Justina Blakeney, in her inspirational and beautiful book, The New Bohemians, states that, “Decorating is about feeling free, having fun rejecting traditional notions about what goes with what (especially that everything in a room has to match), and getting a little bit wild…hand-me-downs, Craigslist, and thrift-shop finds” (p. 11). She breaks down the new bohemians into six themes, each of which I identified with in some way, detail, or treasure; mostly indicating to me that I adhere to the maximal bohemian style. “Maximal bohemians mean no offense toward their quiet cousin, minimalism, but whereas the minimalist strips things to the bare bones, maximal bohemians surround themselves with eye candy. Every surface of the home is abundant with art – the walls are canvases to be patterned, painted, and planted; floors and furniture are buried in pillows and textiles; and shelves are filled with books and beloved objects” (p.244). Yep. That’s me.

As a result of Justina Blakeney’s reference to minimalism, I had to look it up.  I found the documentary by The Minimalists on Netflix.  After watching that, what I want to do is strip down to the bare bones…keeping only eye candy that I love. Marie Condo, in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing provided me with a good starting point.  She suggests asking of each possession, ‘Does it bring me joy?’.  So, I’ve decided that I am going to celebrate the things I love, discard the items that do not bring me joy, and in the end, I think I’ll consider myself a relative minimalist, without absolutes, constantly evolving, and knowing that I am viewing myself and my world using a subjective lens.  It may look like I have stuff everywhere, but it’s all relative.  I used to have exponentially more.  In other words, I think I’m a relative minimalist living inside the body of a maximal bohemian.

This year for me is going to be spent trying to figure out how to embrace my love for maximal bohemian style, while adhering to the minimalist thinking of “Love people, not things”.  Quite the quandary.  I’m thinking my philosophy is more like, ‘Love things, but love people more.  Love people so much that you’re willing to share your things with them’.

I think, for me, step one is to stop and/or reduce retail spending.  Even though I don’t consider myself a shopper, that’s going to be hard. Internet shopping is my number one weakness, mostly purchasing an excess of books. I proceed to checkout with one click and am not even required to think twice about my purchases.  I have to stop the love affair/madness.  At least pause for a moment prior to purchasing.  Become more intentional.  More thoughtful about my purchases.  So, these are my goals for January:

1.  Try to reduce and/or end retail spending.
2. Start a discard pile to be donated and/or recycled.

I think I can only do those 2 things right now.  These will be my goals for January.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.