize how you feel would fit you best- maybe you would prefer by food type? Figure out what works for you- I just know that having one giant pile of recipes did not work for me.

Second step: Dive right in and start going through every. last. pin.

So I decided I would start at the bottom with the oldest pins since I probably wouldn’t even remember having pinned them in the first place, and some of the links might not work anymore anyway.

And I was right.

I have come to realize that when you actually click on the picture many of the pins don’t actually go anywhere! So Tip #1: When using Pinterest, ALWAYS follow through with the link before pinning! I have the bad habit of just seeing something I like and automatically pinning since I don’t want to waste the time to actually look at the pin, just so that it is there for future reference if I want to. You know, because I might need it later but I just don’t have time for it now (Doesn’t that sound like something else?). This is also a helpful tip because what is more annoying than looking at a beautiful pinned picture and then trying to follow through with instruction and there are none to be found? I had that happen with a few recipes- turned out it was just a link to a pretty picture with no recipe! Another issue is sometimes the link just leads to a blocked/spammed page. Also annoying. So when you are on your main pinterest page and see something you like and want to pin to one of your boards, CLICK ON IT FIRST! Simple step, seems annoying, but just taking that minute of time with save you frustration later on!

This brings me to Tip #2: When looking at a recipe (or craft/DIY could fall under this as well), make sure it is something you would actually make. Not just something you think “Wow, this is so cool!” “This looks so delicious I need to try it” “I bet if I brought this I would be the talk of the party!”- again, sound familiar? Just like we do when shopping and buying more things to impress others or because we think we will need it or it will make us better, we pin things the same way! So my next suggestion after you actually follow through with the link in Tip #1, read through the actual directions/read the ingredients involved. There were quite a few pins that I must have thought “Oh, this looks healthy/vegan/grain-free/etc I should try and make it!” which is fine if you do like to do those things or you need to because of dietary restrictions. It is great that Pinterest is such a wealth of recipes to fit those needs. But I am sadly not someone who has coconut flour or almond milk in stock. Maybe in the future I will, but with where I am now I just don’t. So even though I like the idea of those recipes, I know I won’t be using them anytime soon. I realized that for me I am looking for things that are simple recipes- things that may use flour and eggs, but don’t use much or any boxed/frozen/prepackaged ingredients. So I try to eliminate recipes that don’t fit into that formula. So remember, think hard about if you would actually make the recipe you are pinning. If not, don’t add it to your board! Or maybe if you like a challenge, make a board for those recipes that do sound good but you would need to challenge your skills. Just don’t go overboard (haha get it?) with this one. It could be a slippery slope to having another board just loaded with pins and nowhere to go and nobody using them!

(Side Tip: Another thing I noticed with my Pinterest is that I tend to hit “Follow All” a lot when I find a pinner who has things I like. I have learned it is best not to do that, since inevitably they will pin to a board I could care less about and then it is just more clutter on my dashboard. It’s not a big deal to then “unfollow” the board, but it is also helpful to just pick out boards you actually like and only follow those.)

And finally, my last tip is not worry about getting through it all in one day. I started this process and took about a week to do so and I am still not finished! I do feel accomplished that I took a board with over 600 pins and got it down to 161 posts (all my remaining pins aren’t recipes but rather food storage/info type pins). I know I have more to do, but I now have three new and organized boards full of ideas to try! And I definitely look forward to doing just that!

I hope this post helps in some small way when it comes to digital de-cluttering or at least might give some ideas 🙂 And if anyone is interested in seeing my Pinterest, feel free to follow me check it out. I like to pin a lot of minimalist things to inspire myself haha! Until next time!

 

 

Using what you have in the freezer and in life.

As I sit here eating up some delicious Chicken Pot Pie leftovers and desperately not wanting to leave for work in an hour, I keep thinking about how happy I was earlier this week when I spent the day cooking. It was the first time I had done anything like it- the day before I spent a good few hours looking through -a ridiculous amount of them I must say- my recipes  on Pinterest. I copied the recipes and put them in a word document and then wrote down ingredients I needed. I went and checked for things I might already have to cross off my list. The next day my fiance and I went to the grocery store on our mission. My goal was not only to finally actually make some of the things on my never ending Pinterest (post on that soon!), but also to use up some food that sits around not being used. After having some frozen things go bad I decided I did not want that to happen again and waste what we have, so I should find something I can use it in! Another goal was to stick to the list and not let the lure of things we don’t need pull us in!

See, I am usually the kind of person who could spend hours, hours in the grocery store! I love looking at everything and comparing prices and what is the best buy and looking at ingredients and on and on! So this trip I felt rather accomplished that we went and conquered and got the things we needed while not wasting too much time wandering through the isles adding things to the cart that aren’t needed. My fiance and I usually split the groceries so we are each paying for about half. Our total was around $50 for this week. Some things we bought were relevant to what I made, so take that amount as an estimate (also not including all the ingredients we already had at home that I wanted to use up).

This was what we made with it:

Haha maybe I should clarify- what I made with it! I spent at least 8 hours to make everything (including some not pictures turkey dumplings, around 40 or so of them which are in the freezer). But I just feel so accomplished!

My pride and joy was the Chicken Pot Pie! Oh how I love my PA dutch style pot pie! My fiance thought I was crazy when I tried to explain that real pot pie doesn’t actually have a crust! Dutchie style! Growing up PA dutch you never had crust on your pot pie! I would see them in the frozen section of the grocery store and just think ‘yuck!’ (No offense to any who like them, obviously my fiance prefers the crust and that’s okay! :)) But I now have my own pot pie recipe that I like and plan on using it more. I made the noodles homemade and everything! I am starting to appreciate homemade things more and more, and hope I have the time to be able to spend making more homemade foods.

What else did I make? I was determined to use up some frozen meat that was from around March! So I made Honey Chicken using one package of old frozen meat and one newly bought from our grocery run, and I made Turkey dumplings using up old frozen ground turkey that had never been used. I also made some healthier alfredo sauce because I was tired of buying cans of it from the store! I wanted something healthier, easy to make, and that I knew all the ingredients it. We tried it out last night and it was pretty good! Definitely a bit different, but still tasty. Will be trying the honey chicken tonight, fingers crossed!

And then the desserts! I made some really yummy apple pie bites and a ton of oatmeal cookies! I am really happy with the oatmeal cookies! I have had a giant container of quick oats since at least last year that I had barely made a dent in and wanted to actually use it! I never really liked oatmeal cookies, mostly likely because i don’t like raisins in cookies! I like just eating them, but not in my cookie! So I found an oatmeal recipe which I thought sounded good and gave it a try and I am definitely a convert! The recipe was for banana walnut oatmeal cookies (although I still made another batch of raisin ones for my fiance!) and I just can’t get enough of them!

–

I think that using what you have is an important goal in cooking as in life. It is so easy to forget what you already have in the freezer downstairs just like the little things you already have in life but take for granted. Make a list of those things, whether in the freezer or in life, to remind yourself of what is there and to not forget.

There is my cheesy bit at the end 🙂

And if you are interested in any recipes mentioned, I have them all on my Pinterest board:
Follow Lizzie’s board Tried and Tested! on Pinterest.

I would like to maybe do recipe posts sometime in the future 🙂 We shall see what time lends itself to!

Back to Basics – Cellphone

My old ‘new’ phone starting next week!

In little over a week from today I will be doing the unthinkable – getting rid of my smartphone!

I know many people – including some of my family members – simply cannot fathom why I would want to do such a thing. What’s wrong with having a smartphone? What if you get lost? What if, what if, what if?

And then I try to explain that I am tired of this little piece of technology sucking my life away from me. I used to be on it constantly- always checking something whether it be texts, facebook, instagram, the internet, or some other app. But I want to be present!

I am so sick of when I am spending time with someone and they are just looking at their phone! I notice it now a lot- go to a restaurant or go to the movies and notice how many are checking their little screens while they wait instead of having a conversation to pass the time.

(Also- side topic that I could probably write a completely different post on- notice how many televisions there are next time you go out to eat. Probably at least two. My dad pointed this out to me and I almost wish he hadn’t because now I notice it every time I eat out. It is a rarity nowadays to NOT have a television in a restaurant.  Which is unnerving! Instead of focusing on good food and company the focus shifts to the screen. I am so glad any time I find a place without TVs inside!)

So back to my reasons. After becoming more interested in minimalism I started to notice more and more how much time I actually spent on my phone and it did not make me happy. I was also tired of being constantly ‘on’ and connected/available. Many people get very upset if you do not respond to a text message quickly and it drives me crazy! Am I supposed to live with this attached to my face?

I am remember when I was a kid, and even up until my teens I would say, we just had one home phone. That’s it! And you know what? We managed just fine. If somebody called you maybe you answered it, maybe you didn’t and just let them leave a message and get back to them when it was convenient for you. The world didn’t explode because you weren’t able to respond immediately. If for some horrible reason I would have let’s say a car accident – it would be a blessing to have my cell phone to get help, but people also got through hard times and emergencies before we had cell phones or smart phones.

My other issue was cost. The cost to own a smart phone is really quite a lot when you think about it. First you pay hundreds of dollars to buy the phone (unless you get it free through a new “deal” or something) and for myself at least, it is around $40 a month just because it is a ‘smart’ phone, so you pay around $480 a year for this thing! (I may not be super exact, I am still with my family on their plan so they just give me a rough amount to pay for the year)… But let’s say it is around $500 a year to have this phone, in 3-4 years you will have spent over $2,000 just to be using it… Not to mention if you get overage charges or pay more for unlimited data or pay money to buy apps for your phone…

(Another facet to think about is electronic waste. I have known people to have to constantly be ‘fixing’ their broken smart phone and are just sent new ones! People threw away more than 120 million mobile phones in 2010. I know that probably isn’t just smart phones, but from my personal experiences I see many more problems with the smart phones than just plain cell phones, or that people are tossing their old phones because they feel the need to ‘upgrade’ their old phone to something supposedly better.)

So with all this in mind, I made the decision to go back to my basic cell phone. I know it shouldn’t be a big deal, but with the rise of the smart phone I feel as though it is a bit counter cultural. I feel like it was just a few years ago that it was impressive to have a ‘smart’ phone, and now it is just what you ‘need’ to have. It’s become standard. Just like every room in the house having a tv or every person in the family having their own car. I have spent the past few months minimizing my use of my phone so when I could let go of it the change would be easier. First I deleted Facebook from my phone (which honestly was probably the easiest since it was always a buggy app that frustrated me to begin with!) and then a few apps I didn’t use… Instagram was the hardest! Oh how I loved Instagram! But I would spend too much time on it and it opened my thoughts up to comparing myself to others, and I knew that was not what is best for me. Removing GoogleMaps was also really hard, I had become so reliant on it! Remember when people just used MapQuest to print out directions? Or hell, remember when people used to use an actual road map? Haha! Now the only apps left are ones that my phone won’t let me remove! So next week my contract is up for my phone and I am going to my old basic flip phone and using Tracphone. It will be cheaper (three times less!) and no contract! Plus I can reuse my old phone, sell my iPhone to help make some extra cash, won’t waste my time on the internet/apps, and since I won’t have unlimited text/call I will watch how I use the minutes I have.

It works for me, but I know it is not for everyone. I am not totally against smart phones and would never judge someone for having one (unless maybe they were spending time with me but were actually on their phone the entire time- that is a bit frustrating). My fiance has his iPhone and uses it a lot. He needs his for work. I think the difference is he uses it and it doesn’t him. I think that is important.

Let your technology be a tool rather than becoming a tool of your technology.

And no matter what electronic device you have, don’t forget to turn it off every now and then and just enjoy the moment and be present.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I went home again this weekend to celebrate my sister’s 21st birthday. I had a really nice time going out to dinner with my family and getting to enjoy seeing them as I don’t get to see my whole family very much. I stayed overnight and felt so happy being in my minimalist room. And yet I still felt I had more that needed to be done. So the next day I got started! My goal was to go through all my drawers in my room as well as the space beneath my bed. I did complete that goal. I went through my whole desk drawer and emptied it, and used the space to put my fiance’s laptop (he keeps it at my house so he can play games when he doesn’t have anything to do, or when I am cleaning like a maniac haha!) in it. Otherwise it is totally empty. Cleared out an entire drawer of my dresser and made one drawer my junk drawer to go through in the future.

I have come to learn that minimizing is something that you do the best you can, and if that means leaving a drawer because you just can’t deal with it now, that is okay. You can’t do it all in a day and you’ll get there eventually. I cleared out nearly all the space beneath my bed- all I have left is on storage container with some notebooks/yearbooks/papers in it, two scrapbooks, a vintage camera, and a small store container of pictures. I felt really accomplished. Two more bags to send to the thrift store and four more boxes of books to the used book store!

Every time I let go of more I just feel like a weight has been lifted off of me.

And here is where my title comes into play- if you want to try and let go of something, out of sight is out of mind.

I am currently in a weird place living situation wise. I graduated from college and moved out of my dorm straight to living with my fiance (then boyfriend). I had a lot of stuff in my dorm!

(photographic evidence of the ridiculous amount of stuff I had- and this isn’t even the whole room!)

So yes, a LOT of stuff! Makes me shudder a little just looking at all of it! And let’s just say moving out was not a fun experience! When it was time to leave my cluttered dorm room nest almost of my stuff went to my parent’s house and into my bedroom (or the basement or garage). While all my stuff was away at my parent’s I was living an hour away. I took things with me that I thought I needed (what I think I need now is much different then two years ago! ha!) and everything else stayed at home. And I lived fine without it. So when the time comes to decide if I need something or not, it is much easier to just let it go having lived without it just fine for so long.

So let’s say you want to tackle a messy closet. If you are unsure about something get a trash bag or container to store it in and put it away somewhere you won’t access it daily/easily. Set a time limit for yourself to come back to it. After time has passed you learn you got along fine with out it and it is easier to make that decision. Some with books! I had a container full of them in my closet and when I went through them I realized that I hadn’t read any of these books in years, will I really miss them? It was easy for me to say no. This is still a process for me. I continuously go through my things every time I go home, because each time it gets easier to let something go because I know I don’t really need it. It is hard to get out of the mindset of “oh I will need this in the future”, but when you spend months not using or needing something, you know you will get along just fine without it.

My situation is extreme in that almost all of my belongings were away from me and unless you are a college student moving back home only to live somewhere else for awhile, you probably won’t be able to be so drastically distant from your belongings. But take it a step at a time. It took me months and months to go through all my college stuff! Two years later I am pretty sure I have gone through all of it- although it is hard because before you really embrace minimalism you may still be adding more to your collection over time which makes it seem like you really haven’t made any progress. Just give yourself some space away from your stuff, even if it is only a small amount. And never forget to give yourself time.

Until next post!