Few things in life are clear to us but one thing that has finally become very clear to me is I do not want to be a minimalist. For quite some time we have been downsizing our household things with the purpose of not having so much for our children to deal with when we have passed on.
In the process of doing this we both have found that we like things around us.
We cannot be a gardener without tools, I cannot be a seamstress without fabric, thread, and notions. I cannot be a cook without pots and pans, ladles and spatulas.
I can be neat and tidy and have a clean house but a minimalist I cannot be. My husband and I enjoy our home and tablecloths, dinner napkins, place mats, doilies, table runners and such.
We enjoy our romantic dinners with assorted dishes and our oil lamps. We also enjoy our old fashioned life and living a simple life does not necessarily mean our home is simple and plain. To us it means we do not buy in to all the modern ways and goods that come with it that are very plastic, poorly made and sometimes toxic.
We like keeping things around us that remind us of the past or our loved ones as this wooden car that my husbands father Charlie built.
We enjoy eating homemade food and sharing and collecting recipes. I like cooking potato pancakes/fritters from left over potatoes. I normally cook extra potatoes and that leaves the makings for these the next day.
We like our old enamelware pans and books and rugs.
I think a simple life for us would actually mean a "real" life, a simple and real life. We have gradually gotten rid of the cheaply made, short working appliances and gadgets and brought back the durable goods of the past.
Our life is informal, interesting, clean and a home and garden that can be anything we need it to be as long as we have the proper tools, the stamina to do the things that we need to do to keep ourselves and our home maintained.
As some of you know we are going to spend one year or so, maybe more living like 1942. We do not have a lot to change for us to do this since we already live quite old fashioned. This will not be earth shattering or we may find there is very little to do differently. For us it will be more reading and learning what was going on during that time and working a bit harder at getting a victory garden to bring in a harvest.
Our portion size of our foods is one thing that we will work on and we need to be more disciplined and food rations were just beginning in 1942 so we will not have to fiddle with ration stamps.
The way we will be eating will be much healthier doing this as long as we stay away from too much tinned food. We will eat simple, basic meals and try some of the 1942 recipes that are not familiar, if they sound tasty to us.
Plates from the 1940s were much smaller than plates of today. That should tell us something about serving sizes back then.
Since I have determined that I am not a minimalist I feel much better about holding on to those things I feel are important or have meaning. I guess I am an old fashioned, simple living, real life gal that is moving past the vintage time of my life to becoming an antique.
We will keep our mixed tablecloths, linens, assorted patterns of dishes, extra towels, toothbrushes, soaps, books, tools, quilts, bedding, yarn, fabric, old patterns and the such. I like it this way.
We are not hoarders, that is a different issue and nothing like simple living/real life just to be clear.
I just wanted you to know that I have finally found myself, at least on this topic. I better go now I need to straighten and rotate the pantry today :)
Grandma Donna
Older post you might like;
http://gdonna.com/old-fashioned-organizing/a-comfo...
http://gdonna.com/old-fashioned-organizing/the-sea...
