The Blue Totes

I'm sure 99.9% of Americans own those clear storage boxes. You know the ones, some have a hinged lid, some look more like a giant Tupperware container- they are measured in quarts. The one I think most Americans own is in the 62 quart range. I almost guarantee there is at least one in your house right now. It might be holding toys, or shoes, or last seasons wardrobe. At my house we have like ten of these. What is more interesting is the large size totes, you know, the 40 gallon size. (For comparison purposes that 62 quart tote is the equivalent to 15.5 gallons). So we have these large totes at my house I use them to store my clothes. Not my husbands, not my daughters, just mine. I also have a dresser, and a small children's dresser and most of the closet. Now this might not seem like a whole lot at first glance closet, dresser, tote of clothes. Must just be last season. Let me clarify... I have four. Four forty gallon totes of clothes. Four forty gallon totes of clothes, two dressers, and most of a closet. So I downsized by one tote yesterday. But some how I'm supposed to get to none. I'd rather not have any totes, or like maybe two 62 quart totes with last/next seasons clothes. So my minimalistic journey has not progressed very far from when i started back in August. But we are thinking about having a yard sale.

Marriage
Interesting topic. Marriage in the past could easily be defined as the contented progression of a hopefully substantial courtship. Well planned, well executed, and in order. By order I mean you meet someone wonderful, you date, you fall in love, you plan a wedding date, you save to buy a house, you get married. Something along those lines. Then you think of children and did we buy our house in the right school district, are our jobs enough to start a college fund and buy diapers. I, we on the other hand are definitely not renting in the best school district. Will not be able to start a college fund anytime soon and got married after the birth of our daughter. So in essence not necessarily the best order to do things but this day in age by far not the most uncommon. Most people who know me know these things. Which brings me to the question I keep hearing lately. So how do like it? What marriage? Um, well since you haven't been paying attention.... it's about... the same. Except I have a ring to wear, and a whole lot of places to call, changing your name is a hassle. Advice: When paying at Wal-mart, do not sign your maiden name plus new last name if it's not on your credit/atm card. This is the only time they compare ID's with credit cards, and then they want to see other things with the same name. So really (lol)I'm not enjoying that aspect of it. But otherwise... it's the same. But thanks for asking.

The Minimalist Journey

Well after the first post I went on the search for formatting help. Turns out it's not as simple as I thought it might be but google has a document and spreadsheet thingy I think I'm going to like.

I tried to go back to my packing. The way that's supposed to work at least in my head is I unpacked all the kitchen boxes, brought them home and intend to reuse them. This was supposed to be a circle project of packing unpacking and repacking same boxes. Not so simple. The apartment has two closets. One in each bed room. The size of a normal clothes closet. Not tiny but not big. I currently have a decent sized closet plus another small one, both currently still full of stuff. Right now I'm only working on the things that have been piled on the furniture that was moved last weekend. So I have like 8 boxes worth of stuff on the floor plus who knows how much still in the closets. If you did the math your probably asking where it's all going to go. Good question. I paused to try to figure that out before continuing on the packing. I remember reading about a year ago about the minimalist life. How people only have the things they need. Problem is I'm a pack rat, my mother is a pack rat, she's embraced the "not keeping anything unnecessary" idea much better then I have. She seems to be good at packing. I've moved a couple times but in the process always moved back with more stuff then I left with. I still have about four boxes in the garage from when I was 20 that have yet to be unpacked. I do have an extra room for storage but only until January. I could push that deadline a little farther but i really don't want to. So now I just have to figure out how to be a minimalist before the day's over....