I remember realizing how much I had in my life that wasn’t essential.
I also remember getting rid of it all.
Well, most of it.
I haven’t owned a toothbrush or toothpaste in 1,5 years. I just mix baking soda with
lavender oil and use that on my finger. I dip my finger in rubbing alcohol beforehand,
of course.
When I’m on my period, I don’t use pads or tampons. I just let it flow.
I stopped wearing deodorant completely about four years ago when I found out that inhaling
your own natural body odour can actually boost your immune system.
I also don’t use a towel to dry off after a shower, I just let myself air dry. And since
I started doing that, my skin hasn’t felt dry like it usually would, which means I no
longer need to use moisturizer either.
I guess you could say I’ve made it quite far in the pursuit of owning less things.
Ok, that’s not totally true. Well, not not totally true. The deodorant part is at least
half true. But please don’t brush your teeth with lavender oil. Or use your finger. Only
if it’s an emergency. The finger. Not the lavender. *Sigh* Whatever.
Now, minimalism, to me, isn’t necessarily only about having less in life, but rather,
having less of what I find to be unnecessary and what isn’t good for my physical and
mental health as well as the health of the earth, and to rather have more of what I appreciate,
love and care for.
This doesn’t just go for stuff, but rather for everything—from clothes to work to relationships.
I just want a life of quality, okay? Now although that’s up for each person to define for
themselves, isn’t that what we all want?
You know when you open up a drawer and it’s filled with things you haven’t used or even
remembered that you have?
You know when you open up your closet and you can’t find either of the only three
sweaters that you use because they’re hidden somewhere underneath the mess of all the stuff
you haven’t used in years?
How about when you take a look at the people you surround yourself with and realize some
of them don’t add any value to your life, but rather take from it?
Or when you scroll through the contacts on your phone only to realize that the majority
are just names of people you haven’t spoken to in years, and that the number of people
you’d actually call and share something personal with can be counted on one hand?
That, counts as clutter, too.
See, I used to not really think twice when it came to most of my daily decisions in life.
A cute dress? I bought it. A project that seemed like fun? I jumped on it. Bright blue
coloured candy that barely looked eatable? Sounded yummy.
Det var liksom inte genomtänkt, as we say in Swedish.
I found myself being surrounded with things I didn’t value, and when you don’t value
something, you don’t really care to nourish it—and then it’s left there to collect
dust, break, fade or stop working—whether that’s a friendship or a pair of jeans,
and it becomes a vicious cycle of living a disposable lifestyle or throwaway lifestyle,
whatever you wish to call it—and I realized that it wasn’t a lifestyle I wanted to live.
And so, slowly but surely, I started changing that.
Now, of course, even the things you love can fade or break, too—it happens all the time.
But if you do value something, you don’t want the reason you lose it to be because
you didn’t care for it enough.
So, the more I looked into the health aspect of a lot of the physical things I owned, the
more interested I got in sustainability. I started learning about the detriment to the
environment that a lot of fabrics result in during the production process and how some
fabrics breathe better than others and are therefore better for our skin. And you know
how some clothes just start smelling really bad after a while? Yeah. The good ole’ polyester
devil. Linen would never.
So, these are some of the things that I’ve cleaned out of my closet the last year or
so. A lot more has been donated. These are either things I do want to keep but that I’m
just not using right now, or things that I’m being indecisive about.
Here are some pieces that I’ve kept in my closet. I’d say at least 95 % of everything
in here is made of natural fibres. Linen is my favourite. It’s very durable and kind
to both the skin and the environment and that’s what I’m looking for in most things. It
does wrinkle quite a lot, though, but I kind of like it. Makes it feel home-y somehow.
I love these plants.
I love my books.
Love this. Got it in Spain.
Love this. Shot it myself.
Love these organic cotton bags. I keep all sorts of things in them. I use one as my make-up
bag.
Love this razor. It will probably last me for many, many years. Yes, ladies, you can
even shave your goodies with a safety razor. Just be careful.
I don’t really have much that I don’t appreciate in my space at the moment, because
I’ve either donated or sold pretty much everything I didn’t. And hopefully, whoever
received those things can show them some more love than I could.
Now, this isn’t only about razors or clothes—it’s really just about creating a life of things,
people and activities that you value and that you enjoy. Oh, and when it comes to people,
make sure they value you just as much; that’s equally important.
To me, creating that life means having less of the bad (which is up for definition, but
for me, polyester, plastic and stress are some of those things) and more of the good
(also up for definition, but some of those things for me are the forty dollar safety
razor I bought that will last me decades, my favourite linen pants (I will link them
below) and moments like this)—and it’s a continuing process of interesting reads,
conversation and experiences in the pursuit of learning more about how I can build my
own ecosystem—my own little sustainable world inside of the one we all live in—and
that is just as much about eliminating toxic skincare products as it is eliminating toxic
habits or people.
I’ve talked about this before; that our lives aren’t divided into different parts
that are completely independent of each other. Everything we do, how we behave, how we treat
one certain area of our life—it mirrors itself elsewhere.
That’s why we like people who can take care of plants. It’s an indicator that they
care for other things in their life as well. Except I remember this one guy I dated. He
was great with plants. Not so great with anything else.
Right. Things.
Just create a life that you have appreciation for. One that makes you enjoy even the most
mundane things. Start somewhere. Anywhere. If that means air drying after showers, why
not? Just… mind your neighbours.