Permanent changes you are making/have made due to CV19

[Ginevra]

Now that we are all more aware than ever of germ transfer, what policies or changes are you making that you expect to be permanent? Here are some of mine:

1. No more birthday candles ON the whole cake. In fact, no more everyone singing Happy Birthday with an open cake sitting on the table receiving nine million spit particles as people sing. 

2. I’m seriously planning to bow off hand-shakes permanently. 

3. Short fingernails might be a permanent change.

4. Consciousness of where my hands are and not touching my face. To that end...

5. Wearing my hair back, which prevents my hair from tickling my face. 

6. Wiping down my computer every time I use it. Wiping down my phone if I am going to talk on it.

7. I have instituted a new rule for my family: if one wants to get a cookie from the cookie tin or other type of food where you reach into the container, you must first thoroughly wash your hands. I’m trying to gain the same compliance for going into the pantry or fridge at all, but they forget. 

8. I expect to be less interested in having empty space or to get rid of things. I’m so glad there were certain things I simply was too lazy to get rid of. 

There are probably others, but those spring to mind. 

[Meriwether]

Not much. I am not going to live in fear more than I have to. I will likely keep more yeast and flour on hand and buy tp before we strictly need it. We are finally starting a garden at this house this year. If food supplies get really weird, we'll do progressively more stuff and take on the covenant about the no chickens rule.

[matrips]

22 minutes ago, Quill said:

Now that we are all more aware than ever of germ transfer, what policies or changes are you making that you expect to be permanent? Here are some of mine:

1. No more birthday candles ON the whole cake. In fact, no more everyone singing Happy Birthday with an open cake sitting on the table receiving nine million spit particles as people sing. 

2. I’m seriously planning to bow off hand-shakes permanently. 

3. Short fingernails might be a permanent change.

4. Consciousness of where my hands are and not touching my face. To that end...

5. Wearing my hair back, which prevents my hair from tickling my face. 

6. Wiping down my computer every time I use it. Wiping down my phone if I am going to talk on it.

7. I have instituted a new rule for my family: if one wants to get a cookie from the cookie tin or other type of food where you reach into the container, you must first thoroughly wash your hands. I’m trying to gain the same compliance for going into the pantry or fridge at all, but they forget. 

8. I expect to be less interested in having empty space or to get rid of things. I’m so glad there were certain things I simply was too lazy to get rid of. 

There are probably others, but those spring to mind. 

Oh those kind of changes! 😂. I was thinking I’m getting addicted to grocery delivery 

[Miss Tick]

A few years ago a boardie mentioned she was "a bit of a hoarder of bleach, salt, and toilet paper" and I thought, huh, I could do that. The bleach agreed out before I could use it all, but that toilet paper thing has felt like a genius move.

I imagine we will see a little more personal space afforded to people.

[Guest]

I am going to keep online lessons as a backup and a policy of not having kids come to the studio if they or a family member are sick. 

[DesertBlossom]

I will be more committed to keeping a well stocked pantry and I would like to up my efforts to learn to garden. 

[Tanaqui]

Quote

1. No more birthday candles ON the whole cake. In fact, no more everyone singing Happy Birthday with an open cake sitting on the table receiving nine million spit particles as people sing. 

 

Birthday rings, maybe? Like we've all turned Waldorfy?

[prairiewindmomma]

For 20 years I had kept a full pantry. Based on the videos shared here (Katie’s) from a minimalist mom I had started to let the store be my warehouse.

No more. I am going to be putting in storage spaces into this house.

[appyonthebeach]

37 minutes ago, Quill said:

3. Short fingernails might be a permanent change.

Yes to this.  In addition to longer nails getting germs trapped under them, I've noticed that when my nails get to a certain length I'm more prone to nibbling on them.  Yuck.

I think I'll also not be so likely to let my groceries/household items get to the point where I really have to go shopping or else we won't have anything to eat. 

[madteaparty]

Nothing.

i hope Trader Joe’s makes their current policy of limiting amount of people in stores permanent though! 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

 

Birthday rings, maybe? Like we've all turned Waldorfy?

I just looked that up, having not heard of it. I like it! 

Dh just had a birthday and here’s what we did instead, and plan to do indefinitely forever:

We have a special Celebrate plate we have used for birthdays since the first kid was born. We cut the birthday person a slice of cake, put it on the Celebrate plate, and put a few little candles on it. Then I covered the main cake back up and lit the candles. We sang Happy Birthday, he blew them out, then I opened the cake back up and the rest of us got our piece of cake. 

This sort of makes more sense to me because the birthday person should get their piece of cake first anyway. 

[hjffkj]

Honestly, nothing. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, happyonthebeach said:

Yes to this.  In addition to longer nails getting germs trapped under them, I've noticed that when my nails get to a certain length I'm more prone to nibbling on them.  Yuck.

I think I'll also not be so likely to let my groceries/household items get to the point where I really have to go shopping or else we won't have anything to eat. 

That’s true. I do that also. If my nails are long, it is only a matter of time before a corner gets raggedy and then I keep nibbling the ragged corner. 

[Liz CA]

I do like church online where I can sit here in old jammies with my cup of coffee...

Other than a continued effort to stay healthy, keep immune system well functioning, etc. I can't think of anything....oh wait, we are very grateful for the eggs our hens have provided since dh observed an egg shortage during one of his shopping trips.

[Ali in OR]

I don't know if this is permanent, but I am going to keep our home shelves stocked (if possible) at the level they are now which is similar to what I did when we were homeschooling and I was a full-time, stay-at-home mom. With one kid off to college and me working, we let inventory levels slide because we could not eat it all in a reasonable amount of time--not enough turnover. If I made muffins, we had trouble getting them all eaten before they went stale. But as long as we're using inventory at this rate (all 5 of us home, no restaurants or even take-out pizza), I will try to keep the inventory higher.

We've already discussed that we won't be going on any cruises ever. We won't go to anything where large crowds congregate (football games, concerts, county fairs, etc) until this is all behind us--vaccine is out, minimal or no presence of C-19 in our country. At least a year. I hope social distancing, staying home more, no shaking hands or passing the peace at church, etc. all become the norm.

[Elizabeth86]

I want to start a small stockpile of food and household products to last us a few weeks.  We have talked about moving for some time and I really want to do this so we have room for chickens, a big garden and hopefully some wild game. Dh has often alluded to the fact we might need to be prepared for our country to fall on hard times like this, but I always brushed him off as a crazy person.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Elizabeth86

[bolt.]

We have a mini fridge downstairs and a bit of counter-top. We only plug the mini fridge in when we have a guest down there, but now it's a truly extra fridge. The counter top is officially the "supplementary pantry". I've never been one to store food anywhere but the kitchen, but now I'm one of those "I've got an extra bag of rice in the basement." women. It will probably keep on being food storage location now that I've started. At least all the pop (soda) is now out of sight/out of mind instead of crowding my actual pantry.

[73349]

I might keep my rings as pendants for easier hand-washing. I haven't been out with a mask (because the masks MIL made arrived yesterday and I haven't gone anywhere) but I could see public mask-wearing becoming a thing.

[alisoncooks]

I doubt I'll make any major changes. Maybe I'll be better about washing hands after being out? Idk, I'm pretty loosey-goosey about many things (like germs, lol). This may just bring me up to other people's normal standards.

DH wants to keep some (above and beyond) food stores on hand, but he's always leaned a bit prepper. 

 

[wintermom]

Get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air and the birds singing everyday no matter what the weather.

Stay in touch more with family and friends. 

Choose outside the home activities wisely and don't over-schedule the family.

Edited April 6, 2020 by wintermom

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, wintermom said:

Get outdoors and enjoy the fresh and and the birds singing everyday no matter what the weather.

Stay in touch more with family and friends. 

Choose outside the home activities wisely and don't over-schedule the family.

I really love your list. 

 

[May]

DH has a list of things he’d like to keep on hand once this is all over. It’s mostly masks, hand sanitizer and a few other cleaning products. I’ve always have kept a well stocked pantry so nothing different there.

[BakersDozen]

Much of what was advised with this virus we already did - wiped down everything, hands washed consistently, keeping hands away from faces, etc. Two things I know will change:

1. I will never, never, never allow other people's eye-rolling or comments about being extreme about our buying in bulk to bother me. That includes my dh who always pushed against buying the larger bag of rice at Costco or a few more Lysol packs just to have on hand. I feel very justified in my purchases. Except...

2. I will, if it is ever offered again in the Costco flier, buy a pallet of tp. I'm serious. Every time that flier came out and I calculated how much it would save us given our family size I brought up buying a pallet w/my dh. We never did and oh, how I regret it. The people we could bless right now if I'd just done it the same as I "overbought" (according to dh) rice, flour, etc.!!!

 

[Moonhawk]

I am so scared to say this, but: not have the kids go to my parents as much. It's a 2 hour drive one way, which means 8 hours a week driving for me, just to take them to see my parents. Then they come back with attitude problems (overnight stay). The "reason" they had to go every week is because their TKD studio is in my parents' town and we were trying to keep them involved in something they liked and with certain friends. But... man, 2 weeks not having to do that drive, deal with the moodiness, disagree about the food they are being served, bedtimes not being enforced, schoolwork not getting finished, frustrated that the baby didn't get her teeth brushed, etc, etc, etc.... My parents may have a conniption, but I don't think I can go back to that. Maybe once a month, max 2, but every week is a no-go my friend.

[alisoncooks]

Thought of another: I pay a grocery store pickup fee annually (cheaper than weekly and it's unlimited for the year). I've done it for 3-4 yrs. I'll probably drop it and start shopping in person...mainly because I'm ticked that I've not been able to get a pickup slot for a month now. What the heck am I paying for??!!  *sigh* Minor, I know, but it bugs me. Maybe I should email corporate...

[Midwest Momma]

3 hours ago, Liz CA said:

I do like church online where I can sit here in old jammies with my cup of coffee...

This. But alas, that won't last 🙂.

[Murphy101]

I’m going to become a hugger!! I’m gonna hug every dadblum person I’ve missed so much they are going to want to go back into quarantine. My men friend’s wives are just going to have to join in or get over it or something.

I always hated shopping so I can totally see me never grocery shopping again.  Delivery all the way. 

Same for tele-medicine or virtual Doctor appts. I’ve always though making sick or hurting people hang out in a waiting room was dumb as heck and just gross.  I hope this gets better and easier to do for more people.

I used to keep about a months worth of supplies on hand to feel comfortably stocked. Now I think I’m going to need 3-4 months to feel like I’m not in danger of running out.

I hope people stay home when sick and I hope our social policies reflect the need to give that ability to everyone.  

[TrixieB]

I will have a bigger stash of liquid hand soap (little/none available locally for the past month), cleaning/disinfecting products (haven't seen any on the shelves for a month), hand sanitizer (last seen on March 9, unless you count the overpriced 1oz bottle of strawberry scented sanitizer I bought last week).  

Probably will wear a mask while shopping.  If no one is wearing a mask, everyone avoids the person who is.  Now that everyone is wearing a mask/scarf/bandanna/balaclava, we all just avoid each other.

[Shoeless]

5 hours ago, Quill said:

I just looked that up, having not heard of it. I like it! 

Dh just had a birthday and here’s what we did instead, and plan to do indefinitely forever:

We have a special Celebrate plate we have used for birthdays since the first kid was born. We cut the birthday person a slice of cake, put it on the Celebrate plate, and put a few little candles on it. Then I covered the main cake back up and lit the candles. We sang Happy Birthday, he blew them out, then I opened the cake back up and the rest of us got our piece of cake. 

This sort of makes more sense to me because the birthday person should get their piece of cake first anyway. 

 

My step-father's family had a huge, elaborate candle that was the "birthday candle". It only came out for birthdays so it lasted for decades, which made it that much more special. The birthday person got to blow out the large, multi-wick candle and the cake wasn't brought out until after the birthday song was sung and the candle blown out.  I have no idea how they came up with that tradition, but we'll probably do something like that from now on. 

Oooh, future business idea: make large, birthday cake shaped candles. 

Edited April 6, 2020 by MissLemon

[Sneezyone]

Keep in touch with more family and friends. I've wished, several times over, I still had the ability to send a blast email.

[Shoeless]

We always kept about a month of supplies on-hand before this.  We will expand that out to 4 months of supplies.

I'm trying to get the family on board with the bidet idea. They are not quite ready to make the transition. 😐

I'm also going to either get into gardening and/or get into some sort of long-term food preservation, like freeze-drying or dehydrating. I'm not super excited about canning because we don't really like canned foods. 😛 But freeze-drying or dehydrating could work for us. 

DH and I will also be moving out of this area. I have no idea when that will happen or even exactly where we will go, but I'm 100% DONE with Texas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mathnerd]

I always do a modest vegetable garden. Last year, I converted it to a all-year-long garden with Fall vegatables and Winter vegetables and I found that I enjoyed all year gardening (except for Dec/Jan when it was too cold). This year, I decided that I am going to scale up and make an effort to produce enough for my family to avoid going to the grocery store and to do it every year going forward. I need to learn pest control and management now because I have always gardened hoping there would be enough for both the pests and me! 

I always have 2-3 months worth of supplies because I used to work late pre-kids and there was never any time to buy groceries late in the night when it was time to cook dinner. So, though I seem to be well stocked for a pandemic I am increasing my stockpile to 4 months worth of non-perishables permanently.

My son takes so many classes on zoom that I am thinking of permanently moving many of his classes from in-person lessons to live-video lessons because his learning has not been affected by the format of delivery of the lessons. Which means that I don't have to drive around like a madwoman every evening from one zip code to another.

Edited April 6, 2020 by mathnerd

[easypeasy]

Not much that I'll change Habits-wise, tbh. I was already a chronic hand washer. Already kept Clorox wipes on a shelf in bulk and panicked when it got below 10. 😂 Already had bleach cleaner on-hand and hand sanitizer in every vehicle and spares on-hand. Already had N95 masks...

oh. THAT'S something that will change. When DD goes to college (HOPEFULLY this fall!), she will have a pandemic box sitting in her dorm room. I'm packing masks, hand sanitizer, clorox wipes, Lysol, spray cleaner, small bleach, gloves, & a spare thermometer. 
 

Hopefully, she'll never have a use for it. But I'm not going through the panic I had when DD1 was unable to find these items in her college town when this whole thing started to hit the fan. 🤯
 

And I'll keep more rice and flour on-hand. And will always have overflowing cabinets filled with tp.  

[Laura Corin]

No, no hygiene changes.  I'm clean enough for normal circumstances (washing after using the toilet or messing with anything particularly dirty).

I will ask my boss if I can work from home a few days a week.  I'd like that.

[Pawz4me]

I bought a chest freezer, but that was something I've been meaning to buy for a couple of years. C19 was just the impetus to finally do it. Other than that I don't see me personally changing much. I've always tried to stay reasonably well stocked on food and household supplies, and I really don't see any point or need in increasing it even more. If I decided to stay more stocked up on TP now, the next time something happened no doubt TP supplies would be fine and there would be a huge shortage of some other essential item I hadn't even thought of. 

I do hope this will make people more aware of the need for good hand hygiene, and that masks will be much more widely used. But I don't have much faith. People have short memories.

[Guest]

I did realize one other thing that a friend of mine did that I should have: 

She is in a wine club, where they send wine (a case? I think?) every month. That was a boss move, I gotta say! 

In Maryland, we still have no ability to buy wine at grocery stores and, though liquor stores are still open, I feel ridiculous deeming it “essential” that I go to a separate store for some wine. So we’re dry around here for now. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

I’m going to become a hugger!! I’m gonna hug every dadblum person I’ve missed so much they are going to want to go back into quarantine. My men friend’s wives are just going to have to join in or get over it or something.

I always hated shopping so I can totally see me never grocery shopping again.  Delivery all the way. 

Same for tele-medicine or virtual Doctor appts. I’ve always though making sick or hurting people hang out in a waiting room was dumb as heck and just gross.  I hope this gets better and easier to do for more people.

I used to keep about a months worth of supplies on hand to feel comfortably stocked. Now I think I’m going to need 3-4 months to feel like I’m not in danger of running out.

I hope people stay home when sick and I hope our social policies reflect the need to give that ability to everyone.  

I’m going to run away from you...

😆

[Laura Corin]

6 minutes ago, Quill said:

I did realize one other thing that a friend of mine did that I should have: 

She is in a wine club, where they send wine (a case? I think?) every month. That was a boss move, I gotta say! 

In Maryland, we still have no ability to buy wine at grocery stores and, though liquor stores are still open, I feel ridiculous deeming it “essential” that I go to a separate store for some wine. So we’re dry around here for now. 

Husband buys wine to be delivered.  The warehouse shut for a while because they couldn't guarantee social distancing at work.  They have solved the problem, they think, so will be resuming deliveries.  I'm not a wine drinker, but I am doing all the shopping at the moment, so I'd rather not be staring at shelves in the supermarket and trying to work out what to buy.

[Pawz4me]

29 minutes ago, OKBud said:

I really really really really don't want to go back to shaking stranger's hands. 

I'm definitely dedicated now to keeping our wills up to date. I redid everything last night and our youngest wasn't even named (bc he wasn't born!) on our previous documents. I'm sure it would all be fine, but now my thinking is more catastrophically realistic about it: if DH and I **friggin die** I certainly want to do everything in my power to make it as seamless for everyone left behind as possible.

To that end, I've also been making it a point to organize my stuff so that it's accessible to someone other than me. Like our books, for example... what should be saved for the kid's older years? What can just be given away now? I tidied up the folders on my cloud accounts. That kind of thing. 

I'm doubling down on destroying old journals and stuff. I have things that someone who loved me might want to read/keep after I die but I also have a lot of stream of consciousness nonsense (or nastiness tbh). 

And, yeah masks. No more feeling embarrassed or weird about wearing one. Or, getting over it if I do feel that way. 

It's absolutely great to review and update wills and other important documents regularly. But I wanted to point out that a child doesn't have to be specifically named to be included in a well drawn will. We had ours done in the early 1990's, before either of our boys was born. But the wills covered all eventualities, and they still suit us perfectly as originally written. It's possible we had a very excellent attorney draw them up, though.

[Another Lynn]

36 minutes ago, OKBud said:

I really really really really don't want to go back to shaking stranger's hands. 

I'm definitely dedicated now to keeping our wills up to date. I redid everything last night and our youngest wasn't even named (bc he wasn't born!) on our previous documents. I'm sure it would all be fine, but now my thinking is more catastrophically realistic about it: if DH and I **friggin die** I certainly want to do everything in my power to make it as seamless for everyone left behind as possible.

To that end, I've also been making it a point to organize my stuff so that it's accessible to someone other than me. Like our books, for example... what should be saved for the kid's older years? What can just be given away now? I tidied up the folders on my cloud accounts. That kind of thing. 

I'm doubling down on destroying old journals and stuff. I have things that someone who loved me might want to read/keep after I die but I also have a lot of stream of consciousness nonsense (or nastiness tbh). 

And, yeah masks. No more feeling embarrassed or weird about wearing one. Or, getting over it if I do feel that way. 

I was thinking along these lines regarding homeschooling - 3 current highschoolers - does anyone know how to find their transcripts on my computer, what would be the plan for them to finish highschool, what about youngest's education, etc.  I haven't done anything about it yet, but it crossed my mind the other day.....

[regentrude]

I can't think of anything except dropping the idea of doing a masters via distance learning. The wonderful class with a great teacher I had been taking is now moved online, and even though he is doing a fabulous job, it is not enjoyable anymore. So, lesson learned. Which means I will have to scrap the entire idea.

Other than that: I miss doing my shopping in person, I hate working from home, and I can't wait to get back to live activities. We have a will, and our affairs are in order, and I burned all my journals. So, I can't see anything I would change.

Edited April 6, 2020 by regentrude

[lmrich]

My list will focus on what I will do as a teacher - I work with homeschool kids so not public school kids. 

I will teach and expect excellent organization skills. I will teach the students how to write an email, how to use an agenda, how to ask for help. I will keep using Google Classroom and use more teaching videos.  I will insist that sick kids go home. I will take a sick day when I am sick (I know, I know.. but getting a sub is so hard). I will have masks, tissues, and stronger cleaning supplies for my classroom. I would like to continue to hug them, when appropriate, but that might have to change. 

I taught cotillion classes for the past five years,  but I had already decided that this was my last season. I would say most of what we do there is spreading disease - how to shake hands, how to talk in a group and include others, how to introduce yourself, how to pass food, how to dance - while holding hands! yikes!!!

 

[HS Mom in NC]

I won't be shaking hands and accepting hugs from people other than the 10 people on the planet I want to hug anyway.  They'll just have to get over it.  I'll follow the examples of the Orthodox Jews and devout Muslims I've encountered saying so nicely but firmly.  I've always wanted to and now I won't have to explain to people that I'm not a physical contact type person, they can just assume I'm germ phobic, which is fine by me.

We've been working toward having the house paid off early, our food forest going, and a lifestyle of no debts with plenty of margin.  We'll keep going on that.  I'm in the middle of planting veggies now. The fruit trees went in in Feb. I'm researching growing citrus in zone 7.  I'm considering quail for eggs (1 chicken/duck egg = 3 quail eggs) and meat. I'm looking at jumbos. We'll see.  Husband wants a greenhouse.  We'll see. A very small part of me says to get a goat for milk and making cheese, but then I remember growing up with a goat and living next to a goat farm and tell myself the cons don't outweigh the pros. We'll see.

I'm on the edge of hurricane territory (we can lose power for a day or two, but no flood risk and very little wind damage) so my stash of non-perishables has been for 2 weeks, but I'll move it up to a month.  We're careful to only stash what we already enjoy eating, so it won't be a big change, I just need to come up with a system to keep the newest food in the back and a regular schedule to go through it and donate anything that's still got 3+ months before the expiration date if I need to get rid of things.  I already cook in bulk and freeze extra, so I have the system down. I may buy a couple of high quality food storage containers and bulk brown rice, black beans, and flour.  We'll see.

I'd already planned to switch to a bidet in my bathroom.  My husband uses one in his.  I bought colored wash cloths for drying (one color for each person) for when our tp runs out.  I'll keep tp in the guest bath downstairs to minimize usage in the future.

In early January I flew back to PHX wearing a mask at the airports and on the planes. My SIL just had cancer treatment and I wanted to visit her without being the person who brought her a bug. Now it will be a regular thing during cold/flu season when I travel.

ETA: I've been giving myself B12 shots since my med spa closed last month.  I'll continue to do that even if the med spa reopens.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Homeschool Mom in AZ

12 hours ago, wintermom said:

Get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air and the birds singing everyday no matter what the weather.

Stay in touch more with family and friends. 

Choose outside the home activities wisely and don't over-schedule the family.

I like this list as well.  I see people out walking their dogs in all sorts of weather.  I have no desire for a pet, but decided I should start walking myself every day.  We also live walking distance to Kroger and I really never learned good shopping habits.

Quill, I like your list as well, but am a bit confused about the last item.  Why aren’t you decluttering any more because of covid?  The more we are in the house the more I can’t handle all the stuff.

[J-rap]

Not too many, but a few things.  

Stay home when I'm feeling sick.

Stop touching my face so much.  (I realized I do that a lot more than I thought!)

Wash my hands when I come home.

Sanitize regularly used things once in a while that I rarely thought about doing before (phone, computer keyboard, doorknobs, light switches, etc.)

We moved out of our home of 25 years last summer, so I already went through the "simplifying our lives" process.  I've labeled the backs of things important to me that I decided to keep (so that our children can read about them, like "Great Grandpa David Smith built this in 1925."), and I've put together a notebook with everything in it our children would need to know (all bank info, online passwords, advisors, etc.) and they all know where I've hidden it.  :))  I got rid of lots and lots of junk!

To be honest, I'm feeling sad thinking about too many changes that will become permanent in our society for some people, at least for years to come.  Like, not wanting to gather or be in crowded places (I think of big family events, concerts, theaters, fairs, etc.), not feeling comfortable about eating homemade food at someone else's house, backing away from human touch, not feeling comfortable sitting next to a stranger (on a bus, waiting room), etc. 

ETA:  I never did like the idea of candles on a birthday cake... I feel fine about stopping that tradition!

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by J-rap

[Murphy101]

I have no regrets about minimalism. I wish I hadn’t used nearly all my yarn after over a year of stash busting, but that’s about it. Not having so much stuff I don’t need to deal with is a huge stress reliever for our household.  Less stuff to yell at kids to put away, less stuff to clean, more open space..

I had already decided to focus more on fixing up our house and this has made that even more a priority.  To make it not just a home but a haven. 

[Soror]

I have no plans to change anything with my immediate family, like birthday cakes and such. 

I don't regret being more minimal, I can not think of anything I got rid of that would have been helpful in this situation but being minimal never precluded being extra of this and that to me. 

I hope we get to a place where I feel safe shaking hands and other physical contact. I'm not big hugger but I the idea of never doing either b/c I'm too afraid of getting sick makes me sad.

I use to be a bit of a prepper buying massive quantities, I then morphed into buying smaller bulk quantities, I honestly ran out of energy to keep up with it and moved away from that world (felt it was too focused on fear).  But  I usually have a fair amount of the basics because I still do buy in bulk, just not massive- 1 yr+ quantities. I don't plan to go back to buying prepper amounts but I did become aware of things I was missing on my stocking, like realizing I was nearly out of yeast after things got crazy as I don't use a lot of yeast but sure like to have some.

Ironically, this came after a period of pulling back for me as my fall was entirely too busy. I'm glad for the reset and hope to do better about scheduling, it is so easy for it to get away from me, we live in a culture that pushes overscheduling as a positive thing.

I don't mind grocery shopping at Aldi's, I actually miss shopping at Aldi's but they don't have pickup in my area and I'm too far for delivery. 

My house has been a bit neglected the last few years due to busyness and also life circumstances (FIL with cancer, treatment, and eventual passing), I'm really enjoying working around the yard and sprucing things up.

 

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Mom2mthj said:

I like this list as well.  I see people out walking their dogs in all sorts of weather.  I have no desire for a pet, but decided I should start walking myself every day.  We also live walking distance to Kroger and I really never learned good shopping habits.

Quill, I like your list as well, but am a bit confused about the last item.  Why aren’t you decluttering any more because of covid?  The more we are in the house the more I can’t handle all the stuff.

I said something about this in another post and was misunderstood by several people. It’s not so much never declutter again. It’s that I will be less hasty to deem something unused/unnecessary/irrelevant. I am a person who tends towards getting rid of stuff, not the reverse. I think that makes a difference. 

So, to illustrate: I have gardened for decades now. In my garage cabinet, I have accumulated quite a bit of seeds and little junky pots. My tendency is to throw away stuff like this, because every year, I buy new garden seeds and peat pots and other stuff for my garden. Only I haven’t cleaned out my cabinet in a few years, so I had a bunch of stuff from previous years. That now turns out to be a lucky thing, because there are several types of seeds I can’t buy now. And, though I ordered more peat pots in early March, it took ages for it to get here, so I called into use a bunch of the little junky pots I had lying around. 

Sewing is the same story. Truthfully, I don’t like to sew. I really only sew when it accomplishes goals I can’t reach otherwise. I had a box full of cotton material as well as some notions, like elastic and thread. I have meant to get rid of it for years and years. It’s leftover from when my now-23 yo dd was little and I made her dresses. It’s been sitting in my basement. The only reason I didn’t give it away yet was because I wanted to give it to someone who had a daughter and would use it for the same purpose...and that has not happened. Only now I’m super glad it sat around in my basement because you cannot buy any of that stuff easily (or at all). I can make masks with stuff I have. 

It’s even true for some homeschooling materials I didn’t get rid of yet. I am mostly just too lazy to take them to the consignment or sharing places I meant to. But now I’m glad I didn’t get around to it because there is a small possibility I will need to pull out that Algebra 2 program or whatever for my son, who I never dreamed would be back home again in high school but is now due to “crisis” homeschooling. 

So. That’s what I mean. I won’t be embracing minimalism. Not at all. I wasn’t really a true minimalist before but now I know I will never be. I expect a lot of people are going to change their thinking on this subject. I think minimalism is going to be “out”, after having been “in” for ten or more years. 

[ScoutTN]

15 hours ago, wintermom said:

Get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air and the birds singing everyday no matter what the weather.

Stay in touch more with family and friends. 

Choose outside the home activities wisely and don't over-schedule the family.

This!

That makes sense to not throw things out that still have life left in them while there are shortages or while things can be put to use.  Long term, I will still probably give things away if I can place them with a good home (like homeschool books or the fabric you mention) because fabrics and elastics deteriorate over time.  My dad is depression era and he keeps *everything* so there has to be balance.  If you were to see my house, you would be able to see that we have not embraced minimalism to this point.  I have to work on bringing less in...I am overrun by Legos.

edited to add - I think the minimalism we should be striving for is not the purging and throwing things out or donating things to make ourselves feel good that really no one will use (that has been what is popular lately-places like Salvation Army don’t actually have a use for all the clothing donated), but actually buying less stuff, and being will to spend enough to buy things that are well made and don’t fall apart.  The current problem is that expensive clothes aren’t necessarily much better made since everyone has jumped on the make it cheap bandwagon.  Our desire for those disposable clothes to just pick up without thinking as we stroll through target and lots of cheap stuff in general is a big part of our reliance on China (and other poor countries) for cheap labor regardless of the social and environmental problems caused.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Mom2mthj