Giving stuff to friends

Voila finally got around to taking pictures. These are the items in good enough shape that I figured I’d see if any friends want to claim anything before I donate it. Either way I am keen to get this stuff out the house soon. It’s all in a big box that has been living by our front door the last few weeks. It must now make space for our wedding wine which is arriving on Friday. Not sure I like the fact that we have to store 20 boxes of wine in our lounge but I do agree that it was better wine than our venue was offering. Sigh, at least I know those boxes are only temporary.

Phones :(

This weekend I spent some more time doing a further clean out of my wardrobe. I also arranged everything on the dinner table and took pictures. I am planning to send the pics to friends to see if anyone claims anything before I take it to the charity shop.

It’s also my last week on Facebook since I’ve decided to quit. I need to spend some time this week, noting down any details I want to keep (ie some birthday dates and some pictures) and then I will cut it :). I watched a video yesterday which showed some people constantly on their phone, to the extent that they were missing out on other stuff. I liked that I am not like that. My phone has no BBM, Whats App or internet access. At work and when I’m driving I leave it in my handbag and usually don’t even hear it. I refuse to pick up while driving, nothing is that urgent. I have also resisted a hands-free set, I do not want to call while I am in the car. Driving is my own time, I need it to prepare mentally for the day or to unwind. When I am out with friends my phone  also doesn’t leave my handbag. There’s not much worse after all than trying to have a conversation with someone trying to post twitter feeds while you’re busy! One of my pet peeves, if you’re talking to me please look at me and not your phone. The fact that your constantly looking makes me feel like you are not interested in me and could care less what I have to say.

Glad my boy is also not as attached to his phone. He does occassional murmer that he would like to get an iPhone so we will see how that goes. I've already made it clear I am not buying him one for his upcoming birthday (after he kept droppping hints).

The slump

Wow, this is hard. I seem to be running out of steam and feel like I’ve taken on a bit too much at the moment. I’m still keen to simplify but just don’t seem to have the time or energy! Terrible I know since one of the reasons for less clutter is more free-time! Work is insane at the moment, not just in quantity but in emotional stress. They are finally mobilising to fire my drunk/abusive/sleeping colleague but I’m taking a lot of flank from him at the moment since I am the only one in office with him. A zen zen zen zen......

Anyway I must remember to breath every now and then, I will be so much happier when he’s gone at least. Also sorting out accommodation for everyone at our wedding plus travel plans to another wedding so all a bit much. Tonight I’m busy again but Friday I will take off from everything! Have a day completely free of email (at least after work) tv, friends, weddings and cleaning. I plan to plonk down on the sofa when I get home and dive into a new book. I am actually really looking forward to that!
 
De-cluttering will continue this weekend. I also hit a stop because general clutter is out of sight so I feel better. There are still a few cupboards that I haven’t done yet. I’ve also started making a list of more stuff that needs to go. It includes our vacuum; we have a large industrial one that doesn’t fit in any of the cupboards so it sits in a corner of the lounge and has been annoying me for almost 2 years now! I will finally bite the bullet and buy a smaller one that I can pack away (my fiancés reasoning always being we don’t need to buy one, we already have one!). Nuts to that! I want it gone!

Futons and Vinegar

The box in the lounge with stuff to gift friends is starting to annoy me. I am tempted to just go and drop it all off at the charity shop as well. I have also gained a tray on my birthday. My mum was determined to get me something for my birthday and in the end since I kept saying I didn’t need anything did it rather sneakily. She bought one I thought looked pretty (which she told me was for at my parents’ house). It then didn’t fit in her suitcase when she was packing up to leave so she gifted it to me. Nicely done! It is a pretty tray though.

I understand about minimalism being hard now! I get constant questions now about our wedding registry. People are sweet to want to buy us stuff though so it’s a bit hard to refuse everything. A zen! Looks like we might be due another purge after the wedding! Most things in my life now seem to have the tagline ‘after the wedding’!

Further news about the shower gel: I added another cup of water, so now it’s almost 1L. The consistency is still gooey and the smell of the lye overpowers the essential oils. As said I’ll use it up and then try again. My boy is not convinced and still prefers his Radox. I also went ahead and bought the essential green cleaning set = white vinegar, Baking soda and Castile Soap. I have my eye on two spray bottles at home that are almost empty. When they are I plan to rinse them out well and use them for a water/vinegar mix and a castile soap cleaner.

Other minimalist news: We have decided to sell our futon. It takes up a lot of space in our small flat and gets used probably about once a year. I figure we can lend a blow-up mattress from friends for the ‘once a year’ that anyone stays over.

Day 25 and Body Wash

Tuesday night I made my first body wash! I used a bar of vegetable soap (fragrance free), a tablespoon of coconut oil, 3 cups of water and 15 drops of sweet orange essential oil.

Impressions: It took a long time for the soap to melt (it was on the boil with the water). Once finished it was very runny but I figured it would solidify a bit as it cooled down. I poured it into a plastic water bottle and it made about 750ml. I actually used the warm bottle as a hot water bottle that evening while reading (yay so nice and waaaarm). The next morning it had a slightly thicker consistency but had settled out a bit. The top part looked thicker than the layers underneath. In fact by the afternoon the top had almost solidified but a good shake got it all flowing again.

I haven’t used it in the shower yet since I figured I’d give it more time to set. I did try it to wash my hands though. I found it very slimy! I think this is mostly due to the soap I used though (it was a pure nature soap and was quite oily to begin with). The orange scent is also not discernible :(. I will try and add some more orange oil and see if this helps. Looking at the consistency I think I should have added 4 cups of water, I am not sure if I can add another cup now though.

Overall: Useable but not fantastic. I think I need a different base soap though (It for ie said Fragrance free but actually had a strong soapy smell which now completely covers my orange). Maybe I’ll check at Pick n Pay again for their soap selection (since I was so pleasantly surprised last time by their oils). I’ll have another go once I’ve used up this one, which might take a while. It is actually very cheap, the bar of soap cost me R35 and I now have 750ml body wash. I think the soap was actually too fancy though (I bought it at a specialized soap place) so it should be even cheaper if I use a different one in the future. My only other gripe: The plastic 1L bottle looks terrible in the shower.

No gifts please

My mother is staying with us at the moment which is great. We’ve been going over the wedding planning and catching up in general. The only blip is that she’s been asking about our gift registry. I am all for a no gifts wedding but she says we should have some stuff on it and not just a bank account. Since she was in the kitchen at the time she mentioned an espresso machine (I don’t drink coffee but hubby-2-b’s ears definitely perked up), blender or kitchen robot. I tried to remind her that we were cutting down and I didn’t want to just fill up the flat again with lots of stuff but she seemed a bit adamant. My mother always buys us stuff for the flat. Once a year my parents house-sit for us when we go on holiday and there are always new knives/towels/kitchen gadgets etc when we get back. I’ve had no complaints until now.

Thinking this no gifts thing for the wedding will be tricky to enforce but will still give it a go. My boy is all for just asking for cash but I am finding it all a bit tacky. I am inviting people because I want them there, not because of the gift we might receive. We have a wedding website and I wonder if it will be best to post something on there even though that also seems tacky. Agrr maybe I just quietly let family and bridal party know we aren’t expecting gifts and certainly not stuff and hope it filters through to everyone.

Sometimes I wish I could go back and start planning all over again. Try and avoid more of the crazy wedding ‘traditions’ and keep everything more low-key as I originally wanted. Weddings are such a large industry it is very difficult not to get suckered in. (I’ve mentioned before how aggressive I find the Industry). Anyway too late now and I am sure it will all be lovely, maybe in a couple of years we can have a more intimate anniversary party.

Resolutions

I’ve been reading up about resolutions and how to stick to them. Everything states that it is important to define your goals and try and set measurable ones instead of a vague ‘eat healthier’ for ie. I’ve tried to do that and here they are;

Health:

·         Drink more water – at least 3 glasses with lemon juice and 1 with Apple Cider Vinegar and Honey every day.

·         Drink less alcohol – Confine week drinking to 2 units max. Weekend limit to one unit per hour. Drink at least one non-alcoholic (water, ginger ale) for every 2 units consumed

·         Eat less refined sugar – No sugar in my tea and using Honey everywhere I can as a substitute.

·         Eat breakfast – this is a big one for me! I’ve been skipping breakfast since I was 15

·         Exercise more often – Squash once a week. Gym once a week and 2 x 30min walks each week. Try and make one of those walks up the steep incline in our neighbourhood (I want to use that as a measure, I can hardly make it up now so hopefully I will see this improving with time).

Happiness:

·         Paint more – Try for 1 hour a week

·         Read more – Also try an hour a week

·         Develop new hobbies – at the moment I am keen to try out all these essential oils

·         Watch less TV – Limit this to 3 hours a week (my guilty pleasure is Shameless 3, the American version, love this!)

·         Get a house plant – I am thinking of Lilies at the moment, they are fairly easy to keep, are pretty and help to detoxify your air. Don’t stress when it dies (they invariably do in our flat). Another alternative is Aloe which is even easier to keep alive.

Live simply:

·         Reduce chemical use – I would like to have replaced at least 80% of our cosmetics and cleaning products with non-toxic, green stuff by the end of the year. Goal to be free of all toxic chemicals by May 2014.

·         Recycle – Start with Paper, Glass and cans, none of these can end up in our normal trash anymore. Gradually work in plastic as well.

·         Declutter – Mostly done. Make it a mission to stay on top of this though.

·         Less social media - quit Facebook, I’ve already posted on my wall that I’ll be leaving at the end of August.

This weekend I tried them all out. The alcohol one went out the window. It was destined to since the whole purpose of the weekend was to sample every wine on our wedding venues list and decide which we wanted. The reading and art though were sorted. I spent quite a bit of time on both and enjoyed doing some sketches. Every time I draw I always say after, that was great I should do that more often! We also spent the whole long weekend tech-free, we didn’t even put any music on. Instead we built a fireplace, read, cycled and played board games.