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 feature Linnea from Sweden, who tells us how moving often, and welcoming a little one, has inspired her to live lightly. Check out her blog to read more of her thoughts.
Linnea writes:
I discovered minimalism the summer of 2010 when I helped my parents to move while I was moving myself as well. My move was ok but theirs was quite overwhelming with hundreds of boxes that filled two lorries, one with a trailer, and I realized how much ‘stuff’ stresses me out. I also found an article about the 100-things movement among my dad’s books and as I started reading about the whole minimalism thing through different blogs (missminimalist.com included) it resonated more and more with me. I got rid of some of my own things, which I always loved doing for some reason (we moved every few years when I was younger, and when I was in my early 20’s it was every few months, and the first thing I did was always to start decluttering my things), but it wasn’t until about 9 months later when I suddenly decided to move from Sweden to Belgium and then New York that I took the plunge completely. I got rid of most of my things in a couple of weeks, packed a suitcase, and five months later I returned completely bitten by the minimalist bug and I’ve tried to keep things simple ever since. I only have a few pieces of clothing (about ten), I try to only have things that give me joy or that are useful and me and my husband live fairly simple lives. But I still find things to declutter and I always dream of owning less.
It’s not until now however that me and my husband had our first child seven months ago that I’m starting to realize the importance of only focusing on the most important things and not spending my time doing everything else. I have gotten quite good at keeping materialistic things to a good level for me, but I’ve had difficulties focusing only on the most important activities in my life and not wasting a bunch of time doing things that don’t matter as much. But now that I have a small person demanding most of my time, many things that I could easily do before, such as spending hours watching YouTube videos or reading blogs or obsessively checking Instagram all the time, have lost their importance and since I suddenly have much less “free time” I have to spend that time very consciously, only doing the things that are truly important to me.
When I first found out I was pregnant I slightly panicked at the thought of all the things people said you needed. But my main thought was that children has managed without tons of stuff for the majority of history and so would my son. We only have a few outfits for him, maybe ten toys stationed at different parts of the apartment and a few books he likes to read over and over and over.
And even though I considered our home fairly minimalistic it’s now that we are baby proofing and preparing for a crawling/walking baby that wants to pull and chew on everything I suddenly saw even more things that we could declutter or move around. To be honest I wasn’t too happy when my husband suggested we get rid of some things in the living room because I liked the way it was but after some thought and even more decluttering we now only have a couch and small table in the living room, freeing up a lot more space for our son to move around freely.
Life keeps changing and it keep me on my toes. Stress is still a huge problem for me but keeping things simple and pared down really helps.
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or joining my email list.}
Looks like you avoided the hordes of well-wishers bearing baby gifts. That is good because it could cause your home to look like you are having garage sales all of the time. LOL
Thank you so much for featuring me Francine!
My son was married this weekend. It was a beautiful ceremony for 60 people at a small museum. I think this is a much better way to start married life than a big production that costs a fortune.
Hi Linnea–I’m amazed and delighted that you can get by on ten clothing items! That’s Fabulous and Very Inspiring. Unless I gave up a few passions in my life (dance is one), I could never get down that low in number. I have more clothes than anything else, but I am trying to reduce the number to 33 (Project 333) per SEASON (LOL). I’ve come pretty far, but still have a ways to go, so I appreciate your inspiration. I loved your story–thanks so much for sharing. Cute little one!
Congratulations Linnea, on becoming a mom and on embracing minimalism! My daughter has an 11 month old son, and she too is realizing how much stuff she could still live without in order to make a safe environment for her crawling, soon-to-be-walking baby. As someone who has been a minimalist for a couple of decades, I have to chuckle quietly as I see my daughter (definitely not of a minimalist persuasion) begin to go down that path. Good luck to you!
This is really inspiring, Linnea. It’s easy to get tempted into thinking we need more clothing, more furniture and especially more baby items. I love that you show that less not only can be done, but feels better. Thank you for sharing!
I am trying to encourage retirees to downsize and live simpler and minimize their stuff, getting rid of unused clutter and household stuff, clothing not worn, all these items can be donated to group homes or local charities, sold, to incl. furniture and other items in good condition. Passing down family items to children, nieces, etc. also makes sense.
As a retiree, I realized that I could enjoy a very nice life without a huge income if I pared down my belongings and ignored the expectations that I needed to travel afar or go to expensive resorts to enjoy life. However, I think one of the quandaries for Seniors is that as many of us become unable to do the things we used to love, we hang on to our things as a connection to those times. It requires a whole new mindset to make a change, I applaud your efforts.
My husband is 72, I will be 70 in a month. We retired in 2002. Our youngest had just finished college. Many people had bigger houses, two cars, and definitely lived in a fancier style. Having fewer clothes and toys inspires creativity and means your kids keep track of their things.
My husband is 72, I will be 70 in a month. We retired in 2002. Our youngest had just finished college. Many people had bigger houses, two cars, and definitely lived in a fancier style. Having fewer clothes and toys inspires creativity and means your kids keep track of their things. When other kids had Barbie doll houses and HeMan playsets my kids had cardboard boxes.