My Zen hour

For an hour everyday, I draw. Pen on paper, roughly 3 X 3 inches. It is absorbing, relaxing and utterly calming. Pen and ink sketching is unfussy and minimalist to the core. I use a rotring pen, black ink and heavy grade paper.

My little floor desk fits the purpose ideally, and I intend to do this every day going forward.

Update on "How many things?"

I posted in How many things? about my long term dream of working towards 100 things or less. Clearly, I possess more than a 100. pProbably by a factor of another 100. Am not kidding you.

I knew the 100 things goal is steep, and wanted to develop an interim goal- say 1000, or 10000 things. I didn't even know what an interim number could be, because I realized I don't know how many things I currently have.

When the opportunity came to downsize commonly owned possessions because we had to split furniture between two of our family homes, I seized the opportunity with both hands.

I sent almost all of our furniture, several appliances (the TV goes tomorow!) and some garden stuff to the other home. In the process, we discovered stuff that we didin't require in either household, and I got to sell (for a pittance, but I am not complaining) about 30 kilograms of steel utensils.

I have so far taken out about 8 large bags of trash, and more goes out every day.

I would say my house is now about 60 % downsized.

And there is still all of my stuff and Danny's to go through!

The living room is redone in a spare, simple style. There are a couple of bean bags, some floor seating and a couple of foldable floor chairs in bamboo that are as comfortable as they are cool. Danny's homemade box projector doubles as a coffee table.

The bedroom is utterly empty. We roll out a flaxen mattress every night, and promptly roll it back up in the morning so it forms a low, cushiony seating.

As I always suspected, stark rooms have a silent, peaceful atmosphere that is utterly soothing. These two rooms are now giving me the energy and motivation to tackle the gnarly messes that are my two other rooms. I find that clean, spare rooms are "quiet", while a mess is "noisy", almost literally for my synesthetic self.

While I am enthusiastic about downsizing, I am not all that sharp with reorganizing what I do have. I have picked up some tips on the internet to help with this:

1. Everytime you leave a room, take something superfluous out. Sell it, donate it or trash it. When the room has absolutely nothing that you cannot do without, the room is done.

2. When you enter a space, don't leave without setting something right. This means if you go into the kitchen to get a drink of water, see if your utensils need stacking before you leave. This way, mess does not get a chance to develop.

3. NEVER sleep in a messy house. You can begin by ensuring that at least your bedroom is orderly before you hit the sack. The next day, make that the bedroom + another room. And so on till the house is all set.

4. Invite people over. Despite what I like to think of myself, I am terrified of public opinion, especially when the opinion flirts dangerously with the truth. basically, I don't want to be outed as a slob by guests. Short notice visits are an excellent motivation for me to clean and set right. If you find yourself especially lethargic about decluttering and cleaning, pick up the phone and call someone over, especially someone who is very inclined to find fault with your house. If there isn't a female in-law available, mothers do just as nicely. As do aunts.

Right after I hit "publish" on this post, I have to go back to the war room at the back of the house, where "my" stuff sits. I have a lot of preparatory cleaning up to do before I can even start counting "my" stuff. Each personal object will count as 1, while commonly owned article will count as 0.5 (article divided by number of housefold members - in my case, 2)

Off I go now.

Tiny house again

Say, buy a plot of land and set up 1-sized houses like this. Read more here.

Who me? I am ok!

No, I am not glossing over the fact that for two years, I have basically just disappeared. I am embarassed and run out of excuses, so I am pretending nothing is amiss.

Thing is, I procrastinate. Chronically. What to do?

How many things?

I am very drawn to "100 things or less". While that might be a long way away, I want to make a start.

I am giving myself till end of May to come up with a personal inventory list, and this is how I am planning to do it:

1. Start counting from the toothbrush upwards.
2. Disposables / renewables (soap etc) are technically not possessions (rookie slack please!).
3. Food and groceries are not posessions either, so do not count
4. Commonly owned household articles are to be divided equally among the number of householders.

This comes at a good time for me because we are in the process of a massive clearance of decades of accumulated, vaguely useful but thoroughly ignored collection of things. Junk, basically.

Will post updates here.

I've gone soap free

While Carbolic is still my favorite soap to use, I've gone soap free for the past 3 weeks, and am loving it. I use a home mad bath scrub, and it is working wonderfully well for me.

Here is why this scrub is a sensible, minimalist solution:

1.       No chenimcal load - it is skin-friendly and non-toxic

2.       It is cheap

3.       It is soil-friendly

The thing is extremely simple to make. You will need

1.       Dried green peas (Rs. 44 per kilo)

2.       Raw rice (Optional – and the cheapest you can find)

I like to use just peas, but rice adds it a coarser texture that you might like. Dry grind peas and rice separately, mix together. If you want it finer, grind further, or sieve. A kilo of mix should last you a couple of months.

Refrigirate the powder to preserve it - remember, no chemical preservatives = risk of worms. You can also add a tablespoon of salt to the mix - this will keep worms away, and will add a safe anti-microbial kick to your scrub.

Fish out a couple of spoonsful before every bath.

While this mix is absolutely complete for you bathing needs, you can, if you wish, add a bit of powdered wild turmeric (curcuma aromatica) for anti-microbial action - about a table spoon for a kilo of ground mix. Wild turmeric doesn't stain clothes the way cooking turmeric does.

Add whatever other herbs you think will boost your scrub with fragrance or healing properties. Frankly, the basic scrub is what will get you clean.

That's it. I follow my usual coconut oil moisturizing routine at the end of my bath, and deodorize with alum. 

John's phone - is this minimalist?

I actually don't know, I need you to help me.

This phone has to be the world's simplest phone. Only calls, no texting. Big number keys and - this is so cute- an actual paper address book with a tiny pen.

Look at it. I mean, really, look at it. It is absolutely adorable. After you are done gushing, let us revisit the offering here.

No screen, which means you can't see who you are about to suffer for the next 45 minutes. That's what kills it for me. Next, no texting, and I am not sure that is even minimalist - personally, I'd rather text than talk. More effort, so I am encouraged to keep things brief.
*My bad - caller number is indeed displayed, on the top of the phone. See this for a detailed review.

The pen and paper book is clearly a gimmick. But, incredibly, won't it do?

Battery life of 3 weeks? Whoppa, that's impressive.

Now wait for it: 100 of your best greenbacks for this guy. Really? 100 dollars?

Which brings me to a deeper question. Unless you move into a cave, and probably even then, you will use email. In that sense, is a smart phone, say an iPhone actually a truer minimalist solution? 1 light weight fix for most of my tech needs. (Full disclosure: I own a Blackberry curve *blush*)

What do you guys think?

I am still interested to see a text only phone, by the way.