Beer fridge in garage
And be a minimalist
Damn right you can bro
Digital | Tangible | Content
Beer fridge in garage
And be a minimalist
Damn right you can bro
When we moved to Colorado and the girls had gotten a little bit older, I was faced with what seemed like a pretty simple question from some new-found friends.
“Do you want to go camping?”
As a somewhat outdoorsy guy who sees outdoor experiences as important to the little ones, my answer was a resounding, “Of course!”.
Little did I know what a chain reaction this one decision would set into motion.
I really had no idea just how much gear it apparently takes to survive outside of my house for one night (in relative comfort).
Just to fast forward for a second, after two years of slowly accumulating gear and spending a rather unbelievable sum of money, I can now leave my house for 24 hours without having to head over to REI first.
This gear includes sleeping bags, tents (yes plural, I had one before kids and needed to up-size), folding chairs, a stove, hammocks, a bin of cooking utensils, cooler, bear spray, and thick enough sleeping pads to get a solid 30 minutes of sleep sometime around sunrise.
And I store all of this gear for two or three trips a year!
It’s unbelievable. And unbelievably expensive. You could definitely stay in a hotel for less.
Of course, certain elements, like the weather, dictate your needs. It will hit freezing or even snow in the middle of summer in the Rockies. It happened to my daughter and I while camping in August.
And I find that I’m unwilling to rent most camping gear. I’ll sleep in my own dirt thank you very much.
Why didn’t I say NO?
But the real question is, what if I had just said “No, I don’t camp.”
That’s what my wife would have said (and generally does say when the topic comes up).
If I had just said no to camping in the first place, then none of that gear would be needed. Two or three shelves, about a quarter of all my shelf space, would be empty. Money back in the bank account.
And what about the love. Do I love camping? Do my kids love camping? Well, “love” may be bit of a stretch.
We face decisions like this all the time. Seemingly simple choices that end up requiring all sorts of time, money, space, and mental investment.
Trust me, about halfway through acquiring all of this gear I really began to wonder if it’s worth it.
Is it time to throw in the towel on camping?
So am I going to sell the camping gear, get rid of one hobby, and declutter that section of the garage?
I could just say, “No, I don’t camp.” Plenty of people have gone that route.
I’ve thought about it, but the answer for now is no.
It’s all about experiences.
It’s been really interesting to see how the world is slowly catching on to the fact that life is all about experiences, not stuff.
However, some experiences require stuff. Generally my favorite ones do. Finding a balance between the two is what this whole journey towards minimalism is about for me.
This gear allowed for one of the best, most memorable experiences I have had with my kids. Trust me, it didn’t come on the first try. It took some trial runs, but we nailed it.
The perfect camping trip.
Additionally, thinking back as I write, I realize that there are a lot of times where we use this gear without it being a big ordeal – popping up a tent in the backyard or throwing down a pad and sleeping on the patio out under the stars.
The girls use them at sleepovers, and camping trips are common in schools here.
Every summer I set a goal to sleep outside a bit more. I don’t sleep well, but I really enjoy it anyway. Maybe with enough practice I’ll get used to it. But, honestly, what is more minimal than that?
The weather here is perfect for it and there are plenty of bears and mountain lions in the neighborhood to keep you on edge. Does it really matter that you are in your backyard if you can hear a bear rummaging in the garbage twenty feet away?
It’s a great reboot, thankfully I’ve got the gear to make it happen.
Now I’m the guy who asks if people want to go camping.
I also let friends who just moved here know not to buy anything. They can borrow mine anytime.
Having kids can be hard. At least I find it to be so sometimes.
Having kids stuff everywhere is maddening. But it is totally not their fault.
Kids take cues from their parents and those around them, plus they have some natural tendencies to explore and move on to the next thing.
They also are experts at analyzing different situations and pushing the boundaries of what they can get away with (I’m no expert or behavioral scientist, this is just what I’ve observed).
At our house we don’t really watch TV. We have one, but it’s hidden up in the guest bedroom where we really have to go seek it out and intentionally pick something off of Netflix. It isn’t just droning on in the background.
It wasn’t always like this, so it has been amazing to watch what this simple change has done to our family, our kids, and what we then notice when we’re out in the world.
What we do have is an art room. This room is a creative space just for the kids where they have a bunch of supplies, various surfaces to work on (including just the open floor), are able to pin things all over the walls, and store various projects.
It is really interesting to see how the nature of the space affects the kids. When the art room is clean, it’s their favorite place in the house. They will disappear in there for hours, completely engrossed in their own imaginations. Even my younger daughter, who generally needs to be entertained a bit more, will be found silently constructing sculptures and sketching drawings on the floor when my internal “Where is everyone?” alarm goes off.
As you might imagine, this room tends to get totally trashed. But that’s fine, it’s a mess I don’t see. It is out of the way from the main traffic flow of the house and I just avoid it most of the time. Being a disaster is literally its intended purpose.
However, there is an interesting phenomenon that happens when this space gets too cluttered up.
The kids start to migrate their projects out to the living room table, or the kitchen, or my desk – nice, clear, decluttered spaces where they can think and create.
That’s when it’s time to intervene.
This may sound familiar, but one recurring parenting discussion that we have is around putting things away when they are done. I mean, it’s not like they just leave everything out and move on to the next thing when they are at school all day. Right?
No matter how many times we point out how the clutter is affecting them – that they love the clean space, and avoid the messy one – the lesson just doesn’t seem to stick.
So why does this happen at home?
As I mentioned, they’re experts at pushing boundaries, finding out where the limits of their behaviours lie, and what they can get their parents to do for them!
There is also just too much stuff.
I can’t seem to get there with them, but one thing is for certain. If there was half as much stuff in the art room, it would still get messy. It is a space for making messes.
However, with less stuff there would be more empty shelving, more space for these half done projects to live. It would also be way easier to clean up in there. As it is, finding space for the stuff can get difficult (although starting with the trash can usually gets you about 80 percent of the way there).
This room is definitely one of those sticky spots for us. It’s easy to ignore then just organize without going through a deep clean out. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s on the list.
Off the treadmill
All of this brings me to my main thought. Honestly, I believe it is the whole theme of this writing project.
I’ve already said this in a few articles, and it was a really powerful realization in my personal journey towards minimizing, simplifying, and just gaining some sanity…
Cleaning is a treadmill, but minimizing myself is forever.
What do I mean by this?
Well, basically for more than a few years I was going about it all wrong and it was driving me absolutely crazy. I was trying to apply a single guy’s tool kit to a growing family’s problem!
When I was single, I could clean my apartment and it would stay that way for a few weeks. Now I am applying that same technique, but every day. All day.
I was cleaning, not minimizing and decluttering, and cleaning happens every day no matter what. It doesn’t matter how empty or cramped your house is. You could live in the most minimalist home, but there are going to be dirty dishes, meal prep waste, those pesky coffee grinds, and kids cutting up big pieces of paper into small pieces of paper.
Anyone have a kid who loves every rock and stick she comes across? Ya, we’ve got one of those.
Cleaning up after life never ends. You can’t clean your way to minimalism. It doesn’t count. It’s not even the same game!
Cleaning as Procrastination
What I realized is that I was using cleaning as an excuse to procrastinate on the harder decisions of my own minimalism.
I remember saying, literally complaining out loud, that I don’t have time to clean up my own world since I’m constantly cleaning up everyone else’s.
Seriously?
I have four snowboards, three bikes, surfboards, skateboards, camping gear and a bunch of old paperwork because of the dishes?
Now, don’t get me wrong, organizing and decluttering does take time and life can get in the way. But, unlike cleaning, when you minimize your closet or your desk it tends to stay like that for a while.
Minimizing yourself now is buying time in the future – the flywheel effect.
In business, you often read about Jim Collin’s concept of a flywheel effect. As momentum grows things move faster and feed on themselves. Minimalism has this same effect on time.
Time invested in decluttering now makes more time in the future. You’re trading an hour now for countless hours later.
With my own world – closet, desk, paperwork, garage, kitchen – evolving more towards a simple, minimalist, and mindful space, there is more time. With more time the daily cleaning is less of a big deal.
This, in turn, leaves me with a calmer state of mind – less hurried and frantic. And this leaves me more time for all sorts of things – working, writing, meditating, exercising, volunteering – but also tackling the next sticky space in the house.
In our hectic world, minimalism literally creates time.
In investing our money, we would always invest one dollar now if we were guaranteed a stream of dividends in the future.
Investing an hour minimizing now will guarantee you a stream of available hours in the future. If time is money, as the saying goes, that is a wise investment.
AAround the holidays, things get crazy. It’s inevitable.
We ended up with some unexpected family and friends in town that lent a bit more chaos to the normal frenzy. Nothing like five extra bodies to really ring in the cheer! Some people might have brought out the champagne, but we’re more of an Irish car bomb crowd.
Things got out of hand pretty quickly, but I digress…
More to the point is all the stuff. The bins come out of the garage and the decorations go up. Extra food and drink are stashed on every counter and the beer fridge is loaded up.
The tree is in the living room along with the army of nutcrackers over by the turntable. Holiday cheer seems to be hanging from every hook and hiding in every corner.
Not to mention that in a relatively small house like ours, a tree in the living room is something that you have to make room for. A lot of walking around the tree.
With guests in town, we have to get out the extra plates ($1 for holiday themed settings at the thrift store!). We usually keep the cabinets as slimmed down as best we can. No place settings for 10 laying around.
Oh, and my nice minimalist closet? What a perfect place to stash the endless stream of Amazon deliveries!
The bins, of course, never fully go away until it is all said and done a few weeks later (which just happened and inspired a little reflection on my part).
Personally, I could forgo the decorating. I don’t want to be a total scrooge, but seriously! Why add to an already chaotic time by just obliterating any sense of sanity around the house.
I’m all for dropping a little ‘Blue Christmas’ vinyl on the record player, but that would be all I need.
People around the proverbial campfire (or real one) are all talking about how manic the holidays are. Well, a little dose of saying ‘no’ to certain things would help. In the end, it seems we’re all helpless.
This is a battle I know I’ll never win. It is a full-on 3 against 1 on this issue in my house. The majority has spoken, and all I can do is manage it as best I can (that and sneak some unused stuff and old wrapping paper into the garbage when no one is looking).
The Compliment
In the middle of all of this insanity, while I was internally going out of my mind and nursing it with Guiness, my brother-in-law complimented me on how minimalist we’ve been able to keep our home.
Minimalist, now? Seriously? There is no flat surface without stuff piled on it!
But I guess he could see through all the temporary clutter to the bones of the place. I really appreciated his insight despite the extra five people and buckets of holiday cheer.
We ended up talking about it a bit, and he shared the challenges they are facing in their own home.
It’s always interesting to me to hear about the real sticky spaces that most of us have and can’t seem to get control over. For him, apparently it’s the basement (sound familiar to anyone?). It seems that no matter how much comes out, it just can’t get to a comfortable baseline level.
What part of the house do you have trouble with?
It’s also fascinating how much these areas weigh on our minds. Not that they necessarily keep us up at night (at least not every night), but the thought of his basement, or for me the garage, sneaks in there often enough.
Yet we have some mental block about permanently taking care of the situation.
No time, no space, no incentive when the stuff is hidden away.
What’s Normal?
This thought literally just dawned on me as a am writing this. Let me know what you think.
I believe his compliment was also a bit of a commentary on what we generally expect when we visit people’s homes.
I mean, here I was just trying to breathe through this scenario where everything seemed out of control, yet one of my guests was complimenting me on how decluttered and minimalist my home was.
It begged the question, if this is minimalist what is normal?
Unfortunately, I think we all have a pretty good sense of what the American ‘normal’ has become – too big a home filled with too much stuff, a storage unit for what doesn’t fit in the house, garages, basements, closets and attics filled with boxes we can’t seem to get rid of.
Normal? It’s nuts.
People are drowning in stuff at the same time they are drowning in debt. The personal storage industry houses almost 2.5 billion sqft of space and pulls in $38 billion a year. One click shopping from our phones is as mindless as watching TV.
The holidays are an especially interesting reflection on this as we all do our best to digest the flood of new items that has infiltrated our homes (and that we have bestowed on our friends and family out of generosity and love, but also habit).
What stays and what goes? Do you make room for the new by getting rid of the old? Or do you not really like the new if you have to be completely honest?
Homeostasis, 85%
Things have gotten back to normal and now I’m breathing a bit easier.
I wanted to let my kids pack up everything since they had brought it out, but when I saw them wrapping ornaments made of yarn in half a newspaper to protect it, I had to intervene for the sake of space efficiency.
One upside of pulling everything out is that not all of it has to go back in. It is always a good idea to take that opportunity and see what you actually used, what is broken or out of style, or what you have redundancy on.
With the repack, I took my four holiday bins down to three. It was mostly due to my tetris skills, but also some things were ready to go.
Minimalist? Hardly.
But, in general, anytime I can do that I’m pretty happy.
As I sit here enjoying a decluttered space, and some peace and quiet, I really believe it’s good to reflect on these crazy times, how they make us feel, and how what we need to do to reel it back in.
I’m nowhere near where I want to be on this journey towards a more minimalist home and life, but I feel like I’m on the right track.
And if a guest in my home feels that way when it was at its worst, well then maybe I’m a bit further along the path than I thought.
I definitely have a bit of a problem when it comes to taking on new projects. What can I say? I’m super curious!
I get excited about all the ideas that pop into my head, and over the last couple of years I’ve been really working on deliberately thinking about whether these ideas are worth pursuing.
When I first learned how to build websites and blog, a flood was unleashed. Every concept started with a quick domain search and then maybe building a basic site. Then I would set up a Basecamp project and brainstorm a million to-dos.
While it was fine to iterate like that when I was learning to get the process down, it got a bit out of control. The problem was that I wasn’t following through on the real work that needed to be done to take any of these ideas to fruition. I just liked the idea of setting it up.
A couple of years and a bloated Siteground account later, I had to be honest about what projects, or most likely project (singular), I had the time and passion to commit to.
To be honest, I never got it down to just one, but I abandoned more than a few and developed a filter for future pursuits.
Often, all it took was just a little… Pause.
Don’t jump online and grab that domain on my phone in the middle of the night. Think on it for a few days.
How passionate am I about this?
Why do I think it is such a great idea?
Are there other people already doing an amazing job in this niche? (Usually, yes)
What am I going to give up to make time for this?
I found that I had become interested in setting up the blog, but not actually blogging. I rarely sat down to do the writing, to do the actual work.
Time for a change
I decided that taking on new projects, and time commitments in general, was not only cluttering my mind and my hosting account, but also adding up to a bit of money over time as well.
More importantly, tinkering on a bunch of different projects was keeping me from really getting any of them off the ground in any substantial way.
How is this project any different?
When the idea of writing about my sort of minimalist journey began percolating in my mind, I decided that it was the perfect time to try a new approach.
First, as I write this, there is no actual website. I haven’t even bought the domain. If ‘Minimalist, Sort of’ isn’t available when I’m ready, well, I’ll just have to think of something else.
Next, the writing is coming first.
I committed to writing ten articles before I move forward with any of the technical set up. I figure if I can find the time and energy to sit down and actually put words on paper ten times, it’s worth the cost of setting up the blog.
Additionally, my plan at this point is to send off access to my whole Google Drive folder to some other bloggers in this space, like Joshua Becker over at Becoming Minimalist, to get feedback about whether the quality of the writing and the relevance of the topics is worthy of a link or guest post on their sites.
I’ve never done this before. Even though any blogger will tell you that backlinks are the most important driver of traffic and validation of your site, I’ve always just waited for the Google gods to send search traffic my way.
If the quality isn’t there, then I’ll have to get to decide whether the passion is there to dig in and work on the writing. Right now it is, but we’ll see if it stays!
[Update: I sent an article over to Joshua. He said they don’t take guest article submissions, but I figured the attempt counted so here we are.]
My super-minimalist project management system
Finally, I’ve wasted no time on project management. In fact, I may have developed a super minimalist project management system for myself in the meantime.
It’s called a Google Doc, and it has three numbered lists. The headings are Done, In The Works, and Ideas.
‘Ideas’ is a brainstormed list of possible article topics. I add to it as they pop up, and when I make time to write, I just pick on that feels good and go for it.
‘In The Works’ is pretty self explanatory except I’m committed to only having one in there at a time. In the past it would not have been uncommon to have multiple articles going that all need to be finished. This project is as much about seeing things through as minimizing.
I think a lot of clutter in life, mental and physical, comes from all of these half-done projects. This isn’t going to be one of them.
‘Done’ is my list of completed articles (as I write this there are five). Like I said, when it gets to ten I’ll start building the website.
(I guess I got to ten!)
Why commit to this one?
It’s all fine and good that I’ve approached this project differently. In fact, I think it has really been important from a personal development standpoint to do it this way.
But the question still remains….
Why do it at all?
There are a few characteristics of this project that helped it make the cut.
Passion
I have truly come to believe that living the most minimalist lifestyle you can pull off will make you happier.
It’s not just about being more conscious and mindful of the environment, our waste, our finances, and being controlled by consumer habits that have built up over time.
These are real benefits of minimalism, but honestly, for me it’s about the stress.
Being in a cluttered space is stressful. And it is absolutely proven that stress is a killer.
The ease and calm I experience in my minimalist spaces is palpable. I feel it as soon as I enter these rooms and spaces, therefore I seek them out.
Already been in the office all day? Grab the laptop and head into the absolute zen of the guest room (where I’m writing now).
I’ve found that minimizing has had a profound effect on me and my family, and it’s something that I am deliberately exploring in every aspect of my life.
While perhaps I’m not getting there as quickly as I would like, the journey is in full swing and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.
Medium
I develop a lot of multi-media work in my daily life – websites, podcasts, e-learning, video. While I don’t do every bit of the creation, they do tend to be complicated projects. If you work in this area you know how much time is spent bogged down in the details – editing, redoing.
I want one project where I just write. Just words.
Writing is something that I’ve always enjoyed, but haven’t really practiced much recently.
Like any muscle, it’s bound to atrophy and be a bit tight. I hope to loosen the flow of words and flex the creative muscle through this project.
When you read about what it takes to become a better writer, unsurprisingly, the experts say to, well…
Write.
Shocking!
The problem I’ve found with sitting down for a free writing session is you end up sitting there wondering what to write about. With this project I don’t even have to think about what to write. I’ve already brainstormed twenty or more ideas. Just grab one and start.
One more hurdle to progress removed.
I thought it was also important to have a topic that I don’t need to research. The last thing I need is an excuse to open up a web browser and start searching around to verify some insignificant detail. Next thing you know, an hour has passed. Why am I on YouTube again?
Just start writing, and keep going.
So I have an activity I’m passionate about, writing, and a topic which I believe is one of the most positive influences on my life at this time.
It’s been wild to see how moving towards a more minimalist lifestyle has helped me recognize that it’s not just the stuff in my closet that’s cluttering my life.
It’s my thoughts, and distractions.
It’s unfinished projects and the inability to say ‘no’ to things.
It’s thinking that every idea that pops into my head deserves the same attention.
Much like some of those old t-shirts and snowboards, it’s time to let go of my old way of working and creating.
If you’re reading this, at least you know I made it to ten
Collecting is an interesting phenomenon.
At some point we are really passionate about something – enough to gather as much as we can, or perhaps the best that we can afford, of a certain item.
Sometimes collections just sort of happen as old items are retired and replaced by new ones, but the older ones still stick around. Often, there’s a sentimental reason why the old one has earned its place in the house.
I’ve mentioned some of my collections a few times, usually related to boards of some sort – surf, snow, skate. Put together, my collection of boards is pretty impressive! Nothing museum quality, and certainly some people have gone much further down the rabbit hole.
But not bad nonetheless.
Can a true minimalist have a bunch of old boards laying around? Technically speaking, probably not.
I have been working on slimming it down. Within the collection are boards that I have attachment to and ones that I use, and then there’s the freeloaders that are just bulk.
Those freeloaders have to go.
When a collection takes on a life of its own.
I’ve noticed something interesting going on with another seemingly innocuous collection I have going on.
This one takes up less space, but is beginning to take on a life of its own!
Bottle openers.
Bottle openers are fun and they can be a cool part of the social experience of cracking open a beer (or a root beer with the kiddos).
It’s always interesting to see which one people go for.
I like the one my brother got me with the Craftsman screwdriver handle. It’s hanging by the beer fridge out in the garage (Beer fridge, seriously? I know! More on that later).
The lucador that puts my bottle cap in a headlock always makes me smile.
Beer. Smiles. Those are good things!
So what do I mean by ‘taking on a life of its own’?
Well, I no longer actually buy any of these openers myself. Actually, I can’t remember the last time I did!
They just arrive.
The word is out. Doug collects bottle openers.
I get them as gifts, I get them when people just drop by. They show up in the mail.
Am I fortunate to have friends and family that think of me enough to bring me a gift? Of course!
Is it my collection anymore? Not really. But I’m holding on to it, paying its rent.
Anyone else have this going on?
So, now I have this collection that I’m really not that interested in anymore, but it keeps growing.
Moving towards a minimalist lifestyle requires a reassessment of these collections.
What do they mean to you? What do they represent? Are you still passionate about them?
I feel that there are stages to addressing these collections.
Deciding that I have collected as much as I need.
I certainly have more than enough bottle openers. A true minimalist would just have one.
Informing everyone that the collecting is over.
A very good friend of mine came over with a bottle opener for me a few weeks ago. He brought it to let me know that he was thinking of me, but also informed me that he wasn’t super excited about the opener so was on the lookout for something better.
Two more openers!
At a different time, we were talking about houses and kids as we often do, and the battle to keep things within some level of sanity.
I mentioned cleaning out, decluttering, and taking on a more minimalist mindset. I mentioned that I’ve been selling gear and really trying being more careful about what comes into the house – cutting off the inbound flow.
It was a great time to mention, ‘you know, I’m really done with just collecting things – like the bottle openers.’
He got me one, and I’m grateful. I don’t need another.
We really only need one to share a few beers, and that’s the best part anyway.
Curating the collection down
There was a time when I purposefully set out to find good bottle openers to add to the collection, especially when I was traveling.
Opening a beer with this rugby player bottle opener from New Zealand? Awesome memories flood back in.
However, this meant that I also sometimes bought openers just because I was traveling, regardless of what I found was really that great.
The chotski opener from the Hong Kong airport? I get nothing, so I never use it. In fact, that thing makes me a bit mad.
It has to go.
Deciding whether or not to keep it at all.
The final and most ultimate step to getting rid of collections is just to say goodbye – pulling off that band-aid and move on with your life!
Obviously some things are going to fit easier into this category than others. The easy ones can go first. Maybe others get curated down while you think about it.
Minimalist: Sort of…
I figure if I’m at least sort of minimalist, I’m moving in the right direction. Stop the inflow, cull the herd, and keep that one great bottle opener for sharing beers with friends!