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?
1 Comment
Katie Taylor
1/1/2017 01:35:50 am
Cannot wait to follow your minimalistic year Smith's! So inspiring. I'm sure we will all learn a lot! X
Reply
Leave a Reply. |