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.
Today, I’m happy to feature Claire. She’s at the start of her minimalist journey, dissatisfied with her old consumer lifestyle and determined to live a life with less stuff. Check out her blog to follow her progress.
Claire writes:
I’m Claire, I live in the north of England and my wife and I have been downsizing since last summer. Minimalism really appealed to me, partly because I craved the simplicity but mainly because my finances had hit crisis point.
By my late twenties, I was deep in debt living a lifestyle I simply couldn’t afford. What mystified me was that I couldn’t see where my money had gone. No wardrobe full of designer clothes, no flash car, no big house.
What I did have was mountains of stress. I’d taken a promotion to pay my bills, but ended up in a job which gave me panic attacks.
In my precious leisure time, I wound down by idling away hours online or drinking with colleagues. Spare cash went on holidays to ‘de-stress’ in the few weeks off I had a year. Contributing to wider society meant sending cash once a month to a charity.
Eventually, I realised something had to change. I didn’t just need to cut back my spending and pay down my debts. I had to look at the lifestyle I’d been living and work out what was going so wrong.
Minimalism is one of the techniques I’ve been using to get back on-track.
In less than a year, we’ve taken at least two car-loads of crap to the dump, sold tons of CDs, DVDs and games and donated plenty to charity shops (see picture, more junk bagged up to be given away). But to be honest, our house doesn’t yet seem much emptier. I’ve no idea what proportion of our possessions we’ve now shed, but it can’t be much. I still struggle to close drawers, our shelves are heaving and there’s pretty much always a mess to clear up every weekend. I’m under no illusions, we have a long way to go.
I’ve also been delving into extreme money-saving and budgeting techniques – think minimalism for your spending.
But a common thread seems to be emerging: question ‘normal’. Question your consumption, question what makes you happy, question how you spend your time, how you earn your money and what you do with it.
The demands of 21st-century consumer living aren’t serving us. The jobs aren’t allowing us time to live our lives, and the trinkets we buy to cheer ourselves up only really force us into working for the next pay cheque.
I’ve now started blogging about my journey at www.wantless.co.uk so do come and pay me a visit.
{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.}
Question normal, because what’s normal now wasn’t normal for our parents, grandparents, and generations further back. It’s not just advancements in technology, lack of hardship, and perception of abundance, it’s the whole attitude that greed is good, more is better, and selfishness is a acceptable.
Don’t worry about the amount of stuff that you got rid of. Every journey starts with one first tentative step! Just keep te reasons in mind why you want to minimalize…. maybe it is your step to use up everything you have and enjoy and when the time comes, to let it go to its next destination.
I like “question normal”… each person has his or her own “normal”. Do what feels natural and right for you. For me “normal” is waiting for a broody hen to stop sitting in a nest box and start laying eggs again in her own time instead of running to the shop to buy eggs or dunking her into a bucket of cold water (yes, people have recommended that). It is also pouring hot water on coffee grounds by hand instead of giving in to buying coffee pads or cups and the coffee machine that uses them, to forage for apples and nuts, to wear all my shoes, repare them when needed and only replace them when they are totally worn to pieces. For “normal” people this is not normal though.
Thanks for sharing your story, Claire. Just checked out your blog — it’s fabulous! Best of luck on your minimalism journey.
Great story! I agree that money savings is a huge benefit of a minimal lifestyle and I still have a long way to go myself. You have some interesting-looking articles on your website about finances that I look forward to reading. Thanks for sharing!
Hey, congratulations Claire – on making such a fabulous start to simplifying and reining in your finances but also for your great new blog. Enjoy your journey, as long as it’s fun and personal to the way you want life to pan out, it’ll be great. Thanks for sharing your story so far :)
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments. Very encouraging. Berin – yes, my grandmother could definitely teach me a lot about being thrifty. Sacha, thanks for the kind words, and I can’t get the image of a hen dunked in cold water out of my mind now. Alix – thank you (blushes). Shelley, the fact you’ve used the phrase ‘interesting-looking’ and ‘finances’ together is a win in my book! So difficult to write about that kind of stuff and for it not to be a huge turn-off. And of course thanks to Francine for sharing my ramblings. :-)
Oops, sorry about that image! Pls replace it with the actual image of two little black and white hens, completely happy, pottering around the garden, making a huge mess and making very very content little noises! Read your great blog and made it one of my favourites :-)
Hi Claire
Well done on your journey so far and I agree with your comment about 21st century consumerism not serving us! The more we spread this messasge, the more people will begin to realise the truth in this statement (and I think secretly a lot of people already know this but are too afraid to admit it).
It took me almost four years to declutter my life and house. I started by reading Brooks Palmer (Clutter Busting), and then found Francine and her tremendously helpful books. As books inspire me to get rid of more and to change my life, I’ve continued to read many more books on the subject. So, keep going! One thing I might mention that helped my mom when she downsized was that we stood in each room with a legal pad and listed only the things she would keep. The rest went in a bag, then in the trunk of the car, and then to donation. We cleared her home in a week that way!
Even though I’ve never had a lot or shopped for much, things accumulate. There are still things we can get rid of. I get sweaters from my husband, my sons, and sometimes my daughter. I wear them for many years. I have old T shirts I only wear under sweatshirts for extra warmth. And then there are the dishes my husband wants his brother to look at before I give some away.
Thanks for your authenticity! I love your blog!
We just got 2 big bags of clothes from my eldest son. My younger son picked out some shirts he will wear, my daughter picked some things out for herself and her boyfriend and I got a sweater and 2 pairs of jeans. I am giving away 2 sport coats and a pair of dress pants. It is always fun when my kids bring me clothes because it spurs on my weight loss efforts. My daughter says she has more things to give me.
Great website, Claire – I plan on checking it out on a regular basis!
I am filling a bag for the kids’ room at the public library. They make greeting cards for an after school activity and I have pretty paper left from other projects..
I gave a big bag of craft items–all purchased 2nd hand–to the YMCA summer camp program. Then I gave a pile of magazines to the library. My neighbors give me their magazines, and when I’ve torn out a few pages, I pass them on to the library for their free shelf. I am collecting yarn to give away. And I found a charity that wants beanie babies so I have a few to give them.
My friend is moving from a huge house to a 2bedroom apt. She gave me 2 huge shopping bags full of craft supplies. I kept one small box. The rest was either recycled or passed on to other crafters to use for their projects. I was given a bunch of broken jewelry. Again, I just kept the parts I could use. The rest was recycled or passed on. This way my home stays uncluttered and I can find what I want quickly.
I taught a class in the nearby forest preserve on making things out of misprinted papers. Lately, I taught 2 classes on making holiday decorations out of things people might ordinarily throw away. I use the cardboard from food packages, empty jars and tin cans and labels. When I was young, going to the store was for food, not craft items. I live on very little money and always have.
I have plenty of buttons, ribbon, and paper. I filled a bag for a friend who teaches Sunday school. Then I filled a bag for a friend who volunteers at a nursing home. I filled 4 boxes with excess glassware and dishes for Goodwill. A friend who does beading is getting the next bag.
I have tiny plastic bags to give to beaders I know. Beautiful broken jewelry I can’t use is also being rehomed. I am emptying a dresser and another large book case. I want to see the walls. Plus we had water damage and it must be repaired. It is easier to live with much less.