As a side effect of the current COVID-19 situation, I’ve been staying with my boyfriend full time. It was a real rush to move in and gather together additional items I considered to be ‘essential’ prior to leaving home. I’ve been here for over a month now and let me be clear – I brought nowhere near 50% of my belongings with me. For once, I really have been living with less because to a degree it was circumstantially forced on me. Less underwear, fewer pairs of socks, less shoes, fewer clothes, minimal nick nacks, less makeup (which lets be real isn’t much of an issue right now seeing as there is nowhere to go).
But you get my point, I’ve been literally living with less and you know what? I’m genuinely enjoying it. It’s so much easier having fewer pairs of socks in a drawer that would normally struggle to close, it’s so much easier not having as much choice about what to put on in the morning and it’s easier not having shelves full of clutter to dust. Whilst over the past few years I have removed a great deal of stuff from my home, I’ve never stayed in a place for so long and had so little. But I love it. Don’t get me wrong though, I will be wanting more ‘going out’ attire and jewellery once restrictions are lifted and we get back to a more normal life, but perhaps this time with fewer pieces.
My current situation has resulted in renewed motivation to clear out my belongings – which I currently have a large pile in a spare room as I don’t believe now is a good time to overwhelm charities with second hand goods for hygiene reasons (something to be mindful of at this time). Also, I’ve heard some places are putting holds on donations at the moment. However, this renewed motivation has resulted in me getting rid of things that I wouldn’t have considered in the past. Today for instance I tossed a black top, it’s very nice but creases so easily and needs to be ironed before every wear (which I can’t stand having to do constantly). As much as I liked the top, it doesn’t work with my lifestyle choices. It’s not simple or easy to wear and creates too much additional work for me. In a sense, I don’t want to be caring for and maintaining items to that extent as it’s far too time consuming and I’d rather preserve that time for things I actually enjoy doing.
One of my biggest struggles though are items that are duplicated (which I have touched on before in previous posts). If I have twenty pairs of socks that are all still good (and yes, socks is one thing I have too much of), I struggle to throw those away because they can’t be donated but storing this many pairs is a real issue. I also have two pairs of bathers, I almost never go swimming and I don’t particularly like my second pair. But again, not really something that can be donated for hygiene purposes and seems a real shame just to throw them away into landfill. Would I wear them if push came to shove? Perhaps. But I can’t be sure. What do you do with surplus items that can’t be passed on or donated? How do you handle it? Do you box them up? Bin them? Deal with it until some can be worn no more? I feel guilty for having so much, but also guilty for binning things that are perfectly good…If anyone has any suggestions at all I’d love to hear them!
Are you living with less during the pandemic?
This is Minimalism 
You pose and interesting question. I too have more than I need when it comes to items like socks but feel it would be even more wasteful to get rid of them. But with the space that I cleared out when I pared down my other clothes I found that I had plenty of room for them. As they wear out or get holes in them I get rid of them, at least until I am down to a respectable number of pairs, Haha. Once that happens I will look into better more responsible replacements and possible sewing to extend their life…
LikeLike
Thanks for your thoughts! Perhaps that is also part of the answer, more responsible replacements. After all, we can’t change what we’ve already bought but we can control our future purchases!
LikeLike
In the UK h&m store recycle bags of used clothes and textiles and either resell for charity or recycling into things like loft insulation. They’ll accept everything from holey socks to paint stained bedsheets after decorating. I found this out after being in a similar predicament to you!! Also when covid crazy calm down it may be worth checking with local homeless shelters 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think H&M offer that in Australia too… I think… it might be something I definitely need to look into over the next few months 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for this post. Leading a minimalistic lifestyle is very important in today’s world. People keep on buying unnecessary things that they need and then end up in debt. A few days ago I read a story about a guy who had bought a Mercedes by taking a loan. But then his interest obligations per month were so much that half his salary used to go away in paying interests. He then had no money left for buying petrol for the car and then ended up travelling to his work in public transport. Such are some of the cases.
Minimalism also brings forth sustainability and saves the planet.
Best wishes from The Strong Traveller and have a great day.
Do have a look at my blog whenever you find the time. There is some travel and lifestyle content which you may find interesting. Your thoughts will surely be very valuable. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks for your feedback and insight! Just like the old saying of there’s no point in having a designer handbag if you don’t have any money to put in it!!!
Will definitely check out your blog especially as I am an avid traveler!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes that is quite a point made
LikeLike
Purging my wardrobe to fit my entire seasonal selection in one space, was one of the best things I’ve done. This spring, I decluttered cupboards full of old school work, and now I actually have a place to put the items I use everyday. This is a great post!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love it! There’s nothing like a good clear out! Thanks for your feedback 🙂
LikeLike
I was already planning on living with my boyfriend in the Spring, but when the pandemic hit, I quickly packed one duffel bag of essentials and have been living there for 5 months. I slowly brought other things in but realized I didn’t need a lot to be happy. I have a post coming up on Monday talking about that.
But I’ve def learned to enjoy the little things during the pandemic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing! It’s nice to know there is someone else out there who had a very similar experience 🙂
For me, the one thing I’m bringing more across of is ‘going out clothes’ because that was one thing I didn’t bring over in the first place as due to lockdown they weren’t needed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes I totally understand about the “going out clothes”. Sweatpants have been my best fiend during these times haha!
LikeLike
Hey! I totally understand your feeling when it comes to socks. As a minimalist & someone that tends to travel quite a lot, I would say that you may simply change your perspective on those items (I struggled so much in the beginning!). I too have too many socks (more than 7 pairs) but when you fly to a country for 15 days, you absolutely need that many pairs because, well, sometimes you change socks in the course of the day for hygiene purposes. Thus, owning that many socks is actually a necessity as the purpose of living with less is to live a better life and if you constantly have to worry about not having enough socks (it happened to me on a trip not so long ago), the whole purpose of minimalism is destroyed.
Moreover, socks tend to get destroyed sooooo fast so I just wanted to leave that comment as the gentle reminder I would have loved reading when I first started: never feel bad because you think you have “too many items”, minimalism is not about counting items, it is about counting blessings. ♡
Lots of love,
Camille
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much for your feedback 🙂 sometimes there really is a fine line between just enough and far too much of something! Hope we can all travel again soon!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person