It’s been really hot for the past week. Just going for a walk outside is really difficult because I don’t love to spend time in the sun, so I’ve resorted to walking on the treadmill at the gym. It’s just a lot easier – less wasting valuable walking time by spending ten minutes putting sunscreen on. I’ve got a bit of a tan, but I’ve stopped caring. Fifteen years ago I might have just wanted my skin to be whiter. 😖 I’m doing my best to avoid getting some kind of midriff tan because of my affinity of crop tops. 😂 The shoe/sock tan is kind of ridiculously unavoidable.

We attempted to do a walk at La Perouse on the weekend, but there were so many people there and we were short on time. I had to come back home to record a couple of podcast episodes for Toast & Roast. We’ll probably return and do the walks another day. It was quite hot and we managed to walk around a bit on the rocks near the fort. It seems that people usually fish there, but we didn’t see anyone.

I had quite possibly the most challenging workout of this year so far on Monday. I just pushed through. I’m on the second last week of my current program which has me doing 15 reps of some exercises. I managed 120kg on the leg press and feel like a tank. The rest today felt well deserved – although my back muscles ached a bit, and it was probably more needed than deserved.

I have indeed jumped on the Wordle bandwagon, and got Nick to play a few rounds the past couple of days as well. 😆 I’m a bit of an English nerd so I like to think I’m alright at playing the game and recognising words. It’s a nice bit of fun and I do see why people enjoy the challenge and appreciate that it’s not designed to suck you in or be addictive.

Iced tea is a new favourite at the moment – I’d previously felt like it was so much bother to prepare and brew and basically make iced tea… but it’s worth it for the refreshing taste.

Last week I was able to successfully sell a bunch of clothes on eBay. There were some clothes I obviously didn’t love. After watching one of Joshua Beckett’s videos, I am now asking myself, “if I didn’t have this, what would I use instead?” The popular “do I need this?” question doesn’t often work when someone is surrounded by clutter and has the mentality that everything they own, they “need”. This has really helped me shift the focus from some of my lesser-worn clothes to the ones I actually love wearing time and time again. With that question, it’s become more obvious that when I’m faced with a choice involving an item of clothing I don’t like all that much… I always choose the item I love and wear over and over again.

I am thinking of writing a blog post sharing all the clothes I’ve sold or gotten rid of and why. You know, like one of those YouTube channels, except I just can’t be stuffed starting a channel, so it’s just going to have to be in blog form. 😛 If I were to start a YouTube channel, though, guaranteed it would be about style and my minimalist wardrobe. Just know I hate editing shit, so that is probably most certainly going to be outsourced, or I’ll make Nick do it. 😂 Anyway, it seems like eBay is popping recently. People shopping definitely comes in waves. There are some months where I go for so long without being able to sell any pre-loved clothes. I’m having a bit more luck this time of year.

Speaking of clothes, I didn’t buy any clothes for all of January, which is a pretty good move for me. I did purchase a few activewear leggings just yesterday, but those are items of clothing I wear very regularly and there are a few pieces I own that need to be replaced because they are ill-fitting. I also bought some new underwear since I’m gradually replacing my underpants. 😆

After watching Matt D’Avella’s video counting everything he and his wife owned, I had an urge to do the same. I thought it a ridiculous idea at first, and almost laughable… but I realised that I do keep an inventory of my clothes. And some of the points Matt made were around how, when minimalism was “hot” twelve years ago, many YouTubers prided themselves on owning less than a hundred things. Matt pointed out that the reality of life is that we live in homes and use things, and we don’t all travel with all our belongings in a backpack, and we all have hobbies that might use things. The number is not what matters, even though it’s fascinating. He pointed out that he and his wife Natalie use everything they own. And amusingly, he admitted that, excluding items they both own, Natalie actually owns less stuff than he does, and she doesn’t identify as a minimalist. 😆

I have started a spreadsheet on my computer and I guess it’ll be interesting to see how many things we do have. It’s not something I’m in a rush to finish. I guess I’ll just add to it when I feel like it. I haven’t added clothes to it, but I know I have about 90 pieces of clothing and shoes. I don’t really count socks or underwear. But we’ll see how the underwear count goes since I just said I’m replacing some. Hahaha.