Decluttering has a strange way of making you more aware of what you have, ask yourself why you have it, and make decisions about your priorities and your vision of your future. After four years of consistent decluttering, I was interested in moving on to other reading topics such as minimalism, frugality, simplicity, and contentedness - and practicing these as a way to amplify the intensity with which I live and the clarity of focus for my consumption. I felt like many years of mindless consumption had not only left a carbon footprint, but virtually eliminated my budget for travel to foreign countries, severely limited my ability to spend on my education, and left me with a compulsion that just left me feeling empty afterwards although I would delightfully describe it as "retail therapy" to avoid the judgement of a spouse, family and friends. Basically, shopping was a vice and being on the yogic path developed enough awareness that I didn't want to be on this crazy train anymore. I wanted simplicity and I wanted it NOW.
Enter "The Year of Less" by Cait Flanders. An open, and sometime brutally honest narrative of her "spinning-out-of-control" decade of her twenties, she carefully describes each one of her vices and how she let them go. Included in these vices were drinking, junk food binges, drugs, recreational sex, and shopping. She briefly describes how the absence of her father and a high-pressure job led her to try and fill the void with whatever she could cram in it - no matter how unsavorable. In major debt, alcoholism, overweight, and in a hopelessly cluttered apartment she announced her intention to attempt a one-year shopping ban on her blog: caitflanders.com. Of course, being conscientious about details and parameters she set out some rules for the year including what she wouldn't buy, what she could buy, and an approved purchase list of items she anticipated needing to buy over the course of the ban. She first decluttered her entire apartment getting rid of more than 50% of her items in her home. At the end of the year she had saved thousands of dollars, enough to quit her job and pursue freelance writing full-time, and travel more. (She got rid of all her other vices previous to the shopping ban.) Needless to say, I was extremely intrigued by her experiment. But in typical Cait Flanders fashion - she does everything to the extreme - a year-long ban was just the right length for her. But not for me. I briefly considered a ban, but choked it up as impossible. Well, after experimenting with a modified ban for the first week of August, I decided that I could make it real and do it for one entire month. I know that's not a long time and that some minimalists like my thrifty sister and hipster brother can live this way indefinitely without help, but I believe there's hope for me. And since I had heard it stated in more than one place that publicly declaring something and asking for support is one good use of social media and public forums I am announcing it here. From August 6th to September 6th I will attempt a one-month shopping ban. I will re-evaluate it after one month to see if it was a success, what I may tweak, revisit my rules, check my savings, and write an update on what I learned and how much I saved. Here are my rules and actions required:
So wish me luck and if you would like to join me on a shopping ban be sure to declare it on social media with the hashtag #declutteringzone.
In Search of Simplicity, ​Betty Lynn
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AuthorBetty Lynn is an writer, educator, artist, illustrator and yoga teacher living in the suburbs of New York City. Archives
October 2019
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