If you have been reading my blog for some time, you will know that I spent the first half of 2017 as a minimalist environmentalist.
Mental being the right word! Late last year, I watched “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things". To say it resounded with me is an understatement. Stuff doesn’t matter. What matters are things that you cannot hold in your hand. Partners. Children. Family. Friendships. Holidays. Quality time. I spent the first half of 2017 cleaning out my cupboards and selling/recycling all of my “stuff”. We started to spend our money on adventures, not "things". I vowed to spend a year not buying anything. To fix broken things instead of purchasing new ones. The challenges I faced were things that I did not anticipate. My kids soccer team were getting shirts made up. Should I be the only mother who doesn't buy one? My kids go to birthday parties. Can I face the look of disappointment on the birthday boys face when they get a movie voucher and not a Tyrannosaurus Rex with glowing eyes and moving head? NO The answer is NO. Being a minimalist can be so socially weird. I want my kids to be included. I don't want to seem rude saying no to gifts. I have learnt that there is a balance. I buy things for my kids that they need. I buy presents. I accept presents with gratitude. However, I teach my kids to be thankful for everything they receive and hopefully they eventually realize that happiness is not in owning huge amounts of crap. Hopefully. On a more selfish level, in mid-2017 my work clothes were looking very tired and my gym pants had lost their elasticity. It’s no secret (if you look at my Instagram account) that I have lost weight over the last 18 months. None of my clothes fit me properly anymore. So I bought new jeans, bras, t-shirts and tights. I do still LOVE shopping. BUT I do really look at shopping differently now. I question whether I really need something before I buy it. I don’t buy things that don’t fit properly just because they are on special. I will spend a bit more money on something that I know will be worn a lot. *Ladies, we all have that expensive bra that we wear just about every day because it is comfortable* I buy better quality things that may be more expensive but are worth the money. They are not wasteful because you keep them forever. So I went a bit crazy there in early 2017. I blame Netflix. I watched too many documentaries about how we are destroying the earth and poisoning ourselves. I slowly changed all of my household products to natural ones. Then changed most of them back because the natural ones don’t bloody work. I slowly changed all of my beauty products to natural ones, then changed most of them back. Especially for my face! That natural shit clogs up your pores and gives you pimples. In your mid-30s there are some places on your body that just require chemicals. FACES REQUIRE CHEMICALS. STRONG CHEMICALS. ACID IF AVAILABLE. In 2018 I have tried to simplify my life. Minimalism of the mind. I stopped cooking so much of my own food. I used to make white bread for the kids to avoid their exposure to seed oils. Now they are eating multiple loaves per week, I struggle to keep up with the demand. So, I buy the brands with the lowest seed oil content instead of busting my arse to bake for them. I used to make my own laundry powder. What the hell was I thinking? I was placing so much stress on myself. I could eat all the best organic, sugar-free food in the world yet still fall into an early grave worrying myself sick about stupid crap. I swung so far into the tin foil hat wearing camp last year that I nearly made myself sick with worry. Worry that we were killing the planet. Worry that I’m disrupting my kids endocrine system with poor food choices and plastic exposure. I got a tattoo a couple of years ago across my ribs. A phrase from the Goblin King, David Bowie himself. “Dance Magic Dance” A reminder to stop worrying and lead a more carefree life. Then I got Netflix. I started to take the weight of the world on my shoulders. A one woman fight to save the planet. What’s different now? I stopped watching documentaries. I chilled the fuck out. I still care but in a way that wont send me to an early grave. Habits that I have maintained and will continue in 2018: -Saying no to plastic bags -Recycling my soft plastics every week -Attempting to use natural zinc-based suncream (especially on the kids) -Having a sugar-free household (parties are fair game) -Composting my scraps -Buying sustainable seafood -Buying grass-fed meats and free-range eggs -Considering any purchases carefully - "do I REALLY need that?" -Meal planning to avoid food waste -Using re-usable lunchboxes when meal prepping -Avoiding using cling film -Saying "no" to straws -I know a vegan Surely if each of us did these small things, then the world would be a better place (and Angie wouldn't have to save the world all by herself). Things I no longer do: -Buy organic fruit and vegetables (too expensive) -Avoid plastic lunchboxes and drink bottles - once your kid has lost their first $60 stainless steel lunch box, you will know why -Avoid microwaving my lunch in plastic -Use natural beauty products -Use natural cleaning products You gotta die of something, and for me, it ain't gonna be worry! Cheers to a chilled 2018. I'm focusing on my fit goals and some serious beach time this year. I can't even be fucked adding pictures to this blog. YOLO
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I’m officially halfway (six months) through my little minimalism experiment. I have had some triumphs and complete failures. Lets start with triumphs. My kids have had the same plastic Camelbak drink bottles for years, however the silicon straw on each of them have had more chews than a dog toy. As I am saying "no" to plastic where possible, this only leaves the option of buying replacement water bottles made of glass or steel. Somehow I don't think a glass water bottle is a smart purchase choice for the mother of two young boys. Stainless steel? These water bottles are indestructible, however very expensive. Again. I have two young boys. They lose EVERYTHING. Nobody wants another psycho mum at the school getting shrill that a $50 water bottle has gone missing. Luckily for me, the kids, their teacher, and the planet, I found out that Camelbak sell the silicon replacement straws avoiding the need of having to replace the entire plastic drinkbottle! Score! Bravo Camelbak! Ok that was just about my only triumph. Despite my very best efforts, “stuff” has been slowly seeping into our lives again. Plastic toys from party bags and freebies given out at shopping centres. I just don't know how to say "no" to it all! I find I can’t do it without sounding rude (even to a complete stranger). I can’t say “no”. If someone hands me a free gift or a goody bag, for some reason it seems very rude to refuse it. Someone please tell me how to say no to these things without seeming rude! My husband always says that it is better to be nice than right. ARRRRGH! How do you politely decline gifts without seeming like an ungrateful bitch? What is the answer? I don’t know. And while I am ranting........ KINDER SURPRISES! I HATE KINDER SURPRISES! Whoever invented these delicious eggs seriously hates me and this planet. If there is a Fructose Free Family antithesis, this is it! Not only do kinder surprises dose your child up with an unfathomable amount of sugar, but that sugary (delicious) egg encases a plastic bit of shit guaranteed to capture the imagination of your child for 5 minutes before being thrown onto the floor where an unsuspecting parent will trod on it and teach their child a few extra four letter words. Once the headcount of broken plastic shit reaches 1 million pieces in our house, I sneak them into the bin whilst the kids are asleep where it will sit in landfill for all of eternity. That toy will be around much longer than you or your grandkids. But when we fill up our car with petrol, the nice man behind the counter insists of gifting the kids fucking kinder surprise eggs! And if I say, “no thankyou, they are not only bad for my children but also the environment”, then I am the unhinged, rude freak! So I smile and say........ OKAY! Rant over. I'm feeling a bit feisty today. Obviously. Confession time. I bought two band t-shirts. TWO! It was a Friday. I was feeling particularly depressed that day because life decided to slam us with home & contents insurance premium renewal, car insurance renewal, and a car service all in the same week. Every June I know this financial snap kick is coming, and every June I'm not ready. So what did I do? Naturally, I spent more money. Makes sense. I happened to walk past Cotton On and saw these two band t-shirts. Two of my most favourite bands in the whole wide world! I bought them and immediately felt so guilty that I text messaged my husband to confess. He couldn’t believe I’d caved. I didn’t feel happy about it, I just felt guilt. Until I wore them, and then all guilt subsided because I looked so cool. BUT my husband then also caved and made his first purchases for the year. Now before you think he is going all Caitlyn Jenner on my ass, let me remind you that he is a musician and this is his stage uniform. He has hot legs. Unfair! I also bought a new pair of shoes for the gym but these were a necessity. I go to the gym six times per week and my shoes gave up on life pushing the 80kg sled last week. Yes I tried superglue. On a more positive note, we have been spending LOTS of time with the kids, teaching them how to ride bikes and play soccer/rugby on the weekend. Trying to keep them active. This was a major 2017 goal. Quality time with the kids. My 5 year old can now ride his bike without training wheels! It took a lot of tears. My son cried a bit too. Part of my little minimalism experiment was to ensure that my kids don’t grow up feeling entitled. I don’t want them getting new toys all the time. I want them to enjoy experiences and not "things". I want the toys that they do receive on their birthday and at Christmas to be the BEST thing they’ve ever seen. I want them to play with those toys with affection for months instead of unwrapping them and throwing them in the toy cemetery with the five million kinder surprise toys. I was looking after my son’s friend, Eli for the day during school holidays and had to go to the shop. Taking young children to any supermarket gives me a rash. So as any mum does, to keep them well behaved, I used bribery. They were suitably well behaved, so I took them to the bakery. My son usually gets the (sugarfree option) vegemite scroll or at worst, the fruit bun. Eli exclaimed immediately that he would like the finger bun (with all the icing and chocolate chips on top). My son said: “Don’t be silly Eli, it’s not Christmas”. **I almost cried with laughter.** Poor child. Lastly, I have been finding myself looking at new activewear online. The force is getting stronger. Six more months of no new activewear. I don't think I am cut out for minimalism. GIVE ME STRENGTH! I am sitting here writing this on Labour Day feeling extremely hungover. Last night I relived by youth watching Regurgitator at the Stones Corner Festival. I was very nearly a regurgitator myself this morning. There is only so much writhing around on the couch I can do so I decided to haul my arse up and write a blog before the kids come home. Minimalism is challenging at times but is going well. I am exactly four months into my little experiment today. I still have not bought any new homewares or furnishings. The kids smashed one of my big mixing bowls the other day. One down, seven to go. One challenge I didn't anticipate in the kitchen is the disappearance of plasticware. I usually cook double recipe quantities for dinner and my husband and I eat the leftovers for lunch the following day. The problem is that my husband is notoriously bad for not bringing home the lunch boxes! He keeps taking them but they never come home (until I yell a little and then he brings home a thousand of them including some that I am sure don’t belong to us). I am a bit worried that he will eventually lose them all and then how will we take lunch to work if I can’t buy more? For now, I will put the fear of God into him so this doesn’t happen. Fancy getting shrill to your husband over lunchboxes. Minimalism makes you a bitch! You may remember that I was trying not to buy any more cosmetics or moisturisers. I wanted to use the ones I had been gifted that were sitting in my cupboard taking up space. Moisturisers that I haven’t seen in years are coming out of the back of my bathroom cabinet. The one I am using at the moment is a kind of repellent to my husband. He thinks it smells like old lady and he quite literally recoils when I wear it. A handy tool to have. I might keep this one in my arsenal for strategic use. It was brought to my attention by a friend recently that cosmetics have an expiry date. See this symbol? It means that you need to use the product within 24 months. I am pretty sure it has been over 60 months since I received this moisturiser. I have also run out of face cream so not only am I using this Paleolithic stuff on my body but on my face. Perhaps being a stubborn old minimalist is not advantageous in fighting the seven signs of aging. I woke up one morning with a swollen wobbly eye that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a goldfish. And you know what? My skin has never been worse. You thought I was going to say better didn’t you? Nope. I bought more face moisturiser. We also had a billion half-used suncream tubes scattered throughout the house. I have made the effort to use them all to completion. We now have only three. My husband minimalised his workbench (as if I didn’t love that man enough). Temptation for buying new activewear has been rife this month. As a fitness industry professional, Lorna Jane offered me a 20% discount card all year round. The catch was that I needed to go into the store to sign up. It was like sending Charlie into the chocolate factory. As some of you might know, either Lorna Jane trains her saleswomen to be quite aggressive or their KPI’s are so high that they nearly beg you to buy the clothes. Despite being asked whether I “needed” to buy anything around 3000 times, I managed to stay strong and didn’t give in to Willy Wonka’s advances. I have sold a lot of my wedding ‘stuff’ in my Ebay store. My mother spent hours sewing wedding doily bunting for me six years ago. I still had metres upon metres of it sitting in my linen cupboard. I sold it all on Ebay for $100. Better yet, the sale went to a mum who bought it for her daughter’s 21st birthday party. It made me feel good knowing that it was being reused for another special occasion. Confession time: I’ll admit that I have made two purchases recently. My son’s soccer club received 100 too many club shirts in size 6 so were selling them for $2. TWO DOLLARS! I could not pass that up. The other purchase was a shirt for myself. My F45 crew and I are running the City to South 14km “fun” run in June. We will all be wearing these shirts. How could I not buy one?? Right? How good are they? I have found myself browsing fashion stores online recently. I am only looking but ooooooooooh sometimes it is hard not to buy something. Another hurdle I encountered this week is that T.K. Maxx (a super dooper brand name outlet store from the UK) have opened in Brisbane. This used to be one of my favourite stores when I lived in the U.K. And they're HERE! In Brisbane! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY? I must stay strong!
What would be your greatest struggle as a minimalist? Easter has just passed us by already. I was asked by various people to write a blog on how to survive Easter as a fructose-free minimalist. Even the most stoic of clutter-phobic, sugar quitters struggle at Easter. There is a distinct lack of fructose-free Easter eggs for sale. Believe me, I have looked. You can buy Easter eggs that are organic, fair-trade, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free. BUT they are all FULL of organic, vegan sugar. I considered making fructose-free eggs for the kids. What I found is that making chocolate is fairly expensive ($15 for 250g of cacao butter) and time consuming. I would have to purchase egg moulds (which goes against my "no buying" policy), AND I don't even know how to wrap an egg to make it look half decent to a child. Even if I managed all of the above, I risked spending hours for the kids to take one bite and say "I don't like it". Easter is ruined. There were other kids staying with us in Caloundra as well so I didn't want to screw up their lives too. So I threw caution into the wind. I decided to buy standard Easter eggs. I had the pleasure of going to the supermarket the day before Good Friday (I love a good grapple for the last tub of hummus). The place was FULL of panic buyers. No one wants to be caught out on Good Friday without milk, Jatz and a cheesecake. I found myself getting caught up in the moment and NEARLY bought my kids a Troll movie Easter egg. That stupid Troll egg is the epitome of everything I hate. It is shitty fructose-full "chocolate", with a plastic drink bottle and lunchbox all wrapped up in a ridiculous amount of plastic packaging. Yet I nearly bought TWO of them. NEARLY. I put them down and got the hell out of there with some seed oil free crackers and a bottle of rum from the liquor store next door. Phew. It just goes to show how guilt can cause you to buy shit. The guilt that your kids wont enjoy Easter without these things. So what did we do? We ended up buying a couple of packets of small Easter eggs, hid them in the bushes and unleashed the children. They scrambled to collect them all, ate them in about 3 minutes and then reminded us for the rest of the day why you don't let kids eat chocolate. But that was it! There were only a small amount which were eaten straight away. There were no leftovers. The kids had a ball. The true joy at their age is in the finding, not the eating. I hope and pray that fructose-free Easter eggs are available for purchase next year. Anyway, Easter was not without its other challenges. My 5 year old's school sent a letter home. "Come to the Easter bonnet parade!". It said. The parade is at 9am on a Friday morning (a work day for me). Oh, and by the way, "the Easter bonnets have to be made at home". Excuse my language but what the fuck is an Easter bonnet?, and if you want a throw parade at school that working parents have to get yet more time off for, you better be making that shit at school. After some ferocious googling and phone calls to more experienced mothers, my son and I MacGyvered a bonnet using only what we had in the house. BEHOLD! Fortunately there was a catastrophic rain event on the last day of school which caused the Easter bonnet parade to be cancelled so I thought this piece of shit would never see the light of day. Alas, the teacher asked all of the kids to wear their bonnets on the first day back of term 2. So my son wore this hat on Tuesday with a look of pride while I hid in the corner of the classroom pretending to be someone else's mum. Some of the other bonnets wouldn't have looked out of place in the Birdcage at the Melbourne Cup. I kid you not. I quizzed another Dad about his daughters elaborate million-dollar hat. He confessed that the hat had been made a decade ago and has been pulled out (of a hat box!) for EVERY Easter bonnet parade for ALL THREE of his children. You may not know this about me but I HATE craft. So a decade of no Easter craft sounds good to me. I will be doing this next year. I appreciate that Easter is an impossible time when you are the parents and parents in-law of a fructose-free minimalist (me). What do you buy your grandchildren for Easter when their mother doesn't like sugar or plastic shit? As you can see, we didn't come out completely unscathed. Both grandparents bought the kids little toys. I didn't get upset with them. I appreciate them not buying the kids humongous Easter eggs or overindulgent toys. They just bought them one little thing each. Both boys have slept with these toys every night since they received them. I have seen first hand how when you are given less, you really appreciate what you are given. **The humongous Easter egg was probably done in private along with a granny pact never to tell mummy.** So there you have it. Easter was not completely fructose-free, and it wasn't completely minimalist. I am confident that we did a hell of a lot better than last year. Last year, the kids got so sick of the volume of chocolate that they were just unwrapping eggs and throwing them on my cousin's rug. Hopefully next year, we can do better again. **If you are a multi-million dollar chocolate corporation reading this, I see a gap in the market for fructose-free eggs** How did your Easter go? Did you make your own eggs? Did you find any fructose-free eggs in the shops? Share your secrets. So I just took the kids to Coolum overnight (because adventure!) while my husband went to a party in Byron Bay. Who is an awesome wife? Me! The moment my tired husband walked in the door, I tapped out as a parent. So while the kids are jumping all over a sweaty, seedy Daddy in the backyard, I thought I would sit down to give a minimalism update. Since my last post I have been a busy bee. My Ebay account's ‘sales’ tally for the last 60 days is up to $821. My brother-in-law decided to get in on the auction action so I sold his old Apple and Garmin watches for him. Technically $300 of that is his money. Don’t worry I took commission. But it’s still impressive right? I have cleaned out nearly every cupboard in my house. If dust sold on ebay, I’d be a millionaire! Most of my possessions I was able to look at with sound mind and if it didn’t serve a purpose, it was donated to charity or sold on ebay. I am not really sentimental….. or so I thought. Some examples of things in my life that no longer serve a purpose but I was unable to part with: There is my wedding dress. Sitting there for the last 6 years in a box. Gathering dust. But in my head, someday I am going to show up to a party in it for shits and giggles so it stayed. This singlet I bought the day I met my husband back in 2004 at the Woodstock Music Festival. He was in a band playing there. We met in the crowd after his set and watched James Reyne and the Screaming Jets. Ahhhh those were the days. Nothing to do but sit in the sun, drink beer and listen to music. If I hold this singlet up to my nose, I can almost smell the freedom. My beloved backpack. I wore this on my back and traveled the world with my hot boyfriend for four years. It has seen better days now. One of the zips has broken. Seven years have gone by since I last used it. That hot boyfriend is now my husband. We have responsibilities, commitments, shackles, balls, chains, kids. As young as I like to think I am, 35 years is akin to a geriatric in contiki years. The backpack reminds me of more carefree days. It has officially retired but it is staying in my cupboard. I can sit next to it when I’m in there rocking back-and-forth hiding from my kids. CONFESSION! I have made some purchases this month. I bought my son some soccer boots and shin guards which did come under the ‘necessary purchases’ category. They won’t let him play without them. Turns out, I didn’t have to at all! I put up the obligatory Facebook post of him wearing said new soccer boots and complaining about how much money this season has cost me so far **whinge whinge**. And then the most amazing thing happened. The universe spoke! One of my best friend's best friend (figure that one out) commented. “I have lots of soccer boots and shin pads that are too small and will never get used”. She has three kids (two sons and a daughter). Her two sons both play soccer and have outgrown their boots and shin pads. Would I like them? Hell yes! So I was gifted SIX pairs of soccer boots and shin guards of various sizes. So not only will I not have to buy my 5 year old the next couple of sizes up, but my 3 year old now has his own boots too and will have boots sorted for the next few years. Imagine if everyone exchanged their good like this to limit new purchases? Less demand. Less energy expenditure. Less packaging! Less waste! My kids will wear these boots with pride and then (if they are still in good condition) we will pay them forward to another family. Moral of the story. If I need to make any new “necessary” purchases this year, I will put it out to the facebook universe first. You never know who has something sitting in their cupboard not being used. Thank you Bindi for your generosity. If either of my sons become the next Harry Kewell, I will pay for your ticket to the world cup. I have another friend Miriam who has gifted my son some of her sons old shoes. One is a pair of Birkenstocks that were bought in a second hand store in Notting Hill! How cool is a back story behind clothing? Thank you Miriam. I will pay these forward too. I’ll admit that I have made a couple of non-essential purchases last month too. Do you know what my demise was? KIDS BIRTHDAY PARTIES! I’ve had three so far. I was all ready to buy a movie gift card or other adventure for my sons friends, until the time came that I had to actually buy it. And then I thought of all the kids sitting around watching the birthday boy/girl opening their present. Cars. Hoorah. Queen Elsa. Hooray! Movie voucher. Shithouse. Who invited these creeps? Maybe this is just me being paranoid. I would LOVE for my kids to get movie vouchers for their presents. But vouchers don’t have the surprise “oh my god” factor. For this reason, I caved. The lure of matchbox cars and glittery pink sneakers that disco flash was WAY too strong! I am old enough that I don’t give a shit if people think I’m weird for all my hang-ups. I am weird. I am a neurotic sugar-free, plastic phobic minimalist wannabe and proud of it. BUT, I would be devastated if my freakiness impacted on my kids negatively. I will have to find a happy medium here. I will be more creative from now on. Afterall, part of the reason I wanted to become a minimalist in the first place was to limit the abundance of plastic toy crap in my house. Inflicting it onto others is contradictory. I pledge I will do this no more! On the plus side, I have not bought any new clothes since before Christmas. I haven’t had the urge to yet. There is one problem that I did not anticipate with this. I am taking part in F45 challenges. I am getting leaner as a result and have already had to retire a few of my gym tights. They are simply falling down when I jump. I have work skirts that used to fit me well that now look like a deflated balloon when I wear them. It is only March. If I continue to get more and more lean, I may actually have to learn how to use my bastard sewing machine properly. The BEST things about my minimalist year so far are the messages from people. Just last night, one of my dearest friends messaged me to tell me that she AND her mother are now keen soft plastic recyclers. I have another old work buddy who messaged me to tell me that she was inspired by what I am doing and is actively trying to consume less herself. These messages never stop giving me the warm fuzzies. Minimalism is a movement spreading like a bushfire and I am proud to be throwing a bit of petrol on it. I will update more in another month. I better go and save my husband. Does anyone have recommendations for me for kids parties? What is a cool gift I could give that isn’t ‘stuff’. In the last year, I have developed a ‘thing’ about plastic. I was walking through a shopping mall once and thought to myself “everyone has at least one plastic bag which they use only to transport their goods home and then retire it to the bin”. That is a LOT of plastic bags going home from that mall. Not to mention all the other malls in all the cities in all the countries of the world. Then there are the food courts. We get our lunch in a plastic container inside a plastic bag, walk 3 metres to sit down, eat it and throw all that plastic in the bin. Plastic never goes away either. It will still be sitting in landfill LONG after us humans have extinguished ourselves on this planet. And soft plastics can’t be recycled in your yellow lid council bin like hard plastics. My new years resolution was to say "no" to plastic bags which I have achieved so far. I can juggle 25 grocery items and a cooked chook in my arms no worries. I have also recently been known to make the sushi lady just drop the roll straight into my hand to avoid using a container. Geez people must question my sanity sometimes. There is so much incidental soft plastic in our lives. The bag the bread comes in, the plastic around your bag of carrots, the wrapper to your cheddar cheese. It seems every asshole now gives you one of those “green” reusable bags that you never use again. We all have a stockpile of those. Enter REDcycle! Have you seen these outside your local supermarket? I have but always thought they were just for empty supermarket plastic bags. WRONG! You can recycle any soft plastic including:
This is an epiphany! So what is it used for? REDcycle are partnered with a company called REPLAS who turn the soft plastics onto:
I still believe that avoiding plastic altogether is best practice. Say no to plastic bags wherever possible. However, in a world where it is extremely difficult to buy any produce that isn’t already wrapped in soft plastic (crackers, rice, nappies etc), it is nice to know that there is an alternative to landfill or worse, the ocean. Plus, turning all of these smaller soft plastics into a large piece of furniture means that it doesn’t end up here: I'd like to see a turtle try to eat a bollard.
The best part is that these bins are located out the front of most Coles and Woolworths supermarkets. You go there anyway, take your soft plastics when you go. The turtle will thank you for it. I now have 4 bins in my kitchen/pantry. Waste, compost, conventional recycling, and soft plastics. I take the soft plastics to REDcycle when I go to the supermarket weekly. You can even recycle those "green" bags that asshole gave you. It seems crazy to have so many separate bins but you should see how much I have in my 'landfill waste' bin every week. It is half a (degradable) garbage bag INCLUDING my 3 year old's night nappies. To me that is worth it. Click here to find a REDcycle recycling bin near you. Is this an epiphany for you also or have you already been recycling your soft plastics? So we have completed one whole month as minimalists. How did it go? GREAT! According to my credit card statement, the only thing that I bought that wasn’t a service or food was my son’s school shoes and socks. I think we can put these in the ‘essentials’ category. This month, I have been slowly cleaning out my cupboards one by one and 'minimizing' them. If I haven’t used an item recently that's still in good condition, it has been put up on ebay. I have made $300 already! Not bad for things just sitting in my cupboard doing not much. I have donated 3 old mobile phones to the Mobile Muster for recycling. I threw out a digital camera. What is it 1998? I also came to the realization that over 50% of my cupboard space is taken up by baby stuff. Baby clothes, baby toys, cot sheets, bed rails, baby blankets, nappy bags, baby bottles, baby spoons, baby sleep suits. All things I do not currently require. Will I have another baby? The parliament is hung on that topic. So for now, why do I need these things in my cupboards? Under the house they go. I have made a ‘baby section’ under the house. If my husband catches me in a moment of weakness, then wonderful, it is all there to use again. If I continue to use the fly swat successfully, then all the stuff is in one place to donate to friends and/or charity. So far I have minimized my laundry, kitchen, pantry, kids rooms, and living room. Does anyone need Season 2 & 3 of Prison Break by any chance? Next to tackle is the linen cupboard, the bathrooms, our bedroom, and the dreaded study aka the dumping ground. I am going to Guns n Roses next week (symf) and minimalists don't buy Guns n Roses t-shirts. This will depress me. A few dozen vodkas will get me through. Otherwise I haven’t really missed shopping. If anything, it is nice not getting so many ‘sale’ emails and being able to walk straight past clothes shops without even looking. Why look when you can’t buy? I wanted to try to fix things rather than buying new ones this year. Things I have fixed this month: -My stick vacuum broke but it was still covered under warranty. Woo! -The scales on my Thermomix broke and it is out of warranty – they re-calibrated them, did a firmware update, and replaced my blades FOR FREEEEEEEEEE! Best customer service EVER! -I iron patched the hole in the arse of my gym pants – so far arse is staying in. -I sewed buttons back onto my work blouse and pajama pants. -I have super-glued the kids toys back together (and my fingers to them) countless times. -I shortened the straps on my bikini top. Why? (see below) I am going to set you all a challenge. Something that I have been doing this month as I minimize what I own. The challenge is use everything to 100% completion. Ladies lean in. We are all guilty of having half a dozen partially-used mascaras in the drawer. We all have moisturizer that we have been given as gifts but don’t use. We move onto new makeup before finishing the old. My challenge to you is to use what you have. If your moisturizer runs out, go for a rummage in the back of that bathroom cupboard. I guarantee there is some in there that your aunt gave you 5 years ago. Use it. Go back through those 6 half-used mascaras and use them again until they are ALL empty before buying new ones. Try it. Go on. Have a look in that bathroom/ makeup cupboard. What have you got stashed in there that is usable but never used? I have found Utopia. Some of my bestest friends and their family have been going to the Woodford Folk Festival annually for years. I have always wanted to go but always had an excuse. I’m pregnant. My kids are too young. My kids are still in nappies. This year, I'm not pregnant (woohoo), the kids are older, they are out of nappies, and they are old enough to enjoy it. No excuses. We bought tickets for one night to test it out. The Woodford Folk Festival has been taking place for over 30 years. According to the Woodford Folk Festival website, the 400 acres of land the festival takes place on is owned by the producers of the Festival (the Queensland Folk Federation). It shows. The infrastructure is amazing. From permanent performance/music tents, to bridges, to the new on-site General Store. They have spent money on the site to make the festival as user friendly as possible. I have been to festivals all over the world. I have never been to a festival with the infrastructure that Woodford has. Anyone who has been to music festivals can sympathize with the toilet situation. Porta-loos or drop toilets that you can smell from 300 metres away. Toilets that you can’t tell what is mud inside and what is poo. Toilets without hand soap where you make the decision not to wash your hands because touching the taps would give you more germs than not washing your hands at all. To my pleasant surprise, Woodford has proper toilet blocks with plumbing, soap, flushing toilets and drinkable water. They didn’t stink. They weren’t dirty. I washed my hands….. with soap. This seems trivial however for a festival, it is like the Shangri-La. Utopia. Festivals I have been to in the past have had showers however there were so few of them that you would have to line up for over an hour to get anywhere near them. I never once saw a line-up for the showers at Woodford. They are cold water only but when the days are 35 degrees, you really don’t need hot water anyway. Utopia. Which brings me to my next point…… The heat. It seems odd that a 6 day camping festival would take place over the hottest time of the year. The Queensland heat and humidity definitely adds another element to the festival. For this reason, I am glad we waited until the kids were a bit older. Baby-wearing in the heat would have been sweaty hell. For the toddlers and younger kids, the preferred mode of transport at the festival was a Rock and Roller Wagon: Best. Invention. Ever. Prams usually only have a sun cover that covers the kids faces however leaves their little legs exposed to the elements. Prams for 2 kids also seldom lay completely flat for sleeping. This wagon was amazing during the day. It provided a shady haven for the kids as they were pulled around the festival looking out the side with eyes (and mouths) wide open. Knowing your kids are safe, in the shade and most importantly can’t run away, makes for a relaxing festival for the parents. And at night: The kids laid down top to tail at 8pm and went to sleep. We parked them at the bar and had drinks with our friends until nearly midnight. There were loud noises, there was loud music. They slept through it all. And EVERYONE was doing it. There were other wagons and prams all around us. Parents having a good time, with kids in tow and asleep. Utopia. The festival patrons were another thing that made the festival wonderful. A wonderfully socialist community. Everyone was respectful of each other, there was not ONE scrap of rubbish on the ground, and the festival was full of families. If the world was populated by the type of people that go to the Woodford Folk Festival, then there would be no war, no pollution, and no hate. There were people from every decade of life from babies to the elderly (wheelie walkers in tow). Everyone seemed present, happy and open to conversation with each other. A stark contrast to any experience in the city where people avoid eye contact let alone a speak to a stranger. Utopia. The food was all fresh, mostly local, and mostly organic. Another product of the clientele that attend. These people care greatly about what they put into their bodies. The usual deep fried shit was nowhere to be seen. If you wanted you could refill your drink bottles with Beerwah Spring Water at $3 per litre or you could fill up for free from the taps under the sinks in the bathrooms. There was no shortage of water (yet another thing that I have previously found at music festivals……very little free water to keep you purchasing drinks). At the bars, they used Globelet BPA-free reusable cups. You bought your cup for $3 and reused it instead of using disposable plastic cups. The Woodford Festival say that by doing this, there are nearly a quarter of a million cups less being transported off site over the 6 days to go to recycling. As mentioned in my previous blog post, recycling is a good alternative to landfill however not using plastic in the first place is best practice. Bravo Woodford. Utopia. There was a whole section of the festival for the kids. Bouncy balls that you could throw up into a huge bamboo structure: A covered massive sandpit. Face painting, magic shows, puppet shows, a cool down area with misty water spray and MORE! Utopia. The campsite was very comfortable. You are able to drive your car in and park next to where you set up your tent. This is so convenient to be able to keep things in your car close-by. Festivals I have been to in the past, you park your car and carry everything in by wheelbarrow to the campsite. This situation would have been awful with kids. We were fortunate to walk into an already established tent village made by our friends who were there for all 6 days. They had marquees for shade, stretcher beds to rest on under the trees, a table and chairs for eating meals, and a stove for cooking and coffee. I must admit that our camping experience might not have been as comfortable if it wasn’t for this. To have a shady area to come back to in the heat of the day was a godsend. Utopia. And what acts did I see? Well I couldn’t tell you. I was only there for a day and mainly wandered around with my mouth wide open looking at the performers both on-stage and off. I didn’t have a map, I didn’t have a program. I sat and listened to music coming from the tents but didn’t know who I was listening to. But I enjoyed it that way. Woodford Folk Festival. I’m in love. See you next year. Have you ever been to the Woodford Folk Festival? Did you find it as magical as I did? Ready. Set. Go! I have unsubscribed from nearly every online store I love. Lorna Jane. Running Bare. Asos. Just to name a few. I get no emails anymore. (This minimalism thing may have another benefit! It may give me back the time I usually spend deleting rubbish emails!) 2017 for us is the year of adventure. We are not going to buy anything that is not absolutely essential. No new clothes, no new homewares, no new toys, no new books, no new stuff. We are going to learn how to actually fix things instead of buying new ones. We are going to use the library. We are going to take the kids on adventures instead of buying them new toys. This Christmas we asked Santa/family to buy the boys things for adventuring! And boy did they deliver. We got golf sets, cricket sets, tennis rackets, soccer balls, soccer goals, bikes, and boogie boards. There were also board games for the kids (Guess Who, Connect 4, Jenga) and the adults (Trivial Pursuit and Cards Against Humanity). I feel like I am doomsday prepping. Our very last purchase for the year was a bike rack for the car (so we can safely get the kids down to the bike paths). Despite accepting the above Christmas gifts, we have already been avoiding buying in December. We went to the Woodford Folk Festival recently and I put it out to the universe to see if anyone had any camping mats for the kids (I usually would have just bought them). We had offers from multiple people to use theirs! Suddenly not only did I not have to buy camping mats, but I had enough mats to sleep about 10 people! Minimalism friggin’ works! For Christmas this year I organized a 2 night stay in Noosa for my in-laws; I gave my best friends kombucha and shared a few recipes; and my parents are easy, I just keep baking them fresh bread. They pretend they like it. From my friends I got wine (always well received). My parents paid to fix the cracked screen on my phone (the crack is right through the selfie camera which is rather inconvenient for a new blogger). So my family and friends are thinking outside the box to gift experiences and not things. Technically we are only Day 1 of our minimalist year and already we are seeing these little gestures of support. We are grateful. My husband gave me 2 tickets to see Green Day (standing area- no one wants to see a punk band sitting down), and a massage voucher. **That man knows me well**. I got him a SodaStream. I’m so shit at gifts. We go through TEN bottles of mineral water per week so I rationalized purchasing the SodaStream as we will not have to throw out any plastic mineral water bottles anymore. I don’t ever buy bottled still water. I take my water bottle everywhere. So buying mineral water in single use plastic bottles is hypocritical. The SodaStream represents 10 less plastic bottles going into the recycling bin every week. Recycling is okay, but it uses lots of energy and resources. It’s better not to use the plastic in the first place. The SodaSteam is still crap compared to Green Day tickets. Sorry husband! We still bought the kids material gifts this year for Christmas. Lego, toys, books, wellington boots. Our tree looked a little something like this: It will look very different next year. Looking forward to January, my son has his fifth birthday. I had already bought him a snakes & ladders game and a poster that I will give to him. His main birthday present will be a trip to Movie World on the weekend (we got those awesome yearly passes last year). We have also decided to pick him up early from kindy on his birthday and take him to a movie and dinner. He’ll love that. I have also made my first ‘fix it, don’t throw it’ purchase. A $2 patch for that hole in my gym pants. I would usually have chucked the pants and got new ones. Let’s see how this works. Cheers to 2017. A year of adventure. Happy New Year. Have you ever tried to fix something instead of throwing it out? How did you go? |