Tuesday, April 29, 2014

5% More Simple


      A little over a year ago our family started out on a bit of a mission- to live our life just 5% more simpler- the idea of course was to make our lives easier- to live with less and enjoy what we all ready had. Environmentalism of course goes hand in hand with living a simpler life- our level of consumption was about to go down- a more mindful existence was on the horizon.

     Today a year into this journey it has become evident that a life that is 5% simpler is just not feasible- once started there was no way to stop at just 5%- simple living or minimalism is addicting and we are all hooked! Life with less is good- it is easy- it is cleaner by far! There is nothing I love more than a good de-cluttering session but today I just watched the final bag of "stuff" head off to the thrift store- mostly clothes outgrown by our kiddos- or old work clothes that were just taking up space in my closet- all gone. We are slowly learning that it is better to have the space than the stuff.

    Often necessity truly is the mother of invention- and while our family is not really reinventing the wheal or anything I feel what we are doing is pretty revolutionary- choosing to stay longer in the city- in a small space and live with less. We love our lifestyle and right now are not willing to trade that for any amount of space in the suburbs- learning to exist in our small space as a growing family of four can be tricky- especially when there is SO much cool Lego to be bought and played with and SO much amazing fabric that needs to come home with me! So learning to comfortably live with in our space feels like a revolutionary move.

    Recently I read a really interesting truth that I just can't shake "Living with less trumps organizing because organizing is temporary"- this concept really resonated with me. As I am the main stay at home parent I am the man on the ground constantly fighting the battle to keep clutter at bay- I feel like I am always "organizing" our home. Living with less frees up amounts of time that would otherwise be spent chasing down clutter back into it's home. Getting rid of all the "stuff" is permanent- there is no way for things that no longer exist in your life to filter back into the collective space!

    I'm feeling so good about where we are as a family now- we have a somewhat clean slate- we have what we need- we can now chose to mindfully let things that we need and love into our home on an item per item basis. We have a lovely tidy living room- we have our books and music- movies and drawing materials- we have what is important to our family right now. Anything that doesn't serve our purpose is gone and our closets are so easy to navigate!

      A year out our goal is no longer 5% more simplicity- we have been there and said no thank you to the t-shirt. Living just that little bit more simple has shifted our entire mindset. Once a more is more kind of gal I now firmly place myself in the minimalist camp- if they even have one- probably not. Learning to say No to stuff has been like a weight lifting off my shoulders- my turtle shell of stuff is no longer there and in it's place rests an amazing being of lightness and space!


ps- I found this great image over at the blog Becoming Minimalist- click on over to get more inspiration!

1 comment:

  1. Oh LOVE!
    You've seen my place, I try to be minimalist, but it's hard, especially in the kitchen. I'm trying with the kids and their toys, man do they reproduce over night. But a couple weeks ago, I boxed up all of Hudson's toys (he was being super de duper naughty) and he hasn't missed them at all! I battle with getting rid of stuff because I want more children, so I need to save it, but I'm realizing now that as we bring it all out for this babe, oh man there is a lot of stuff that I just don't want to look at or trip over every day! Plus you end up buying other stuff, now there is so much! I'm about to embark on my annual 1000 thing purge, maybe I should make it a 2000 thing purge. I like simple clean and uncluttered.

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