A Minimalist With Large Possessions

November 11, 2019November 11, 2019 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

11.11.2019

0600

I realized that with living a minimalist lifestyle, there are a lot of assumptions about people who live this lifestyle. Minimalists are seen as people who own very few possessions and despise consumerism. There are a number of images that float around on the internet in which bare, white walls, and minimal items are featured in homes. I rarely see images of minimalist homes that hold large possessions. They usually feature the essentials in the kitchen, bedrooms, living room, bathrooms and the rest of the house. I never seem to come across images of minimalist homes that also own sports gear.

However, not all minimalists own the bare minimum in their homes, and not all minimalists stick with the typical standard. I personally do not own a lot of possessions anymore. However, there are activities in my life that do involve large possessions, that I have not given up. In my past blog posts, I have shared the contents of my capsule wardrobe, but I actually do have sports gear that does not get counted into my wardrobe. It’s not counted because it is not daily wear and I only use those sporting clothes on a seasonal basis. I still have my surfing gear and my snowboarding gear that I didn’t count into my capsule wardrobe. My running gear stays active year round, but it’s still not day to day wear.

In my surfing gear bag, I own a wet suit, rash guard, swim suits and board shorts. Since surfing season usually occurs in the summer, I’ll wear clothing pieces from my capsule wardrobe once I change out of my wet suit. Surfing doesn’t require as many specialty clothing pieces compared to snowboarding, so my surfing bag is significantly smaller.

With my love for snowboarding, comes my snowboard, snow boots, and all my riding gear. My riding gear includes my helmet, goggles and neck gaiter. I actually snowboard with a backpack that has emergency items in it, in case my friends or I get into a sticky situation on the mountains. It helps to be prepared to help another person who might be stuck in the snow, when snowboarding. I carry extra snow gear for strangers in case I do need to wait for help to come.

I don’t limit how much clothing I have for each sport, but I also don’t own an excessive amount of clothing per sport either. I’ve gone snowboarding for many years, and I own enough clothing pieces that can last me the entire trip. The longest snowboarding trip I’ve taken, was a one week trip and I always had enough clothing to last me the whole trip. My riding gear never changes, but once we get off the mountain, I’ll change into regular clothes. Usually the temperatures are so cold, I’ll sometimes wear my snow pants and jacket just to stay warm, even after I get off the mountain. I am conscious about how many pieces I have per sport. I have a set bag that I use for each sports, and everything fits in each bag.

Since I run on a daily basis, I have running shorts, sports bras, pants, shirts, sweaters and thermals that can last me year round. I only have two of each clothing piece, but so far, this amount is working for me.

I’ve always loved to play sports and sports have always been a part of my life. When I started my minimalist lifestyle, I didn’t know how other people dealt with their sport clothing, or accessories that come with each sport. I never mentioned it, because it seemed “unminimalistic” of me to hang onto my sport items. The minimalist lifestyle images that I came across on the internet, never included sport items so I felt that my lifestyle needs was somewhat out of place. Everyone seemed to live with the bare minimum. But I love the sports I participate in. I love my running gear, my snowboarding gear and my surfing gear. They make me happy, and when I’m gliding down the mountain or sitting on the ocean, I’m so very thankful that I have the opportunity to experience those places. So my minimalist lifestyle includes my capsule wardrobe, my sporting gear, my ceremonial Vietnamese dresses and a few other items. And although, I don’t live with an excessive amount of clothing, I don’t seem to fit the minimalist standard either. With the implementation of minimalism into my life and knowing that I don’t exactly fit the images I find on the internet, I still wouldn’t have it any other way.

Pros And Cons Of Minimalism

October 7, 2019July 31, 2020 / Yen-Van Tran / 1 Comment

10.07.2019

0600

So I’ve written a lot about the benefits of living a minimalist lifestyle, but I admit, there were adjustments during the process as well. I tend to talk about the positive benefits of minimalism, and living a minimalist lifestyle, but I never talk about the struggles that I had to go through. There are a few drawbacks when it comes to a minimalist lifestyle, especially when starting out.

A lot of The process is trying to figure out your footprint and how you want to go about living in this lifestyle. Categorizing your life from daily routines to evening routines, what is necessary and unnecessary, and then going room by room to illuminate items is a bit daunting. Sometimes, this can be a guessing game where a small pile of “maybe items” gets created. That pile did come in helpful though, and it lived in a closet for awhile.

However, if you think through the declutering process slowly and carefully, having regrets will not likely be the end result. With everything you own in this world, everything can technically be replaced. During my decluttering process, that temporary pile really helped me out. It helped me mentally and emotionally detach room the object, which made it easier to part with. Once I knew that I hadn’t pulled anything from the pile out in awhile, I would donate that pile.

Here are some Pros and Cons with transitioning to a minimalist lifestyle:

Pros:

Less clutter
More organized
Save money
Value experiences over stuff
Cleaning is easier
More time to enjoy your life
Freedom
Less stress after getting rid of toxic “friends”
You’ll spend your time better because you’ll be more organized and you’ll know what to do.
You’ll have fewer tasks simply because you’ll be fully aware of your priorities.
You’ll have more money because you’ll spend money only on the essential things;
You’ll clean your home faster simply because you’ll have fewer things;
You will know what to wear because you’ll be wearing pretty much the same clothes every day.
You’ll be more focused and more productive.

Cons:

Accidentally getting rid of something you later need
You might look poor
Spouse might not be willing to adopt a minimalist lifestyle, causing arguments
If you have kids, they will always want stuff and while they can’t have everything, as a parent you don’t want to be cruel.
If you love shopping, minimalism will not come easy to you.
Not everyone will understand what you’re doing. Probably your spouse won’t be happy with your decision and you’ll have conflicts. Your kids, well, they are kids. They will want more stuff all the time.
It’s hard to resist new cool gadgets especially if you love technology.

Admittedly, I have donated items in which I did have regrets about, but those items were not meaningful items. They were items that were simply useful to specific situations. More so, my adjustment to this lifestyle was an adjustment for those closest to me. When the holidays or my birthday, rolled around, it was difficult for me to explain to my gift giving family members that I didn’t want physical gifts. If I had to choose a gift, I just wanted to spend time with them, and share a meal. Sometimes that went over well, sometimes it didn’t.

There were also moments, when I wanted to buy a particular product, but I really had no need for it. I’m human, and I still have desires to own certain products because it’s technically it’s an upgrade to something I own. I always end up lecturing myself and reminding myself of the many reasons why I don’t need it. I still like cool products. I still like interesting clothing. I still have wants that I have to pull back on. This will never go away, so I just have to figure out an exit plan, each time it does come up. Most of the time, I default to the responsibility of maintaining the new item. That’s usually the ultimate reason why I won’t end up buying a product.

There are always benefits and drawbacks to every lifestyle. These lists are the items I remembered about my experience with the transition. Even though there are drawbacks to living minimally, the gains outweigh the losses. the change in my mindset also helped me transition to the lifestyle easier, because I realized that I didn’t need much to be happy to begin with. If you want to test out this lifestyle for awhile, I highly recommend it. Make use of the “maybe pile”, if you unsure about donating an item. Think through your decisions, and enjoy the process along the way. It can be a wonderful learning experience, and you may discover that you are happier, owning less items.

If you want to know more, check out this article by Rocio Espinoza, “How to Become a Minimalist and Love It“.

Minimalism Philosophy

September 30, 2019July 31, 2020 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

09.30.2019

0600

The principals of simple living, describe a minimalist lifestyle pretty well. Minimalism itself, is more commonly used to describe art, “A trend in sculpture and painting that arose in the 1950s and used simple, typically massive, forms.”

In the last decade, minimalism has become more mainstream, and has grown in popularity. Through social media, and the release of the documentary, “Minimalism”, it has gained quite the following.

To use the word minimalism as a lifestyle, we have to look at the definition of simple living. Simple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one’s lifestyle. These may include, reducing one’s possessions, or increasing self-sufficiency. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they have rather than want.

People who practice simple living, may do so for a variety of reasons. Some may live this lifestyle for personal reasons such as spirituality, health, increase in quality time for family and friends, work–life balance, personal taste, financial sustainability, frugality, or reducing stress.

Simple living or minimalist lifestyle is a conscious decision to live with less material possessions, and refrain from excessive materialism and excessive consumerism. Minimalism doesn’t necessarily mean that you are only allowed to live with the bare minimum to maintain your life, but to live without the excessive items that don’t add to your life.

When I started my transition to a more minimalist lifestyle, I noticed a change in my mindset as well as the time spent on my daily routine. Choosing outfits on a daily basis became easier and my life became easier to manage. I didn’t waste time on maintaining unnecessary possessions or routines. I simplified my life by only keeping possessions that are important to me, and letting go of the rest. It was a conscious decision for me to transition to this lifestyle; it just made more sense to me. I sought out happiness where my possessions did not fulfill. Granted, I still love to dress up for parties, gatherings or to go out to dinner, but I did get rid of all of the other unnecessary items.

I’ve never regretted my transition to a minimalist lifestyle. As time has passed, I have evaluated and continue to re-evaluate possessions that I might still want to donate. I always look for more methods to design my life to become ever more simplistic; it never ends.

I enjoy life more now, than I ever did before. I enjoy going to cafes and drinking my coffee on the weekend mornings. Enjoying every sunset I can take in, and being thankful to even experience it. I love having conversations during a good meal. I love going outside to spend time in nature and I love to spend time with family and friends. I love white walls, a clean floor and clean surfaces. My home brings me peace and my space is serene. Minimalism has changed my life in so many ways. Over ten years ago, my life changed for the better, and I can never go back to the way I used to live.

Created Slim Hanging Organizers

August 1, 2017August 15, 2018 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

08.01.2017

0600

Materials:

Three 7 inch-8 centimeter, white zippers (for one pillowcase design)
Two 12 inch, pink zippers (for the second pillowcase design)
Two Velvet Hangers

Tools:

Sewing Machine or sew by hand

I always try to take up less space than necessary when it comes to my home. It’s not that I dont’ have the room to spread out, but I personally don’t think it’s necessary. I don’t like my items and possessions spread out over a large space because it takes more energy to find things and living a more compact lifestyle helps me keep my possessions to a minimum. As a designer, it’s an interesting challenge to minimize the space that I take up.

So I decided to create a slim organizer for my closet. I had a hanging closet shelf but I wanted to get rid of it. In order to get rid of it, I still needed some type of organizer in its place. The items that I needed to organize were small clothing items as well as small accessories. This slim organizer only needed to hold the weight of those items. I did move some stuff out of the original hanging shelf to other areas of the house, so what you see in the images below isn’t a direct transfer of items to the new slim organizer.

Hanging organizers actually already do exist in stores, but from what I’ve seen, these organizers tend to have the user access the pockets from the front of the organizer. It would be easier for a person who has a walk-in closet to use those organizers, but I wanted to make a slim organizer which I could access from the side.

So in the end, this organizer helped me reduce my space by half:

Here is what I did…

I gathered my pillowcases and designated one of the pillowcases to be divided into three sections and the other pillowcase would be divided into two sections.

I took one pillowcase and hemmed the open end of the pillowcase. I then folded the pillow case into thirds and marked the lines using sewing pins. This pillowcase would have the three 7 inch-8 centimeter, white zippers sewed to it.

I sewed along the lines to close off the three separate sections, then I placed my zippers down to mark the location of the zippers. Depending on how I wanted to access my slim organizer in the closet, I had to choose which side of the pillowcase to attach the zippers. Since I wanted this slim organizer to be on the right side of my closet, I wanted the openings on the right side of the pillowcase so that when it was hanging up, I could access the slots easier. I also left about an inch margin between the zipper and the edge of the pillowcase because the items inside will create a bulge that I had to take into consideration.

I used an ink pen to make tiny dots at each end of the zipper. I actually marked the dots in between the zipper teeth at each end, this way, it also centered the location of the zipper. I connected each set of dots to create the cut lines in order to fit my zippers into the pillowcase. I just used scissors to cut these lines.

After I cut the lines, I inserted the hanger into the opening that was on the end of the pillowcase that was originally closed. I folded the pillowcase in half (vertically) to find the center and pretty much wedged the metal hook through the pillowcase. I chose to place my hanger on the original closed end of the pillowcase because if I used the hemmed end of the pillowcase for the hanger, the weight of the items in the organizer might weaken the that end of the pillowcase over time. I had to consider the weight of each pocket that was created, so I constantly thought about the overall weight that would pull on the material itself.

Once I placed my zippers into each slot that was made, I folded the edges of the pillowcase down to the zippers and pinned them together with sewing pins. Then I hand sewed the zippers to the pillowcase (making sure I sewed both the hemmed layer and the top layer of the pillowcase to the zipper).

Once I was done, I used the same process to create the double pocket slim organizer. The triple pocket slim hanging organizer will be used for small items and the double pocket slim organizer will be used for some extra pieces of clothing items.

I don’t know if this is a favored design, but I personally like how much less space it takes up. this design works for me and, my space. Hopefully this design may jog some space organizing ideas for you as well.

Donating Even More Stuff

May 25, 2016August 12, 2018 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

05.25.2016

0800

It takes awhile to really clean out your life. It takes a tremendous amount of time to go through every single part of your life, to go through every single room and then analyze every single routine that you go through with these items. These routines don’t just focus on the day to day routines such as your morning routine or evening routine, but seasonal as well as special events (ie. birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc.).

I’ve been living this zero waste life for the past six years and I still find ways I can improve and reduce my green footprint. (I’m also donating a large amount of clothes due to my recent capsule wardrobe creation.) Only recently did I start to combine my zero waste lifestyle with a minimalistic approach to my lifestyle. Not producing waste is simple once you can refine your system, but my newest challenge was to figure out how to live with the least amount of stuff in each area of my life. With that challenge, I had to continually purge my life and re-evaluate everything I owned.

Regardless, donating items is a great way to repurpose the item to another person and it’s a great way to save the item from ending up in the landfill. I’ve donated to several charities over the years. I’ve donated to Goodwill Industries and The Salvation Army International. Both of those charities have their own missions and visions and some may favor one over another. I personally donated to both for different reasons. Most recently, I discovered a program called the Homeless Prenatal Program, located in San Francisco. Their mission is “In partnership with our families, break the cycle of childhood poverty”. It’s a great program that I encourage people to donate to, if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area.

When I purged my closet, I also came across two gowns that I’m planning to donate to the The Princess Project Silicon Valley. This organization ‘…promotes self-confidence and individual beauty by providing free prom dresses and accessories to high school teens who cannot otherwise afford them. Our effort is made possible through invaluable volunteer, donor, and community support.”. I previously donated my own prom dress shortly after I went to college, but these other gowns now need new owners. There are actually quite a few organizations in the Bay Area that collect prom dresses, but there is a small window of time to donate the dresses, so please check the donation date ranges.

Also, there are a few websites that also allow for donating or exchanging items between neighbors such as Craigslist, Freecycle and Second Harvest Food Bank. I’ve actually used all of these organizations for donations in the past. With Craigslist and Freecycle, it’s pretty straight forward with donating items. You usually list your item on the website and offer it to whoever you choose. You can xhose, “first come, first serve” or perhaps there is a direct agreement of time and place of item-pick-up with the other person. Please be careful when using these types of sites and take extra precautions when making your exchange. If at all possible, make the exchange in a busy and public area.

I volunteered at the Second Harvest Food Bank when I was in college, and it was a pretty busy place. It was very organized, but busy nonetheless- especially on the weekends. It was a great experience and I wish I could have spent more time with the organization, but I wasn’t able to.

If you are not in the San Francisco Bay Area, please seek out any local charities, donation centers or even churches in your area, that might need your donations. You never know who might need your items or your time.