Your self-described minimalist friend Isabel, who has given away everything that does not bring her joy, wanted to know if you have a few things you could lend her this week.
“Nothing big, just some basics,” she says. “Like, do you have a plunger lying around?”
After buying three books and one audiobook on the “simplicity movement” five months ago, Isabel told you over brunch that she was “in the process of de-cluttering her life.” She then told you that in her enthusiasm she had splashed some Bloody Mary on her white sweater and “it would be great” if you’d let her use your Tide pen, since she’d just thrown out her own.
“We define ourselves by our stuff, when what we really should be valuing are experiences,” Isabel informed you. “Like when we took that road trip to Sedona in your car!”
Isabel insists she is no longer interested in shopping, and is totally happy wearing the same three outfits to work. “I have enough shoes,” she says. “Though if I were going to get another pair—you know, for work—it’d totally be those black peep-toe pumps you have. You’re a size eight, right? I’m doing an interview tomorrow. Do you think I could borrow them?”
“Friends are what’s important!” she exclaimed, gazing longingly in the direction of your nail polish collection. “I don’t even need my diary anymore. I can just talk to my friends about everything. Like, did I tell you how I had just gotten rid of the bathroom trash can when I learned condoms aren’t flushable? I love my new life!”
Isabel has learned a lot from the books she has since left out on the curb. Her new motto is “skills over stuff,” and that giving away an entire bookshelf’s worth of books and magazines was “so freeing,” and probably also the reason you found her sniffing your paperbacks and rubbing your magazines’ perfume samples on herself.
“Minimalism really is life-changing,” she sighs, looking over all your basics she swears she’ll return super soon, before quickly adding, “But it’s not for everyone.”
“Do you think all that will fit in my one tote bag?” she says, “Or do you have another?”
As a thank you for lending her some of your many things, Isabel has offered to make you cookies, in your kitchen, using your utensils and your ingredients.
