From Sammie:
Reading the book “7” by Jen Hatmaker was another wake-up
call for me as far as possessions are concerned.
I’ve been living simply for many years. I truly reuse,
reduce, and recycle anytime I can. I’m quite an avid recycler with stacked bins
in my garage for dividing recyclables. I buy from thrift shops, especially for
garden projects.
I try not to be a consumer. Don’t buy many clothes and those
frequently come from thrift or consignment shops. I repurpose when I can, being
the non-creative and non-mechanical person I am. (Now, good friends are
snickering as they ask, “And what about those books you bring home by the
armload?” I’ll have you know, books are off-limits! Everyone has something that
doesn’t count, and in my case, it’s books! SSSSHHHH!)
But Hatmaker takes living simply to a new level. For seven
months, she determines to concentrate on one area of her life and reduce what
she uses/consumes to 7 specific articles. For instance, on the month she
focuses on food, she decides on 7 foods she will eat for the month. On the
month she focuses on clothes, she designates 7 pieces of clothing that she will
wear for the month. She continues the next months with possessions, media, waste,
spending, and stress.
Hatmaker definitely brings up some challenges to our
consumer culture. Could we live with seven articles of clothing for a month?
(That’s not counting, if I remember correctly, underwear and socks.)
I spend very little on clothes and I know all my friends
wish I would go shopping a little more. I have 3-4 things to wear to church
each season. Then I have casual pants (usually a pair of black pants, a pair of
khakis, and a pair of jeans to be matched with casual knit shirts or tee-shirts
for everyday going to the grocery, a meeting, etc. I also have my home scrunge that
I wouldn’t wear to the grocery or a meeting, but those pieces are comfy and
loose and me. THEN I have two gardening outfits. These are the ones I wear to
crawl around inside the flower beds, tote pine straw, water the plants (and me,
too), scratch weeds out of the compacted Alabama red clay, etc. etc. These clothes go straight to the washing
machine when I peel them off at the end of the day.
BUT…… I have to admit this: I have other clothes in my
closet. Most of them fit. Most of them look just fine. Most of them are in
colors I think are complimentary. But most of them have hung there for several –
well some for many – years. I mean to wear them. No real reason I never wear
them. But I don’t. After all, how many cutesy tee-shirts do you really need? I
don’t get around to most of them. And some of these clothes are just on the
edge of looking weary. Not really slapdab worn out, but not looking fine,
either. So I hang onto them . . . but I don’t wear them.
So my goal this next week is to make the hard decisions. I
admired Jen Hatmaker for getting down to 7 pieces of clothing, but I don’t
think I’ll do that. I’m not even much a clothes person. Simple really does it
for me. But only 7?
The thing is, someone else could use and appreciate these
pieces that I just overlook. Someone else might make that cute denim blouse her
favorite. Or someone else might have the perfect earrings for that pink sweater
that I keep pushing aside.
So that’s my goal this week. Not to reduce to 7 pieces, but
to focus on what I do/will wear and share the rest with the folks at the
community clothes closet a few miles from my house.
HHHmmmmmmm……. Maybe food next? I’ll have to think about that
one.
