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I have been doing a lot of thinking and have decided that I need to put together a simple list of “guiding principles” for this new lifestyle I am attempting to implement. They are not mandates, but should be things that are at the core of what I am trying to achieve. I should be slowly trying to embed these principles into everything I do so that it becomes a habit…
- Every new thing you buy creates an additional piece of waste
- Everything your body absorbs becomes a part of you
- Having the time to do the things that make you happy is essential
That should be enough to keep things simple. Now to the explanations
1. When you buy a brand new thing, waste will be generated at some point in the time spectrum. Whether its the thing you bought or the fact that they will manufacture an additional item to replace what you bought in the shop… What are the alternatives? Buying used, re-using something you already have, or how about not buying it at all? All these things prevent new items from coming into the birth-waste cycle. Doesn’t meant I will stop buying new things, but forces me to go through this thought process before making purchases at the shops. Some examples of what I had on my “want list” from a few months ago – food processor, iPhone dock, iPhone FM car transmitter. Re-evaluating against this principle I realise that I don’t need ANY of these things so I have made a decision not to go ahead with any purchase.
2. This statement is in essence the same as the “you are what you eat” mantra, but I decided to incorporate “cosmetics” into the equation, i.e. things that go on your skin. Biologically all the food you intake breaks down and at the cell level either becomes waste and is flushed out or becomes fat, muscle, blood, skin, hair etc etc that makes up your body. I don’t want my body to be made up of french fries or pizza 
Similarly the same thing can be said about cosmetics. Your skin absorbs the things you put on it (even clothing can cause allergic reactions on some people). If you’re not willing to ingest it then I say you shouldn’t put it on your body! I use ingest not eat because some stuff I would ingest but might not taste good… e.g. beeswax i would ingest but not eat, and i would definitely use it on my skin.
3. Time… well really thats what its all about isn’t it… i could talk philosophically for hours. In essence, if you’ve got the time to do the things that make you happy (even if you don’t know what they are yet), then you’ve got as good a chance as anyone at getting to nirvana or whatever. If you don’t have the time, i.e. you spend it all doing things that you see as chores then you havent got any chance at all.
I can write these 3 things in another way:
1. Environment
2. Health
3. Happiness
You could argue what about family, friends etc but I would file them all under “Happiness”.
That’s as simple as I can make it.
SO what’s next for me? Not much to report. I’m still trying to rent out my house, my car is going bye bye tomorrow, and I have started using bicarb soda instead of shampoo and apple cider vinegar instead of conditioner. My hair is seriously just as nice as it was before. I will try lemon instead of cider vinegar next time because it might smell nicer.
Have a look on the back of your shampoo/conditioner bottles. You’ll see the active ingredients for shampoo are nitrates and conditioners is citric acid. Why not go back to basics?
It seems the stars have aligned and someone is trying to tell me something. Only weeks after I first started seriously considering the “minimalist lifestyle” two things have happened that have given me a hard shove in that direction. Its all because of my car.
1. My car has been severely damaged. This happened months ago, but it is the last week that the painful process of insurance claims has finally come to light. I’ve taken time off work to get it assessed, then more time off to get a smash repair centre to quote it, and I won’t even go into how many phone calls I’ve made during work hours chasing people up month after month trying to find out what was going on. And last night I finally blew my lid. How many “errands” is a person expected to run? How many administrative tasks that are chores? Bills to pay – electricity, water, gas, council rates, water rates, internet, phone, mobile phone, credit card, car insurance, home insurance, health insurance, and of course the mortgage repayments. And that’s when things are going smoothly. An added to that, insurance is suppose to give you peace of mind. But they sure don’t make it easy when you actually need to make a claim. Every one of the institutions that take my money are bigger, stronger and smarter than me and go out of their way to make a few extra bob by making my life difficult. I have to revolve my life around their due dates. One day late and its late fees and interest. If they make a mistake it takes weeks if not months to rectify with zero compensation. I was so worked up I got home and created a spreadsheet (spent the last 10 years doing engineering remember). Anyway, the spreadsheet lists every single thing that takes up my time. From brushing my teeth to paying each bill, getting a papsmear and going out with friends. Its all in there. Then I started working out if there were activities where I could reduce the time required (e.g. for paying bills do it in bulk, set up direct debit etc) and which activities could not be compromised on time (e.g. sleep and work). The aim of which is to reduce or eliminate as many “chores” in life as possible to make time to do the things that make me happy. So it got me thinking – if I get rid of my car that would take out car insurance, yearly service, risk of accidents etc etc. Its a work in progress.
So that’s the first thing that happened (yesterday)
2. The second thing happened today: My car is going to be written off. I won’t get into the details, but suffice to say that I am now faced with a decision. Should I buy another car? Here is my opportunity to embrace minimalist movement and go car-free. But Perth being Perth… despite its many cycle ways, is definitely not a good place to be car-free. Its a sprawling city with small suburbs that are in no way self contained. I have no friends in my suburb. Poor public transport coverage and availability, relatively high average driving speeds, make this city very inaccessible to those that want a car-free lifestyle. Not only is it inconvenient and unsafe, it is also almost impossible to cover the distances unless you’re training for the tour de france. I know people out there will argue that Perth is bike friendly, and I don’t deny that. There’s a huge cycling community here. But notice most of them straddle $7000 carbon steel road bikes and full lycra gear. There is no opportunity for the casual unfit average person who just wants a convenient way to get from a to b. Option B: a scooter? Still have to pay the insurance and do the servicing, but at least I am reducing my footprint and its a hell of a lot cheaper. Cons: already had one accident on a scooter that has left disgusting potential-husband-scaring (according to my mum) scars all over my body. Counter-argument: just as dangerous on a bicycle on the road.
To even consider going without a car though, I would have to move into the city. Which I was already thinking about anyway. So if I can find someone to rent my house to without too much fuss, then its all going to steamroll ahead and I will finally have a meaty topic to blog about. The Simple Life, here I come!
After a panic session where i thought bicard soda was different to baking soda and i had managed to use the completely wrong thing to wash my hair…. i have come to the conclusion that this stuff is quite good! My hair is very clean, as much as with normal shampoo. The only bad thing was half way through the day at the office my ear was itchy and i scratched it to find lumps of white powder imbedded in it.
On a side note, the guy sitting next to me on the bus today offered me a mint without attempting further conversation. Do I have really bad breath or was he just being polite?
One of my first steps towards this minimalist lifestyle business… washing my hair with bicarb soda. I’m still not sure how I feel about it as my hair is still wet and its hard to tell if it got all the grease out. I might do some research into alternate homemade shampoos that produce more lather as it really didnt feel like it was doing a whole lot.
I saw this link http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/ which I might attempt in a few days. Different mix of baking soda ( i think i used way too bicard i think) and apple cider for conditioner.
Well, in my last post I said I had nothing to write about and then went on to write about the KISS principle. Today I realized how strongly I felt about the various topics relating to this (anti-consumerism, waste management etc) that I’ve decided to continue blogging about this for a while until I run out of steam.
I had lunch with some colleagues and the whole conversation we talked about the number of gadgets we owned and how many analogue TVs were stashed in the shed. I kept commenting about the waste, how are we going to manage all this electronic waste we’re creating in the digital era of short life devices and they looked at me like i was nuts. I went back to my desk and launched into a 20 minute rant to my boss and anyone sitting near me about anti-consumerism and minimalist living. In hindsight, voicing my opinions in the office of a multi-billion dollar industry where we pillage the earth for profit is not exactly ideal. Needless to say no one jumped up from their chairs in agreement. And why would they? The main demographic in the building are ambitious, successful, high income earners who work hard to earn so they and their family can spend and be happy. They all have mortgages, renovate on weekends, and have the latest in entertainment systems. And always want more more more. Caught in the cycle of working hard rewarding self with material goods wanting more and earning more to get it.
They. ME. I have a mortgage, I have started working on my house-with-two-spare-rooms on weekends, and yes I look at the iPad and think – god it would be such a good feeling to own one why shouldn’t I buy it for myself I work hard and I deserve it.
I don’t want to be part of the cycle, and I don’t want to be 40 something with a family who is dependent on me to fulfill their greed for material possessions and be caught in the imprisonment (YES i see it as imprisonment) of need for money.
I don’t deny the value of money. Money brings security which is essential for happiness and wellbeing. Money does not bring security if you keep spending it all on useless junk. Debt does not bring happiness.
I have the beginnings of a plan, though only the beginning, to change things. Simplify
I have been encouraged by a few different people to be more regular with my updates and try to get more traffic to my blog. There are 2 problems I have with that:
1) I cannot understand why anybody would want to read my blog (out of the millions/billions on the web) on a regular basis who does not know me
2) What in the world would I write about? I have the attention span of a dyslexic fish and would never be able to commit to one topic. Let alone an interesting topic.
I am therefore happy to leave my blog at 117 visits per month and post intermittently about whatever random topic is plaguing my head at the time.
And at the moment that topic is…. the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
As an engineer I work in an industry that deals with a high degree of complexity and high risk. And over time it has become blatantly obvious that KEEPING IT SIMPLE would make everyone’s lives so much easier! It’s scary how much of what I learn at work seem to apply at home too. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and the other day came across rowdykittens.com about minimalist living and I was so excited that there is a whole movement out there for people who are at a similar point in their lives.
How do I de-complex my life? I am so sure that it would lead to less stress and higher degree of happiness. I am therefore setting out with a plan. These are my guiding principles: fewer possessions and less waste.
Fewer possessions is simple enough to understand (maybe not so simple to achieve). Less waste… i can start by not wasting the extra space in my house by moving somewhere smaller and closer to the city. This will also waste less time on meaningless commute to and from work. I can look at my possessions and donate/giveaway/sell what I never use – 2 birds with one stone – less waste and fewer possessions.
That’s all I have so far.
There is only one thing worse than a local squat toilet (even after being one a boat for 2 days): the western toilet with no toilet seat. One cannot even manage to squat over it for more than 30 seconds without quads burning with pain.
Not happy.
5 mins to boarding. 1 hour on a local indonesian plane… am feverishly praying despite being non-religious. We arrived in Bali 2 nights ago to a terrible hotel in Legian that i booked online… never again. Balisani Padma. Overpriced and really quite disgusting, with construction work going on right outside our door. The second night we moved to the otherside of the construction to Sani Indah, twice the price, still the noise but at least i wouldn’t describe it as repulsive. God i hate this part of Bali… after an hour massage was I was eaten alive by mosquitoes, witnessing a local chick get hit on her motorbike, and almost getting run over everytime i walk outside not to mention the constant hassling…. I am vowing to never come to this part of Indo again!!! Now to Flores… where we are hoping for some peace and quiet.
My suitcases are zipped up and standing at the foot of my bed. In another 12 hours I will be taking off the runway and saying my final goodbye to holland. Its difficult to believe and digest all the things that have happened in the past 7 weeks, the new friendships developed, the hours and hours of stomach-bursting laughter, scintillating memories that will linger forever.
Just the past week has been one hell of an experience. After being hit in the face by a soccer ball last Saturday the following things happened: my nose started to bleed, the game was called to an end, pasta was cooked and ate at Paris’ apartment, Amsterdam, redlight district, dinner at an Argentinian restaurant that stenched of urinal cakes, the personal decision NOT to proceed to a sex show and piking to go home where I then proceeded to spend the next 6 days in a state of fever, vomiting, or diarrhoea or a combination of the above. And that brings me to the present moment. You are now reading from the hands of a new Selina. One who has lost at least 5 kilos in 6 days through pure starvation (and btw never looked better!) but who also can no longer eat more than 2 sandwiches in one day without her stomach feeling like its going to erupt.
It was a bittersweet day today. Relief to be finished with the pressures of the coursework, excitement about going home, and of course the sadness of parting with newfound friends in particular knowing that we will probably never meet again!
It is almost midnight and time for this almost recovered invalid to go to sleep. See you all back home!
I know, I’m a terrible blogger. Even now my eyelids are dropping closed and I know this is going to be a pathetically short post. 2 months since the last post when I declared my imminent departure to the netherlands…. and here I am, a week away from flying back home again. The last 2 months have been surreal. This is my 3rd time in the Netherlands now but the only time where its felt like a temporary home. I’m sharing an awesome apartment in the heart of The Hague with a colleague. We live above two watch shops, and across the road is a nice little Italian restaurant, where the cute waiters wave to us every night when we come back from work. There are cute little restaurants and bars dotted all along our street. Its been snowing like hell half the time we’ve been here, bloody cold but so pretty! Our first weekend here we just explored the city. Second weekend the course took us on a trip to the Ardennes in belgium where we endured 3 days of team building physically painful activities like camping in sub zero temperatures, throwing ourselves from tall places, rafting blind folded, etc etc. Then I went to Paris for a weekend and Jinnan took me on some grand adventures. Reality set in after that and we had to knuckle down for some serious study. But thankfully an exam was postponed so that we were able to do a last minute trip to Cologne for Carnival to experience how crazy the city goes for that week. We also managed to find an AFL team here and did some training with them. An now here I am, 6 weeks later… last exam was polished off this morning. One more week of lectures and i’m flying home again. Its unbelievable how fast the time has gone. I am once again reminded how much i love change, how much i NEED it. I stagnate in Perth and waste away. Even so, I am looking forward to going home and being domestic for a little while. Still so much gardening and cooking to be done!
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