January 10th, 2024

I read a really interesting book on January 1st, called The Year of Less by Cait Flanders. I was so interested in Cait’s book that I finished it in one day. It goes right along with my goals of buying less this year, because she introduces the idea of not buying at all. 

Can you imagine not buying anything for an entire year? I’m one of those women who loves shopping. I find thrift shopping at my local Goodwill, an exciting Saturday morning sort of thing. I love spending hours going through the racks of slightly dusty, used items for the best deals and for something unique that you can’t find just anywhere else. It’s where I found my refinished dining room table and my mid century entertainment center. I found Lily’s prom dress, bought for myself nearly twenty-five years ago, at a thrift store. I love to shop and it's a fun to see how much money I can save by not paying full price for anything. 

Frugality is something I enjoy, but a total shopping ban? Could I go an entire year without purchasing myself clothes? Could I go without browsing a thrift store, a sale rack, or a yard sale? It would be a challenge, for sure, but it would also be the ultimate test in being frugal. 

I found myself curiously excited. I could totally do this. 

First thing, I had to decide why I would impose a shopping ban. As I looked around my home at all of my family's stuff, I thought back to the summer before last and how long in took to clean out thirty years worth of memories at my dad's. I had to decide what to do with it, where to store in, what to keep, what to throw away and donate. It was a huge undertaking and I still don't see how my sisters and I pulled it off. I think dad was overwhelmed by it too, but it was all worth it, the moment he stepped into his new home, free of painful memories and with a new sense of peace. Looking around my own home, I've come to the conclusion that we have too much stuff. 

It overwhelms sometimes. It clutters my mind. I need space to breathe and think. Do I really need the hundreds of unwatched DVDs sitting in our storage ottoman? Do I need my wedding dress? It’s not like I’m going to wear it again. These twin-bearing hips aren’t squeezing back into that arm’s width sleeve of satin. I took a real hard look at everything and asked myself, "Does this stuff serve a purpose?" Short answer, no. 

I brought my Fear Street collection home after we sold Dad’s house and I put it on the shelf above my bed, and there it's sat since August 2022. I’ve not read them again, because I don’t want to. As I took them down today, I had a pleasant memory of being thirteen at the library and being asked if my mother let me read those types of books by the librarian. I smiled, thinking how I felt so grown but also put off by the insinuation there were books that I, an avid reader, shouldn’t read. That was it. I had no other thoughts about them. My children aren’t interested in them. It’s not their genre. Why have I kept them, then? Maybe it was to impress fellow Fear Street fans with my impressive collection, but is that a real reason to keep them? I mean, where are the other Fear Street fans that are going to come over and ogle my collection? 🤔

All I know is that I don’t want to die and leave my children with the burden of deciding whether or not to keep my memory alive with clutter. I don’t want to leave them the work of cleaning it all out. Hear me out, just deal with your mess now. Don’t leave it for your grieving children. I was lucky, we did the major clean out before he passed so even though it was sort of sad, it was just one kind of sad. The house would probably still be sitting there, filled to the brim with crap that I couldn't bear to look at, not sold, not off our shoulders, a decaying monument to a time that had bitterly passed us by.

My why is simple. I have too much stuff that I don’t use. 

I could have a fully functioning home if there was less of everything. Simplicity, that’s what we’re going for. Doesn’t that work with the ‘cultivating a joyful home,’ bit? Yes, because Cait says that, “simple living equals creative pursuits.” There’s time to write and bake and sew and garden and all the simple wonderful things that I wish to do, and especially if I’m not up to my neck in useless things. 

The next step is to declutter your home. Does it serve a purpose? I have so many books and it turns out, I am NOT going to designate an area of my home for my own library. I am not reading them. They are for show to my fellow non-existent book reading fans. It is dumb. Another part of Cait’s rules is to, “replace costly habits with free or cheap ones,” and they have this awesome invention called a library, where you borrow used books and return them. Such a super concept and I am a total fan. 😉

As part of our push to declutter this year, J and I have tasked ourselves with selling one item each week. All profits are going into a separate high-yield savings account that will remain untouched until December 31st. Week one, we sold some old goat fencing. Week two, I sold a quilt rack. It has been fun coming up with what to add to the list next. For week three, the plan is to tackle the books, and as it turns out, there’s an App for that.

It’s called the decluttr app and all you do is scan the barcode/ISBN numbers on the back of books and the app lets you know immediately if they’ll purchase your media. You drop them off at the UPS store and the company ships it free. Once their quality assurance examines the items, you are sent cash via PayPal. I was able to collect 32 items so far and my box is packed and ready to go. 🚚

This isn’t a total shopping ban. Cait advises you make three lists detailing an “essential list,” for everyday items you are allowed to purchase like groceries and toiletries, a “nonessential list,” for books or whatever else you can live without, and an “approved list,” for things you know that you are going to have to buy this year. When anything is bought to replace something, you must throw away or get rid of the original item. It can’t stay and hang out so that you can look at it and reminisce about whatever “feel-good” memory you have attached to it. Take a picture of it if you must, and appreciate the time you had together, but then let it go. In the case of Fear Street, I’m passing them on to be discovered by a lucky preteen on the hunt for their next chilling read. 

The whole point of this endeavor is to “learn to live without, become more resourceful and to appreciate what you have.” I’m so looking forward to what happens with this challenge and how it will affect my finances and my well-being. I want to know where everything is and that it has a specific purpose. I want to pursue my dreams and cultivate a simplified life that is full of joy, love and adventure. I don’t want to be tied down to my stuff and for my stuff to rule my life. I want to live my life in the here and now. I want less. 🌼