_{Hello friends! My name is Max Daniels and my business is Body of Knowledge. I’m a life coach and a writer. I wrote a short and salty book about the easy way to quit overeating and binging. I write here more about life improvement than self-improvement. And I have a monthly column about self-care over at Modern Daily Knitting. I love hearing from you and can almost always write back.}

Use it up!

Every December or January I pick a Word of the Year. Many years I am inclined to go beyond just one word. I try to keep it in the spirit of simple focus, but this year I received a whole slogan: Use it up!

This slogan came with the exclamation mark already there, I didn’t have to put it. And I don’t like to second-guess inspiration, I try to respect it as it comes. The weirder the better of course.

Use it up! mandates a very practical focus for the year, which might also be described as “cold stop mindless buying.” I may have exited my acquisition era.

This is a true vibe shift. I am still working out what it means, because, again, it came as inspiration, not as the result of consideration and planning and vote by committee.

Anyway here are some things I’ve realized that Use it up! means and does not mean:

It’s not going to be a no-waste project. (It’s not a project at all really. I think it’s an internal glowup. A project ends. This may not.)

Example: I fully planned to use up the 2.5# of coffee I had from my expired Costco membership. (Costco is just a hard sell for a single person, especially when it’s a half-hour away.)

But I busted out that coffee six months later, knowing that it wouldn’t be, you know, great, but thought it would be, you know, FINE, and it was not. It was so strong it lowkey poisoned me.

I tried to give it away but not hard, because rule number one of decluttering (especially while moving house) is “NO ELABORATE DISPOSAL STRATEGIES”. I came up with that rule myself one thousand moves ago and it’s served me well ever since. That coffee has gone back to the earth.

Another thing that Use it up! does not mean is “suffer, girl!” No thank you, The End.

Use it up! also does not mean: SPEND NOTHING. I am cheerfully spending on experiences from the tiniest ($7 Monday matinees, please go see Wuthering Heights omg) to international travel. But even when I went all the way to Thailand I only brought back a pair of pajamas and some dried strawberries.

Which trip was technically and actually last year, before I undertook my solemn oath to COLD STOP MINDLESS ACQUISITION, which is a thing Use it up! DOES mean. And I’m largely observing my vow, although I lost my mind the other day and bought a fleece track suit in the Patagonia sale. I just … forgot? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It didn’t fit and I know for a fact that Patagonia is scrupulous about returning returns to stock, so I sent it back.

Although the fleece was a replacement for a worn item. Note: not truly worn OUT. Something of a grey area, then.

Not everything that’s used up requires replacement tho. I think losing one pair of fleece sweats, even if they’re my only pair, might not = me screaming into an intolerable void, given the three pairs of serviceable track pants still in the closet.

Finally, I know that to be honest about this, I can’t be buying backups, even of things I can reasonably expect to run out of one of these years. So no further bronzers or blush or makeup brushes or bathing suits. No more getting ready for the apocalypse of nothing to read (fake apocalypse! never gonna happen!!). NO BACKUPS is a backbone of Use it up!

(This policy requires disabling a switch installed by my ancestors, who prefer large stockpiles of everything. I must live with their hand-wringing, and it’s fine.)

However, Use it up! is not a deaccessioning mandate. I could theoretically get by with fewer than three pairs of sweats (I could not). I could make do with fewer socks or tea towels. But I’m not going to 86 the extras because that’s not the purpose of Use it up! The overall footprint will shrink by attrition, not effort.

There is some virtue in having just enough, especially if you’re moving and know you will be moving again one day.

But for an American, I just don’t have that much, I’ve done a lot of decluttering over the years, and that’s not really the point.

(I will say I’m conscientiously eating out of the freezer every meal, and it might truly be empty by the time the movers get here.)

So in sum, here is the Use it up! TL;DR:

• It’s not a no-waste year. I will absolutely throw out things I can’t use that would be taxing to find a home for.

• It’s not a spend-nothing year or a no-shopping year¹ or a year without Big Retail.

• It’s explicitly NOT about austerity

• It’s not a project, it’s a vibe shift. It could go on forever.

• It includes replacing worn-out necessities, which necessitates honesty, as in, do I really need that thing? And is it really worn out?

• It involves just-in-time acquisition rather than stockpiling of multiple backups

If you are interested in joining me for any reason, please do! Take my preliminary rules or make your own.

Or let me know your thoughts on this topic—just hit Reply.

And next time we talk about this I’ll offer some initial observations, such as effects on the wallet.

Oh hey I found out something fresh about my own book!

Let me be clear: I know next to nothing about chronic undereating and especially anorexia. Unexpectedly, I do now know something about trying and possibly failing to get enough calories. (UNFORESEEN, to say the least.) (It was temporary!)

Guess what’s a good antidote for that problem? Yes it’s eating meals at mealtimes. A beautiful comforting healthy structure that’s always there when you need it.

Damn! What ISN’T meals at mealtimes good for!?

If you are struggling with your eating, whether it’s binge eating or compulsive eating or chaotic eating or dieting or maybe you find yourself against all odds not wanting to eat quite enough, read this book. I can just about guarantee you will find the support you seek within.

RECOMMENDING.

teaching.

Self-led at-home retreat: On March 20, I’ll be leading a Modern Daily Knitting workshop in which we will design a DIY retreat, For You, By You. In other words, you will come away with solid plans for an at-home getaway of exactly the kind you’ve been craving. You can sign up here. It is going to be SO GOOD!!!

reading.

It’s been a while since I finished something. This broke the spell: George Falls Through Time by Ryan Collett. Like one of my all-time favorites (Timeline by Michael Crichton) this is a novel about medieval time travel. George is nothing like Timeline, and I probably will not read it three times, but it’s very enjoyable.

watching.

I know the ppl have feelings about Emerald Fennell, but I loved Wuthering Heights. In particular I approve the way it made free with the text and it’s VERY WRONG of me to say this, because I ADORE that crazy f***edup book, but I personally like this kinder more gentle Heathcliff and this [redacted] more [redacted]. I’m trying not to spoil! See it then we’ll talk!

The film is as mad as the book, in its way. It also has a breathtaking kind of immediacy and continuity with the present moment, but without that irritating winky anachronism that so many updated fictional properties suffer from. It’s genuinely horrifying and does not flinch from squalor, of which there’s plenty, but it’s also very beautiful. Landscapes: STUNNING.

It’s not for everyone. It’s got some real nastiness to it. But so has the book, and if like me you loved it anyway, I think you’ll find the film worthwhile.