Having kids go to college meant that when they graduated, we (parents with a basement) were the “lucky” acquirers of all the stuff the college students didn’t need anymore. Stuff they considered too good to get rid of. Stuff that still sits there in the basement to this day.

Two of the things we inherited were 2 of those little cubic foot box type dorm refrigerators. Not wanting to waste, we set one up in our kitchen to cool and hold extra drinks. One lasted about 6 months before dying. The other lasted about 5 years!- Sometimes, as I’d sit in my kitchen eating my breakfast I’d face the cubic-barely-holds-anything- refrigerator and dream of the day it would die and I could get a big huge mini-refrigerator going from 1 cubic foot to 4 cubic feet. My eyes were bedazzled by the thought of all the waters and pops and beers and wine coolers it would hold… But the little tiny one kept running and running. It’s as if it knew it had a mission: to live until ‘she’ (me) was ready to let go.

Finally last week it died. My dream was about to be realized. I would go shopping. I would FINALLY get the really nice big one that would hold endless drinks. The sky was the limit. I had passed the test! I’d waited till one quit working before buying another: It proved I WAS a minimalist- Right?

Two things happened:

1. One of my adult kids living at home claimed the broken little box refrigerator, “Don’t throw it away, I might be able to fix it.” (This person has no electrical nor refrigeration background.) So much for getting rid of broken clutter. 😢
2. As I started mentally doing my victory dance and singing, “I’m going shopping! I know what I’m getting! A big drinks refrigerator, 4 cubic-footer” my left brain screeched me to a halt and reminded me, “You’re a minimalist. Get a grip woman!- Slap yourself out of your delirium! LESS is MORE! Quit the needless spending and accumulations!”🤔

Here was a chance to prove to myself that if I really meant it then I should put my money where my mouth was and be a minimalist! Did I really need a new and bigger drinks refrigerator?

Though I felt some reluctance to let go of my 5 year dream of waiting for a bigger fridge to put in all the pop and alcohol and waters I could dream of. I knew what I had to do.

First I took the old little broken one and left it in front of the bedroom door of the one who wanted it. It was out of my kitchen at least.

Secondly, as my family was a little worried about my idea of not having a refrigerator for drinks, I then went through my main refrigerator, rearranging and throwing away things that were expired or not wanted, and made room in the door of the refrigerator for drinks. I showed the family that every drink that had fit in the small old college dorm refrigerator now fit in the now cleared area of our main refrigerator. I even gave their cokes and water bottles, etc. the primo location: the top shelf in the door of the refrigerator!

Like when, in the Lord of the Rings, Galadriel says “I pass the test, I will diminish, and remain Galadriel.” I look upon the now empty spot left by the cubic foot refrigerator and nod, “I passed the test. I diminished- and remain minimalist.”