My minimalist workout wardrobe fits in one drawer, but it contains more than most people would probably expect. My exercise clothes take up half of my minimalist wardrobe. While it takes up less space than the rest of my clothes, my minimalist workout wardrobe has more pieces in it than my daily wardrobe.

I strongly believe that your wardrobe should reflect and support your lifestyle. These clothes are my bread and butter. They let me do the things I love! And the number of items I have may seem like a lot, but they get me through all four seasons and my favorite activities like running, yoga, CrossFit, Olympic lifting, and couch potatoing.

Minimalist Workout Wardrobe

Bottoms
5 cropped leggings
5 shorts
3 full length leggings (2 winter running tights, 1 regular)
2 running tights
2 bike shorts (with cushioned pad, not the ’90s shorts we all loved)
1 yoga pant

Tops
7 sports bras (many halfway out the door)
7 long sleeve tees
6 tanks
2 sweatshirts
3 quick-dry, no-chafe tees
1 running jacket

Shoes
1 pair running shoes
1 pair training shoes (worn to CrossFit/gym)
1 pair lifting shoes
1 pair of trail running shoes

Other
3 lap swim suits
2 pairs arm warmers (1 pair for warmth, the other is thin and cooling for sun protection)

Total (minus shoes): 49 pieces

How is this Minimalist?

I’ll be the first to admit that this seems like a lot of stuff. But the large number fits my lifestyle and gives me more freedom and less stress. I workout six days a week, sometimes seven when I’m in the middle of a training cycle. This means I go through a lot of clothes. I’m not the kind of person who can rewear exercise clothes, not because I think it’s gross but because I get gross. I sweat through my clothes during most of my workouts.

Because I hang dry all of my clothes and I do my laundry once a week, I need to be able to make it through 8 days of exercise (seven plus an extra for laundry day).

My 50 pieces get me through my highest volume of training – the most stressful sections  – without having to squeeze in extra laundry or worry about having clothes. It lets me focus on the things that are actually important.

A video posted by Mandy Ferreira (@treading_lightly) on May 5, 2016 at 4:48pm PDT

Double Duty

It’s no secret that I love activewear. And, let’s be totally honest, these items are my favorite in my wardrobe. They bring me immense joy, and since I work from home, I can often wear them all day long.

Working Towards Less

While I have already sold and donated quite a few things, I am being really thoughtful about what I have and questioning how much I need. Right now I’m going to keep what I have, but as things wear out there are some that just won’t get replaced. For instance I have two fleece sweatshirts, which isn’t necessary but I do wear them both weekly. At some point in the distant future I would like to replace both of them with one really nice fleece. Same for my bike shorts. The support tank, a long sleeve, and a running tight likely won’t be replaced.

Is this the right number for everyone? No! Is it the right number for me? Yes.

Can you make do with less? Absolutely! This is just what works for me.

I have been anxiously awaiting the release of Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things since they first started talking about it at least a year ago. Despite my high expectations, the film didn’t disappoint.

Minimalism is a must see for anyone who wants a little inspiration to be less stressed, more fulfilled, and more connected with themselves and the people around them.

I went into the film feeling a bit like I’ve heard all of Joshua Fields Millburn’s and Ryan Nicodemus’ stories over and over. I was worried it would be another retelling of how they got into minimalism, but instead they crafted an incredible film full of fascinating people who have made their lives more meaningful. They didn’t even focus solely on the “stuff,” but rather they delved into how over-working and constantly distracting ourselves led us away from living the lives we want.

Minimalism was visually stunning. The scenery throughout was amazing, and the music was so good I’m hoping they release the soundtrack.

I also really enjoyed seeing what it was like for The Minimalists on their book tour a couple of years ago when a handful of people would attend and comparing to how many people show up now. People know who they are, and minimalism is clearly spreading.

From fast fashion to information overwhelm to expanding homes to fit all of our stuff, the film took a holistic look at our discontent and our consumption of all things. They delved into the environmental impact of our lifestyles, something they have avoided in the past, and put minimalism in the context of the global community instead of just inside our closets.

Despite it being a pretty heavy topic with terrifying footage of people fighting each other over Black Friday deals, there were times where I laughed. There were also so many times where I found myself nodding along and thinking ‘yes, that’s me.’

Of all of the many incredible people featured in the film, I really connected with Dan Harris, the author of 10% Happier and ABC news anchor. He and I are the over-worriers. The stressed-out over achievers. The ones who make ourselves sick because that’s what we do best.

“For a guy who spent his whole life worrying and thinking that my worrying was the edge I had over everybody else because I knew I was going to be more anxious more compulsive than any of my competitors, I realized that there is a certain amount of worrying that is what I call ‘constructive anguish’ and then there’s just useless rumination that’s just making you miserable.” Dan Harriss

I didn’t leave the theater transformed – perhaps I’m already past that point. But I did leave it comforted by how many other people sat in the theater next to me, nodding along and thinking about how they want to live more meaningful lives.

For more on The Minimalists, check out their blog, books, and podcast.

The benefits of cupping have been incredible for me. It’s the only treatment that gave me immediate, massive improvement in my range of motion and decreased my pain. Now more than seven months into my ankle sprain recovery, my fairly traditional, Western medicine-based physical therapist uses cupping at least every two weeks.

What Is Cupping?

Cupping therapy is a traditional Chinese practice that has been used for thousands of years. Traditionally, jars or cups were rapidly filled with hot air and placed on the skin. As the air cooled, it created suction.

While you can get the traditional form of cupping, my physical therapist uses cups with a valve and a small hand pump so he can control the pressure and move the cups around as needed. No heat necessary. Here’s a great diagram of the cups and how they are used.

Benefits of Cupping

It’s not just me who has felt the benefits. Research shows that cupping can reduce pain and improve range of motion. It may also speed recovery and improve healing by increasing blood flow and reducing swelling.

Cupping has been shown to improve chronic neck, shoulder, and low back pain. It may even decrease cellulite (whew, so glad to be heading off the ankle cellulite before it develops).

From Chinese weightlifters to Olympic U.S. swimmers to Major League Baseball pitchers, professional athletes are using the therapy to help them recover and heal injuries. Apparently it’s now all the rage with celebrities (nothing makes me want to stop doing it more than that little fact).

What Does It Feel Like?

The first time I ever had cupping I thought my skin was going to explode. I was imagining having to explain to the emergency room why I had a huge hole in my skin and what the muscle must look like underneath. Needless to say, this didn’t calm me very much.

Now it’s just any other day. It doesn’t bother me at all. I have complete trust that I won’t be turned into Swiss cheese. I’ve had the sensitive skin around my ankle cupped as well as the nerve-centered bottom of my feet (that one was less pleasant, especially when my PT started moving them to break up scar tissue and tissue adhesions without reducing any of the suction).

Once you get used to the tugging, it is easily tolerable. It feels a bit like when you put the vacuum tube on your hand – only it’s a bit more intense.

Why Are You Polka Dotted?

While it looks like you have been attacked by a massive octopus for a few days after, the bruises slowly fade as they heal. I use arnica gel twice a day after cupping, and my bruises are completely gone in less than a week. I have rocked the massive bruises to a wedding before, but no one seemed to notice (or were at least nice enough not to ask me).

Should You Try It?

If you have a lot of tightness or scar tissue, it might be a great thing to try. Be sure to go to a qualified practitioner. I highly recommend going to a physical therapist or someone else who really knows the body’s structure well and the tissues that may be at play with your injury. This isn’t a comfortable treatment, and having complete trust and confidence in the person performing your cupping is absolutely necessary.

Cupping has been a game-changer in my ankle recovery. I’m so glad I stuck it out through the first, slightly unnerving, session.

You can’t “snap” me. I likely will not see your Tweet. I don’t actually check my Facebook. I don’t have a Foursquare account or Yelp or Beme or whatever the kids are into these days. These social media platforms don’t add value to my life. They don’t bring me joy. So I don’t use them regularly.

Minimizing my social media accounts and the amount of time I spend on the few I kept gave me a sense of calm and control. It was too overwhelming to try to keep up with everything and everyone.

In an effort to consume intentionally and cut out the things that don’t add value to my life, I have drastically reduced my use of social media.

Conscious Consumption

It is so easy to spend an hour scrolling through Pinterest, liking photos on Instagram, and stalking elementary school classmates on Facebook. But that’s not how I want to spend my time. I don’t want to mindlessly scroll because it keeps me from actually listening to my thoughts or attending to the task at hand.

Now when I check in I am conscious of the time I am spending and I am careful to not overstay my welcome. I give myself a general time limit, and as much as it was a struggle in the beginning, I try to only check my main accounts once a day. I went from scrolling Instagram every extra second I found to once in the evening (where I usually stay longer than intended, but I’m working on it).

Letting Go of Pressure

When I first started really examining my social media behavior, I felt a lot of pressure to be on platforms and be a social media maven. So many posts on news and career sites boast how great it is to have a massive following and chide you for not having thousands fall at your feet on social media.

The pressure was getting to be way too much. I was stressing myself out about something that wasn’t really going to make or break my life like these sites claimed. Of course more followers can help you look better in a job interview or widen your audience, but that doesn’t mean that you will be more fulfilled or that those followers will actually engage with you.

Less is Better

In keeping with my “less is better” belief, I decided to focus my efforts on the social media platforms that fit my needs and interests best. For the most part this means I’m on Instagram. Every once in a while I also check in or post on Twitter. Pinterest is a place I keep ideas and bookmarks, not somewhere I try to get followers. Facebook is a rarity – I posted once in the last year.

It took me a little while to admit that this is the life I want. I don’t want to be tied to my phone or the Internet. I like enjoying my day in RL. I am happier without it.

I cannot keep myself out of the library this month. Ever since I started checking out stacks of cookbooks, I keep coming home with more and more books. It looks like I’m running a library out of my room, and I’m starting to get concerned the librarians are getting suspicious (they aren’t).

It’s impossible to keep up with the books I’m bringing in. Each time I pick up a book from the shelf I tell myself that I’m only here for the ones that I requested, and I still manage to bring them all home anyways.

In other words, expect quite a few books in the next couple of months. I enjoyed my May reads, even if they were a random mix.

What I Read This Month

My Life on the Road
Like most young women, I am very familiar with her name, but I have not read much of Gloria Steinem’s work. I picked up this book based on the suggestion of Emma Watson’s book club, Our Shared Shelf. Her stories are incredible. From nearly constant travel for decades to being around present to some of the most monumental moments in recent history, Steinem’s book was eye-opening in a way I didn’t expect. I loved reading about one extraordinary woman’s life, and I especially took comfort in the fact that she didn’t really know what she wanted or what she was doing for years either. She just kept going and figuring it out on the road. Fascinating book.

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up while in Spain last year, and I couldn’t help myself from checking out the follow-up. I thought it was a heavily illustrated guide, and to be honest I really only wanted to check it out for her clothes-folding techniques. Overall it was alright, but nothing amazing. While this one does give more detailed instructions, if you haven’t read Life-Changing Magic it’s going to be much less helpful and will often leave you wondering. The first book is likely all you need.

The Happiness Project
This one is not really a new book, but it didn’t change its impact on me. I loved reading about Gretchen Rubin’s self-experiments and the things she thought would make her happier. It definitely helped that our personalities and temperaments are quite similar, but there is definitely something for everyone in this book. If you only read one book out of this list, this might be it.

Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants
My brother brought this home from a trip to Portland, and it went through our roommates and friends like wildfire. While I didn’t think it was as good as The Oatmeal’s The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances, the males in my life loved it. I could tell when they were reading it by the giggling or full out laughter that would bounce through the house.

Modern Romance
This one far exceeded my expectations. I have complicated feelings toward Aziz Ansari. I loved him in Parks and Recreation and thought he was sexist in a standup I saw. He earned some points back with this one. Get ready for real data and some hilarious quips. I particularly enjoyed some of the blurbs they included from their focus groups/subreddit. It also made me incredibly thankful to not have delved into the complexity of online dating. I got stressed out just reading about it. We have an overwhelming amount of choices. Good luck, my friends. Good luck.

Like No Other
In case you can’t tell from all of the books above, I’m in a bit of a nonfiction groove right now. This was my only fiction this month, and it just didn’t do it for me. To be fair, it’s a young adult book, but for some reason I was holding it to higher standards. It just wasn’t for me.

What should I read next? Any fiction or nonfiction books you love?

More Books: You can see all of my recommendations here.

I used to have a lot of stuff. When I went to college my mom and I went through the process of getting me everything I needed off of the crazy list my college recommended. We spent what felt like the entire summer getting duplicates of everything I had at home plus all of the “essentials” I was told I needed.

While I have always loved decluttering and organizing, I still had a lot of stuff. And this stuff only grew over the years, especially while I was in college. By the time I was in my junior year, my closet collapsed under the sheer weight of all of my stuff. TWICE.

When my five roommates and I moved out at the end of that year, we made a pact to get rid of some stuff. And my did we get rid of a lot. My interest in minimalism grew throughout my college years, and when my best friends and I moved out our senior year, we decided enough was enough. We spent the last month of our senior year trying to savor every last minute we had together and digging through all of our accumulated stuff.

Meagan had clothes from high school shoved under her bed that made us laugh so hard we all cried. I had notes from freshmen year classes, like I was really going to read through them again.

We purged, and oh it felt sooo good. We turned our apartment inside out and started “adult” life with so much less stuff to lug around.

Most of this got donated

I still left college with too much stuff! This was only part of my room.

And I never stopped. Every move (or pretend move) I got rid of more things. When I moved into my current place, I fit all of my things in/on two vehicles, including my tiny Prius C. It was freeing.

Tidy drawers and extra space!

Through the Minsgame I really got down to where I feel good about the amount of things I own. I finally got rid of the last few things that I had been lugging around that weren’t serving a purpose anymore.

These days I put a lot of thought into the things I buy. Whether it’s the environmental impact of the item or the role it will play in my life, I really deliberate about purchases. I add them to my list and let them sit there for a while. Do I overthink the things I purchase? For sure! I don’t know anyone else who researches t-shirts for more than 10 hours only to give up and not buy any.

Do I have the least amount of things I possibly could? No. Have I hit my balance point? I think I’m close.

Life is messy. I am messy. My roommates are really messy. Needless to say this homemade stain remover gets used frequently. From removing the tomato sauce I exploded on my favorite light purple sweatshirt while cooking to pure mud from hiking to the chocolate my roommates ground into the cloth napkins, I have had my fair share of tough stains.

This homemade stain remover is powerful without all of the nasty chemicals. It also won’t bleach or discolor your clothes.

Homemade Stain Remover Ingredients

2-5 teaspoons liquid castile soap
1-2 cups of water

I love simplicity, and the two ingredients in this stain remover certainly fit the bill. Castile soap is heavily concentrated. When diluted with water, the soap is easy to apply without overdoing it. I also love that I can buy it in bulk. Our local Whole Foods and a few smaller grocery stores in the area let you refill your bottle. I make my homemade stain remover in a small spray bottle so its always on hand and easy to use.

To be fair, I don’t usually measure my ingredients when I make this castile soap stain remover. Typically I squirt some of the soap into the spray bottle and add water. If it’s too much soap (I base it off the color of the stain remover and how sudsy it comes out) I add more water once there’s room. Not working as hoped? I add a little more soap. It doesn’t take much to create a powerful stain remover, so err on the side of less soap to begin with.

Best Uses for Homemade Stain remover

I have some pet peeves and some constantly-dirty items. Here’s my list of all of the things that get a thorough spray before hitting the wash:

1. Not so white socks (AKA the reminder to mop more often)
2. Grimy sleeves – sweatshirts are my worst offenders. I blame the gym.
3. Sunscreen marks
4. Armpits and collars of white shirts
5. Food stains
6. Dirt, grass, life stains
7. Blood stains
8. Light colored sports bras (they get a general all over spritz to keep them looking bright and clean)
9. My workout shirts – where I wipe my sweaty face and anywhere that spent time on the floor (sit ups anyone?) to get out the extra oils and dirt
10. Makeup marks (not common for me, but the stain spray has taken it out in the past!)

Currently reading Clean Eating: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body. While I won’t be doing a “clean eating diet” or a “detox diet,” I am certainly going to incorporate more anti-inflammatory foods in my diet and steer clear some of the big inflammation (and upset stomach) instigators. Hopefully my ankle responds well and heals faster.

Why do we wait for perfect? Let’s encourage all progress toward sustainability.

I want to eat these dark chocolate pots de creme every day. With only 11 grams of sugar from honey per serving, they are my current favorite substitute that my sweet tooth hasn’t noticed isn’t actually full of sugar.

Why are we so unsatisfied with the limits of our bodies?

The LA Times story on Oxycotin was shocking.

But not as shocking as the wage gap for NBA players and WNBA players. Women athletes still don’t make what their counterparts do. Let’s do something about it already.

Let’s keep doing more of this. And remembering to treat what we have well and buy used first.

Things I wrote:

Best Habits of Yoga Teachers

7 Crazy Things Eucalyptus Oil Can Do For You

7 Things You Didn’t Know Pepper Could Do

The Best Gluten Free Ice Cream Brands (I consider myself an expert on this one)