A minimalist office

What does a minimalist office look like? The easy answer is, whatever you want it to look like. The harder part is what practical form does it take on?

A desk, right? Sure. Does it have to be big or small? Well, if you have a big desk, but not much use for a big desk, then that won’t work. And the other way around, too. It has to be functional for your needs.

What about storage? Books? If you have books, you need a place to store them, right? Shelves work. Shelving units or shelves mounted on the walls.

Ultimately, I could walk through everything in an office, but really, you have to determine what you need and what priority that has in your life. Will you need a pen to write with? Probably so. But do you really need 50 pens? You can probably get rid of a few of those, right?

Minimalism doesn’t mean spartan and bare. Unless you want it to. As I look at minimalism, it’s about practicality, function and purpose. Start with what the purpose of your office is, then the purpose of the stuff in your office will follow suit. Don’t just ask the question once. Come back to it again and again. Your purposes may change, and then your needs will change with the purpose!

Where to start?

So you’ve been looking at this idea of minimalism for a while now and it sounds great and all, but you’re not quite sure where to start. Great question! You can be paralyzed quite quickly and not be able to make any progress because you’re not sure where to start.

The easy answer.....PICK A PLACE! Start simple. Maybe it’s the drawer that you just throw things in. Here’s the thing....don’t just “go through” it and “organize” it. You’re just rearranging the junk and the clutter. What do you use and what don’t you use? What has value and what doesn’t? You can start with books. You can start with your kitchen utensils. It doesn’t matter where, just picking a place and starting is the most important place.

If you join The Minimalist Musician group on Facebook, I’ll be starting a challenge in August. It’s really, really easy. Each day, you choose the number of items to get rid of corresponding to the number of the day. So, August 1st, you get rid of one thing, the 2nd, you get rid of 2, and so on until you get to the 31st. On the 31st, you’ll have to get rid of 31 things. If you follow this, you will get rid of 496 items. That seems like a lot, but I think once you get going, you’ll see it’s not hard at all! I’ll be giving more details over the next few days in the group so we can get ready to start on August 1st!

Collecting

One of the things that I’ve noticed about myself, and people in general is that we like to collect things. Back when I was younger, I collected baseball, basketball and football cards. That was my focus and passion, second only to music. Once I was in college, I was faced with a dilemma. Do I lug my expansive collection of cards with me or do I get rid of them? They weren’t valuable because they were of the 80’s and 90’s, when cards were overproduced, so I just got rid of them. I haven’t thought much about collecting cards since then.

My girls love Barbies, as many girls do. My youngest daughter’s room has all of the Barbie paraphernalia in it. The dream house, the cars, and a whole ton of Barbies. Many of these things were given to them by a family in our church whose daughter didn’t want her collection anymore. And my girls play with the Barbies quite regularly.....but there’s so much of it!

I could keep going with more examples from my life, but as you’re reading this, you can probably think of many more yourself. We collect things. And when we find something we like, people feel compelled to give us things that help us with that collecting. Now, inherently, there’s nothing wrong with that, until your shelves, your rooms, your house is filled with your collection. And you’re facing the “now what” with all of it. You’re overwhelmed, And you don’t control the stuff, the stuff controls you.

While the optimal first encouragement I’d give in regard to collecting is don’t do it, I have 3 encouragements in helping to deal with your collecting:

1) Find a manageable number. When one new thing comes one, it has to replace another item in your collection. I collected nutcrackers. I’d only put them out at Christmas. I kept a few out regularly. So I decided that 28 nutcrackers were not worth storing, so I kept the 8 I really liked, and got rid of the rest. If I get a new one, it replaces one in my collection.

2) Keep asking yourself why. Ask why you collect these things. Do they bring you joy? Cheer you up? Awesome. Do they serve a purpose? Because if you don’t keep asking why, you may end up with the dinner plates of the world collection and not really have them serve a purpose or have a place to store them!

3) Don’t be afraid to say no. As a musician, much of my music has been handed down or picked up through giveaways. And I’m thankful for that because I’ve found some great music. I’ve also found some awful music, music I’ll never use and music that’s falling apart. Why should I keep it? So, I’ve become more discerning. I’ve learned to look and if there’s music I know I can’t use, I’m not just going to take it and hold on to it to take up space.....I’m not taking it in the first place. No is a hard word to say, but it’s so necessary and beneficial!

Happy collecting!

Digital versus Physical

One of the things I have too much of is books, CDs, DVDs and printed music. They take up so much space in my house! Last night, we went over to a friend’s house, and he asked before we went over if we had bought or rented the movie Black Panther that we watched the night before. We bought it. Digitally. And it got me thinking when the last time I bought a physical movie was. I can’t remember. Between streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and purchasing movies digitally on Amazon Prime, We don’t buy physical movies anymore.

The same thing goes for music. I can’t remember the last time I bought a physical CD. I stream all of my music through Amazon Prime. I’ve uploaded most of what I had already purchased to their site as well, so that I have access all in one place. I’ve been moving that way more with books, as well as sheet music.

Yes, moving from physical to digital can be scary. And can be a lot of work. But to me, it’s worth it, because I have many stacks of books now accessible on my Ipad. It’s far more practical. I can plug my phone in when I’m in my car and play whatever music I’m in the mood for. I don’t have to mess with CDs or where to store them when I’m not using them or whatever the case is.

Yes, it is nice to have the physical things, because you can mark them up, if they’re books. I do still have some CDs, and the reason is because they’re autographed. But, you can make notes with the Amazon Kindle app, if you choose to go that route. Is it exactly the same? No, but it works just as well. And you can digitally check out books from your local library and access them via your device.

To me, the pros far outweigh the cons to go digital. My hope is that by the end of summer, I’ll have everything completely digital, and will have much more space in my house! It is definitely something for you to consider as you continue to go through and sort through all of those physical things and wonder if having all of it is worth it!

What do you have too much of?

Interesting question to ponder, isn’t it? For my daughters, it’s probably Barbie stuff or stuffed animals. For me, it’s probably sheet music. For my wife, I’d say it’s shoes....but she’d disagree! :-) The reality is that we all have too much of something. Sure, we can justify and explain why, but if you really ask yourself the hard question of “do I NEED it”, the answer is probably no.

Growing up, I used to have too many baseball cards. I collected them from when I was about 5 until I was a sophomore in college. I then decided to throw them out. Just threw them out. Didn’t miss them at all. Then, it was CDs. I sold some and gave the rest away to cull my collection down to ones that truly have meaning for me. As for the sheet music, I have gone through some and pared down, but I definitely need to spend time over the summer going through my music and purging some more.

So how do you determine whether you have too much of something? Ask yourself if you need it. Pack it up and put it in the garage for a month and see if you can do without it. Or just go cold turkey and get rid of it. Or, better yet, choose a few of the things that have value to you and get rid of the rest. Then you have a manageable collection of things that has meaning to you. With my CDs, I kept the ones that I had autographed and ones by friends and bands that I really liked. And do you know how much I have listened to CDs? Maybe about 10 hours in total over the past year. So, it’s time to cull again. Why? Because I have everything digitally. And that’s the other thing. It’s always an ongoing process.

Growing up, I loved my grandparents’ nutcracker collection. So, when I got out on my own, I bought a couple of nutcrackers and had them out at Christmas. Of course, more and more and more were purchased for me. It got to over 25 nutcrackers. I decided to get rid of some and get down to 9. And that’s manageable. Now they’re out all the time, not just a massive pile of them at Christmas. Was it hard to get rid of them? Not really. I thought it would be, but it really wasn’t.

So, ask yourself those tough questions. Pack up a few of those things and see if you miss them. Or comment with what you’ve done with the things you’ve had too much of.

Ikea

Yes, I’m writing a blog post about Ikea. Why? Well, we went as a family last Saturday and it was quite fun. Yes, we bought stuff. I know that violates the “rules” some may have of minimalism, but see my last post about the “rules”. Here’s the deal. After exploring the possibility of purchasing our own house (we rent), enough doors were closed where it looks like making another year in our rental house will work. But, we have to be better organized and make the space work. So that’s our summer project.

A big part of that summer project is getting rid of stuff. There’s just too much that we have and do not need. But for my youngest daughter, her room was a disaster. Primarily because we had a dresser that was far too big and not enough efficient storage space. So, that was our primary purchases at Ikea. A new dresser, a bookshelf and a storage unit.

But one of the things that amazed me in looking at Ikea was the creative uses of space. Sure, you could spend a ton of money there and get stuff and not really be better off for it. And really, it doesn’t matter what store you go to, that would be the case. Ikea’s design, though, is definitely to make efficient uses of space.

Will we purchase more stuff at Ikea? Probably. Depending on how our purge and organization process goes. We have a few things that would better benefit us when it comes to organization, whether that is something to put on the wall to keep us better organized when it comes to paper, or storage for things, or whatever the case is. As we go through the process, we’ll figure out. We’re starting with the girls’ bedrooms, then moving out from there.  It’s a process that will be a lot of work, but is necessary and will be beneficial for us in the long run.

Rules of minimalism

Yesterday I wrote a post titled “How many shoes do you need?” I shared it on Facebook and got a few interesting responses. Most of them were actual responses about actual shoes. While I’m glad people have reasons for specific shoes, that wasn’t quite my point. The shoes are a means to an end. You can insert anything for shoes and still have a question that only you can answer.

There has been a big push toward minimalism. But the interesting part of it is that there isn’t any specific “rules” that you must follow. If you want to have 20 shirts, you can. If you want to have 5 shirts, you can too. Really, the biggest rule is how you justify what you have and why you have it. And whether you consider yourself a minimalist or not, Justifying what you have and why you have it is practical and benefiical.

Whether it’s shoes and you having your reasons for 10 pairs of shoes, or CDs and your reasons for having 125 of them, or anything else you come up with, asking yourself the questions, “Why do I have this?”, as well as “Do I need this?” and “What purpose does this serve” will definitely help you to sort out the things that need to stay and the things that need to go.

So it’s not completely about shoes. It’s not about rules. It’s about your individual reasons for why you have what you have. I would guess that many of us, myself included, have plenty of things in our houses that we don’t have very strong reasons for why we have.

How many shoes do you need?

This topic was something my wife and I go back and forth on from time to time. Recently, I brought the topic up and she told me. Black shoes, brown shoes, casual shoes, heels, flats...and she kept going and after that my head started spinning.

When it comes to things, this question of how many do you need is an interesting one. And I’ve gone through this in my life. How many CDs do I need? How many shirts do I need? How many.....you name it.

With minimalism, there aren’t really any specific rules. That’s part of the beauty of it. You’re in charge. For me, the question of shoes is simple. Black and brown dress shoes, running shoes, old running shoes to wear for mowing, causal shoes, and a pair of boots. I’ve got a couple of pair of flip flops, but I rarely wear them. Simple, right? And even that might be excessive to some. But that’s what I’ve chosen as my amount of shoes.

I’m not dogging my wife for her amount of shoes. She does have a lot of them, and over the years we’ve been married, she does do a good job of going through them from time to time to cull them. But whether it is shoes, clothes or anything else, it can be quite easy to justify and explain why we need to have so many of some item. And if we’re honestly asking ourselves the question of if it is needed or what number is needed, we may realize that we don’t need as much as we thought we did.

So...how many shoes do you need?

Conference swag

Yesterday, today and tomorrow, I’m at the Texas Music educators conference. I’ve been to my fair share of conferences and this one is huge! Especially the amount of vendors. And I can remember in the past leaving with a ton of stuff from vendors. It’s overwhelming. And much of it, I just threw out.

So, now with a minimalist mentality, how have I approached this conference differently? Simple. I structured my time at the conference to only have about 2 hours in the vendors area yesterday. While in the vendor area, I had mentally targeted specific vendors to visit. And that’s exactly what I did. Primarily I went to the chocolate fundraiser booths, as I told my girls I’d bring them back some chocolate.

Today and tomorrow, I’m focused on different sessions and getting information and learning instead of getting stuff. This will make my haul back home so much lighter and easier.

So how about you? When you go to conferences or places where there are giveaways and stuff to take home, do you grab handfuls? Or are you more meticulous and planned out? Comment with how you approach this.

How much do you need?

I’m a musician. That’s my job. But I’ve recently been asking myself the question....how much music do I need? Sounds strange, right? Well, considering my organ music as an example. I have over 3,500 titles cataloged, and that’s probably not everything I own. Through the years, I have inherited organ music from family members, had my dad purchase music for me, and I purchased music for myself. I will typically play about 5-7 preludes on a Sunday morning, as well as a postlude. Even going with the high side, of 8 pieces a Sunday, playing everything I currently own, even just focusing on Sundays, without repeating, I’d be looking at about 8 and a half years before I’d need to repeat something. Now, much of my music is seasonal, but still, that’s a lot of music. And so, I’ve purged some. And I’ve also gone through music that I’ve never touched and I’ve found things that I want to work on, things that are fun, and things that I don’t even want to try.

Maybe you’re not a musician. Maybe you’ve got a bunch of something specific. Maybe it’s books. Or CDs....or something else. Do you read/listen to/use all of it? Or is it just taking up space? Maybe it’s time to review what you have and figure out if it’s needed, or remind yourself of why you got that thing in the first place.

It’s easy to collect things. It’s not always easy to review how necessary those things are. Maybe all of them serve a purpose. Maybe not. Or maybe there was a purpose, but now that purpose has changed. This has to be an ongoing process. That’s one of the harder things to do. We can get motivated to go through and determine what the purpose of things are, but does that purpose change in 6 months? In a year? And how do you figure out the purpose? In the past, I’ve gone through our CDs and movies. Honestly, I haven’t put a CD in a CD player in a good 2 years, but I still own CDs. Why? Some of them are autographed. Some have special meaning. But there are many I can do without. Same thing with our DVDs. We stream most everything, so we don’t really need the physical things. However, last week, my wife and I wanted to watch “The Goonies”. It wasn’t streaming, so we played the DVD. It served a purpose.

What is it that you need to determine the purpose of? How are you going to do it? Comment with your feedback.

Sentimentality

Last Friday and Saturday, I went up to my mom’s house to help her go through things. I’ve been trying to get over there about once a month to do things for her and check on her since my dad passed away. Last Saturday morning we started going through things a little bit. And what happened? We got rid of some things, but a lot more were hung on to because of.....sentimentality.

My dad’s first wife left him in the early 70’s and took everything. Literally. I can’t imagine going through that. But that changed him. Anything that was furniture, and that was in the family was very tightly hung on to by my dad. And for almost 41 years my parents were married, so my mom was a part of that as well. So in 1987 when my dad’s dad died, a lot of things came into our house. When my dad’s mom died in 1999, more things came into our house. And now, my mom has all of this stuff. And what do you do with it? Do you hang on to it because it was in the family, and even though it’s really not needed, you feel obligated to hang on to it?

At the end of my paternal grandmother’s life, she needed a walker. As I shared before she passed away in 1999. That walker stayed at our house. In the fall of 2016, my dad was needing a walker. Guess what he pulled out? That same walker. So he hung on to a thing for 17 years as a “just in case”.  And when we were going through things in the garage last Saturday, there was a small box labeled.....”walker parts”. You guessed it, it were extensions for the very same walker. And what did my mom say? “I’m going to hang on to that because I may need a walker.” Frustrating, but when you’ve lived that life and have that mentality, it’s pretty much impossible to change.

So am I saying that you shouldn’t be sentimental about things? Absolutely not! I have things that I am sentimental about, but you have to remember the purpose and place of things. Just because it has been handed down through the family, if you don’t need it and can’t find a use for it, don’t take it. I know that sounds harsh, but you end up with a whole bunch of clutter that makes your life difficult. Memories aren’t the things, they’re inside of us.

In going through things with my mom, I’ve told her that yes there are things that I would like, but it’s a matter of what we’re going to use. And once we buy our house, we’ll have a better idea of what our needs are. But I’m not going to be sentimental about it. I’m going to be practical.

How do you measure progress?

Yesterday, I spent time working in my garage. At the first of the year, and pretty much when I started yesterday, it looked like this:

And by the time I was done, it looked like this:

Am I finished? Goodness no! But it’s progress. So let’s talk about that word progress. Who measures progress? You are the one who can and should measure your progress. That can be on your terms, in your own measurements. Does my progress mean that I got my entire garage cleaned out? No. But there’s places to walk in there. I brought in my plants from outside, because it’s below freezing outside. There are two old bikes that my girls have outgrown that need to go away. That pile that’s basically in the middle is stuff that needs to be gone through. Most of it will go away. Get rid of all of that and you’ve got a whole lot more space and organization. I got as much of the boxes in the recycling container, and as that gets emptied, I’ll add more boxes. So the progress keeps going. Slow, but steady.

So how do you measure progress? I think one of the most helpful things that you can do is to come up with a plan before you start. If you have an hour, or 30 minutes, or 15 minutes, make your plan. Focus on one area, then if you have time, go to the next. The most important parts to remember in making progress is that YOU are the one who determines your progress, and YOU are the one who measures your progress. Sure, you can (and should) enlist the help of others to help hold you accountable. But in the end, the responsibility lies with you. So, make a plan and get to it!

Speaking of plans, I’ve had to alter mine a bit, because while I was supposed to be working today, my wife was supposed to be working and my girls were supposed to be in school, we’re having an ice/freezing rain day. So, instead of trying to do more in the garage (once I do some work from home), I’m going to switch up my focus to inside, where it’s warm! I’ll share some of those results tomorrow.

So now what?

You may be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in your house, whether it’s Christmas stuff or just the overall amount of stuff. You’re ready to get rid of stuff and get rid of the junk and the clutter in your house. Awesome. So now what? Where do you start?

Trying to do everything at once is overwhelming. And impossible. And will lead to frustration and more than likely, you won’t get far. So, what to do? Start small. Start simple. There’s a couple of different directions and suggestions I’ll give for you to consider.

First, pick a room. Focus on that room for a month. I saw this suggested in a Minimalist Facebook group and I thought that there was some positive things that could come out of this. If you focus on one room for that period of time, you can really focus on getting down to the things that are really beneficial to you. This makes things less overwhelming and it helps you to be more focused and concentrated.

Another alternative is something that I’ve picked up from the bloggers The Minimalists. They do what they call the “30 day minimalism game”. The idea is that based on what the number of the day is, that is how many items you get rid of. So, day 1, it’s 1 item, day 2, it’s 2, and so on. This can be very beneficial, as well as quite challenging. I did it in the month of November, and while it was challenging, I found it quite fruitful.

No matter what way you choose to do, start somewhere. It could be that you pick tonight and start with your closet. Awesome. Start and start simple. Maybe it’s each day you’re focusing on a shelf or a drawer or something. You can do it. We can do it. Together. Over the next couple of days I’ll be sharing more about what I’ll be doing to close 2017 and get started into 2018.

Join The Minimalist Musician Facebook group!

Stuff, stuff, stuff!

While we’re regularly obsessed with stuff, in the month of December, we become even more obsessed with stuff. Decorations, getting, giving, stuff is everywhere. So how do you survive and focus in on what’s most important when you’re surrounded by stuff?

Surviving can be simple, yet very difficult. When you’re asked about what you would like, give an honest answer. My wife and I had a conversation with my mother because she wanted to get my daughters something physical for Christmas. We told her to get them an AMC gift card so that they can go see a movie. Personally, I’d rather have all of us go to a movie as opposed to more stuff in their rooms that will get left everywhere and broken.

As you’re getting your Christmas decorations out, ask yourself this question. “Is this beneficial for me?” If it isn’t, don’t put it up. Or better yet, get rid of it! And the same way with presents. When you’re thinking about what to give, give something that isn’t going to just be used, broken and/or discarded. Give something that is beneficial for the other person.

I want to finish with a short word on expectations. A lot of times in this time of year, we place unrealistic expectations on ourselves or others. You are human. You can only do so much. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to come from the heart and be genuine. Place realistic expectations on yourself and others. It will make your Christmas much happier!