Light 2015: Grocery store edition

I am not 100 percent sure why, but I am a bit of a food hoarder. Minimalism in the rest of my life? Sure, no problem. But when it comes to food? Minimalism goes right out the window.

Every. Single. Time.

Source
I did a search for pantry pictures and this is what came up. I'm not strong
enough to resist something like this, even though I've never been a Woody
Woodpecker fan. That guy is just annoying.

I've learned so much since becoming a minimalist, and I think it's time I get my act together on the food clutter front.

Some of it I can justify: I like to can local produce in the summertime, and we have half a (FFA) hog in the freezer. My Christmas gifts mainly involved fruit jams and butters, and that takes space to store. But most of it I cannot: The soups and tomato sauces and the bags of candy I bought at Halloween because they were only $1.79 each.

I's not uncommon for me to buy what's on my list--or not--in multiples. It's worse if something is on sale because then I really stock up.

What am I even doing?

You guys, I have no idea. But it needs to stop. I'm not prepping for disaster.* I'm just trying to feed four people for a seven days at a time.

So this week, my goal is to make a dent in the stockpile--and to be very aware of my overbuying tendencies while at the store. I tried SO HARD during my weekly shopping gig to just stick to my list. And I mostly did. Well, Abby was with me, and she really wanted to try the organic fruit snacks, and I let her toss them in the cart.

Ahem.

I don't have a concrete plan in place, but I have some vague outlines in mind. I'll check in on Friday to let you know how it went and how creative I had to be. ;)

*Oh, I know. Our area extension office encourages everyone to have a 72-hour emergency kit in their basement for when The Big One strikes. While we don't have emergency kits, we could totally make it, although we might get sick of, say, home-canned peaches and pickles by the time it was over. On the bright side, there's also the Halloween candy.

Project 333: January 1 to March 31 edition

Once upon a time, Project 333 caused me a great deal of stress. Well, maybe "stress" is too harsh of a word. It just took me hours to go through my clothing and figure out what was going to make the cut. It's interesting how 33 items are so many, and yet, so few. Irony! Or maybe just coincidence.

Blouse, left, and tank top, right.
Both thrifted, now that I think about it.

Well, whatever. My Winter 333 capsule isn't that much different than my Fall 333 capsule. And it took me all of zero seconds to figure this out. That's called the Just Flip the Calendar Page and Get On With It approach. It totally works.

I have, as follows:

Grey: Pants, skirt, cardigan, turtleneck sweater, pullover sweater (5)
Black: Pants, long-sleeve T-shirt, (black and white) blouse, (black and white) tank, cardigan, scarf, boots, ankle boots, flats, coat (10)
Purple/Maroon: Zip-up sweater, pullover sweater (2)
Red: Scarf (1)
White/Beige: Blouse, skirt, pants (3)
Teal: Zip-up sweater, t-shirt skirt (2)
Navy/Blue/Light blue: Cardigan, (navy) long sleeve shirt, (light) long sleeve shirt, jeans, denim skirt, scarf (6)

Some quick math shows us that this equals 29 items. That's cool. Because disclaimer, we're going to be heading to Lincoln City later this month for the annual Walker Family Christmas House, and there's this outlet mall, and... well, let's just say that I lose my head when Eddie Bauer is nearby, even if I am mad at them for their shoddy workmanship as of late. We'll see how strong I manage to be is what I'm saying.

Hey, want to know what I learned about my wardrobe recently? (I mean, besides the fact that I have a sweater problem.) I look kind of terrible in gray. This is because my hair is getting grayer and grayer, and it makes me look washed out, I think. The tops, anyway. So it's kind of unfortunate.

Ah, well. New Year's Resolution: NO MORE GRAY.

My scarves. How did I live so long without a black one?

P.S. For those who worry about unforeseen circumstances, aka a wardrobe that is supposed to get you through the dead of winter to the very first whispers of spring, what I've learned is that as long as you have a couple of pieces that could theoretically work for warmer weather--in my case, three skirts and a tank top--it's going to be fine. Also: Worrying about the future never pans out, you guys. If you absolutely have to switch something out before the three months are over, do it. This isn't clothing jail! We're experimenting with living with less! And we're keeping our wits about us as we do. ;)

Embracing the light

Art by my Johanna.

Last year, I made a New Year's Revolution, aka The Care Package Project. And that was fun. But this year, I want to do something different.

I was introduced to the idea of picking a word to guide myself through the year last December. There's a whole bunch of steps you can take to pick your word, but mostly I just focused on what I wanted to manifest in my life: Peace. Contentment. Love. And then printed those words out and pasted them to the door of my wardrobe, so I wouldn't forget.

And you know what? It was kind of awesome to have those words to focus on no matter what was going on in my life at the time. I might have been screaming "I CHOOSE LOVE (or peace, or contentment), %$&@!," but still, I was choosing it.

This year, I had a little better understanding of what this whole ordeal entailed, and so, in December, I chose a new word for 2015: Light.

Light! Light on commitments, light on technology (that's going to be tough), light on my body (choosing to fill it with the food that does not kill me), light on my mind (embracing downtime), light on possessions (yes, there are still things I could purge), light on criticism. Light when I pack, light when I feel heavy, light when I feel dark. Treading lightly upon this earth. Being a light.

Light also embraces my three words from last year: Light means peace. Light means contentment. Light means love.

The only thing I will not be embracing lightly will be coffee because hello, that's why all my people are still alive. ;)

As part of this lightening of the load, I'm committing to posting just two times a week in 2015 instead of three. My new days will be Mondays and Fridays. Sometimes I will post a Bonus Tuesday or a Zero Waste Wednesday. Sometimes I will not. Sometimes the words will be too much to contain for just two days a week. Sometimes there will be barely enough to cover the two. But I feel like, for light's sake, I need to give myself a little more leeway on the blogging front. It's been overwhelming for a while now, but I wanted to stick it out until the end of 2014 because... I'm silly that way.

So here's to 2015 and to light. See you on Friday, my friends.