The holiday season is upon us and once again I find myself struggling with how to celebrate the season of gift giving while maintaining our minimalist objectives. How do I give gifts that celebrate the season without buying into the buying that has defined the holidays? Earlier this year I set upon a plan to knit a pair of warm and comfy socks for everyone on my gift list. I made a little progress at that, knitting four pairs of socks between March and October. But then I reached the end of my rope and just needed a break from sock knitting. Now I'm debating with myself - if I don't have a pair for everyone, should anyone get one? If I don't wrap these socks, what will I wrap? How do we celebrate simply without looking cheap?
I wish I could say I've got great answers to this question, but I'm stumped. I know we can reuse and recycle and that will help. But I also want the gift to be meaningful and useful to the recipient. I don't want to be just turning my 'stuff' into their 'stuff'. So once I again I find myself stressing about making this all work. I'd love to hear your ideas!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Taking a tip from Feng Shui and Maria Montessori
Where does inspiration come from for you? What motivates you to consider changing long standing habits? For me, motivation comes from an endless hunger to learn more about every and anything. And as I learn I am motivated to incorporate a little of what I've learned into my life.
Among other things (like lack of money), living intentionally with fewer physical possessions was encouraged, for me, by things I learned about the principles behind Feng Shui and the Montessori method of education.
Feng Shui teaches that chi (energy) needs room to move or it becomes stagnant and drags you down. It needs gentle movement or becomes forceful and knocks you over. So strategically aligning the things you have - and having not too many things - is very important. Stuff under the bed? Invites dust (bad for chi) and blocks the movement of chi. Lots of furniture in the living room? Blocks the chi, draining your energy. Using dishes with little chips in them? Bad chi. As I looked around my home with an eye toward the movement of energy through my space, I discovered opportunities to open up the flow of energy by eliminating that which blocked chi. Living with less opened up the spaces we are inhabiting, making them more comfortable to be in. That's the beauty of chi.
Like Feng Shui, Maria Montessori teaches that too much stuff overwhelms the young child, blocking their ability to do the important work of making sense of the world around them. One of the guiding principles of the Montessori method is The Prepared Environment. Montessori teaches that children learn best in a prepared environment, a place in which children can do things for themselves. In the prepared environment learning materials and experiences are available to children in an orderly format. Each object has its own place on a child sized shelf, and none compete with any others for space. The open shelving makes all the materials visible and accessible, attracting the attention of the young child and sparking their innate desire to learn by working with whatever has attracted their attention. Learning about the Montessori method has encouraged me to consider what is available to my young children and to make sure that there are a few, well made of natural materials, things for them to work with when they want to. We are big readers and have lots and lots of books, but we put no more than a dozen on the book shelves at a time. Every so often I rotate them out, putting new ones in their place. This lets us enjoy all our many books, without overwhelming our limited amount of shelf space.
I'd love to hear where your inspiration came from! Please comment and share!
Among other things (like lack of money), living intentionally with fewer physical possessions was encouraged, for me, by things I learned about the principles behind Feng Shui and the Montessori method of education.
Feng Shui teaches that chi (energy) needs room to move or it becomes stagnant and drags you down. It needs gentle movement or becomes forceful and knocks you over. So strategically aligning the things you have - and having not too many things - is very important. Stuff under the bed? Invites dust (bad for chi) and blocks the movement of chi. Lots of furniture in the living room? Blocks the chi, draining your energy. Using dishes with little chips in them? Bad chi. As I looked around my home with an eye toward the movement of energy through my space, I discovered opportunities to open up the flow of energy by eliminating that which blocked chi. Living with less opened up the spaces we are inhabiting, making them more comfortable to be in. That's the beauty of chi.
Like Feng Shui, Maria Montessori teaches that too much stuff overwhelms the young child, blocking their ability to do the important work of making sense of the world around them. One of the guiding principles of the Montessori method is The Prepared Environment. Montessori teaches that children learn best in a prepared environment, a place in which children can do things for themselves. In the prepared environment learning materials and experiences are available to children in an orderly format. Each object has its own place on a child sized shelf, and none compete with any others for space. The open shelving makes all the materials visible and accessible, attracting the attention of the young child and sparking their innate desire to learn by working with whatever has attracted their attention. Learning about the Montessori method has encouraged me to consider what is available to my young children and to make sure that there are a few, well made of natural materials, things for them to work with when they want to. We are big readers and have lots and lots of books, but we put no more than a dozen on the book shelves at a time. Every so often I rotate them out, putting new ones in their place. This lets us enjoy all our many books, without overwhelming our limited amount of shelf space.
I'd love to hear where your inspiration came from! Please comment and share!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Poverty vs Austerity
So our new place is bereft of counter space, having 18 inches to the right side of the stove and 36 inches to the left. And that is all. For more than a year the latte/coffee maker took up a good portion of that 36 inches. My daughter and her husband brew their coffee directly into their cups, sitting the filter basket atop the cup and pouring water from the tea kettle over the freshly ground coffee.
I recently decided to take back the counter space consumed by the coffee maker. I donated it to my neighbor and we started brewing coffee by pouring boiling water over grounds atop the coffee cup. One day during the first week of this new approach, DH turned to our three year old and declared "this is what poverty looks like."
He was joking - sort of. But it got me to wondering. When you are intentional about doing without something, isn't that austerity, not poverty?
I recently decided to take back the counter space consumed by the coffee maker. I donated it to my neighbor and we started brewing coffee by pouring boiling water over grounds atop the coffee cup. One day during the first week of this new approach, DH turned to our three year old and declared "this is what poverty looks like."
He was joking - sort of. But it got me to wondering. When you are intentional about doing without something, isn't that austerity, not poverty?
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Unpacking
I am a really good packer. Maybe it comes from enjoying puzzle solving. But I can organize a closet like nobody's business. I've always seen that as a positive personality trait. But as we settled into our smaller digs, there was a downside to being spatially adept. I was way too good at cramming way too much stuff into a single small space. Too much stuff in a small space was leaving us feeling cramped and confined. Within a couple of months I realized that not having every nook and cranny filled would not only look better, it would also feel better. I have found that every couple of months I need to sweep through the house, eliminating the unnecessary and freeing us all from the oppression of the stuff that finds its way onto every flat or empty surface. It was a surprise to me that getting rid of stuff is something that needs to be done regularly when you live in a small space.
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