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, Amanda tells us how minimalism has enabled her and her husband to pursue careers they love. Be sure to check out her blog to learn more!
Amanda writes:
My name is Amanda, and I am a minimalist.
I didn’t start out this way. In fact, I was a pack rat and a hoarder until a few short years ago.
Shortly after my husband and I were married, we got jobs 1,000 miles away from where we’d been living. As childless newlyweds, we packed out a 14′ moving van and a car to transport everything we owned. The saddest part? We brought exactly one piece of furniture in that truck. The rest was just stuff – piles of junk in boxes and crates and bags. When we reached our destination and moved into our new place, 70% of that stuff was put into a storage room, where it sat, untouched, until we moved again.
We’ve lived in five apartments since that first house. Every time we moved, we joked about just throwing it all out and starting over at the new location. Our possessions were becoming a chain around our necks. So each time, we downsized a little. By the time we moved into apartment number four, we could fit everything (including the furniture we’d acquired) into a 10′ truck. That felt like progress. Still expensive, still a headache, but progress.
When I began my blog (tshirtsandtwine.com) it was a craft blog. It quickly evolved into a chronicle of our journey from being owned to being free. It isn’t just our stuff that has changed – it’s our mindset. With every step closer to living on less, we become more free to go anywhere, to do anything, to be anyone without the weight and stress of too many possessions. We are both actively pursuing online careers in fields that we love (me in blogging and lifestyle consultation, the Husband in screenwriting). Even though these career choices were frightening in terms of lost and reduced income, we aren’t stressed about money the way we were. Our debt is on the way out the door. More than anything else, we’re happy.
Today, we’re making plans to move again, but this time will be different. When we leave this apartment, we will pack all of our possessions into our Toyota Yaris and drive away. No boxes, no trucks, no stress. We’ll be truly free for the first time. I can’t wait!
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
Congratulations, Amanda, that is quite an accomplishment! I struggle with an inner desire to ditch it all (the stuff) and live a life that would fit in a Yaris; alas, I do love some familiar and treasured things around me. So, I limit my possessions to what I can fit in an 1,123 sq ft home, which also includes the belongings of another human being.
Still, we’re limited because we have to worry about those things if we were to rent our home to travel for a year or two. Would someone else care for the things like we do? Hard to tell, but I guess someday we’ll have to suck it up and just “trust.” If we don’t we’ll be stuck here in our cozy little home and never get out for life adventures.
Cheers ~
Ree, I blog at EscapingDodge.com
We too are moving in a few weeks and while I am a minimalist, I live with a “normal” red-blooded husband and toddler to boot. I figured at this stage in our lives, we move on average every 9 months (some stays longer, some shorter). I hope our temporary move into a family member’s camping trailer would inspire us *ahem, my husband* to downsize even more:)
I commend you and your family and hope to join the ranks of only having to pack up our vehicle and hitting the road!
Hi,
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading your story. One line in particular stood out to me:
“More than anything else, we’re happy.”
The way I see it, being happy is the most important part. We could have all the money and stuff in the world, but it means nothing if we’re not happy. I love the minimalist movement because it helps us to shift our focus away from all of that stuff. Instead, we can focus on the things that really matter.
Thanks for sharing your story.
~ Hannah :)
I wish everything I have could fit into my Toyota Corolla!
What an excellent goal! We’re working on getting all the possessions in our 2-story house, to fit into our Winnebago LeSharo. Not quite a Yaris, but it’s quite an undertaking for us.
Awesome!!!
So nice to see you featured here!! Been following your great blog for awhile & I’m loving following you on your journey :)
Perhaps one day I’ll be able to say I moved from my current location to my next in one car… If so I’ll let you know,xx I know after having lived out of a suitcase for 3 months I’m looking forward to further reducing my stuff (which recently also went through a huge downsize 3 bed house to 1 room) but since travelling, I know I can use more space and less stuff,xxx
Great story, Amanda! Such a common thread of moving among minimalists. I am always grateful for the gift of frequent moving and living in so many different places because of the unusual perspective it has given us.
Great insight, Amanda. Seems like it often takes a significant move to bring about this change–it certainly did for us.
Hey Amanda! I popped on over to your blog. I too am considered unemployed even though I write most days. What’s helped me is reducing my expenses and just having a feeling that everything will work out. Because, with time, it always does! Your post on living with non-minimalists reminded me of living with my sister. They sure love having that TV on! :D
Amanda: You have achieved a long-held goal of mine – to be able to pack my belongings in the back of a car and take off. I will limit this to personal possessions, not furniture, as furniture can be purchased wherever I end up. Congratulations!
I would love to see what goes into that yaris! That is impressive.
Thanks for sharing your story. My fiancé and I are traveling a similar journey to yours, and are probably halfway through the reduction process you mentioned. Our life just keeps getting better and better because of it.
I’ve been reading many blogs on this website and I’ve noticed a pattern that I just don’t quite get.
Stuff = unhappiness; stuff = no freedom; stuff = stress; stuff = no spirituality; stuff = a weight holding me down; I want to fit my stuff in just a car, etc. What has that go to do with enjoying your life?
I have a house with lots of furniture, lots of books, lots of dishes and yet my husband, daughter and I are very happy, have personal freedom and can move around when we want. We partake in the things we love, i.e. our family and friends and our stuff doesn’t prevent us from travelling around, i.e. skiing over Christmas holidays north of our city; Caribbean cruise in February; skiing during March-break in Vermont; skiing during Easter in Banff, Alberta and in the summer we usually rent a villa in Provence or Tuscany for a month and bring a couple of our daughter’s friends (this year we’re going to Australia for July and August).
We live in a large city that has some fantastic restaurants, festivals and art venues and participate in all the activities our city has to offer. We are not “weighed” down by our stuff nor does it create stress. Stress doesn’t exist. Ask anyone to show you stress. Stress is the result of how we react to situations. So why let your stuff bother you; just enjoy your life!
Kathleen, this is an excellent question, and one that doesn’t often get answered on sites about minimalism. You actually inspired me to write a post to address it. You can find it here:
http://tshirtsandtwine.com/2013/06/17/living-simply-minimalism-and-money-are-eerily-similar/ If you get a chance to take a look, feel free to drop me a note in the comments. This is absolutely worth a dialogue. :) Thanks for asking!
For many people, spending on stuff means they can’t have experiences. We are living on reduced pensions because we took early retirement. But our small pensions are plenty for us.
Friends spend a lot on cleaning services, hair and nail care, etc. I worry about the 30’s and under crowd who are not finding stable employment. ,THey may be working all their lives. I hope they find minimalism the answer to how to live on a small income. Many are working at 2 part time jobs to make ends meet.
When we retired at 55 and 53, our financial advisor said, “congratulations,you won”. Not having bills makes life easier. Our kids have no college loans to pay off. We helped them and they got scholarships,etc. A friend was upset that her kids weren’t spending more on her mother’s day gifts. I am happy my kids spent the day with me and called. I’m filling up more bags of things to give away.
If I were to move tomorrow, there are 3 or 4 pieces of furniture I would want to take with us as they belonged to my husband’s grandparents. The rest can be picked up at Ikea or house sales. We’ve never, in 43 years of marriage bought any “good” furniture. 90 0/0 of our dishes and silverware can also go. There are a few pretty things I keep in my living room hutch that I would take and most can go. We’ve already gotten rid of a lot of books and more will go.
When we married, I didn’t ask for silver, china or crystal. We still have our stainless steel, Corelle and Pyrex. We got some glasses at Walmart later on. I make a big pot of tea with 2 tea bags. We also have a Brita filter. No pop, coffee, or alcohol. We eat a lot of rice and pasta. Beans and eggs are also good protein. A little cheese is good,too.
I am 70 and my husband will soon be 73. Friends of ours have big houses full of stuff. I try to fill at least two bags every week with clothes, books, jewelry, or hobby items. My daughter finally realized she didn’t need so much stuff. We were in Hawaii and people were buying big items to take home. I brought my younger son one small item from Pearl Harbor because he is a Navy veteran and asked for it. My other son’s wife had been there and bought her kids Tee shirts. I made a ribbon lei and a bead lei in a class. I took pictures with my cell phone. I got a charm at Goodwill here. What I liked was that there were no plastic bottles or bags any place we went.