Answers to the tough stuff

Why do I...
In order to determine what stuff we do need (and what stuff we don't) we end up asking a lot of questions. In fact we often find ourselves in an impromptu debate where one of us (let's say Josey) argues why we need to keep something and the other one of us (let's say Brian) argues why we do not, indeed, need to keep something. Of course the debate is completely friendly, no voices are raised, and it usually results in a compromise, i.e. the prettiest person wins (this is not always Josey) which is always Josey, and is sealed with a kiss (CONFESSION: unlike previous blog posts, Haley's responses to our ways of 'showing affection' will not be mentioned).

Why?! Here is our top 20 (yikes, that's a lot of whys) list for you to try out yourselves. C'mon. Try it out!

1. Why do we have more than one pizza cutter?
2. Why are we keeping these old textbooks?
3. Why do we have so many vases? (especially if you don't even like flowers. wah wah.)
4. Why do we have 3 sets of luggage? We're minimalists for goodness sake!
5. Why do we have so many duffel bags, I believe they are also a form of luggage?
6. Why do I have bank statements from 1998? Why did I have a bank account when I was 12?
7. Why is there a dead plant in the corner?
8. Why do we have outdoor furniture, but no outdoor space for the furniture?
9. Why do I have more than a dozen water bottles? Why do I have even a dozen water bottles, that's more than there are days in a week, am I planning on two-a-days? 
10. Why do I have so many baking sheets? I don't need to eat 5 dozen cookies in the near future, and I don't own a bakery.
11. Why do I still have VHS tapes, didn't Brian tell me to get rid of those in his first official solo blog post?
12. What's with my shower, why am I not winning the contest for most nearly-empty-shampoo-bottles?
13. So I've got 5+ winter coats. Why am I going on an expedition to Antarctica in the near future that I don't yet know about?!
14. Why do I have so many random light bulbs, do any of these bulbs even fit in sockets?
15. Why--I mean, the spice rack. I'm glad I can alphabetize my herbs, but why are most of them expired (i.e. 2 years or older)?
16. Why don't I use pandora or spotify, aren't I embarrassed that I still have to wait for the disc to change in my CD player? (CD. that's compact disc. yup, they call them compact. sike.)
17. Why is one pair of scissors better than the other, or is it just that I am competing in a contest to see how many different handle colors I can collect? (my apologies. you could have two pairs if you need safety scissors for small children [or large husbands])
    
18. Riddle of the week: Why did the hoarder need so many sets of towels? (Because they were a hoarder. duh.)
19. Speakers are dope, yo. Do mine still work? And if they do, why am I not using them coolio?
20. Why the hell do you have so many holy socks!? This is not a riddle. Get rid of them, they are only good for cleaning out drawers (like sock drawers) and polishing said sock drawers with wood polisher. 

How did you do?! If you are at all interested in being somewhat of a minimalist - we just wanna say: we believe in you! If not, well, we still believe in you! - but we think you should read this blogpost again. ready? go.

Need not, 

Brian and Josey

Josey's on a vacation far away...

Brian and I love each other.
Gross. (CONFESSION: This is what my friend Haley would say, I think it's quite lovely.)
But we do, we like to just be with each other, so whether its a friend, a sibling, a companion or a lover (Haley: "Grosssss-er") get out and do stuff. It doesn't have to cost anything. Well for vacations-sake it really helps to know people who invite you to stay with them in exotic places like... Arizona! (insert oohs and aahs to your liking).

There are free things to do pretty much anywhere you go, often times it only takes a little bit of effort to find free things to do wherever you go. Do your research and you won't get caught up in gimmick-ee attractions that cost outrageous amounts of doll-hairs. Because making memories should be free or something like that. My vacation indulgences: anything related to exercise. I always like to push myself to work out harder then I normally do at home, especially if wearing a swimsuit is in the itinerary. This vacation we hiked up this monster mountain, a nine-mile jaunt burning no less than 1000 calories, accomplishing a 1500 feet in elevation gain. oh yeah. stairs are my enemy for the next week or two.

So I realize that not everyone thinks hitting' the gym is a riot, real fun involves burning calories with gut busting laughter created when playing... card games. A small investment in ridiculous card games will have a large payoff, here are 3 of our faves (thanks Sean and Tess):

• We Didn't Playtest This At All
• Quiddler
• LRC (left. right. center. - quarters required)

The best part is that these all take up minimal space, in one bag. Which brings us to minimal packing. Brian challenged himself to bring one drawstring bag and I challenged myself to pack only in my bag and not beg Brian to smuggle some of my items in his. For guys it should be easy - okay for my guy its easy, he looks good in whatever he wears (Haley's not allowed to interject anymore). Girls, listen up. If you don't bring excessive clothing options then your forced to actually wear what you bring. Weird. Anyways, it also helps to use the hosts washer and dryer that way you can bring less unmentionables and undershirts etc. See photos (for what we packed, not for unmentionables).

jk. it's not a competition. woop woop! Brianna gets honorable mention because her Michael Khors bag is gorgeous

But what do we eat on said exotic vacation? Happy hour can be a huge money saver (even Haley would agree). But an even better idea is to eat before you go out. I know it sounds counterintuitive. But when you're on vacation eating out seems to be the thing to do, pick one night to splurge and the rest of the meals visit the grocery store and treat your wallet to a vacation! Then when your out with everyone you can actually restrict your appetite to just the happy hour menu and still feel satiated. Also try not to buy so much food the first grocery stop. Picture this: night before you leave for home and you have to eat any left over food: lunch meat, half a dozen eggs, a bag of pretzels, yogurt etc. No one wants to last-day-of-vacation-binge. Seriously, you can visit the grocery store more than once, it's allowed. I like to buy enough food for one meal at a time. easy. peasy.


Welp that's all we'd like to share for now,
 thanks for reading!
 Stay tuned for more...

Need not,
Brian and Josey