Month: September 2019

Discardia.com refresh and more to come

After a sojourn in the lands of cocktail writing, unexpectedly learning about estate management through a death in my family, and a couple years of having my life completely upended by a rare disease diagnosis, I’m returning to steady work on Discardia. It’s been quite a ride so far, but I’ve learned and continue to learn so much that I want to share.

Works in progress:

  • An updated Discardia.com
    The first project, and I hope the quickest, will be migrating the website hosting from Typepad to WordPress.com.
    Expect a slight change to the look of things and other small improvements as I do that.
  • (easing into it) A return to posting more often on social media
    You can find Discardia on Mastodon, at https://mastodon.social/@discardia (On Mastodon because it’s lovely and I like to support open source software when I can, and because Facebook and Twitter are a garbage fire and Facebook owns Instagram.)
    Here’s a piece I wrote about how to migrate from Twitter to Mastodon https://medium.com/@metagrrrl/low-spoon-mastodon-migration-8289688f818a
  • (yet to come) A Discardia Patreon community for those who want to get more involved
    This will be a Tip Jar model—$1 a month—to support my ongoing work, get early access to content, participate in polls and conversations, and generally be more connected as we head into the 10th anniversary of the book in 2021 and the 20th anniversary of the founding of the holiday in 2022. Joining won’t be necessary to keep up with Discardia in general, but it will be available for those who want to dive deeper. Don’t worry; there will be just as many free posts as before!
  • (yet to come) A revised and expanded edition of Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff 
    This is a very big project I’ll be working on over the next couple years and I’m very excited about it! I will be sharing this process and having discussions about changes and additions in the Discardia Patreon community.

Thanks to all my fellow Discardians for coming along this journey so far. I’m looking forward to where we travel together to next!

Quality Over Quantity and your wardrobe

My big Quality Over Quantity theme this year (besides not over-scheduling myself, which is a big part of my health management) has been pruning and adjusting my wardrobe. My clothes need to reflect who I am now, feel good on the body I have now, and support my happiness and wellness.

I'll be sharing more about this in the weeks ahead, but for the moment here's a little excerpt from my book Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff:

The change of the seasons into summer and winter is a good time to revisit things in your closet because it gives you a chance to look again at clothes you haven’t worn since last year and decide if you love them enough to renew their contract as players on your team. When the chill grows in the air, go through all those coats, sweaters, scarves, mittens, boots, etc. and decide what you're going to wear within the next thirty days. If it doesn't make the cut, get rid of it.

Someone else needs to be warm more than you need to maintain The Gallery of Unwanted Winterwear. As the sunshine blooms and you shed layers, do the same thing, but with bathing suits, shorts, lightweight dresses, halter tops, sandals, and t-shirts.

Don’t hang onto things that you never use. Send that just-not-you suit to one of the great organizations helping low-income businesspeople carry themselves to success. Give that big, out-of-fashion winter coat to charity and save someone from the chill. Let that over-the-top formalwear send someone on a tight budget to the prom or a holiday party in style. Move the neglected items out of your space and into the arms of someone who really appreciates them.

Remember, Someday Is Now still applies when it comes to your dress clothes; we simply define ‘now’ as being a longer time range. When you haven’t worn that suit or gown in six months, but you don’t want to be in the lurch if you get invited to a fancy occasion, you can still hold onto it ‘just in case’ provided that it fits you well and you actually like wearing it.

However, I have seen people keep something ostensibly for the reason “I might need to wear it if I go to a formal event” but really for the reason “I spent too much on this and it fits me completely wrong and I haven't worn it the last five times I've been invited to a formal event, but maybe if I hold onto it somehow that money will magically have been wisely spent.”

I say keep the things that are both beautiful and useful to you and perhaps define the utility of formals in a longer than six month cycle, but move the rest along. Don’t let the fear of being caught unprepared for exceptional events make your daily encounter with your closet a hassle.