Living Simply

My mom was visiting this past week and mentioned an article she’d read about a woman who had 100 belongings. I didn’t really think much about it till someone shared this article on Facebook. I have since read Tammy Strobel’s blog about social change through simple living. And she had a guest blog from the writer of Becoming Minimalist.

I really love the whole concept and plan to start working on this right away (what’s one more thing in my life?). The author of Becoming Minimalist started simplifying his life by cleaning out his car. I’m starting with my iPod. I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to music. Ideally, I like to listen to a CD before I put it on my iPod so I know if I really like it but this rarely happens. Instead, I have an iPod full of music – some I don’t like and some I’ve never even heard! I often listen to my iPod on shuffle and it’s annoying when I have to keep hitting Next because I don’t like a song. Whenever I eventually need a new iPod I’ll definitely be more selective about what I put on it.

I have 26GB of music on my iPod so I guess this isn’t really starting small – that’s 823 albums by 584 artists. It’s going to take me a while to go through everything and decide if I want to keep it. It’d probably be easier to start in the kitchen!

Reuseable Bags

We’ve been using reusable bags at the grocery for over a year. We have 2 Kroger bags and 2 Trader Joe's bags. Four bags is USUALLY enough for us. We’ve gotten into the habit and remember to take them 99% of the time. We even have 2 reusable produce bags (we lost one but I want to buy more anyway). I hate when I make an unplanned trip to the grocery and don’t have any bags. While I could just store the ones we use in the car, the ones we have aren’t very compact and definitely won’t be lasting indefinitely.

I’ve been contemplating the purchase of some new reusable bags for MONTHS. I want some that are sturdy yet compact when folded and I want them to be durable. At first, I thought I wanted a set of Envirosax, preferably this style. But when I finally decided to buy them, they were out of stock. In the meantime, I kept looking at the ones on reuseit.com. I want some that will work at Kroger and Walmart so the cashier doesn’t huff and puff when I pass them over so I’ve also considered something like this. But I also like these and these.I think this is a case for Nancy!

I'd love to hear what you use as well as suggestions about what I should buy!