May 2023: Two microfiber towels. Only have colored laundry. 5 instead of 10 T-shirts.
May 4, 2023. This afternoon, my room was visited by a law student. Shortly after, the nurse was supposed to come. Hanna and Claudia were in the kitchen while I lay in bed, contemplating the effects of the wealth affirmation after listening to it: "Crazy how I now wake up much earlier and waste less time. The affirmation has such a strong impact on me..."
The doorbell rang. Shortly after, I heard voices from the hallway. It was probably the interested person who wanted to view my room. I quickly got up, made the bed neatly, and sat down at the table with my laptop. Someone knocked on my room door.
"Sascha? Can we come in?" I heard Hanna from behind the door.
"Yes, sure, come in," I replied, stood up from the chair, and turned to the door. Claudia, Hanna, and the interested person came in.
"Hello, I'm Alexander," I approached the brunette interested person and introduced myself.
"Rebecca. Nice to meet you," she shook my hand as I looked into her warm, brown eyes.
"So, this would be your room," Hanna said.
"Wow, the room is quite big," Rebecca replied, looking around the room. "Are you almost moved in?" she continued, smiling at me.
"No, not yet. This is all I own," I replied.
"Sascha is a minimalist," Hanna continued.
It was the first time someone referred to me as a minimalist. That made me grin.
"Oh, cool. I couldn't do that without a proper bed," Rebecca commented.
"I thought the same at the beginning. But apparently, I could, as you can see. It's a matter of habit," I explained.
After they had viewed my room, the three went to the kitchen to get to know each other better. I stayed in the room and lay back in bed.
"Her rolling 'R' is so cute. And her freckles..." I thought with a grin on my face. After a brief daydream about Rebecca, I turned my attention to the white fitted sheet I was lying on.
"It's way too big for my bed. I could replace it with a black bedsheet," I thought and stood up to look at it from above.
"Yes, black would be even better, as black bedding is better for sleep," the thought buzzed in my head.
Without hesitation, I said goodbye to the three in the kitchen and went to a fabric store on Schillerstraße, where I bought two black fabrics in my bed size.
When I returned home, Rebecca was already gone. I threw the two bed sheets into the machine for a quick wash and neatly placed the white bed sheets in the corner on the floor.
"There. I'll take these back to Borsum next time," I whispered. "Wait a minute... I still have two small white towels in the bathroom," I thought and ran to the bathroom to grab the two towels, which I exclusively used for hands, and brought them into my room.
"These can go too," I decided, thinking about my other two microfiber towels that I used for the body. I could also dry my hands with them.
Out of sheer curiosity, I removed the mattress topper from my foam mattress. I lay down.
"Mmm, no. Somehow it's too firm."
I placed the mattress topper back on the bed.
As I lay in bed doing nothing, a brilliant idea suddenly struck me: What if I only had colored laundry? Then I wouldn't need regular laundry detergent anymore and would never have to sort my laundry into colored and white loads. I was so excited about the idea that I jumped out of bed and looked at my wardrobe again.
To realize this idea, I had to minimize my five white T-shirts or replace them with black ones. I pulled out the white T-shirts along with the hangers and looked again at my clothes rack. There were only five black T-shirts hanging.
"Let's give it a try... if the T-shirts aren't enough, I can always quickly run into town and buy some," I thought.
I neatly folded the five T-shirts together, grabbed a yellow bag from the kitchen, and placed them inside. I also put the five empty hangers into the bag. I poured my regular laundry detergent into Claudia's huge XXL detergent container.
"Great, I can take this to the textile recycling bin tomorrow," I whispered, referring to the prepared yellow bag.
It was already afternoon, I quickly cooked some pasta. After eating, I went to the bathroom to prepare for the evening. I trimmed my beard with the hair clippers Tobi had given me during the Corona period. Then I removed the 12 mm attachment and tried something completely new: Instead of lathering my neck and then shaving, I trimmed the hair on my neck as short as possible with the hair clippers. I was so satisfied with the result that I almost decided to throw away my razor.
In the evening, I made my way to the Enchilada. Hanna had invited me and my new buddy Nico to cocktail dice. Melanie, a friend of hers, and her boyfriend Sebastian were also there. Nico had also brought his best friend Tobi. Additionally, a new acquaintance of Hanna's from the club joined us.
After everyone had rolled their cocktails, it was my turn. I took the two dice in my hand and rolled a five.
"I'll have the Coconut Kiss," I said to the waiting waitress next to me.
"What? Coconut Kiss? But that's alcohol-free," Nico wondered, sitting to my right.
"Yes, that's intentional. I don't drink alcohol anymore," I replied.
There was a brief silence.
"Wait, you don't drink alcohol anymore?!" Hanna reacted with surprise. She was sitting opposite me, staring at me with her mouth open.
"Yes, I've decided never to drink alcohol again," I explained.
"Not even at parties?" Sebastian, who was sitting to my left, asked.
"Exactly, not even at parties."
"Not even a shandy?" Nico continued to inquire.
"Yes, exactly. Not even a shandy. I really don't drink any alcohol," I emphasized.
"May I ask why?" Tobi, sitting next to Nico, asked.
"I'm just trying to improve a little every day, and health is part of it. I can certainly use my brain cells for other things instead of losing them to alcohol," I explained.
It seemed like everyone had accepted my decision, and we spent the rest of the evening without further discussion - even when I ordered a cappuccino instead of a tequila sunrise in the second round.
The English Formula Collection
May 7, 2023. As usual these days, my alarm went off at eight in the morning. After an untoasted toast with chocolate spread, I visited my current favorite café in the city center, Kreipes Coffee Time. There, I got myself a latte with oat milk and sat down at a table upstairs with an outlet. It was still empty. Shortly after, a girl walked in. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. Then she sat down with her laptop at a table opposite mine. Shortly after, two other girls walked in. I smiled at them, they smiled back, and they sat down at the table next to mine. In that moment, I thought about the impressive effect a smile can have.
"Hey, do you know what the Wi-Fi password is here?" one of the two girls asked me.
"Good question, I forgot. You'd better ask downstairs," I replied. She nodded and went downstairs to ask for the password.
By the afternoon, I had translated my formula collection into English and finally finished it today. With joy, I closed my laptop, sat down facing the window, leaned back, crossed my arms behind my head, and looked out of the large window at the opera house.
Somehow, in that moment, I felt like I was capable of falling in love again. I imagined this pretty girl approaching me. We would look deep into each other's eyes and fall in love instantly. And then we would be happy forever.
During the time I was with Jule, and even before I met Jule, I didn't have the readiness to fall in love. I just couldn't imagine having that fluttering feeling in my stomach. But now, in this moment, it suddenly seemed possible. I grinned.
I uploaded my English formula collection directly online. As a reward, I went out tonight. This time to a different club, one I've never been to before, because today I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try a different club. Every time I stepped out of my comfort zone, I always felt happy that I had dared to do it. That was the case when switching from UCOZ CMS to Drupal CMS. That was the case when switching from Windows to Mac. And every time, it was so worth it. And maybe it will be worth it to go to the 60s hall instead of the Dax tonight. Maybe I'll fit in better with the people there. We'll see, maybe I'll meet an eco-conscious girl at the club tonight.
In the evening, I went to the Faust to the 60s hall. Tonight, the 90s party was taking place there. When I arrived at ten o'clock, the bouncer told me that the party in the 60s hall didn't start until midnight today. I didn't want to wait that long, so instead, I went back to my familiar environment - the Dax...
The next day, I woke up around eleven o'clock and went straight to my favorite café to work. This time, I focused on my website to make it even more minimalist. I had realized by now that minimalism has its effect not only on material things but also in communication, whether it's presenting technical topics, programming, or designing websites. With the changes on my website, I hoped for a stronger focus from the learners and reduced usage of server resources.
As I sipped my coffee, I deactivated all unused modules in the backend and removed unnecessary if statements in the programming code. In the frontend, I designed the website's theme darker and removed some unnecessary navigation links.
In the afternoon, after cooking and enjoying delicious fried potatoes, I listened to the wealth affirmation. Just as Bodo said the phrase "I enjoy eating. And I drink two to three liters of water a day," I took a sip of water, paused the audio, and went to my pantry shelf in the kitchen. I focused on the oats. I didn't like them, but I still ate them because they were cheap and healthy. I definitely didn't enjoy it - at least not with the preparation method I always chose: soaking oats overnight in hot water, adding some frozen fruits, sprinkling with a little cinnamon or cocoa, and letting it sit overnight. Eating it in the morning always put me in a bad mood. It would have tasted better for sure if I had used oat milk instead of water, but oat milk always ran out too quickly, and the resulting packaging waste took up too much space in the yellow bag. What gave me much more joy, for example, were toast or rolls with a spread, topped with cucumber or other vegetables and cheese, sprinkled with crushed flaxseeds.
I placed the almost full package in Hanna's cupboard, where similar oats were already stored. Then I looked at the packaging of white sugar. I hadn't used it in my drinks for a while and didn't plan to use it anymore. I disposed of it directly in the trash and vowed never to buy white sugar again.
Proud to be giving up sugar and its packaging from today, I went back to my room to finish listening to the affirmation.
In the evening, I dared to take another step regarding my bed: Tonight, I slept without the mattress topper directly on the foam mattress covered with the black bedsheet. As I lay down on it, I felt that it was significantly harder and somewhat less comfortable. But I wanted to give my modified bed a few more days to get used to it.
Learning: I've learned that minimalism can also be applied in communication, whether it's presenting or designing websites.
Life upgrades:
- I replaced my white fitted sheets with dark bed sheets, as dark colors are said to be relaxing and therefore better for sleep.
- I own exactly two compact microfiber towels in dark colors, which I use for both showering and drying my hands. One towel is in use, while the other serves as a backup towel. This minimizes the amount of laundry generated.
- My wardrobe consists exclusively of colored clothes. This way, I never have to sort my laundry by whites and colors, and I no longer need full laundry detergent.
- I reduced the number of my T-shirts from 10 to 5.
- I sorted out all expired food stocks as well as those that I don't like (like oats) or never use or want to use (like white sugar).