Digital Detox: A Modern-Day Sabbath

Posted by On Filed under Health, Pause for Reflection, Voluntary Simplicity / Minimalism
Digital Detox: A Modern-Day Sabbath

A Sabbath is a day of rest, observed by some Jewish people from Friday evening to Saturday evening and by some Christian people on Sundays. Within these religious traditions there’s also a ritual of worship on these days. For the past few years, I’ve created my own Sabbath rituals and I thought it was about time I wrote about them.

Since 2014, I’ve blocked off “Sabbath weekends” every few months. On these weekends, I don’t work, I unplug from the internet and all digital devices, I don’t schedule too many projects for myself, and I focus on restful activities, like reading, meditating, going for walks, and journaling. On a few Sabbath weekends, I’ve even tried not to spend money.

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Taking Simplifying to the Next Level

Posted by On Filed under Money, Voluntary Simplicity / Minimalism

Some minimalism bloggers go beyond the superficial, and I so appreciate their writing. Some published authors really satisfy, such as Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez (Your Money or Your Life) and Duane Elgin (Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich). I’ve also found myself looking to religious texts for another level of simplifying.

But I’ve been simplifying, really, for most of my adult life. Now I’m wondering, what’s next? How do I level-up, go beyond “things” and dive deeper?

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How I decluttered 1,000 things in 3 years

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How I decluttered 1,000 things in 3 years

I moved to Vermont in 2003 with too many things, into a too tiny apartment. I had wall-to-wall stuff and when you constantly have to dust, step over, move or ignore things you don’t even like, it’s time to declutter.

Even when I moved to a huge apartment three years later, I still noticed the sporting goods piled up in the corner and the spare bedroom full of boxes of more stuff.

A bit like Goldilocks, that first apartment was too small, the second was too big, and my current apartment is just right. Nonetheless, I continue to develop an ethos and aesthetic that revolves around simplicity, utility and beauty in all areas of my life.

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Review: Life Expectancy Calculators

Posted by On Filed under Bucket List, Health, Money, Pause for Reflection, Voluntary Simplicity / Minimalism
Review: Life Expectancy Calculators

I focus intensely on living a good life. I actively work on my bucket list, which has provided some crazy adventures. I focus on experiences over material possessions and have gotten my finances in order to support my larger life goals.

Sometimes, this focus inevitably leads to thoughts on how much life I might have left.

From a young age, I wasn’t spared the experience of death. I attended the funerals of grandparents and great grandparents, lost a friend in high school, and have lost many more since, unfortunately. I say this because not everyone has been this close to mortality. Some folks have never been to a funeral, for example, or are lucky enough to still have grandparents around.

I’m just laying the groundwork for what this blog post is about. To be blunt, it’s about life expectancy. But, in reality, it’s about living and living well.

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q4 Results and Year 1 Summary

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q4 Results and Year 1 Summary

For the past year, I’ve been trying to minimize the amount of garbage, paper, plastic and glass leaving my home and heading for the landfill or recycling center.  While I’ve long been a re-user and recycler further down the waste stream, this has been my attempt at reducing my footprint from the point of consumption.

In the first quarter of the year (January-March), I realized I was a long way from zero waste. Although, at an average of 0.79 lbs of trash per day, I was also a long way off from the average American household, which disposes of 4.4 lbs of trash per day!

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q3 Results

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q3 Results

I rushed home from work today to weigh my trash. I know, I’m weird like that: driven by results, a bit of environmentalism, and in love with personal experiments. It’s the end of the third quarter and the weigh-in must be done, as I attempt to get myself closer and closer to zero waste.

Without further ado, in the third quarter of 2013 (July-September), I tossed out:

  • 20 lbs of paper
  • 21 lbs of trash
  • 12.5 lbs of plastic & glass
  • 53.5 total lbs of trash = 0.48 lbs / day

To compare the quarters, it looks like this:

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q2 Results

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Getting to Zero Waste: Q2 Results

I’ve been chronicling my attempts to get down to zero waste this year and it’s been an eye-opening experience. In the first quarter of the year (January-March), I averaged 0.79 lbs of trash per day. This included food scraps, plastic, paper, glass, and anything else I took down to the garbage cans. You can see the details and category breakdown here.

Fortunately, this is much lower than the American 4.4 lbs per day average, but still much more than I’d like to be responsible for. So I continue to keep track.

In the second quarter of the year (April-June), I averaged:

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