My journey to simplicity

Tuesday - 23 days before the move I spray-painted the drawer-pulls. I'm satisfied with the results. Boy am I glad I didn't throw them out expecting to easily replace them! It ended up costing me $12.40 instead of possibly $100 or more for 18 new drawer pulls. I also went clothes shopping with my daughter. Some of it was for my minimalist wardrobe. Some of it was for my daughter's back to school clothes.  Thursday - 21 days before the move  I called to have my internet service moved. I tried to set that up before, but apparently a few days more than a month before a move is too soon. I really didn't like my customer service experience when I called today. The representative kept trying to upsell me, somewhat argued with my assessment of our internet usage, and was not very professional in the way she addressed me. So since I was considering changing providers anyway, that was the extra push I needed to switch over. Hopefully, the new service provider will be bet...

"Get dressed, I'm coming to pick you up!" It was late. I was already in bed, texting with Dr. T and telling him how lovely it would be to go stargazing. It was a nice warm night. So he made it happen. My first instinct was to tell him no. That it was too late. That I had to go to work the next day. That we could go another time. Instead, I went with it. I really enjoy spending time with people like Dr. T. People that just make things happen. People that get me out of my way. I've been working on becoming one of these people. And why not, right? I was trying to figure out what's taken me so long to take action because, you know, I'm always trying to analyse things. But the thing is, it doesn't really matter why. What matters is that I'm making changes now because I want to make changes. Of course I wish I could've been like this all along, but there's nothing I can do to change the past. I can do something about the present though, so that m...

Sunday - 47 days before the move I fixed one of my mid-century modern dressers giving it new life. I'm looking forward to using it in my new bedroom! Monday - 46 days before the move I fixed the second mid-century modern dresser. It took much longer to bring this one back to life. But now it's done and it looks great! Wednesday - 44 days before the move I went through my tools and hardware and got rid of many things. I'm left with a toolbox with room for more tools and a medium size storage bin for the items that don't fit in the toolbox. Sunday - 40 days before the move I washed the drawers for the two dressers I fixed last Sunday and Monday, and let them dry out in the sun in an attempt to rid the wood of a musty smell. I used Murphy's Oil Soap and the sun. I think it worked! Saturday - 33 days before the move I cleaned out the front entrance closet. I found shoes I completely forgot I owned, and I like them! Saturday - 26 days before the move ...

Once upon a time, when I was a young teenager, I had a music teacher who boasted about not wearing the same outfit twice in one year. Wow! That's so cool! She must have a lot of clothes, a big closet and a lot of money!  I thought at that young age. The seed was planted to someday get to a point where I could also (almost) be able to say the same. However, even then, 365 outfits seemed excessive... The fact that I pretty much struggled with my weight all my life somewhat saved me from owning that much clothes. The selection just wasn't there. Especially in the 80s and early 90s. You had to be very creative and have great clothes hunting skills to dress somewhat age-appropriate as an overweight teen back then. Things are a little easier now. But that's a whole other essay... When you start researching minimalism online, you inevitably come across the subject of the capsule wardrobe. According to Wikipedia: The term "capsule wardrobe" was coined by Susie Faux,...

On Saturday (and Sunday) morning, I went to a local café to use their free Wi-Fi. We got near to the end of our internet service allowance at home, so to make sure we didn’t go over (because there’s no way I’m paying for extra usage) I unplugged my modem. But I still needed the internet to get stuff done, like this blog post. So out to the café I went! Remember when I talked about possibly making a freelance translation business deal ? Well it went through! I’ll be collaborating with a professional writer by providing freelance translation services to his clients. He asked me to prepare a few words  to post on his website  to introduce myself and he asked me to prepare a translation sample to also post on the website. So I needed the internet for this as well. I actually enjoyed working in the café. I got there very early. There were only two other people there when I arrived. I was working away when a large group of women ended up sitting right beside me. It seemed to be ...

During our lunch break yesterday, my awesome friend Christy and I decided to go for a walk. We had been talking about taking better care of our health. So we decided to start walking. Since I’ll be moving in the next few weeks, we decided to walk with a purpose of exploring my new neighbourhood.    It turns out that I’ll be a nice little walk away from Ottawa’s Chinatown. That’s excellent! My daughter’s interested in Asian culture. And on Somerset Street, I saw a few little cafés, restaurants and shops we’re sure to enjoy discovering. One of the cafés was announcing some sort of comic book group where people get together for discussions and to draw. I think she’ll be interested in checking that out. She’s a pretty good artist and has real talent for manga drawings. I must say, I’m quite excited about my upcoming move. It feels like it can’t happen soon enough! The commute to and from work has been almost unbearable lately. I know it feels that way because it’s almo...

At a very young age, I felt a big burden of responsibility. Our family had suffered a few different traumatic events by the time I was 8 years old. Events that changed us forever. I won’t get into them here. However, I can say that from that point on, I’ve always felt like it was my responsibility to make sure everyone was happy and safe.  As a child, my nights were plagued with nightmares. In these nightmares, I saw my sister (two years my junior) suffer terrible horrific things - monster-attacks, killer-attacks, dinosaur-attacks, etc… And there was nothing I could do about it. I’d wake up in a panic in the middle of the night and go check up on her to make sure she was safe. I’d climb into bed with her so that I could protect her. My parents would wake in the morning to find us sleeping in the same bed. They’d try to get me to stay in my own bed. I had stopped, I'm sure, a while before we became teenagers. The nightmares concerning my sister, even though they were ...

When I was going through my things in the basement to prepare for my upcoming move, I realized that I had a lot of tools and hardware. When I owned my own home, it was comforting to have these things because I was potentially ready to fix anything that could break down in the house. When I moved to the rental townhouse in Orleans, Ontario, in 2013, I didn’t question bringing over any of these things. Even though if anything was to go wrong with the townhouse I’d have to let my landlord know and he’d be responsible for fixing it. Also, minimalism wasn’t really a concept for me yet.   For me, this was probably the ultimate "just-in-case" category. Let's face it, things don't break down that often. And I'm handy, but I'm not always building or fixing things. I probably could've borrowed whatever I've ever needed to use from my family or friends. But I like being independent, and I kind of like tools and hardware. Maybe it's the possibility of it...

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I finally received our first passports ever. Now what?... I can't use the reason (excuse) that I don't own a passport for not travelling anymore. Now if I don't travel, the only possible reasons (excuses) are financial and fear. And I guess timing. But lets not come up with more reasons... I've never left Canada before. Now that I could, it kind of freaked me out. Not a crazy freak out, just a little anxiety. Fear of the unknown. So baby steps... I was discussing this with Dr. T, the fishies-rescuer, over drinks telling him that the shopping reason many Canadians use for a little road trip to the United-States doesn't appeal to me. Minimalism, you know... So he suggested that I "just go for ice cream in Ogdensburg!" I never even thought of that! Well maybe because I'm not a big ice cream fan, but I understood what he meant. I got excited at the possibility. I knew my daughter would be excited about it too....