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, Sarah T. tells us how she and her family dramatically downsized their home and streamlined their stuff. Surf on over to her blog to learn more.
Sarah writes:
One day I was as content as could be with all my stuff, and the next day I’d had it. We had moved from Florida with no basement, garage, or storage to Pennsylvania where our square footage was much more than records indicated. Since we bought the house sight-unseen, we really had no idea what we were up against. But while this 6 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 3 living room (no kidding!) house seemed huge at first, slowly but surely, we began to fill it with garage sale treasures. I had a hard time keeping the house clean, even before all the acquisitions, due to it’s sheer size. Later though, it was practically impossible.
I was done. I started a pile of items to get rid of in the basement bedroom (non-conforming, mind you- I didn’t count it as one of the 6). What began as a little pile in the corner eventually consumed an entire wall. It continued to grow and expand, eventually filled up most of the floor space and topped off at about 4 feet high. By the time the annual neighborhood garage sale rolled around, we knew we were moving to Iowa, and purged even more. Seeing all your junk lining the driveway is humbling. Fortunately, at that point, it never even crossed my mind that other people might show up shaking their heads in pity that all this came from one family. I just wanted to be rid of it. Between the sale, one full trip to the thrift store, and a pile of stuff on the side of the road for people to rummage through (which they do, I learned), we were rid of that roomful of useless stuff.
When we moved, we rented the same size truck we used from FL to PA. It was packed a lot tighter and we still left a few items on the curb that didn’t fit, but we did it. We continue to downsize and reevaluate stuff now. But one important thing I’ve learned is that the incoming stuff is just as important, if not more important, than the outgoing. That was our problem for a while. It was fun to purge, but still fun to shop (at garage sales, naturally), thus, we didn’t make much headway. It was an about face with our accumulation of new items that finally resulted in real progress. From my experience, that just comes with time. Just like learning to eat differently for better health, it’s a reprogramming of the brain.
Changing our relationship with stuff has been a fun and challenging, sometimes painful and discouraging process. We’re not die-hard minimialissimos. We have 4 kids and all their gear and still live in the suburbs. But this move was an intentional “downgrade” (by the world’s standard). All 1500 square feet of our home gets used. The full basement is wide open with plenty of room for the kids to run around and play during the cold winter months. Our second vehicle is my husband’s bike which he takes to work every day. We own things that accommodate our actual lifestyle- no more storing fancy dishes and tablecloths or trying to make a computer desk work for a laptop lifestyle. We do have a wide range of bikes in different sizes for our kids. We do keep the free plastic cups from restaurants and use them as our everyday tableware. We keep what we use and we use what we keep.
I blog at www.marchingtoourowndrummer.blogspot.com whenever I fancy. Not often. Just sometimes. I have a few posts on our downsizing, as well as the final push to pay off our mortgage.
{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.}
Great story, Sarah! I am finding that more and more of the “Real Life Minimalists” are from my camp–we don’t own less than 100 items, but we are MINDFUL of what we own and INTENTIONAL about what we choose to acquire and keep. I think those are the two biggest buzzwords I would try to teach someone else. Minimalism is a process, a journey. I don’t see it necessarily as a definitive end goal–I think that goal looks different for everyone. But developing that mindfulness and intention should definitely be a goal.
Well done Sarah. I especially like your line “We keep what we use and we use what we keep.”
“the incoming stuff is just as important, if not more important, than the outgoing” – oh, you are soooo right! A few years ago we did possibly one of the hugest declutterings ever known to mankind. Over time we found that we had all but “replaced” what we had thrown out!
Sarah –
Just finished reading all of your blog entries, skipped over from here at MissMiminimalist, whose blog I’ve been reading for about 2 years now. I’m a professional home organizer, with a minimalist bent from childhood. And we’ve lived it together for 30 years of marriage, too. Love, love, love your comments, but more than that I love your heart, your honesty, and your expression of love for Jesus. He’s so precious, so beyond our ability to grasp and then express, but you’re so right about Christianity not being about DOING stuff, but about BEING–who we are in Him, who He created us to be, what His Spirit empowers us to become–His siblings, thinking, acting, talking, and behaving just like He did.
Don’t know if you ever sorted out the “Grandmas’s Candy Dish” conundrum—have you considered taking a very good photo of it and then…letting ‘er go (BTW, it’s a great strategy with things that are puzzling people as they declutter)? You said you have no emotional attachment to it, only the association with Grandma. From the home organizer perspective, if you’ve NEVER used it, and you’d only be putting it out of sight/mind again for storage, you’re not going to miss it… ;) And, since your relationship with G.ma will be unchanged by the “edit” from your belongings, your memories of the freedom gained as you worked through the relinquishment might just end up being more precious anyway! Ah, me. Sometimes I get a smile thinking, “What would Jesus say to me about [my struggle with] this item? Would He have held onto it if He were in my exact situation?” Thanks so much for your posts–delightful!
Great post Sarah! I enjoyed reading it and love your writing style. It got me in the mood to do some more purging here in my own home:) I do have a habit of tossing things in the garbage if I can’t find a place for it, or else it lands in the “junk armour” that really doesn’t serve its purpose whatsoever …have to get rid of that thing!
Keep up the good work, Sarah! It’s not easy being a minimalist in a very materialistic world. I remember when I was moving from one city to another many years ago and my parents came to help. While my dad was standing on a ladder taking down my drapes, he looked around my apartment and said “Look at this place, you have nothing to show for all your years of hard work!” I was stunned and answered “You should be proud you don’t have a daughter who’s materialistic.” Don’t give up — it’s a lifelong process.
@Diane: how funny! Yes, so many people think that when we CHOOSE not to have ‘stuff’, we have somehow underachieved! I love watching old documentaries about the UK in the late 1940s and very early 1950s. Peoples homes were very simple: it wasn’t just because of a lack of money; no, there wasn’t the vast array of cr@p and stuff that the marketing people chuck at us nowadays! Mind you, the Victorians sure loved their clutter!
I like that I have empty closets and drawers. I like that I take stuff to be recycled every few weeks. I like that I don’t have lots of mildewed paper back books. No, I’m not an extreme minimalist, but there is plenty of empty space in my house. I could go smaller if I had to.
My friend, who lives alone in a 4 bedroom house, asked me if I would ever move from my 2 BR condo. I said, maybe I would go smaller. She was stunned. I have 2 full baths, a den and a guest room now. I have plenty of empty space for just my husband and me. Just last night, my husband and I were talking about getting rid of some bookcases.
My husband loves to buy clothes. I always ask what he’s willing to get rid of. He wants more things than I do. His closet is double rodded mine is not. Still, we have much less than most of our friends. I want to live simply and when I feel stressed, I make art.