I’ve shared a few simple living posts in the past, but I haven’t discussed the topic in more depth. My journey towards a minimalist lifestyle started a few years ago when I realized that I was constantly shuffling things around our home. It was never-ending and it brought us no value. I started googling de-cluttering methods and stumbled upon articles that discussed minimalism. I was intrigued.
Now before I go further, I want to clarify a huge misconception about the minimalist lifestyle. First of all, it doesn’t mean you own practically nothing and must live in a tiny house. Living a minimalist lifestyle means that you keep the essentials and get rid of the rest. You also do this in other areas of your life; your time, your career and finances. You’re basically getting rid of the excess and making room for the things you truly enjoy.
A few years ago when I found myself constantly trying to make room for things, I knew it was time to do something drastic. Now, my goal wasn’t to become a minimalist. I simply wanted to de-clutter and have more space in our home, so I purged ruthlessly. I sold, donated and tossed things out without thinking twice. Even things that were used once or twice went out the door. I figured I could always borrow the item from family if I needed it again. My kids had a harder time, but they also reluctantly went through their toys and narrowed it down to their favorites. The freedom that the first purge started, was the spark that carried me through my journey towards a simpler lifestyle over the years.
As time went by, I realized that this was a lifestyle that I was starting to embrace. In fact, when I found myself seriously considering a tiny home, I knew I was getting more serious about it. 🙂 The next thing we scaled back on was our finances. I wanted our hard earned money to go towards our necessities and the things we enjoyed. This is when we eliminated a rarely used gym membership along with other unnecessary expenses. My husband sold his motorcycle and the biggest one to date: we moved out of our single home.
Initially, when we moved we wanted to be closer to my husband’s business and cut back on his commute. We searched for a home similar to ours at that time, but couldn’t find anything in the area. That’s when we started to look at townhomes and found one that was perfect for our family. We made the leapt and I can truly say we have no regrets. A series of events had also occurred at our old place that confirmed that we made the right decision. We know this won’t be our forever home since we plan to move further south when the oldest graduates. My hope is that we can move to an even smaller home when that time comes.
Today, I continue to simplify our home and get rid of things that we don’t need. Although we live in a smaller home, the space appears bigger because we own less stuff. My goal is no longer to please others by making my home a “show home”, but instead make it a space that my family can enjoy.
This way of living has also crossed over into the things we do. We are a lot pickier with how we spend our time and who we spend it with. Being intentional with our resources has allowed us to save money since we try not to spend it on things that we don’t need. We save time since we don’t have to clean around a bunch of stuff. We are less stressed and we can enjoy life without the aid of things. I wouldn’t consider myself a true minimalist, I love a pricey cup of coffee once in a while and we love to travel whenever possible. However, I’m definitely embracing my journey towards the lifestyle and its benefits. It has allowed me to focus on my family and my love for writing instead of spending my time shuffling things around. At the end of the day I know that the things I have on this Earth will not go with me when it’s my time to depart. I want to live life with intention and enjoy God’s gifts without any distractions.
Have you heard of minimalism? What are your thoughts on it? I would love to hear from you!
I loved reading your post! I am going through a not-so-painful divorce and we are selling our home. I have long wanted to purge and clear out the clutter but did not have the family backing. Now that the kids have grown and the home will be gone we have to purge and I am relieved! My LAD (life after divorce) will be much simpler and more intentional. It truly is a relief and something my soul has needed for a long time! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Louise! I can imagine the relief that you’re feeling from being able to finally get rid of the clutter. I wish you the best in your new journey! 🙂
We live in a tiny 2 bedroom apartment so our rooms have to serve multiple purposes. There’s no way we can live a more minimalistic lifestyle at this point in our life, but I wish we could and totally see what you mean!
Living this small and having so many things we want to do, really makes me think more and more about minimalism.
Because we are at the beginning of our homeschooling journey and both me and hubby is working towards establishing 2 separate online business, we had to get creative about our setup at home.
We opted to use our living room for homeschooling, play area and co-sleeping. 1 of our bedrooms functions as our living room and dining area. Our last bedroom functions as our office, project area, crafting and sewing room, storage area for the merchandise of both our business, we store 80% of all our clothes in the closet and all the stuff that we don’t want kids to get to, like my vanity, tools etc. There is a lock on the door to keep the room out of reach for kids. Our space is pretty cramped and we would wish it wasn’t so but we are doing what we have to do to prep for expanding our family later on. We live way too small for a family explanation now but we save on the rent department. We live a bit cramped now but we are also prepared for a job layoff and we are working towards becoming self-sufficient and owning a small family homestead later on, so a lot of what we do now also has to do with gathering knowledge and hands-on experience with making our own things, clothes, natural products, food storage, gardening and so on. That’s not easy when u live on 76 square meters! But that aspect does save on the budget and a budget is what we need to get our homestead!
And although we can’t live minimalistic pr say, I’m getting ready to make our home LOOK less cramped cuz the cheap open shelving is driving me nutts lol!
I agree 100% with you – except for the part where your husband sold the motorcycle! I can understand, of course, but I also know that, at least in my home, the motorcycle is a fairly cheap activity that we can both use to relax and enjoy being outside (we aren’t sporty or outdoorsy, so the bike is a good excuse to get out!).
The rest of your sentiments, though – living with less, and being more intentional is something I can stand behind! I adore the idea, I just haven’t yet been able to perfectly put it into use in our home. Getting rid of old things is fairly easy, it’s the not getting more that we struggle with!
Ha! I wish it was being used, but he had it sitting in the garage for years. It definitely needed to be sold, so we could recoup some of the money that was invested. 🙂 The great thing about living with less is that you can use your resources and time on the things you love (i.e. motorcycles) or in our case traveling. It does take time and trust me, I still struggle with it myself. That’s why I call it a journey. Thanks for stopping by!
Love this post, Jesenia! I have been trying to embrace more of a minimalist lifestyle as well; iit really does give me so much more clarity when I’m not feeling completely consumed by the time and money that “things” require. I’m all about only owning items that either serve a specific purpose or I think are beautiful. Everything else goes!
Before, I would hang on to gifts and other items out of guilt and now I realize that I just don’t have a place for those things in my life anymore.
Great thought on minimalism! 🙂
Thank you Christina! The gifts were the hardest for me too. Now I simply give it to someone else that could use it. 🙂
I am on this path too. I just started paying down our collection of “stuff” in the last year. It’s such a process. In fact, I just started going through a closet in the basement tonight. It will be one of the tougher spurs in the house and also one of the most fun to go through because it has so many mementos and memories packed away in it. I know the process is worth it though for all the reasons you mentioned. Our house is already so much more liveable than it was a year ago. Thanks for sharing your story!
Isn’t it great what a little purging can do?! I’m seriously addicted to the feeling I get afterwards. I love the simplicity of it all and the fact that I don’t have too many things to clean. 🙂