Minimalism activity check for January
Well that was quick. It feels like New Year’s Eve was just last week and here we are at the end of January. Yes, there’s another day left in the month, but I’m 99% confident that nothing will change in the next 24 hours. 🤓
In order to hold myself a little more accountable, I kept track of my minimalism efforts this month. I’m sharing what I bought and/or added to the home and what was removed. Sharing this information helps accomplish two things:
- It puts a little more social pressure to show that I’m walking the walk and not just talking the talk.
- It helps others better understand what my brand of minimalism is, giving ideas on how they can incorporate the approach.
In general, I follow this strategy:
- Buy needed items rather than wanted items.
- Buy high quality items that will last.
- When replacing an existing item, donate the old one (if possible).
What I bought
This section should be a quick read. When it comes to using disretionary funds for purchases, I made very few in January:
- A center-stand for my motorcycle. That cost me $212 delivered via eBay. Technically, this isn’t adding to the “number of things” I have because it’s getting attached to an existing thing. And it is needed for me to do some overdue maintanence on my motorcycle.
- A pair of 14 ounce Yeti camp mugs, which was $22 out of pocket. These can set you back upwards of $50 each, depending on the color. I had a $20 Amazon gift card and saw the Charcoal mugs were on sale for $21 each. So I ordered two. They’re fantastic and should last a decade. As those came in, my remaining four ceramic coffee mugs went out. Now there’s more space in the kitchen cabinets and I have really good mugs that keep my coffee warm for much longer.
- I did drop $11.99 on a Kindle book to continue reading Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series. I need to get my library card renewed so I can start borrowing more Kindle books through Libby.
That’s it. Other than our bills and other living necessities, I didn’t spend much in January. I also didn’t add many “things” to our home. 🎉
What went away
I already mentioned that the four coffee mugs I had are now gone. However, I also sold my iPad mini. After buying the Onyx Boox Palma e-Ink handheld in December, I found I wasn’t using my smaller iPad at all. I do have an iPad Pro 12.9 which I use daily. That hasn’t changed. Rather than keep a device I stopped using, it just made sense to minimize and sell it.
I also gathered up enough unused clothes to fill a small garbage bag, so those items were donated. I thought I had gone through all of my clothes but realized this month I had some hanging in the home office closet. Hopefully, someone else can use them.
What’s in the plans for February
I don’t forsee any major purchases coming up in the next month. There’s nothing that I absolutely need.
I do see some more items leaving though. I have a few Chromebooks and frankly, I only need one at most. Maybe none! So I’ll be selling those at Swappa, where I sold the iPad mini.
I’m also thinking that my Steam Deck can go to a better home.
Why? I put Windows 11 back on my 2021 Dell XPS 15 recently in a dual boot mode with Linux. Gaming is actually better on that device for me. My aging eyes do better with larger displays, so the 15.6-inch panel on the Dell is easier for me to game on. And it has an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti mobile GPU, which boosts up the visuals and frame rates over the Deck.
The Steam Deck is fantastic but again, I don’t need to have multiple devices for the same use case.
And that’s a key element of minimalism. Owning one good thing that does something well is better than owning several items that do the same thing but not as good.