Catch-all Catch-up & a Few New Shopping Rules

So it's been a while! I don't normally do personal life updates on here, but it might help explain my 2 month blogging hiatus. I don't normally HAVE to do personal life updates, since my life tends to be rather similar on a day-to-day basis- work, exercise, eat, live.

But one week after my last entry in November, I got an interview for a new job (which I will be starting in a week!), got accepted into grad school at Penn State and started "officially" dating a pretty cool guy. That was a lot for one week, then mix in the holidays, a pending job transition, and everything else in life, and well, something's gotta give :)

I'll confess, I also joined Pinterest during that timeframe. That didn't help any free time I thought I had. But Pinterest is no more for me. It made me feel overstimulated & uncreative, plus for me, it was a time suck. I think it's a great tool for some people out there, but it's not for me. (nevermind the MAJOR beef I have with their so-called "fitness" category. How is staring at photo-shopped abs of 20 year olds going to actually motivate anyone to adopt a healthier lifestyle? It's setting up fitness as an unachievable goal which is totally not right.)

I also found out that blogging = accountability. When I know I am accountable to the cyber-world for things like minimalism and frugality, I'm a lot less likely to buy stupid stuff I don't need. In the two months off blogging, I slipped! So I have a few new shopping rules to live by-

• Only buy clearance items if they were already on your list
• "Cheap" does not mean "you need this"
• Don't shop close to closing time: you're more likely to buy something in a rush instead of carefully considering the purchase

I suppose we all must screw up from time to time in these areas to remind ourselves why we picked frugality and simplicity in the first place. Attempting to resell mistake purchases is an excellent way to give yourself a reality-check for the "value" of your items. (side note: minimalist preachers frequently tout the benefit of "you can make money by selling your surplus items!" as a reason to be a minimalist. I don't know who they are selling their old crap to and making money, because around here, you don't get a lot of $ for old crap. This is because it's old crap.) I sold several things to a second-hand store & got a whopping $9.10. This doesn't quite cover the cost of my mistake items, but it lessens the blow.

So as 2012 gets rolling, I'm getting back in the groove. I started the 2012 Declutter Calendar. It's pretty good! It gives you one fairly simple task to do each day for decluttering. I have it on my fridge & mark each day as to whether or not I had to do the activity (like if the activity was "clean out one garage shelf" and I don't have a garage).

I'll also be co-hosting a clothing & accessories exchange in the next few months. We're combining it with a bra donation for a women's shelter & an instruction session on "How Your Bra Should Actually Fit" taught by one of my friends.

I hope your 2012 is starting well!