For reasons unknown to me, I am receiving regular Facebook posts about adopting a minimalist lifestyle. I admit I haven’t been paying any attention to them because I think I am already pretty minimalist.
Delusion thy name is Janice. Having finally read a bit about minimalism, I realize I have a long way to go. I also realize that I really, really, really want to go there.
“Becoming Minimalist” says to never underestimate the importance of removing stuff you don’t need — that a messy, cluttered home can have a drastic effect on your mental health, and also prevent you from enjoying life as much as you could. I totally agree.
I’d actually been thinking he could use a couple of new sweaters because the ones he wears all the time are getting tired. Lo and behold, in the closet in the spare room I discovered half a dozen nice sweaters. These, he informed me, were his work sweaters.
Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the quest for minimalism; Newman and I cleaned out his closet and highboy. Make that closets. He had a secret stash, so secret that even he forgot to access it.
Follow this saga in support of minimalism. It’s been a few years since my gentle suggestions for him to do a clothes purge were successful.
His closet in our bedroom was stuffed; hangers crushed together, sweaters teetering on the top shelf. I found 18 pairs of brand-new socks in a drawer, buried under dozens of others that he doesn’t wear along with the ones he does.
I’d actually been thinking he could use a couple of new sweaters because the ones he wears all the time are getting tired. Lo and behold, in the closet in the spare room I discovered half a dozen nice sweaters. These, he informed me, were his work sweaters.
Now for a man retired almost three years, one would expect “work sweaters” to be old ones used for working around the house, but nooo. These are sweaters that he used to wear to the office and put in the spare room closet to keep for good when there got to be no room for them in his bedroom closet. (The fact that I didn’t miss them speaks volumes about our social life).
Newman is not a clothes horse. He doesn’t shop for clothes but with three occasions a year when at least five people wonder what to get him, it still adds up.
It’s nice to have more space, not for more stuff but to be able to see and get at what you already have.
However, the best reason for cleaning out your closets and drawers is that having more clothes than you wear or need is shameful when other people have less, are cold or have bare feet.
The Gathering Place and the Association for New Canadians are just two of the local organizations struggling to provide warm clothing — new or gently used — to people who really need it.
Thanks to yesterday’s activities, we have 16 sweaters, 27 pairs of barely worn freshly laundered socks and 18 pairs of new ones to go to people who will appreciate them much more than Newman does.
Having less stuff and more room also means you spend less time looking for things in general. You know it’s there somewhere, but you just can’t put your finger on it. You go out and buy another one and the first one shows up. I believe sometimes the only way to find something is to spend money on replacing it.
Which inspires me to minimalize a big built-in cabinet we have stuffed with things that we might need some day or that are too nice/sentimental/interesting to get rid of or that we simply don’t know what else to do with.
I believe my much-loved compact binoculars are in there. I haven’t seen them for months and have a vague recollection of thinking that would be a good place to keep them from curious little fingers.
That cabinet is next on my to-do list. If I don’t find my binoculars, I’ll ask Santa for a new pair. Then I’ll find them and I’ll have a pair for here and a pair for Heart’s Content.
Not exactly minimalism at its best but nobody’s perfect.
Janice Wells lives in St. John’s. Email: [email protected] or [email protected].
