teenage minimalist a blog about sarah's journey as a teen minimalist

Hi! I'm an OLD minimalist ... but I just started blogging and reading blogs. You might like the piece I posted today - it's about ,minimalist wardrobes.

http://enuffstuff.info/dress-for-your-own-definition-of-success/

Keep up the good work! Kate Carpenter

I enjoyed your blog. Got here by way of "Gmail Experiment" on Userscripts.

Hi--
I am an older computer user who is often confused by programs. Do you know of a way to make Google Docs look like Writeroom, or one of the programs that turns Word or other writing software into a dark back screen, if not black, and just has the script on the page--- usually green or something? I have tried Greasemonkey and other things, but can never figure out how to use them. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Michael

Hi--
I am an older computer user who is often confused by programs. Do you know of a way to make Google Docs look like Writeroom, or one of the programs that turns Word or other writing software into a dark back screen, if not black, and just has the script on the page--- usually green or something? I have tried Greasemonkey and other things, but can never figure out how to use them. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Michael

@Michael Let's see. There are several ways you can do that, but the simplest way would be using a Google Docs template like this:

https://drive.google.com/templates?q=darkroom&sort=hottest&view=public

After clicking "use this template", it will open a blank file in Google Docs. Head over to your menu and click View < Full Screen to hide controls and menu, then F11 to hide your browser.

That should give you an empty black screen so you can write without distractions. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions.

I love your website, and I want to subscribe by email, but when I try I get this message-

"The feed does not have subscriptions by email enabled"

Any ideas? I'd really like to subscribe :-)

Thanks

@Anonymous So sorry about that. Should be all fixed now! Thanks for stopping by!!

Thanks, it works now. I've subscribed :-)

Visiting from Miss Minimalist -tried to subscribe by rss and got an error page :(

Great blog! I found my way here from miss minimalist. Really looking forward to reading more about how your journey is going. If you ever want to chat, come on over to my blog :)

All the best,

Tim

@Samantha Really sorry about that, feedburner has been giving me a few issues lately. Should be fixed now.

Hi! Found you by way of Miss Minimalist.
LOVE your story and your blog. I've immediately put into practice three of your suggestions, and will definitely subscribe in google reader (a longtime favorite google site of mine).

question: you store all your documents in google documents. I've mainly just created spreadsheets in google docs in their format, not excel like I've been used to.

Do you store EVERY document in there? photos, PDFs, word / excel documents...?

sunnysblog at gmail com

@Sunny Answered your question via email! Thanks for the comment!

Re: clothes....if I think I like a piece of clothing but haven't worn it for awhile, I force myself to wear it. I either find I like it more than I thought and start using it more often, or I figure out why I don't wear it more often and then I get rid of it.

Hmmm, maybe I need to count my things. As a nearly 40 year old with kids about to hit the teenage years, how can I guide them towards More Is Less if I am not a good role model. I love your "food for thought" and inspiration. Keep it coming!

Love your blog Sarah. You will find more inspiration on minimalism in the Bible, I am so glad you chose to keep. You are a real role model.. Kerin, Australia

I've found counting stuff to be helpful, to a point. The problem is that I tend to become fixated on a number, and start getting rid of things that we really should keep! But it does always get me thinking...

Wardrobes are such an individual thing! Here's my latest post about my wardrobe, as well: http://oursocalledlife.blog.com/2012/06/14/natural-selection-and-thrift-store-clothing/

I regularly count my stuff. At the moment I have ezactly 50 items of clothes for all seasons. I am ruthless when it comes to decluttering. If I buy a new item an old one MUST leave my wardrobe.
I have nominated your inspiring blog for One Lovely Blog Award. All the best.

hi there, got here from miss minimalist.It's great to see a young person giving real meaning to their life by getting rid of all the meaningless things in it! I'm turning twenty one and unknowingly admired the concept of less is more. I noticed on your list of 25 thing you own, you include a Bible. I think this is a great possession. In fact the first time I was exposed to the idea that less is more was from reading the bible. There are many texts where we are advised to keep our eye simple and emphasize the fact that the greatest treasures we can obtain are not the ones that can be ruined or lost by corrosive things like floods, fires,and mold.

one of my favorite minimalist quotes:
"Besides the noble act of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone."

Hmmm. I'm trying to comment on your laundry post and ended up here. Hope I'm in the right place!

Anyway, I'm intrigued! We have to hand wash quite a bit on our boat, and a bag sounds like a very simple solution.

Do you have not a mobile phone?

@Anonymous No I do not. I don't drive yet, so I haven't had a reason to get one yet. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Hi Sarah. Discovered you on Courtney Carver's BeMoreWithLess.com blog. I am absolutely humbled by your maturity. Thanks for being such a great example to an old guy / new minimalist.

hi sarah,

i found your blog through jessice dang of Minimal Student. :)

i'm also a minimalist living in the Philippines.

i love your site design and can't wait to read more of your posts. :)

Hi Sarah,

Just read your article "uncomplicate your music" and wanted to share the breakthrough I had on this.

I use Spotify now, and much like you with the ipod shuffle I am not advertising it, it does however solve lots of my music problems. I have been able to do away with my entire collection of music and now have access to almost any song I can think of anytime from both my computer or my mobile phone.

Obviously it comes with it's draw backs such as it being a monthly fee and if you stop paying you don't have any music anymore, but in my opinion it allows me to enjoy the music I love, experiment with new music, and all without any additional clutter or attachments (as you can delete the playlist one day and find it again in 6 months time if you feel in the mood again).

Jason

Hey Jason,

That's an excellent idea. I used spotify (as well as Rdio and a few others) for a couple weeks when I had an android phone... but I quit when I sold the phone. Really wish they had a web interface. I hear it's in the works, but we'll see.

For how long have been a minimalist, at what age have you started the journey and what did your friends/family say?

@Anonymous

I've been a minimalist for about 2 years now. I started at around 15, I think. They thought I was crazy. But they've gotten pretty used to the idea now, and have reduced some of their possessions too. You can read my story here: http://teenageminimalist.blogspot.com/p/my-story.html

Thanks for the comment!

Amazing Blog!!
To have discovered this so early in live just floors me!

feathe.rs/ is a really good alternative, it's for bloggers who don't want to bother themselves with choosing the theme and everything like that and it is also quite minimalistic! It's a beta version for now, therefore you'll need a twitter account to use it, but.. you can post from it and share and you can scroll through the archive of yours.. it's an amazing site!

Oh, I am the same guy of feathe.rs, there's also an app for Google Chrome which is called Writeulus which I think is the best when you want just to write something, then you can copy the text and paste it anywhere you want!

I am really like Write Space off GOOgLe Chrome :))

Sarah,

Great blog! I was wondering if you would be interested in guest blogging on a new network I'm developing?

Http://MinLiv.in

Cheers,
Shane

@Shane Sure, I can do that! Contact me via my Google Profile (which you can find on my About page) and let me know the details.

I really liked this one. Sometimes I find myself doing some of these things (the smiling at someone in the street for no reason, just for the good of it, most of all), and it's a really nice thing to do. I remember one time in particular, I was having an awful week (a really awful one) and someone I didn't know smiled and said "good day" to me. I had never seen this person in my life, but it really cheered me up. And that was when I realized how, by just smiling (it's so incredibly simple if you think of it), you can really cheer someone up, like it happened to me that time. So now, everytime I'm on the street I look at people, and whenever I see someone that looks sad (or at least someone I think looks sad), i just smile at him/her... and it's nice to see your smile back in that person's face when they answer back "good day"

Your blog has been a huge inspiration to me and in combination with a few others has helped me to become much more content and happy as a person :)

Your blog is #6 on my list of favourite blogs: http://patrickbrett.us.to/my-favourite-blogs

i hope you contiune to keep writing on your blog you have inspired me to the minimalist life style.By the way i check every week to see if you have added more postings.