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.
I love this story from Penny, who embraced a more minimalist lifestyle to move into the small home of her dreams.
Penny writes:
Being a minimalist was not something I set out to do.
I was just ‘sick of living in mess’ and dreamt of downsizing to a small clutter free house instead of the oversized ‘filled’ house we lived in.
Then we decided to move house and I realised this was my opportunity to find the small house of our dreams. It was time to get serious and get rid of stuff!
Like most people, I would imagine, I assumed that most of the stuff in our house either belonged to my husband or our daughter. I was 100% wrong. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that 80% of the ‘stuff’ in our house was mine, and I had to deal with it and fast.
So long story short, we found our little house, it was everything we had always dreamt of, with beautiful white walls and cathedral ceilings and we applied for it on the spot. We were moving in 3 weeks, yay how exciting!
Now it was time to purge all the stuff that wouldn’t fit into our new home. It was easy………………or so I thought.
So how did we start, well first thing we did we measured all rooms in our new house and decided where the furniture would go and looked seriously at what storage would be available in the house. With that decided, the rest of the furniture went on my fb page to give away, leaving behind in most cases the ‘stuff’ that I had been hiding inside it. Now it was serious time, we went through every single thing one piece at a time and either threw it away, put it in a bag for charity or put it back to be packed.
Every day for 6 weeks I took at least 4 garbage bags of stuff to our nearest charity shop, it was exhilarating, every bag that left our house made me feel lighter.
There were many trips to the tip and our wheelie bin was going out full every week.
We were slowly getting there, some days I was really disheartened, I felt I had already moved a mountain of stuff and I would look behind me and feel I had barely made a dent, those where the days that M came to the fore, working alongside me and encouraging me, reminding me of how far I had come and how we would get through it together.
Moving from a large cluttered house into our small uncluttered house was not as easy and seamless as I thought it would be. Even after we moved and had culled about 70% of our previous house’s contents, I realised that we still had too much stuff. We are now nearly 2 years down the track and we are still getting rid of stuff that we moved with us thinking that we would need it or that we loved it, and only to realise that we didn’t. I no longer say that I ‘throw stuff out’ or ‘give it away’, I say I ‘rehome it’. If it doesn’t have a place in our heart or it isn’t useful, then I rehome it.
Our home is always evolving and by that I don’t mean that I buy new things, we actually rarely shop but when we do it is for something with multiple uses and usually of a better quality than we used to buy. I have learned that clear benchtop are quite calming and simple tasks like removing the labels off items in the shower is soothing to the senses.
We will never be the family who lives in the barely furnished house that is spotlessly clean but we have embraced small simple living and for us it works so well. My home now feels lighter, but more full of love and things that bring us joy and our home is our sanctuary.
{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.}
Penny, I love your story. I had to laugh at the bit where you said “our stuff” turned out to be 80 percent “my stuff.” It sounds like you’ve made wonderful decisions in your downsizing. I’m going to start using the term “rehome,” too.
Your comment about the clutter being your stuff made me think about our ‘stuff.’ While our home is not terribly cluttered, most of what we have is much more about me than it is about the rest of the family. Part of this is that I do all the cooking and do not have an offsite office but, if I am going to be honest with myself, that is a very small part of the accumulation over time. Thank you for a lovely, thought provoking essay.
You may enjoy Tara Button’s new book about buying things once as it sounds like you are moving in that direction. I read it recently and found it to be excellent.
Thank you so much Debbi I’m going to check out Tara Buttons book.
thank you
Penny
https://thelazyminimalist22571227.wordpress.com
I’m in downsizing mode too. I wish I could see pictures of your little house!
Thank you Carolyn I’ve started a blog and I’m going to post photos there, please have a look.
https://thelazyminimalist22571227.wordpress.com
Penny
Sounds like a beautiful home Penny. I discovered minimalism and realised most of the stuff was mine as well! So consider myself lucky my husband was pretty much a minimalist in his own way already 😊 congratulations on clearing the clutter!
Thank you so much everyone for your kind words :)
My husband found a stack of papers to recycle. We made 2 trips to Goodwill this week with my daughter ‘s stuff. I helped her sort before her move and say with her last night while we found more to give away. I am always finding things for art teachers and friends who can use various hobby items. We each have a carry on bag full of off season clothes in our basement storage space. When my balcony plants come in soon, the big lots get cleaned and stacked. Some plants go to new homes, and I take cuttings of the biggest vines. Some just fill in my living room over the winter.
Thank you Tina please check out my blog at https://thelazyminimalist22571227.wordpress.com
Picturing your “little house with beautiful white walls and cathedral ceilings” makes me feel giddy for you, Penny! I’m excited for you in your journey of “rehoming” your stuff. You may feel disheartened at times, but I’m sure once they are “rehomed”, you’ll feel all your efforts are totally worth it!
Penny!
I want to see your home too!
Hi E
please check out some photos on my blog.
Thanks
Penny
I make a lot of crafts. I also teach craft classes. I sort my.books and realized there are crafts I don’t do anymore. I gave away a stack of craft books and magazines. I gave away 3 craft storage divided boxes. Then I am sorting by season. I get everything free or secondhand. I still have plenty left.
My daughter, who moved in with us a year ago, got a much better job. She gave away another few big bags of old clothes. She hasn’t painted or made cards in over a year, so I suggested putting some of her craft items away and giving the rest to someone else. I am trying to empty an old, cheap dresser so it can be discarded. Then there is a big box of mismatched plates for Goodwill. I have one box for each craft item now. Setting limits works wonders. I will be 70 soon. I don’t want to climb on a step stool to reach old china I was given and never used.