The Naturale Yogi

It’s been six months since the initial lockdown last March 16, 2020 and for several reasons I’m stuck living and working at home. Life has been really slow compared to how our lives were before this pandemic hit and it’s been slow but at the same time the uncertainty of things does make me anxious at times. I noticed a lot of areas that I have been minimizing aside from being able to clean out clutter in general spaces. Here are some other surprising things I have decluttered and minimized during this pandemic.

Minimal wardrobe

Not having to wear outdoor or office wear has made my wardrobe choices really small and on top of that being able to wash them right after use has enabled me to use a few items of clothing day after day. My sweaty dryfit workout clothes gets washed right after I use them so I’d only need minimal soap because the sweat easily washes out of it and they dry after a few hours of washing. Other clothes would be lounge wear and pyjamas that isn’t a big issue when it comes to wearing them more than once and they dry out pretty quickly so I only ever need to cycle between a few pairs of those.

I was also able to repair a lot of my clothes and that meant there is less need for new products for me as I would continue to wear the ones that I have right now.

Well planned meals

Being able to eat all my meals at home meant every meal could be planned in advance and so I cook items in bulk and basically I meal prep all my meals. It’s been great to be able to not think of what food to eat because I have a plan and all I have to do is stick to it.

Minimal News

I keep myself updated through certain channels on Youtube but I do limit myself from taking in too much news that would clutter my headspace and drain me mentally and emotionally. It’s no use being flooded with too many of the same news about the pandemic and it gets me anxious and nervous at times so to care for my emotional space I limit it to a few minutes a day.

Essential Shopping

At the start of the lockdown it was difficult to get groceries or other non-essential items delivered because of the limited transportation so we would only buy things that we absolutely needed, and this made us aware of things that we actually needed, which is not a lot. It turns out that we had a lot of items kept away in our drawers and cabinets that I learned that shopping at home was the first step in trying to replenish items that I thought we had already ran out of.

Minimal Waste

The result of the minimizing everything meant that in general our daily household waste has been greatly diminished because we didn’t eat out anymore therefore did not have to bring in takeaway bags. Our clothing consisted of non delicate lounge wear material which meant laundry was lesser in quantity and frequency. I had a lot of time to declutter some more and that meant cleaner spaces and also knowing where things are meant that I had to buy less items than I thought I needed.

Final thoughts

I hope as the world adjusts to the reality of this new post COVID 19 world that we remember the lessons we learned through this experience and take time to slow down and continuously evaluate our lives to consciously surround ourselves with things that really matter to us. We remember that outside of the basic necessities to keep our physical and mental health, like basic food, clothing and shelter everything else is a bonus. That we always remember that corporate marketing is very real and it’s everywhere we go, on our screen, on our airwaves, or on our way to work, and the only way to fight back is to know with all your heart that what you already have is enough and that you as a person is enough without the physical things society tells us we need to own to have value. That our value in society is our capability in helping people solve various problems that come up in daily life and also to help uplift society in any way we can, not having the latest gadget that does the exact same thing the old model does.