The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Minimalist Packing

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    Ruth Carter

    I went to a wedding last weekend and I used it as an opportunity to practicing minimalism in packing. Historically, I’m the person who goes on a 9-day trip and brings 20 shirts. Once I learned that rolling your clothes lets you fit so much more into your bag, I filled every nook and cranny of my suitcase with wardrobe options – just in case.

    For this trip, I decided to try to only bring what I thought I actually needed for the 3 days I was gone. Here’s what I brought with me: 1 pair jeans, 1 pair yoga pants, 2 tank tops, 2 t-shirts, 1 long-sleeved shirt, 1 zip-up sweatshirt (aka a “zippy”), 1 windbreaker, 1 dress, 1 cardigan, dress shoes, sneakers, 1 set workout gear, 1 bra, 2 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of underwear, pajamas.

    Here’s what I actually wore:

    Friday’s Activities:
    Fly out: Jeans, t-shirt #1, zippy, socks #1, sneakers.
    Meet friend for lunch: Add windbreaker (it was raining).
    Dinner with coaches: Remove windbreaker; exchange t-shirt for long-sleeved shirt & bra (it was cold).
    Sleep: Pajamas.

    At Lindsey's wedding with my Teammates - Photo by Erika Brown
    At Lindsey’s wedding with my Teammates – Photo by Erika Brown

    Saturday’s Activities:
    Lounge around friend’s house: Yoga pants, tank top #1, zippy, socks #2.
    Lunch with other friend: Exchange yoga pants for jeans (I rarely go out in yoga pants); add sneakers. (Note: I was going to wear t-shirt #2 to go out but it was warmer than I expected. I also realized I forgot my glasses case so I used t-shirt #2 to wrap my glasses instead so it was still used.)
    Wedding: Dress, dress shoes, cardigan.
    Sleep: Pajamas.

    Sunday’s Activities:
    Workout: Workout gear (shorts, shirt, sports bra, running socks, sneakers).
    Brunch and fly home: Jeans, tank top #2, zippy, socks #2, sneakers. (I thought I’d wear my running socks all day but they were way too sweaty so I wore socks #2 instead.)

    Post-Brunch Handstand - Photo by Erika Brown
    Post-Brunch Handstand – Photo by Erika Brown

    Since every garment I packed on this trip was used, it made unpacking fast. Everything was tossed in the laundry basket except my cardigan and the shirt that protected my glasses. It was easy to unpack my toiletries because I only brought things I knew I’d use.

    The only things I packed that didn’t get used were my laptop and my Kindle. I brought my laptop so I could write and my Kindle was to read if I finished reading Everything That Remains by The Minimalists. So I still bring tech gear with me just in case and I suspect that’s not going to change – and I’m OK with that.

    This post was inspired by the The Minimalists who recently released a video about how they packed for their 100-city book tour.

  • Minimalism Project Update – One Year Later

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    Ruth Carter

    I went to SXSW last year and one of the best presentations I went to was on business and minimalism. I wanted to minimize my life and this gave me the motivation I needed. By the end of the hour, I’d broken down the major areas of my house where I keep my into a list of areas I could tackle in a week’s time with the goal of having the entire house cleaned out over the course of about six months. (I <3 The Minimalists.) It felt really good to fill my entire trunk and backseat with unwanted stuff and drop it off at Goodwill.

    Part of the "Donate" Pile from Last Year's Clean Out
    Part of the “Donate” Pile from Last Year’s Clean Out

    My minimalism project was a huge success. I got rid of so much stuff that was cluttering up my life. I felt much more clear-headed as I decreased the amount of stuff around me. I also made it a point not to bring more stuff into the house. The hardest part of that is managing the amount of paper that comes into my life – business cards, flyers, receipts, etc. I try to get things put away or thrown away as fast as possible. I still get piles of paper around that I need to be better about filing or getting rid of faster.

    Embracing minimalism helped me let go of the idea that stuff has meaning. Memories have meaning. Stuff is stuff. An item may be a visual reminder of a memory or an idea, but it doesn’t replace it. I still have the memory or the idea without the thing it’s attached to. I realized I fully learned this lesson last year when I lost my bear necklace while I was traveling. I’d worn this necklace almost every day for over 16 years. I had it when I left the hotel in Washington DC, but three airports, two airplanes, and two shuttle vans later, it was gone. I filed missing item reports with all the airports and the airline but they didn’t find it. About five years ago, I misplaced this necklace for a few hours and I was devastated until I found it. It was gone forever and I was ok with it. It was just a thing. I’m not worse off because I don’t have it; I wasn’t even sad, and I didn’t replace it with another necklace.

    Various Club Cards I Don't Need
    Various Club Cards I Don’t Need

    I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made in minimizing my life but there’s still work to be done. I think it’s time to take the minimalism project to the next level. I’ve been feeling like my world is still too cluttered and I’m noticing areas of the house that may have been overlooked in last year’s clean-out – like the little desk in my bedroom where I found my address book from undergrad and a stack of loyalty cards where most of the businesses have since changed their rewards program.

    I think my new guiding principle will be, “If I was doing a clean out to get ready to move, would this item make the cut?” If the answer is “No,” it’s an item that needs to be thrown away or given away. I won’t do a systematic approach like I did last year, but I want make a conscious effort to clean out my life every time I clean up the house.

  • Minimalism Project Update: Closet Clean-Out 2014 – Six Weeks In

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    Ruth Carter

    As part of my ongoing attempt to be more of a minimalist, I’m cleaning out my closet again this year using the hanger-flip method. At six weeks into the year, I’d say I’ve worn 40-50% of my wardrobe.

    The downside of using the hanger-flip method to clean out your wardrobe is you’re always aware of what you have and haven’t worn. There are days when I’m getting dressed where I specifically look for something I haven’t worn yet instead of thinking about what I feel like wearing that day. I’m sure there were a handful of times during last year’s clean out when I wore a garment just to “save” it from going into the going-to-charity pile, which goes against the principle of doing the closet clean out in the first place. If you have to make an effort to wear something, you probably won’t even notice if it’s not in your wardrobe anymore.

    My Closet as of February 15, 2014 - I have a lot of T-shirts, but I wear a lot of them
    My Closet as of February 15, 2014 – I have a lot of T-shirts, but I wear a lot of them

    I was recently inspired to take a hard look at my wardrobe. My law firm celebrates T-shirt Friday every Friday, meaning that no matter what’s on your calendar, you wear a t-shirt to work. I was curious to know if I could go a year without repeating a t-shirt for T-shirt Fridays and I was a little astonished to realize I have 52 t-shirts in my wardrobe. That’s way more than what I really need. In my defense, some of those shirts are amazing – like the custom shirts from Ignite Phoenix. But there are others that I need to consider more closely. For instance, I usually wear a unisex small shirt but I have a few mediums for kicking around the house – but do I really need three of them?

    I was recently at a conference where a vendor was giving away shirts with a really cool design, but by then they only had XLs left. I took one at the suggestion that I wear it as a night shirt. I already have an XL night shirt that I wear every night that I got at the same event last year. The XL night shirt that I used before that was one that I got in 1995 and I wore it until it became threadbare, practically see through, and was getting more holes every time I washed it. I won’t need another night shirt anytime soon so the new freebie went into the charity pile.

    Looking at my t-shirts made me start looking at the rest of my wardrobe. I looked at the upper shelf in my closet and counted that I have 12 pullover sweaters. And remember, I live in the desert – I don’t need 12 sweaters. I took an honest look at them and pulled four of them out that I know I don’t wear anymore. I’m sure I could pare down the pile even more.

    I also took a hard look at my garments on the hangers and pulled at least ten items out and hung them in the hall closet. If I find myself wanting to wear any of them later this year, I can go get it, but putting them out of sight provides a trial run to see what it would be like not to have them in my wardrobe anymore. I’m pretty sure I won’t miss any of them.

    I accept that I probably never be a complete minimalist when it comes to my wardrobe. I enjoy the variety too much. I have admiration for people who can do it and make it work. If you want to be more of a fashion minimalist, consider trying to create a capsule wardrobe – a wardrobe built on ~33 items that can be mixed and matched for three months. If you want to go a more extreme route, you can replicate what Nadia Eghbal did and wear the same outfit every day for a year.

    For those of you who are on Reddit, I posted a question about whether minimalism was harder from women than men – at least from a fashion perspective – and it generated a lot more discussion than I expected. Check it out here.