This month’s Sunset Magazine features an article about a Northern California family who are trying their darndest to live a zero waste lifestyle. The story is made all the better by drool-worthy photos of their glossy home where there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell for clutter to build up. (As opposed to my hellacious home, which is littered with snowballs.)
The interview is conducted with the mother, Béa, who has made very strict guidelines to make this life possible for her family of four.
“Everyone has a set number of items. For example, Béa caps out at 6 pairs of shoes, 7 tops, 7 pants, and 2 skirts (1 also wearable as a top). Same idea goes for Scott and the couple’s 9- and 10-year-old boys (each has 7 casual tops, 1 dress shirt, 4 bottoms, 3 pairs of shoes, and 1 pair of PJs per season).”
I recently worked with my son to drastically declutter his room. Gone are the multiple random stuffed animals, the action figures and the huge bin of questionable writing instruments. His room now only holds his bed, an armchair, dresser, desk, a neatly stowed stuffed animal and a shelf in his closet. There are only a dozen or so knick-knacks adorning the shelves, which is a dramatic improvement over the previous state of chaos.
My goal with this project was to make his personal space more focused and calming, and an inviting space for entertaining. A micro-project, really, for how I want our entire house to be.
Béa explains how her family arrived to this state of zero waste-itude:
“When we started getting rid of things, it was kind of addictive,” she continues. “In a recession, people are inclined to keep things, but I feel the opposite. The less I have, the richer I feel. Stuff weighs you down.”
But she’s also quick to point out that her family is not to be seen as perfection either:
“We don’t do everything right,” she says. “We do have garbage. We do fly overseas to see my family in France once a year.” Despite the regressions, the way the family lives makes others at least sit up and take notice: Béa says one neighbor visited, remarking that the house is “futuristic and alien-like,” opening cupboards and asking, “Where’s all your stuff?”
What I found interesting in this article, (aside from the entire article) were the online comments, many of which were critical. The family eats meat, owns two cars and flies yearly to visit grandparents in France. So yes, they’re not perfect. But the austere life of eco-perfection is rarely anyone’s goal. Nowhere in the article does the family suggest that they are perfect, yet some of the readers cut into them for decisions such as having compostable toothbrushes flown in from Australia, (although I’m pretty darned sure that were other items being shipped at the same time, it’s not as if they chartered a single aircraft for the mission.)
I am certainly guilty of finding fault with those who choose to live in extreme minimalism. “Oh, but they don’t have kids.” or “But they’re still young. Let’s see how they’re doing when they’re my age!” But this family is raising two sons, only slightly younger than mine, so I have no stock defense as to why I can’t do what they’re doing.
I have made measurable progress in decluttering my home over the past few years, although it can be hard to see sometimes. I will never attain simplicity in its purest form. But then again, that would bore me.
Do you find yourself drawn to articles about those living the simple life? Do you look for places to criticize those who are choosing simplicity over a stuff-laden American lifestyle? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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