Minimalist Post: Things I own ONE of

I labeled this one a minimalist post because we’ve been eliminating a lot of the clutter in our home over the past few years. Are we full on minimalists? (what does that even mean?) No! Are we extreme minimalists? Heck no. We have moved so many times in the past four years, (5 times) we’ve been able to really cut down what we own and store, because we’ve had to move all the things so many times. Therefore we really asked ourselves, how many things in our home do we really need multiple of? These are a few of the things we cut down on:  

1) Towel - I only have one shower towel. In total we have 3: one for me, one for Joe and one for a guest if we have someone over. We have other towels like kitchen towels but there was no need for us to have duplicate shower towels, we have consolidated to one per person. I do not change towels based on the season, though that is a lovely thought. I just have one until I’ve used it too much and then I am done with it. And you may ask how I manage going to the beach with my shower towel, well I don’t. Every time I’ve been to a beach whether on vacation or something, there have been towels provided and then I return them to be washed. We do have another towel that was originally a dog towel (it has a huge pikachu on it) and we use that for the beach sometimes. I’ve had it since I was 7, pokemon was my life. I even had a binder with all my cards, sorted by element. Moving on now…

2) Purse - I own one purse. I have never had the urge to buy more than one at a time and found that I used to buy purses that would just fall apart in less than a year. It looks liked this:

Year 1: Coach purse = $300-$500, purse falls apart

Year 2: Coach purse = $300-$500, purse falls apart

Year 3: Coach purse = $300-$500, purse falls apart

Year 4: I have spent $900 - $1500 on purses that fall apart. Let’s get a better quality purse that lasts longer.

Now I have one fancy purse, that cost me a little more ($1500) but I’ve had it for almost 10 years now and it hasn’t fallen apart yet! That also means I have one wallet but I rarely use it so I’m thinking of donating it too.

3) Hair Brush - I only own one hair brush, it is a pretty basic hair brush and when it poops out I will buy a new one. In the mean time, I do not need brushes of different sizes, or different types. I have one. I am also thankful I have very straight hair that is not thick, I can’t justify having more than one brush!

4) Back Pack - I have one back pack to store my computer and lunch in for work. If I am heading anywhere, I use my backpack for extra storage. Such as when we travel, I use it to travel with. I only have one backpack unlike my husband who has 5. ** Eye roll ** I think that’s his ‘thing’. Some people like shoes, cars, etc. He likes backpacks…and computers :)

5) Coffee tumbler - We bought coffee tumblers to eliminate the use of disposable cups whenever we go to Starbucks/Cafe Ladro/any other cafe and we each have one tumbler for our weekend morning coffee dates. We usually go on walks and have a coffee while we walk on weekend mornings. Coffee tumblers are the way to go! They also save you $.10 every time you go get a coffee at Starbucks and it doesn’t seem like much but it adds up. I am a fan of tumblers, there was one I saw 4-5 years ago that was a Starbucks mermaid collection tumbler but I never got it (highly regret that) and since then I’ve had a plain silver one. If I ever see the mermaid collection again and a tumbler that looks similar to that one I liked years ago, I’m buying it! Until then, I have one of these!

Minimalism isn’t about having one of everything, it isn’t about having less things. It’s simply about having what you need. When purchasing anything, I usually ask myself if I need it and if I will use it. If I can’t say yes to both of those questions I wait on it and if after a month it’s something I am still thinking about then I go ahead and buy it. Honestly, sometimes I just like things and want them for that reason. The way I go about purchasing things is something I’ve decided to do for myself, and it aligns with our goals of saving money too. The origination of this way of thinking came about when I had a lot of school debt, ($70k - thanks grad school) but we can chat about that stuff later!