Learning to Live Minimally
My fiance Chris and his sister Lina flabbergast me. Chris has a mechanical pencil that he used from 15 to 24 years old (all of my mechanical pencils get lost or break within a year) and Lina has shoes that she still uses from middle school (now she is in college). How do they do it? This isn’t an anomaly for them, pretty much everything they buy they use up as much as possible and everything they own is in pristine condition. I admire it so much.
Since I was little I’ve been trained to buy buy buy. When something is on sale, buy 12 (even if you don’t like the product that much). If I see a gorgeous nail polish I should buy it even though I have two polishes along the same shade range already. Clearly, I need more then five similar eyeshadow sets even though I barely wear eyeshadow. I’ve never known anything else.
That is just stupid behavior. I have been so wasteful my whole life! Only since 2011 have I been making strides to change my spending habits and in the past few months I’ve been trying to change how I use my products.
I’m going to do my best to live more minimally. I’ll be finishing up all the current products I have before I purchase more items in that same category. I’ll find alternative uses for items I have stored up.
Then, I’ll have to learn how to deal with only one or two products in each category. I can’t have all of this junk! Hopefully I can find a lot of multi-use products as well to minimize the space I need.
Note: One thing that makes this campaign a little more difficult for me is that as a blogger I get the opportunity to try new products. If I can try something that may be of interest for review, I do take these opportunities. I just need to make sure I completely finish the product and dispose of it responsibly.
Note: Check out DIY Friday for more projects related to living minimally. I’ve been able to substitute a lot of the products I’ve purchased with things I can make for cheaper.
Here is a list of posts related to my living minimally campaign:
Introductory Post
Alternative Uses for Shampoo and Body Wash
Alternative Uses for Conditioner
New Year, New Goals (A LOT of Them!)
Recycle Your Empty Beauty Products
Recycle Your Beauty Products with Birchbox
Learning to Live Minimally, Update #1
Learning to Live Minimally, Update #2
Learning to Live Minimally, Update #3
Donate Your Used Makeup
I’m Bribing Myself
Hair Hit List
2012 New Year’s Resolutions
January 2013 Buying Ban
I Don’t Use Shampoo
Bike Adventures
How-to Turn Bar Soap into Liquid Soap
“Empties” Posts:
2012:
July Empties
August Empties
September Empties
October Empties
November Empties
December Empties
2013:
January Empties
February Empties
March Empties
April Empties
May Empties
Surprising uses for EVOO:
DIY Moisturizer
DIY Hot Oil Hair Treatment
DIY At Home Hand Treatment and Manicure
The 20 Beauty Uses of Coconut Oil
It’s a work in progress.
