Hand sanitizer, face mask, vitamins, more time staying indoors, these are the realities that we are living today. As someone who pursues life to only keep things that are necessary, personally, the pandemic possesses its own challenge. The challenges for me include,stuff that I buy for precautions, more time indoors which leads me to use my internet more, and also vitamins which I often overbought just in case the market runs out of it. These things are the challenges that make my essential living quite a problem. And below, I will tell you more about it, what I do to minimize it, and how I handle these obstacles in life as someone who pursues the essential/minimalism lifestyle.
Covid-19 Kit Clutters
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In the past, though I have used hand sanitizer, a bottle would last very long. I don’t keep buying them every other week. But these days, I have to keep buying at least twice a week because I also have to sanitize the delivery orders. In order to stop buying so much of it, I tend to get a big bottle and divide it into my old bottles. Still though, with so many plastic bottles I have, that’s a great deal of waste. I haven’t found any recycling program yet and I hope there will be a program where the sanitizer bottle can be recycled.
Another thing is the use of facial masks. Again, even before the pandemic, I’ve already worn the face mask. But since I was mostly using the cloth one, it would last long. But now, I have to wear the medical ones, one time use and when I glanced at the trash can, that’s a lot of waste from the mask. Staying home indeed minimizes this but even then, the clutter is even more than before. I still don’t know what I can do to prevent this waste as even I read and heard, we have to be masked even when we’re already vaccinated. So now, I don’t see a way around it.
Vitamins are another story. In the past, I would buy just enough to last a month. But these days, I am stocking up for 2 months supply because there is no guarantee that some vitamins would be available next month. An extra vitamin supply is taking up another space in my pantry. This is another clutter and also a contributor to the not-so-minimalism budget. However,these days, I am trying to list my supplies and count them carefully. This way, I will save up more and not overbuy them.
Digital Minimalism
More time indoors means less attractions and entertainment for me. The only way to keep me entertained without relying on my gadgets, is going outside. However, these days with the quarantine and movement restrictions, vaccination checks, I have to remain inside.
I would be lucky if I were to live near the countryside. But I am not. I am in the hotspot of the covid-19 spread. I just heard a neighbor got it a few days back.
In order to avoid spending so much time online, I started to use the app checker on my phone. Fixing my sleep was also a game changer to how much I spend time online. With 7-8 hours of sleep, I don’t check my phone all the time. So, by the time I am awake, I normally spend it for work purposes, call my mom, and some form of entertainment that I do during breaks.
Sometimes, I watch movies during break or tweet stuff. But that’s it. I am no longer compelled to scroll youtube or anything for too long. My email is also free from subscriptions and newsletters. Though that soon changed as I wanted to make a newsletter relating to hive book club. Overall, compared to pre-pandemic, my online life has been better these days as I get more grip and control of it.
Minimalist budget, does it exist?
To be fair, during this pandemic, I don’t think I’ve been doing any minimalist budget. There is now more additional spending on emergency funds and multivitamins. There are also more expenses as I have to support two other people, which is my mom and my grandma. Then, there’s also my small home baking business that I am trying to keep afloat even though I am away. With these sudden increases in expenses, my budget looks like a consumer budget instead of an essential one. Though you could also argue that those things can be essentials.
As I am also avoiding going outside, not that places are open, I spend more on delivery services. From groceries to food, I outsource this task to delivery services. I go out sometimes but only a few times a month these days. So, to cut costs, I also have to carefully check what’s in my pantry and my things that run out. I also tried to eat the same food for a day or order in bulk. Discounts are my friend. They enable me to eat a fairly well and quite nutritious meal. To avoid making so much waste, I also opt for no cutlery. Though these days, many restaurants are using recyclable materials for their cutlery. So, doing a minimalist budget like I would in the past, has been quite a challenge. But overall, this one's a bit more manageable as I can always customize my personal spending.
Now, to summarize my challenges and also how I overcome these challenges, here’s the bullet point version.
- I still find no ways to minimize the covid-19 clutter that includes hand sanitizer, mask, and the vitamins.
- To be more mindful about my digital spending, I use an app tracker to track my application usage. I don’t subscribe to newsletters and use social media intermittently.
- It is still a challenge to me to create a minimalist budget as I pour more into deliveries, emergency funds, and funding a family member. I know that minimalist doesn’t mean less but intentional. Still though, my budget pre-pandemic looks so much better than today.
If you are a minimalist or someone into essential living, how do you overcome such problems? If you’re not a minimalist, do you have problems with using more masks or hand sanitizers? or maybe spending more time online and possibly spending more money online as well?
 | Mac is a content creator that covers literature, books, technology, philosophy, nootropics, productivity, minimalist lifestyle, cybersecurity, and languages. Other than those, she is passionate about cooking and travel. In her free time, she enjoys learning various things. |