One thing about living a more simple and umm... well, minimalist life is that it does not stop at decluttering your closets and feeling happier with a smaller wardrobe. No, my friends, if you allow yourself to get carried away a bit, minimalism goes further. And that is a good thing.
This year, I started questioning a lot of things. I started by downsizing my DVD and CD collection, organized and reduced my decorative items and build a capsule wardrobe. But there was more.
I grew vegetables and herbs on our balconies to supply ourselves with fresh additions to our shop-bought food. I started cooking fresh almost every night following a meal-planning scheme to make the most of the groceries we buy.
And then, there were a so many little things that changed as well:
So you see, what started out as frustration of having to move way to much stuff in the end turned into a re-evaluation of our whole lifestyle. And I can tell you this: we are not done yet!
This year, I started questioning a lot of things. I started by downsizing my DVD and CD collection, organized and reduced my decorative items and build a capsule wardrobe. But there was more.
I grew vegetables and herbs on our balconies to supply ourselves with fresh additions to our shop-bought food. I started cooking fresh almost every night following a meal-planning scheme to make the most of the groceries we buy.
And then, there were a so many little things that changed as well:
- Out went the regular light bulbs, in came the energy saving bulbs and halogen spots.
- We changed our internet supplier and got a landline phone. No more calling to Germany for one euro per minute from my mobile phone.
- We bought a breadmaking machine that is very energy-efficient and reduces the amount of money we spend on bread by 75%.
- We use paraben-free, perfume-free and environmentally-friendly laundry detergent. No more itchyness from those haevily scented artificial detergents... and it is good for the environment, too.
- We freeze leftovers from dinner and use them as freezer-meals. No more pizza-delivery and greasy chinese takeaway for us. Well, unless we really crave it. But that is less often than we thought.
- On that note, we also try to visit our farmer's market more frequently. Buying veg and fruit there is cheaper than in our local supermarket discounter and most of the time also tastes better because it has not been wheeled in and out if the coldroom on a daily basis for a week or so.
So you see, what started out as frustration of having to move way to much stuff in the end turned into a re-evaluation of our whole lifestyle. And I can tell you this: we are not done yet!
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