My Old Fashioned Reel Lawn Mower

I enjoy doing lawn work.  I have as long as I can remember.  I believe it is a learned behavior from spending a lot of time with my Grandma L who loves to garden.  Gardening with her is one of my fondest childhood memories.  My grandparents had a big yard sweeper, to sweep up all of the grass once it was cut.  I spent so much time pushing the sweeper around their yard, following behind my grandpa on the lawn mower. I always found it rewarding to work out in the sun. 

As a teenager I always offered to mow the lawn.  The issue for me was that I could never start our push mower.  I still as an adult have a difficult time starting our push mower.  I had always wanted a reel mower, the type people used before the invention of the fancy gas powered mowers. 

Last fall I found an old fashioned reel push mower for free on the side of the road.  I pulled up and checked it out when an older lady came out of the garage.  He told me that her kids bought it for her and she found it too difficult  to push up the steep hill at her house.  It had only been used one time and she just wanted it gone.  I offered to pay her but she refused.  So I loaded it as quickly as possible into my car.  I was more excited than a kid at Christmas. 

Unfortunately, it was fall and our grass never grew enough to allow me to mow.  This spring, as soon as all of the snow was gone, I had it out lowering it to my liking.  It works beautifully! I do not have to fight with the pull start or worry about running out of gas. I can talk to my kids while I use it and the best part in my opinion is that there are no emissions! 

Yes it does use more man power than a standard small engine push mower to maneuver it around the yard.  I consider it to be a good work out.  We still have our gas powered lawn mower to appease Lunchie.  He figures that one day he might have to mow and he would rather use the gas mower.  If it were up to me I would sell the gas mower or give it to someone who needs it.  

I love the simplicity of the reel lawn mower.  When thinking or living minimal it is definitely the way to go!   

Quality not Quantity

Over Memorial Day weekend we loaded up our van and headed to see our family who lives eight hours away.  While visiting we attended a Comic Con,  Lunchie is a collector of comic books.    

The convention hall was packed with table after table full of comics, toys, and collectibles.  I could see my husband's eyes light up like a kid at Christmas.  We walked slowly through each isle looking everything over completely.  At one booth there were thousands of comics.  People were surrounding the booth with arm fulls of books.  I could swear I saw Lunchie drool a little. 

Before we left for the comic convention we set a modest budget.  Once we got into the con it became apparent that our budget was really small compared to the prices.  We spent a few hours walking through the con with out buying anything before we left to get lunch.  

At lunch we discussed quality versus quantity.  After looking at prices, the quality option was that he could spend 75% of the budget and get an artist to draw a cover specifically for him and still have 25% to spend on other random items.  The other option was to spend the whole budget and leave with 50 or more comic books and other items.  

After much internal debate he decided to have a blank Superior Spider-man cover drawn for him by the current artist, Ryan Stegman.  He then had Ryan Browne draw a cover to another blank comic for him. This used 95% of his budget.  He then bought a few $0.50 comics to share with the boys as well as a few for himself.  

Watching the other people at the con walking around with their arms full of bags was hard for him.  I know he debated with his decision the whole weekend until we were leaving.  I think it was almost an "ah ha" moment.  He had two comic's that will never be recreated as well as the time he spent forming relationships with the two artists. 

Had he chose to buy the quantity option he knew the comic's would have ended up in a box not to be seen or read.  He is now looking to get two frames for the comics to hang in his office. 

I often wonder why we chose quantity over quality.  I believe that big box stores have lead us to believe that it is better to have more items than to have a few high quality items.  At a big box store you can buy a large number of bathroom towels for very little money compared to buying them at a department store.  However, the towels purchased at the box store are not the same quality and are not going to last as long as the department store towels.  I know this from experience.  

My grandmother was a stern believer of purchasing things from department stores.  When she passed away I inherited her bathroom towels.  These were added to my supply of box store towels.  Now 10 years later I still have and use some of the towels that were my grandmothers.  Granted they aren't beautiful and I hide them from guests, but they are still soft and free of holes.  My box store towels barely lasted me 3 years. 

With the cost of replacing towels every 3 to 4 years you could save your self money in the long run by buying the more expensive towels that will hold up longer. 

We've been trained to think more is always better, which isn't always the case.  I am always looking for a good deal, but when it comes to some things you just can't skimp on quality. 

Life without a Dryer

Oh a dryer!  Nice warm clothes and blankets!  As much as I do love those things we currently do not have a dryer.  I hang every item of clothing I wash on the line or on our drying rack.  I know you think I am crazy, right?  

When we moved to Wisconsin we sold our washer and dryer set with our house.  Our apartment came equipped with a full size washer and dryer in our unit. It was not a worry until we moved into our new place that didn't have a washer or dryer, just hook ups.  At the time we did not have the extra money to be buying a new set so I scoured local sites until I found each at a very cheap price, around $25 each.  The washer lasted us a little over a year and the dryer a year and a half.   

After the washer went out we bought a high efficiency washer from a friend who was getting a new set.  Her dryer had broken.  The washer is only a year old and runs like a champ.  Not to mention these new high efficiency washer get every last drop of water out during the spin cycle, I am impressed!  When the dryer died earlier this year I decided to hang all of our clothes to dry.  I was lucky enough to be given a folding drying rack, I have enough space in my laundry room to hang a line, and I also have a line outside.  

I know you are thinking why not fork over the money and buy a new dryer?  

Sometimes the idea of having a dryer seems nice, it would be convenient and much quicker.  However having said that, my grandmother always hung the laundry out to dry.  In many European countries people do not own dryers but hang everything year round.  I do not see owning a dryer as a necessity right now when I can dry my clothes for free in the sun.  When winter arrives I might be signing a different tune. 

Line drying takes time but has it's benefits.  We don't heat up our house during those warm summer months drying clothes.  I fold and put away each clothing item as it dries, I do not have clothes baskets full of clothes waiting to be folded or put away.  Our clothes seem to be lasting longer. Most of all we are saving electricity. 

Line drying isn't for everyone, though at one point and time it was the only choice.  I now stay on top of my laundry piles.  I typically do laundry every other day or twice a week for our family of five.  I always make sure that my boys sports jerseys are ready for their next game, not once has anyone wore a wet or damp shirt to a ball game. I don't have the option to forget or wait until the last minute which has eased a lot of the stress of getting three kids dress and out the door with matching socks, jerseys and pants on game day. 

Line drying or using a dryer, dirty clothes are one thing that we can all count on having to deal with!  

The Never Ending Paper Trail

One of the things I seem to struggle the most with is paperwork.  It seems like it is never ending! There was a time in my marriage where I kept everything.  Year's worth of electric bills, my fear would always be that the company would say we missed a payment at some point. (Never-ever happened) I have finally concurred my fear of needing to prove I paid something, and have managed to finally manage our paper trail.

The sources of our paper work for us are school, work, sports and mail.  I have one specific corner in our kitchen that seems to be the catch-all for all of these papers.  It seems like whenever the corner gets completely emptied more papers come into the pile. 

I feel like I am never ahead in the paper fight, but I have developed a few different strategies to combat the clutter.  I have made each boy a specific spot to display their school work. It works really well and displays each child's newest accomplishment.  (Like photo below)



I have a peg board for all of the important notes from school and the larger art projects that won't fit into the gallon zip lock bag.  I also post all of our sporting schedules and sporting paperwork here. 

I try to sort our mail everyday, try being the key word there.  We do not get much mail and there are times where we do not get any mail at all. (Those days are my favorite!)  We receive all most all of our bills electronically now. It was originally a huge adjustment for me to no longer have a paper bill in my hand.  For a while I was writing due dates on the calendar so I wouldn't forget.  However paying the majority of our bills online has had some big benefits.  It has cut down drastically on the number of checks we right and how often we need to buy checks and stamps.  I don't have to worry about filing the bill after its paid and throwing away all of those inserts. Not to mention the benefit of  not having the company use paper to print our bill and then mail them.  I now hate having to pay a bill the "old fashioned" way.  

I have a smaller file box where I keep all of our important documents as well as any owners manuals, etc.  This is one of my downfalls because I hate filing! I usually stack the papers up on top of the file box until I have enough to file away.  I'm going to need to find a better system sometime. ;)

It took me a long time to figure out what paper need to be saved and what could be pitched. I now try to make the decisions as soon as the papers are in my hand.  Otherwise I tend to keep everything and nothing gets pitched.  Developing a system that works for you is essential in managing the influx of papers, and then sticking to it!  

Good Luck concurring your own paper trail!
-TMW.

(Thanks for the use of the photo Classroom DIY. http://www.classroomdiy.com/p/welcome.html )

Confessions of a Ex Extreme Couponer

Before I was focused on minimalism I use to dedicate a lot of time to finding coupons, matching them with sales add's, scouring the internet and blog sites for deals.  I followed at least 5 different local blogs that posted deals where using coupons you could purchase items for little or no money.  Sometimes large quantities of items.  I would find myself buying items that my family would never use because I could get them cheap.  I still have a few citronella candles that I purchased last spring for $0.02 each.   The thrill of getting an item cheap or free was awesome! 

Eventually our freezer, refrigerator, and cupboards were stuffed with food and couponing items.  I talked my husband into buying a smaller used deep freezer and it eventually got packed to the top.  We weren't even eating everything I was buying and I was having to throw away lots of food because of it spoiling. The small freezer ran a lot, which wasn't a big deal until we got our electric bill.  It had almost doubled! But I thought it was okay because we were buying lots of food for around $30 a week if that.

Then we had a power outage, for almost two days.  We were trying to eat everything in our fridge and freezers before it thawed or spoiled.   We weren't successful.  I had 10 cans of frozen juice concentrate that melted and spoiled before it could be used,  lots of meat that had to be thrown out and other frozen foods.  While emptying the freezer I had an Oprah Ah Ha moment.  Having so much food didn't make any since if we weren't going to use it and I was just going to waste it all. 

I started looking at how much money I was spending trying to find deals.  Every Sunday I was purchasing at least one if not two newspapers.  I was printing around 10 coupons every week, and I was running to stores all the time trying to find these deals.  75% of the time by the time I would make it to the store with the sale the items would already be sold out.   I was wasting a lot of time and money hunting down things we didn't need.  

I believe shows about extreme couponing have opened many stores eyes.  Many stores are now changing their coupon policies making it much more difficult to buy large quantities of things and items at a large discount or for free.  

So I sold the freezer, stopped following all of the blogs, no longer purchase the newspapers for the sole purpose of coupons,  and no longer print mass amounts of coupons.   I have found that by giving up extreme couponing I have so much more time and we are able to save money just by budgeting. 

We are currently member's of a club warehouse store.  Yup, I know it doesn't seem like buying in bulk would be very minimalist thing to do.  However, I menu plan two weeks to a month in advance.  I also try to purchase at least two weeks worth of food at one time, sometimes a month worth.  We originally joined the warehouse store because I got a really good deal on a membership through a groupon.  I have found that some meats such as chicken breast are more than $1.00 cheaper than purchasing it from my grocery store.  When I purchase the big pack of chicken  breasts I divide them up individually and freeze them.  I also divide up burger into smaller servings  before freezing. 

Many things I buy will last us a whole month. Such as snack foods for the boys and condiments. I buy paper towels, toilet paper and some cleaning products that last us at least two months.  By meal planning for a whole month I am able to buy bulk things at the warehouse club that will provide us with more than one meal.  At the end of the month or two weeks I am always pleased to see that our cupboards, fridge and freezer are almost empty.   This means I have successfully menu planned and we are not wasting a lot, if any food.  

Menu planning has made my life much simpler and has helped us minimize the amount of food waste we have.   Buying in bulk and being members of a warehouse store isn't for everyone but it works for our family of five. 

-TMW.