Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details.
This week, I’m happy to present the story of This Tiny Asteroid. To read more about how she balances motherhood and minimalism, please visit her wonderful blog.
This Tiny Asteroid writes:
Photo: this tiny asteroid
After graduating from college over ten years ago, I had every intention of following the simple living and minimalist path. My husband and I lived in a studio apartment for five years. We saved money with our cheap rent and spent it on travel. We’ve hitchhiked in Alaska, lived in a camper van in New Zealand, and explored Macchu Picchu together. We thought that if we could live in such tight quarters for years, we were solid. Instead the real challenge happened after buying a home and having a child. We started to renovate and to accumulate stuff. Our clutter acted like a phantom load on my energy, drawing my attention away from what really mattered. I was spending too much time acquiring things (even though thrifted), rearranging, organizing, storing and maintaining them.
With a second child on the way, I’ve been nesting and purging our home with a vengeance and finding my way back to a pared-down life. However, there are parts of my life I fully appreciate right now and would not give up to be an ultra-marathoner of minimalism: my family, our house which provides some rental income (we have a duplex), our nano-farm garden that provides fresh produce, and my crafts which are a form of creative expression. This Tiny Asteroid is a combination mama and minimalist journey blog – I read both types of blogs, but haven’t seen many that bridge the two. I’m working on a series of posts on the Minimalist Baby which I hope to publish someday.
We dream of working part-time, creating a small business (TBD), and home-un-schooling our children. Our ultimate ambition is to set off on an adventure in the next five or six years, maybe live on a sailboat, or in a tiny beach cottage? I’m trying to take it one day at a time and follow my heart.
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It’s so nice to hear from a minimalist mother! I’ll definitely be following your blog to learn how you balance simplicity and having a family.
Thanks for sharing your story, TTA. I love the way you are living life according to your dreams and values. And that’s so exciting to have a second little one on the way. :-)
A little garden, a small business, and a beach cottage; that sounds like such a nice plan!
How wonderful for you to be able to enjoy the journeys that you did before settling down to the business of ‘adulthood’. Yes life does have a habit of sneaking up on you and just so you know, it’s the house’s fault, for the clutter I mean. While you are sleeping it is breeding it, so it’s not your fault. Kudos to you for taking charge and ordering it out the door. I wish you and your kids great adventures in the next few years and these will be memories that will last their lifetimes so I hope you are able to share all with them that you hope to. Thanks for sharing your story with us.
Thank you for sharing this, Tiny Asteroid, it’s very inspiring.
Hey awesome story! But minimalism means different things to everyone, I certainly don’t judge you for needing to buy things for your kids, or for having a house. I don’t have just 100 items, but I don’t have too many items. I know how much stuff I need to be comfortable with and don’t take it to excess. Usually if I don’t find myself using something at the end of the month then I give it away or throw it away. That keeps me in check and I avoid having too much stuff through using that method.
Have been removing 1 big bag of recycling and at least 1 big bag of donations every week for a long time. We hit a bump when I had to clean out my Mom’s hoarded condo. Mold and mildew everywhere and my brothers and I threw out at least 100 boxes of papers,magazines, and books. Plus 4 closets full of clothes. My son scanned 5 large boxes of photos. Finally, we got back to our regular routine. Now, we have empty dressers, cabinets, cupboards again. My mom is still asking where all her stuff is. She’s in a nursing home and wants an apartment to fill up. She will be 89 soon and falls a lot. I brought her a lot of pictures to display.
I have been going through drawers looking for more to give away or throw away. I think I’ve got the world’s largest collection of never used refrigerator magnets. I know someone who uses them to make crafts so that’s where they are headed. I have a lot of craft supplies and just gave a bunch to my niece who has taken up knitting. There is a lot of drawing paper and various paints I need to sort through. I would like to keep maybe one bottle of paint and get rid of the rest.
Talked about project 333 with friends. They can’t imagine cleaning out their closets. I have a lot of empty hangers.
I am amazed at the amount of money some people spend at holiday time. It has never been easy for me to spend money so except for the grandchildren, I spent very little. We get offers for credit cards every day and I notice there are different rates depending on how good your credit rating is. We have never had a balance on credit cards in 43 years.
I don’t understand the current rage for renting storage lockers. Either I want or need something or I don’t. I take a bag of recycling out every day. Garbage goes once a week. A bag for the food pantry goes once a week. Goodwill gets a bag as soon as I fill it. We go to the electronic recycling and scrap metal place once a month.
I found a bunch of silver plate and other metals by the garbage, so I. Will stop by the metal recycling place the next time I am up that way. I keep collecting Ewaste, dead batteries,etc. to keep them out of the landfill. The younger people I know are all more environmentally conscious than the older ones.
My grandsons were over one day last week. We went to the library and the older one just read. The younger one did some puzzles and read. We had lunch, then walked to a local museum. The younger one made a craft and the older one found a book on the history of diseases. I found some cardboard and beads so if they are back this week we will make a craft. I don’t keep toys here because they are 14 and 11.
We had lunch with my grandsons. I brought a book on upcycling. I have been doing origami with books headed for the library recycling bin. I made a bunch of stars and showed my classmates how pretty they were. We have a frugality group every month.