Category: Simplify

Went through a large plastic tub of stuff I’ve been saving to sell on eBay. Listed a set of vintage (1980’s) Cannondale cycle bags hoping to make $80 for Doctors Without Borders. I’ll recycle the remaining items shown here: they’re worth so little, it’s just not worth the effort selling them.

Today, I realized I’d probably left my Amex card in a restaurant that’s closed today. A couple taps in the Amex app delivered an immediate digital replacement to Google Wallet. A physical card will arrive tomorrow morning. Pretty neat, I thought.

We’d been doing this wrong for 35 years! While making coffee this morning, used a tip we recently learned: add one drop of water before grinding. This reduces static which causes coffee grounds to clump and stick to the grinder. The grinder only needs a quick wipe with a sponge.

Today was chilly, windy, and damp, a good day to go through a heap of papers, scanning what I want to retain, then shredding every last sheet.

Retrieved one month of mail. There would’ve been more mail without: —E-billing. —PaperKarma to cancel unwanted commercial mail. —Catalog Choice to cancel catalogs. —OptOutPreScreen to opt out of credit card and insurance offers. Most of the mail still went straight to recycling.

Wallked the Minneapolis Skyways to avoid frostbite. At a small tailoring business, Dwight dropped off a much-loved, 25-year-old shirt for a $6 repair: the antithesis of fast fashion.

Our corkscrew fell apart. The solution was obvious: screw caps.

On my simplification journey, it was time to send 6 of my rattiest tee shirts to recycling and replace them with 4 shirts. Cooking takes its toll: olive oil is for ever; holes mysteriously appear when drying sharp kitchen knives on my shirt.

Reduced our sitting room to what we need/want. Shipped off a sofa, sofa table, and coffee table to be auctioned. A new sofa will arrive in August, but we’re not replacing the tables. Less is more.