Lightweight Eats

A while ago, I was really into the idea of minimalism. As it turns out, thinking and doing are very different things. One of the challenges floating around the blogosphere is to pare down to 100 items. There are a variety of different asterisks and footnotes about clothing, shared household items, etc.

But, I decided to give it a go and made a list of 100 things I considered absolutely essential. (I didn't include clothing.) I made it to 75. And yet when I walk through our house of just a year, the shelves are cluttered, the drawers and cabinets reaching maximum capacity.

Much of this has been due to the generosity of family members who made sure our kitchen was well stocked with hand-me-down pots, pans and utensils. And when we had the perfect pan for frying our own french fries last week, I was very happy I didn't need to own just 100 things. But many of our things are not well used, like our once broken and now superseded French press, or our collection of sports physiology books that I've already read through multiple times.

And our worst collection? The piles of clothes we've been meaning to sell and donate since we moved here last November. And so we are getting serious. Last week, I took our first round of clothing out to sell. I have my panniers loaded with a donation for Goodwill, which I plan to bike down sometime this week. I've made some listings on Craigslist and eBay. And this time, we will actually follow through.

Of course, the next trick is to get out of the habit of buying things. At this point, I don't need anything that we don't own or can't borrow. Except then I go to the store and see the sprouting jar and think, oooo, I've always loved sprouts! And then, we have a sprouting jar. Do I need it? No. Would I be happy and healthy and productive without it? Yes.

Perhaps I need to start asking myself a better question when I consider a purchase--would this make my list of 100 things? That sprouting jar would never have made it to the cart. I'd take my KitchenAid instead any day.