#i am EATING the color scheme it is soooo delicious

[nytilsennia]

Big thanks to @rainyn0ise for being a monthly member of my Doodle Tier! For May, I drew their OC, Felicity, who is absolutely beautiful!

.

.

.

Character goes by she/they/it and is designed by/belongs to RainyNOISE.

[tinyreverie]

Implementing Minimalism!

I have done so much since the last post!! My new thing is decluttering. I am trying to downsize by 80-90%, which is actually a TON of work. Going through and trashing everything /sounds/ easy, but it's actually really physically exhausting. I think I'm finally building up my back muscles though! 💪 So... a list of things I am working on/ have done: 1. I finally read the book about the "konmari method" of decluttering and found it pretty inspiring! I've actually pretty much followed those rules without meaning to (no wonder people kept recommending that book to me!), but in the past, I'd just chuck things if I didn't use them, joy-bringing or not, which made me sad until I forgot about it. Now, it's about bringing joy into my life in everything I own. For example, I found a vintage muffin pan at a used bookstore today. Looking at it just makes me smile!Now, I'm free to get rid of my nasty old ones and the bad memories of the giver with them. :) 2. I am working on minimizing my spice collection. I already downsized, but holy Jesus I do not need to have a basket overflowing with spices. I cook for TWO-- really, ONE now with Damion off trucking, not 12. I was having trouble picking the ones I would keep, so I picked an arbitrary number of spices I would allow myself. So, I picked 10, not including salt/pepper. Then, I asked Damion to choose the 10... because I got all, "ohhh!! Curry!! I love Indian food!! Remember that one time I had... " etc, so I was just unable to make a rational decision. He picked: *garlic salt *lemon pepper *parsley *basil *oregano *nutmeg *paprika *cinnamon *cloves *ginger I felt that this list was pretty comprehensive, so I went out and bought little magnetic tins for those suckers ($3 a piece!!) so that in the tiny house I can stick them on a strip or the fridge. For now, they will live in the junk drawer (once I eliminate it:)). 3. I started a secret garden:3 but, what's new about my gardening philosophy is that I'm only growing the stuff I'll actually use (other than my flowers:>). Most of my space is in part shade, so I'm mostly doing herbs: basil, parsley... Basically, my goal is to get everything on the herb list above growing! I also got mint and chamomile cause I love those teas. 😍 I did run into a problem here though: while in the herb section, I found rosemary and cilantro. :/ I started remembering how delicious they are, and how we do use them frequently. Then, I saw lavender, which is my herb weakness. It just smells soooo good, and the flowers are so pretty! I don't use it though, which makes it a "clutter" purchase... and that freaked me out so bad, I put back my rosemary and cilantro too and left that area immediately! They are mentally "on hold" until I have decided what to do. I know I probably won't get the lavender (until I can find a legit reason to justify it), but idk if I'll add the two useful herbs to my 10 (making 12 total) or if I'll cut off paprika and some other spice. But, chiliiiii!! And, damion didn't even list chilli pepper already! I really suck at minimizing spices, obviously. The $3/ magnetic spice tin cost does help motivate me a little, though. :) 4. I have started downsizing, so my house is easier to clean. Above all, I am a lazy person. Less dishes = less doing dishes, so I tossed them all and am now using two each of my inheritance plates, bowls and serving bowls (also used as mixing bowls). I think of my wonderful grandma, RIP, each time I see them now, and so eating gives me the feels 💖 I think about her almost every day now and it makes me happy. :> I downgraded Damion's and my clothing (Damion participated via Skype). I already had downsized into about... 3/4 large drawers with no hanging items, but they were crammed in. I thought I was done, but then I had a thought: "Katrina. You are lazy. It's going to suck when you inevitably put off your laundry and have to do it all at once!" ... So, I posted a question in the minimalist group I'm a part of and decided on 3/4 loads of laundry total. That's the most laundry in a row I am willing to do, including sheets and pillowcases, towels and washcloths. So, I got rid of everything else. :> I went through my clothes konmari style and eliminated, motivated by easier cleaning. Dammit, I want to be the type of person who washes their sheets every week! So, I got rid of stuff, separating it into selling (via consignment), donate and trash piles. I downsized to a roughly 2 week supply of stuff. Together, including linens, I only have 3.5 loads of laundry:D! Perfect for lazy Katrina, especially with my mother in law's awesome fancy big wash machine;) I now have: Linens: *8 washcloths, for face washing and exfoliation. *1 microfiber cloth, in danger of being tossed, because I HATE the texture of microfiber but appreciate its usefulness *3 towels: 1 hugeeee, and the two softest towels *1 set of fitted/flat sheets, because I won't wash them if I have more than one. *8 pillowcases: 4 normal, gray everyday pillowcases and 2 normal blue ones, for if I had a guest, idk. Plus 2 purty ones. What can I say? They bring me joy. Typing this though, maybe I should downsize more though, 8 is a bit excessive for 2 people with 4 pillows 😂 Clothing: I'll have to post about later, because my method is so involved. But, basically, everything I have matches everything else. It's all color theory and flattering fits. I plan to have excessive amounts of undies, though, because I like to change them a lot :> But, I'm only keeping 4 bras. 1 t-shirt bra, 1 convertible fancy schmancy bra, 1 sessy sessy bra ;D and 1 sports bra comfy bra thing. I love bras, but I always default to two or three anyway. My "color scheme" thing for my undies (ONLY undies, my outside clothes have a much more defined pallet) is that my bras are pretty plain/neutral, but I can get whatever panties in whatever color I want. :3 So, I am still free to indulge my love of undies and still have order :3 Last thing on implementing minimalism: I am in progress of minimizing my cleaning supply collection. I realllllly want to be earth friendly, but my cleaning stuff does not reflect that. It's all super harsh chemicals, because in the past, I was messy. I AM messy, but now my house is halfway optimized for cleaning, so it's a LOT easier for messy Katrina to keep my (her? Lol) house not clean, but within-30-minutes-of-non-rushed-cleaning clean. :D Anyways, before I had to have the harsh stuff because when I cleaned, I REALLY felt that bleach/ harsh chemicals were necessary in order to make up for the month and a half of no cleaning (wish I were joking 😂). Now that my house is easier to clean, I don't need those crazy chemicals. Except bleach, because after all, I do own chickens. I'm looking into doing my own cleaning supplies mostly: nothing crazy or complicated (I still have to cater toward lazy Katrina), but just things like vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda... etc. I still have to come up with eco friendly replacements for two things though: disinfectant wipes and the toilet wand... thingy. For the disinfectant wipes, I know that I could make my own, but it does make more laundry, and more laundry lowers the success rate of keeping my house clean. Plus, how would I keep the rags secured in sanitizing fluid without it disintegrating the rags? Or does a regular, non-bleach formula not do that? No idea. Also, I'll need to figure out how many wipes I need for a two week period, which will be tough, because I don't clean every day consistently. The toilet wand solution is harder for me though, so input would be much appreciated. I CANNOT stand the normal toilet scrubber thingies. They just don't seem sanitary, even if you keep them in cleaning liquid. Plus, they just inspire me to use copious, embarrassing amounts of straight bleach in order to sanitize, which defeats the eco friendly purpose anyway. Anyway, I discovered those toilet wands about a year ago and I haven't gone back! The wands detach from the scrubby pad, and you toss the scrubby in the trash can (because the flushable wipes suck for hard cleaning), and that's IT. You keep the nice, clean wand and get another the next time. These are also really convenient (new xD) for scrubbing my bath tub, I have discovered recently. No ridiculous hand scrubber and bleach everywhere, just this presoaked scrubber that gets everything up. It doesn't even have a chance to hurt my back, it's so fast!! Obviously, though, this is hugely irresponsible for the earth, even if they are disgusting. :( I have come up with an idea to somehow get a reusable sponge attached to the end of one of those sticks, and dropping them immediately in some dirty cleaning items container (cause they would have to be separate from clothing/linens, other than possibly disinfectant wipes) so that they could later be sanitized. But, that sounds like a lot of work, and I already hate sponges. I threw mine away in favor of those ikea scrubbing brushes :> anyway, the only way I can think to impliment this idea is to use the scrubbing bubbles version of the wand (I have both already), which has a tong-like opening for its pads. But, I don't really care for that wand. The clorox one if much more ergonomic and very sturdy, which is critical for seldom-cleaning Katrina. Also, if I'm going to have to sanitize them anyway, doesn't that defeat the whole "earth friendly" purpose? Or, could I boil them, or would that ruin the material of both the disinfectant rags / scrubbers? And, the biggest question: would I actually do it? So, yeah, basically, I need a separable toilet cleaning brush, with an ergonomic handle and a sturdy brush-to-wand attachment, with a viable, super easy way of sanitizing the brush/scrubby bit, preferably something that could be done with the disinfectant wipes too at the same time. Is that too much to ask? XD I really would love to hear suggestions though. Anyway, that's basically where I'm at right now in minimizing. I'll leave you with something a Minimalism group member said to me, to address my regrets at filling the landfills with my unused junk: either way, the earth suffers. Keeping items you don't want/need in your house doesn't save them. The only solution is being mindful about what you buy and what you support to begin with. 🌎🌳💚 This quote has helped me tremendously, as I was pretty much unknowingly using my earth-friendly side to justify holding onto items that really needed to move on. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, thank you and good night! 😘