I feel incredibly lucky to have such a great group of readers and commenters, and know I have some pretty amazing people visiting this blog. However, I (and other readers) only get small glimpses into your stories; I wish I could sit each of you down, buy you a cup of coffee, and learn more about your experiences in minimalist living.
Even better: I’d love to share your stories with everyone here. I’m pretty sure we’d all like to get to know each other better. To that end, I’d like to introduce a new feature here on the blog: Real Life Minimalists.
If you’d like to be a featured minimalist, simply email me something about yourself in approximately 350-750 words. (I’ll post your words exactly as written, so don’t include anything you don’t want on the internet!)
You can remain as anonymous as you’d like; if you don’t want to use your real name, simply make up a handle (sorry, Miss Minimalist is already taken!). If you’d like to include a photo, fantastic—it can be of yourself, or some aspect of your home that showcases your particular minimalist style.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a master minimalist, a minimalist-in-training, or a minimalist newbie—we take all kinds here! :-) No matter where you are on your minimalist journey (even if you’re just starting out), we’d love to hear your story.
And if you have a blog, please include your URL and tell us something about it. That way, we’ll all know where to go if we want to learn more!
I’m so excited about this, and hope you share my enthusiasm! If so, all you have to do is:
1. write up an approx. 350-750 word profile about yourself
2. email it to me at ct09 AT missminimalist.com (remove the spaces and replace the AT with @, of course!)
3. include an optional .JPG photo of yourself or home (500 x 500 pixels maximum size)
If you have any questions, simply ask them here in the comments.
I can’t wait to get to know you better!
I’ve never been a hoarder, but I was brought up by one. I left a hotel room recently without taking the soap, shampoo and other goodies. I have enough. Now I look in my cupboards and think what I can get rid of. I gave away a bunch of cups and saucers I inherited because I never used them or displayed them. Every time I make a trip to the library I donate some art supplies for the kids’ programs. Old books and magazines go there, too. I usually get books and magazines second hand.
I own one dress because I only need a dress about once or twice every year for a wedding or other fancy party. Otherwise, I wear slacks and a blouse and a nice sweater. I have 5 pairs of shoes including my flip flops.
My husband owns 4 sport coats and one suit. We were able to retire early because we each have a small pension and saved our money.
We live in a 2 bedroom condo. One bedroom is a guest room. My kids are grown up. My son learned to live with very little because he was in the Navy and there was very little space and he liked living that way.
I think the future may be one where more people will live going easier on the environment. We recycle as much as we can and buy as little as we can. Much of our furniture is second hand. Many of my clothes are my daughter’s cast-offs. Most of our friends, who are also retired seldom buy anything new except for gifts for their grandchildren. And even then, they shop garage sales.
We went to a big rummage sale this am. I picked up some things for a friend and some buttons I needed to repair a shirt. Then we went to a garage sale in a fancy neighborhood. They had all designer clothes that had to be dry cleaned, a useless expense. So we came home and took all the papers to be recycled. I am going to work on a big art project this week and I am very excited.