7 Reasons to Minimize Your Life NOW!

January 10, 2019

Our minimal book shelf.
We have been on this amazing journey over the last several years of removing things from our life. And not just actual tangible things but also the people, places, commitments, and feelings that just no longer serve us or make us feel uncomfortable.

And although the journey has been long, and typically the mess always seems to get way worse before it gets any better, we continue to make changes in our life to live more simply and minimally.

And even still, my husband and I find ourselves with very little personal belongings and have more to remove from our life but we enjoy it! We enjoy taking inventory of our stuff, emotions and schedules.

We wish we had known these things we learned about minimalism years ago because we are such a spontaneous family and love to move around. Imagine how much easier it would have been without all the stuff or the amount of money we could have saved had we never bought all the stuff in the first place! If I could tell any young adult looking to move into their first home only one thing, it would be to opt out of buying all the things!

But if you are already there, drowning in all the things you thought you needed, we want to share 7 reasons why you should stop making excuses and start minimizing your life, like now! 

You don't need all the things..

I'm sure you have heard us say this before, but you really don't need all the things. The need to have all the things comes from a long imposed belief instilled within us as children, by adults with the same belief, and their parents who had developed this belief; a long line of consumers.

We were all fine and dandy with 'making-do' before the industrial revolution. But we developed an abundance of mass produced products that became cleverly marketed and suddenly, our parent's parents became classic consumers!

Do you remember in Grade School when you learned about wants and needs? We have a lot more than what we actually need.

But, we don't need all the things that are filling our closets and cupboards! If you needed a cup of tea or coffee right now, how many ways could you make it? In an old fashioned percolator, coffee press, Keurig machine, instant, cold brewed, or all of the above!? What happened to making-do?

Life is too short to live it cluttered...

The average life expectancy is about 70 years long (Source). 18 of which we spend becoming educated, more if you are privileged enough to be sent to college or university.

If you have children, or have been blessed with two wild boys like myself, you'll spend 18 more years of your life keeping them alive.

You are left with 34 years of life, if you make it to 70, to live your life for you. A third of that is spent sleeping, and another third is spent working, so really, you get 11 years of LIFE to live. How do you want to spend it? Do you want to spend it picking the things up and putting them where they go, decluttering, sorting, organizing, or wishing you didn't have so much stuff? Invest some time into downsizing and minimizing now!

The best is yet to come, four more reasons to minimize your life below!

You can't take the things with you..

We have all heard this expression before, probably, about our money and that we might as well spend it because we can't take it with us when we die, but same goes to all the things we keep in our lives. We might as well rid ourselves of the things, because we can't take them with us!

In fact, when you do die, your friends and family will be the grief stricken ones who have to go through every. single. thing. you own, and either donate it, sell it, or throw it out. Some of you may have already had to go through this life experience because a loved one has left YOU with all their things. 

Be an example...

Story time. Before we became minimalists and our first born was a toddler, a well meaning relative would take him to Walmart and spoil him rotten with new toys and Ice Cream, topped with sugary drinks on the regular.

Despite my protest and encouragement to spend time together doing fun things, rather than buying the things, it continued until I realized their relationship was laced with expectation of toys and sugar. There was no meaningful relationship between this person and our toddler.

This is a personal reason why I have chosen minimalism, I want my children to value life experiences, conversation with good people, that they are magnificent without the things, the importance of relationships with people, and adventure and exploration more than the meaningless things that fill that clutter their lives.

A cluttered life is stressful life..

It is has been proven that clutter can actually cause women more stress (Source). All the things overload our senses, distract us from what we want to focus on, make it difficult to relax in our own home and can make us feel anxious, embarrassed or frustrated. (Source).

Live your life, rather than doing life..

If we spent less time sorting through all our stuff, cleaning our big houses, and had a simpler life, we could ultimately enjoy living our life and spend our time the way we want to, rather than doing all the things that our life requires us to do. You are able to peel off the mask of clutter and..
Find Your Wild

I have found my wild in minimalism, and basically that means I have found myself, under the layers of emotions, stuff, commitments and people that didn't serve me anymore. After removing all the things, you have more time for yourself, to do the things you actually enjoy doing, to find your wild.

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