Real Life Minimalists: Lynne

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 we hear from Lynne, who tells us how minimalism has brought such wonderful freedom and joy to her life.

Lynne writes:

In November of 2017, nearly 10 years after stepping into my first recovery meeting and laden with mental and physical stuff, I set off on a journey. With my beloved, amazing wife, our small, leased Chevy Trax, a few hundred dollars and some bits of belongings that we chose to keep, we set out to find freedom. The freedom that I sought was from the past, the stuff, the straitjacket that I figuratively stepped out from within. I began to finally unravel from my body, mind and soul. The freedom was not about escaping as it always had been. It was about living simply, more freely and with more purpose than I had ever imagined.

We chose a minimalist life after endlessly discussing how things weigh us down and wear us out. Of course we love shiny glittery things like the new roller skates that we just invested in, but ultimately for us the journey to a minimalist lifestyle began with assessing what we needed, really and truly needed, in our lives. We had recently gone from a two bedroom apartment to a small one bedroom apartment so we did not have too much to sort through, so we thought. It seemed endless. We did not realize how truly daunting it would be to sort through old photos, letters, and things with sentimental value. Luckily, with the technology era, saving things in a way that caters to the minimalist lifestyle was easier than ever. We have a huge number of photos, art, and keepsakes stored on cloud drives. We donated most of our belongings before we set off on our journey. We had furniture, kitchen appliances, art supplies, books, knick knacks (we don’t even like knick knacks, but we had them!) and clothing. At the end of our sorting, which took approximately 3 months, we had several piles. Some went to family, some we sold, some went to local charities (sober houses, Goodwill stores, etc.) and very little was kept.

Even when we put our entire life in our little Trax we realized that we did not even need all of what we had. When we stopped in North Carolina for a couple of nights, we sorted through things and donated more. When we arrived in Georgia where we stayed for a few more months with family, we acquired a few new things, but eventually donated more than what we had acquired over the several months. When we traveled down to the west coast of Florida, where we are now, we still had a vehicle filled to the brim, but replaced some things with other things that we realized we needed more. Some we realized we did not need at all. We compromised, discussed things in depth, and contemplated. Currently we are living in a very modest, but lovely furnished studio in Florida. We share a very tiny wardrobe that holds all of our clothing. We are each down to a handful of items and we reassess our clothing needs every few weeks.

We love the motto that we collect memories and not things. Becoming minimalist has allowed us opportunity to explore who we are as individuals and as a couple. We realized new hobbies, connected more intently with people and have been able to come away from this choice and experience to minimize with a free feeling. We are lighter in terms of things, but so much richer in terms of love, adventure, and hope.

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{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.}