Minimalists Make the Biggest Impressions

We all try to make good first impressions, whether for a job interview, date, or new guest coming to our little house, we do our best to clean up.  We tidy.  We wash.  We polish.  We even go to extensive lengths to hide our most sensitive flaws.  Of course we do   Making a good impression is everything.  The more we do it the more impressive we become.  New tie.  New dishware.  New car.  New house.  Bigger house?  I’m not going to suggest what the limit is where making an impression changes from good habit to unhealthy behavior because that’s probably different for everyone, but we should be aware of it consciously so we’re not fooling ourselves out of sustainability.  You know you better than I do.  I always clean up for a first time guest in my home, and while I can’t say I haven’t let myself fall into glorified purchase traps, I can say it is line I am more aware of the older and wiser I grow.

On one hand we have the little things we do that show we put in the effort, and on the other we have the things that social consumerism has sold to our need to fulfill our own sense of status.  Are we trying to make a good impression or are we trying to impose our self-greatness?  This is something everyone should be thinking about when they are shopping. Quality of purchase should mean things like cost vs. usefulness, and longevity.  We often get that confused with brand, and public opinion.  This is one of the most powerful traps of consumerism.  And we fall for it frequently.  Just look at watches and purses and track those two obvious items across the mall and count how many brands you recognize that identify with a personality in some way.  They even sell fancy caskets to the dead, as if we need to continue to make an impression from the grave. We don't need to buy anything to make a good impression or to be remembered.

Occasionally we might find ourselves with this same purchase debate when buying for another person as a gift.  Buying for others is specifically hard.  What a purchase does, is it says what we think about their value in our lives.  What brand we buy for someone says a lot about what they mean to us.  But then, what does that mean to them?  If the answer was as simple as ‘Nothing’, just ask a father about his son’s first car, or a daughter about her Prom dress.  Buying for others can take great emotional strain.  Were our thoughtful efforts put to good use by getting them a great gift?  Once in a blue moon, there is such a thing as a truly great gift, but in my experience, dumb luck is involved because I had happened upon something that person was really craving, not because I did a wonderful job at brand selection.  Most of the time we appease, and sometimes we even disappoint.  Speaking of disappoint, returns are a huge part of the holiday season, Dec. 26 is one of the busiest shopping days, second only to black friday.  What people remember about us are not the things we give them, but how we make them feel.  Listen intensely, and modestly.  Find humor, and laugh with someone.  Encourage their dreams.  Engage their minds.  Give the gift of loyalty, and humanity.  Its far more valuable than any purchase we make, and when consistent, it lasts a lifetime.

Gifts are impressive, they aren’t impressions.  The harder we try to impress others, the more counterproductive those efforts become.  Can we really outdo ourselves consistently with things, and declare that it is a sustainable path to winning friendship and love?  My final suggestion on impressions is selfishness.  That’s right.  Selfishness.  I don’t mean for us to all become jerks and to quit thoughtfulness or empathy.  See above: Listen intensely.  Selfishness doesn’t have to be a contradiction to integrity or humanity.  Have you ever noticed that dedicating several hours of the week to your own health and fitness draws people to you, or even commands compliments and questions of interest?  This is healthy selfishness.  We need to do the things that make us healthy, secure, and above all else, happy.  The better we do at self love, the stronger we become.  The stronger we become, the more we impress ourselves.  Have you ever reached a challenging goal, and were amazed at your own accomplishment?  Its infectious to others, and its often visibly noticeable as well.  Regardless of other people’s tastes or motives, the more we impress ourselves, the more impressive we are to those other people adjacent to us.  And when we’re humble beings, living off of our merit alone, treating ourselves to accomplishment, and treating others graciously rather than trying to impress with those consumable gifts or self image products, and staying aligned with our belief in minimalism, we can transcend making an impression, and we become something else entirely.  We become inspiration.

Corporation Crush

Piecing together a couple of historical events, coupled with a current struggle in the housing market amidst ongoing recovery corrections from the collapsed real estate bubble, I have discovered an unfulfilled human desire. ( I also pieced together this hiking boot on a backpack trip, maybe you'll follow the metaphor later) Low inventory has buyers trapped, yet there is a significant inventory out in the distant suburbs of really big houses and its got the market confused. Disparity on the low end and glut on the high end. Start up homeowners are unfulfilled. This desire, perhaps has always been tucked away under the surface of consumerism.  This desire shows itself in various ways, but is self evident in all of us.  This desire is the lack of profound meaning in our lives.  In every single way we are consumers first, then sentient beings second.  We want more meaning.  We want more connection.  We want more unfathomable and profound passion.  We want something more.  We all want to save this world.  Some of us find that in religion.  Some of us find that by trying to return to nature.  Wherever we seek this deeper connection to the legacy of our lives, we buy something.  The church has a CEO with a yacht and we buy into their collection plates.  Nature has been bought by wealthy landowners or through eminent domain by the state and is parceled off to us for vacation for a fee.  The wild is a thing of the past, lost to the archives in the annals of history.  Love has been absorbed by holidays.  Going green has been confiscated by marketing firms and label slapped on every consumable good that we put into our body for survival, and its expensive, however!!, most natural, and healthiest, smartest lifestyle choice we can make.  “Shut up and take my money!”, boldly and honestly exclaims every amazeballs thing on the internet.

So how do we finally beat back capitalism from controlling every single aspect of our lives? It seems so daunting. Capitalism. Big Pharma. Wall Street. Too big to fail means the same as way, way, way, too big for little old me to fight back. 

It can all start with the home.  When I bought my first home, I followed what was marketed to me by society. I wanted 2.3 children, a dog, and a fenced in yard, with a fireplace and a glorious man cave.  And I found it, a real gem.  It was 3 bedrooms, with a big master, hardwood floors, east facing bay windows to welcome the early morning sun, a brick arched fireplace, a lower-level I could turn into a woodshop, attached garage, and with a surrounding privacy fence in the back, even with a redwood deck for relaxing under the stars, *and it was even located off a park with trails that went all the way to the downtown so I could choose to drive, bike, or walk to my nearby metropolis.  It was going to become my own little paradise.  Only, I didn’t have kids just then.  It felt empty and I still desired meaning.  I did get a dog.  But I also did what everyone does with extra space. I filled it all with things to make it feel proportionally purposeful.  I got a rolltop desk.  I got a daybed.  I got a bigger sofa.  Eventually, I took in a roommate and, because the dog didn’t need extra space, that was honestly the only thing that actually worked toward curing the emptiness. This was a good learning experience.  If I had stayed in a smaller living space, I would not have acquired as many things because we all know we are forced to turn down items that we don’t have space for, like a pool table. But we say yes when there is a void, like to the same pool table.  

We have emotional voids, and we have physical voids.  The easiest and best thing to eliminate is the physical void.  Buy a smaller house or rent a smaller apartment: Fill it with less stuff. The math here is pretty easy.  Force yourself to organize.  Force yourself to buy fewer clothes.  Force yourself to gut your old storage boxes and donate or discard the things you do not actually need to survive.  We all cling emotionally to our stuff.  We need to stop that.  We all need to stop filling our emptiness with that which we do not need to survive.  I need to stop filling my emptiness with things that I won’t miss when I’m old and dying, which, if you’ve ever been around the dying, is nothing but memories.  They talk about events, time shared with loved ones, and sometimes about regrets.  They never talk about that clock that they hung onto because it reminded them of their mother.  They talk about their mother.  I have dead people’s stuff.  It is my biggest weakness. Full disclosure: I have a lot of things from dead loved ones.

Native Americans could pack up an entire village and carry it by hand, and by horse, and in one trip, within about a day. It took me a month to box up my crap last time I moved and we needed a truck for just two people. I'm sure you can relate. We're a collection of crap and we're swelling. The average total finished square foot home built in 1950 was 1580sf.  Currently, its 2450sf.  And that growth is certainly not for human need.  That 55% spacial growth is 55% more energy cost, more personal belongings, more cleaning products, more interior and exterior maintenance costs.  When you consider all the extra care you need to put into that 55% more space it becomes exponential.  Now, consider that in 1950, everything was paid for up front, in cash, other than maybe the mortgage.  Now add up all the stuff in your house, and put compound interest on it because you may have paid for it with a credit card, and add up all that additional square footage, and the space filling stuff, tack on those interest payments, and throw all of it on your back because that’s how much debt you owe the banks of the world, and you’ll be working it off for the rest of your life. I hope you feel where I'm going with this. We want to beat wall street, right? It starts with ourselves.

So, Why not buy into smaller housing? Or maybe its: How much space do we really need? And I mean really, really, and truly need. Not, how much space would feel comfortable? Not, how many bedrooms would we like to have for all the family growth? But How much space do we really need? And then, don’t buy any more than that. No matter what. Pay the mortgage extra times per year. Get rid of housing debt in 15 years instead 30. Make it so the total of your bills are food, taxes, and warmth. If you still work a career after that, take bigger vacations. Give more to charity. Start a massive savings program again. Drink a bottle of wine that costs 2 thousand dollars, just so you can say you did. Rebuild a 1937 Mercedez Benz. Rebuild a church. Whatever it is you dream about, you can make a reality, but only after quitting corporate America. It won’t be easy. It means sacrificing all those empty luxuries. I only say empty because that’s what they are in reality. We’re used to them. They're our identity. They are part of us. They don’t want to be amputated. They’ll call to us. They’ll be clingy. They’ll seem so important. They’ll keep showing up in commercials and in newsfeeds to remind us how great they are for us. But they are empty. They’re soulless. They mean nothing. They don’t require quarter in our homes. Say no to them. Better yet, buy a little tiny house, and then tell them there’s no room so they can’t argue. Say yes to your dreams.

Reclaim, Refinish, Repurpose

For Earth month, I have been considering a typically non-public portion of my business plan dealing with sustainability, or “going green” as the term goes.  This phrase is something I feel gets strewn about pretty loosely these days simply because it sounds good.  Transparency is another phrase currently common to our ears.  We all must have our secrets or we would never survive business in cut-throat capitalist society.  I will never discuss all my secret plans or talents in my corner of the market or I’d be extinguished by my competition, but I do want to be transparent about my practices and my plans to be more “green”.  I know that to some people it is important to support those who care deeply for the planet and also to simply learn more about how to care for our home planet.  After all, caring for homes is my business.  It is what I do.  I want us all, great great great grandchildren included, to live as well as we can for as long as we can.

In the following paragraphs I will propose some questions to ask that I hope you might share with others.  I’ll make a few statements I have read on informative sites.  Finally, I’ll share some of my practices and goals for the future in effort to be transparent for your knowledge of me and hopefully so I can learn a thing or two from you as well. 

What does it mean to be green?  Is it a product that is sold?  Is it in their ethics?  Do they practice the same image that they sell behind closed doors?  Are all of the above questions just as valid as the next?  I can think of an excellent example.  Galactic Pizza, an eatery on 28^th and Lyndale boasts “planet saving pizza” (sold yet?) and offers deliver by drivers who wear superhero tights and even introduce themselves by their super delivery person names (how about now?).  Here is the truth.  Their pizza is made with all local organic ingredients.  The delivery vehicle is a tiny little rechargeable electric vehicle.  They offer a dollar off each pizza as long as you keep returning the box the previous pizza came in so that it can be composted.  They actually make every effort they can think of to try to conserve, and therefore save the planet. 

So what do you think of other companies that claim to be “green”?  Are they practicing what they preach, or are they selling an image?  Further, how do you know what your money is paying for?

I read an interesting article about the common three R’s and how “Reuse” can actually be broken up into many other R’s that Redefine Reuse into more definitive sections for all those items that can overwhelm us when considering the myriad possibilities of Reuse.  It also talked a bit about how Recycling is actually the least effective R on the list in terms of saving the world.  Recycle is last on the list for a reason.  It is the last resort.  The first and most important, in my opinion is Refuse.  Refusal speaks to me.  If you feel a company is not caring for our home planet, Refuse to purchase from them.  In a culture run by money, your dollars are your vote.  Do not be fooled.  Democracy is only on the surface.  Every four years we get to choose the new head honcho, the face of our land.  Every day we choose which companies succeed with our hard earned monies and therefore those choices are how we actually take care of our own.  If you don’t like the way the fast food industry preys on little children with toys for junk food, don’t buy it.  Ever.  Period.  Another great thing to consider to Refuse is packaging.  Excessive packaging is one of the most wasteful things about our current market.  I have seen boxes inside of bags, inside of cartons, with half a dozen tags dangling off of it for each logo of each company that made their contribution to the product with biggest billboard ever.  Refuse packaging.  It just goes to the landfills.  For materials or foods Refill permanent packaging with bulk items. 

So, if you couldn’t Refuse or even Reduce your use enough to eliminate an item, then you have participated in it, purchased and own that item.  You are now Responsible for it and its disposal.  Where will it go next?  If you have already used the item and cannot Repair the item think about Repurposing it.  Can you cut up that old thingamajig and use it as a doodad or two.  Maybe it could be glued or screwed to that other whatchamacallit to create something completely new.  Can it Rot?  Some people compost things that can Rot.  I just started to compost and don’t know much about it yet but I hope it feeds my vegetable garden well.  I also recently learned that some companies have started taking things as Returns, and even pay for it.  Dell does this.  They take old computers apart and Reuse everything they can and properly Recycle the rest.  So after all that, (did you get it all?) those options have all been looked into and nothing can be done, Recycle.  Hopefully, that information helped eliminate all of your waste.  Probably not, I still throw some things away, but I am doing my best. 

As a small business owner, I am fending off advertisers that are trying to sell me a truck with every ounce of my being.  Gas is expensive first of all, but also as much power as you need to pull heavy stuff every now and then in my line of work, it typically isn’t daily and when it is needed there are other options.  I feel most “Big” contractors have the truck for the image of needing it for big jobs more than they actually need it for pulling lots of stuff.  These days materials can be and often are delivered.  Tools are a bit heavy, but a V6 is likely enough for that.  I still have a bit of Research to do for my own use.  Also I have to add that you shouldn’t fire your contractor based on the vehicle they drive.  This is just my opinion and it might not work for everyone.  My goal is to keep it as simple as I can.  Every estimate I do, I look at every possible way to Restore the original before even considering Replacement.  Replacement means waste.  Also when it comes to home improvement, new is not necessarily synonymous with better.  Let’s look at windows as an example, since it is something I work with commonly.  Can I just tell you how many vinyl windows I see at the dump after doing demo work?  I have yet to find a hundred year old window that I couldn’t Restore.  Vinyl windows are worthless within 20 years and with vinyl, the only option is Replacement.  Sure, they’ll save a bit on the energy bill when they are brand new.  Wait a decade.  Junk, I promise.  When replacing glass, I like to keep old glass in hopes of finding a window that needs a smaller pane that I can Repurpose it for later.  When wood cannot be Rescued from Rot with epoxy, I like to use Reclaimed timber whenever possible, which means pulling nails and cutting it down some to Reshape it into its new place in the world. 

So far, this is about all I have come up with in my little world.  Someday I’d like to learn more about energy efficiency and how to incorporate actual green energy products into my capabilities, but I am not really an installation builder.  I am a Restoration woodworker.  I preserve what already exists.  If you have any suggestions of things I could do to further Reduce my carbon footprint, or how I could fuse my current old world building techniques hand in hand with new energy saving technology like solar I would love to take them into consideration for the future.