kaputse

A frequent reader of /r/minimalism will notice that clothing is often a starting point for aspiring minimalists ... for obvious reasons. :)

Although I am not very fashion-conscious I recently was fed up with low quality t-shirts that would not last more than three washes.  When it comes to a good bang for your buck nothing beats Puma t-shirts, but I have bought this stuff since ever (change for a reliable source of quality clothing wanted) and my wife was also looking for some replacements.

I remembered an interview with Wolfang Grupp I read several months ago and his company Trigema. They produce sportswear  "100% made in Germany" for a reasonable price tag. They also promote a worker friendly image, big plus for that if true. Social? Check. Ecological? Check. Qualitiy? Open.

We went to a factory outlet and the first thing I noticed was the looks we got from all those older people. :) But the second look showed me a store that was perfectly sorted. You find shelf by shelf of clothes ordered first by their type (hoodie, t-shirt, ... ), than by their material (cotton, bio-cotton, mixed fabric, ...), than by size and at least by color. The little obsessive in me made a big jump with joy. :)

Also they have some nice merino-wool stuff that has a good fitting for a nice price tag.

We took a bunch of clothes with us, in different sizes and fabrics. The fit is nice, the colors are good and all the material feels really sturdy. I am curios for the long-term test.

PS: If you read this Trigema, what about an subscription model like lot2046 does it? I would like that.

#minimalism #simplify

Hello friendly people of the interwebz, I want to reboot this blog with a little (success) story that happened the last few months.

Have you ever felt down or stressed out for no obvious reason? Unsatisfied and a feeling of incompletion bothering you? Hating to do the never ending housework and at the same time never getting everything done?

Thats me for the last four years when my wife and I started to build our house and move back to our families to branch out our own little spin-off.

Today we have two wonderful children, a highly functional home and are done with most of the interior. And - as always - most of the stuff we brought in with us from our last home, did not get back to use or was replaced with something newer/better. Additionally there are boxes full of stuff from our university days, old computers, clothes, more clothes and even more clothes - that will never ever again see the light of day.

Although you would not see this stuff around the house - because I hid it on the attic and the lumber room - it always nags in the back of my head. It is there and one day I need to do something with/about it. Additionally it takes a lot of space that would be better used for the stuff we really use. That makes it way harder to maintain a tidy home that is easy to clean - especially with two kids.

Cleaning can be really easy if you have fewer things. Let’s look at how we might clean the floor if we had an owl sculpture in the room.
Step 1: Move the owl over.
Step 2: Wipe the floor where the owl had been sitting.
Step 3: Return the owl to its original position.
And if we didn’t have this statue in our home?
Step 1: Wipe the floor.
There! Done! It’s that simple. It takes a third of the effort, and probably a third of the time, to clean the floor.

(Goodbye things, Fumio Sasaki)

It is exactly like that and since we moved I tried to employ a habit of throwing away stuff that is no longer used, but I think now that I was not forceful enough. Things started to pile up again and the old stuff was still around.

Than came my second parental leave and we eventually had the time to really start decluttering - besides going on a month long camping trip to Corsica. :)

Today we nearly halved - or so ^^ - our physical possessions by throwing away everything that is no longer needed and can be easily re-bought if we ever need it again. I also gave up on all the "projects" that were waiting for me to come back to them "as soon as there was time". A great mental relieve. There is still a small percentage of stuff that needs decluttering but overall it looks very promising.

Our things are like room mates, except we pay their rent.
(Goodbye things, Fumio Sasaki)

Or like my wonderful wife said when we unpacked the van after coming back from Corsica:

Why exactly do we need more stuff than this?!

<3

#decluttering #minimalism #simplify