Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Year of Less

I have enjoyed reading Kelly's blog, The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking, and now I'm really looking forward to reading her new adventure, A Year of Less.  In her words...

By western standards, we don't have much.  We have five (soon to be six)  kids in a house little more than 1000 sq. feet.  We live with one vehicle, no fancy vacations, on one modest income. But we still have too much.  Too much stuff, too much debt, too much to do.  Too many things vying for our attention. As Christians we believe that we are meant to be world changers.  Compassionate.  Radical. Set apart for God. This world and its stuff ought not to have a hold on us.  But it does.  Somewhere along the line we traded Jesus in for a Christianized version of the American Dream.  We grew cold to the needs of a starving world. We fell for the lie that what we really need comes from a store. It doesn't.
So consider this a fast of sorts.  Or an experiment.  Or a personal resolution with the added accountability that living your life online brings.


She's only on Day Three so check it out and follow along if you feel so inclined.

 

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link, Charlotte! I checked it out and liked the look of the blog (always a biggie for me). What's more, I LOVE the premise. She had me at "giving up paper towels" b/c that's been something I'm considering.

    'Course that would mean getting rid of that wooden rack...

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  2. Thanks for the link. This very topic has been heavy on my mind lately.

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  3. Thanks for the links! I clicked over... and then headed to the kitchen to clean out my towel drawers. I don't use very many paper towels, and just yesterday (while cleaning out my pantry) I thought it was ridiculous that I buy them in bulk and they take up so much space! I've been looking for the perfect paper towel holder for my counter (I had wanted one with a fleur di lis on top) but maybe I should continue to just focus on de-cluttering my kitchen, instead of decorating... hmmmm.... I can't decide! ;)

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    1. I know... I'm looking at my stash of fabric and thinking I could sew some simple tea towels to use as napkins. I don't know that we'd get rid of them completely, but I think we could certainly use less.

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    2. Have you seen this idea before? I just saw it last night and love the idea, I think! :) You could probably make these: Reusable, Eco Friendly Snapping Paper Towel Set

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  4. Thanks for the link. I have a book about chosing Amish values for our modern world in my to-read pile. And I have "threatened" my children with throwing away half of what we own. All that before I clicked over. Should be interesting!

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  5. I so needed this link!! Thank you!! I just finished the book "It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff" by Peter Walsh. And this goes along perfectly with what I'm trying to accomplish - getting rid of clutter/stuff. I'm excited she's only on day 4! I hope she gets the monthly challenges up soon. :)

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yourself!