A Journey In Minimalism

I’m surprised at myself even as write this – associating with minimalism? me? and maybe some would think I’m off-base but if you saw my YouTube watch history, my garage sale efforts, my past giveaway boxes and trash bags, I believe you’d see the intention if nothing else. No I’m not perfect about it, but I don’t think there is really a perfection to it, as Joshua Becker a famous minimalist says in paraphrase – he’s always working to becoming minimalist.

I don’t remember how I first heard about minimalism which is both not particularly important as the action but for me personally, it would be nice to know how long it’s been in the back of my head. I’ve thought about it for at least a couple of years though especially as I looked to buy a house a number of years ago and actually did buy one in early 2022. At each place I was aware of needing some storage room, in my opinion, but I told my realtor: “I don’t want to fill up a house with things either that I think I need or don’t really need. Now mind you I have bought many things for my home but it’s an awareness of not filling it up and consistently clearly it our that I’m aware of.

I’m also trying to challenge my “decluttering muscles” as the Minimal Mom, Dawn Madsen mentions in her videos, and I am not a mom myself but I like this phrase. It’s about starting with easy stuff to build up your ability to get rid of some of the harder things over time. I take it a step further for better or for worse and have gone shopping with the intention to not only get a few things I need but to challenge myself to realize I don’t need many of the things I see at the store since I realize I still want to go shopping anyway. This may not be the best practice in all reality but the pride I feel from avoiding purchasing or the guilt and returns I have to make it some instances I think are teaching me over time, but this is definitely NOT a practice I would encourage for many trying to declutter – I’m just trying to be honest.

Living alone for a while I very intentionally tried to be aware of what I was bringing in and trying to declutter and after I got engaged I was even more aware of making space for when my husband would move in after we got married. Clearing a closet for him, making space for some of his mugs in the cabinet, calculating how to split some of the storage space in our home and allowing for a little more to come in while also asking him if things of his could go or not.

Decluttering for me has made me very aware of what I use and own and again as Madsen as alluded to it makes our lives easier to not have to work around excess and it’s less to clean. Holy moley do I agree with that, I have not narrowed down things like my kitchen as much as her though, and I actually keep 99.99% of my kitchen items in my kitchen including seasonal as it helps me limit my stock overall, I believe. She keeps a lot of “guest” dishware in storage I believe, but for me I don’t want to keep kitchen storage elsewhere in my home when I have room for all of them in built in cabinets in my kitchen.

Joshua Becker, the Minimalists, and The Minllenial Minimalists often say they appreciate the lack of maintenance, and I very much appreciate that, I believe they are right to a large extent. I find it so nice to not have visual clutter out in my home to a large extent and putting things away immediately means it doesn’t require much more than a “five minute pickup” as Dana K. White would say, or even less for me and my husband in most cases.

Now I will admit despite reading Courtney Carver’s “Project 333” I have not done her challenge but I have weeded out a lot of items from my wardrobe as a whole, which I am nonetheless grateful for. For me personally at my current budget, my style preferences, and the climate I live in it’s taking me longer to part with items overall, but I am making progress.

For me I have a lot of t-shirts since it’s the main thing I have and admittedly continue to collect from events, and trips really. Thankfully one of my best “hacks” for that has been my (shameless plug incoming) mother’s t-shirt quilt business Carol’s Creations through her cutting the fronts (and backs in some cases) off of countless shirts from when I was about 7 to college and beyond, and turning them into quilts full of great memories that are useful in my home and I consider heirlooms in the making. Feel free to submit an interest form on her site if you think this could be a solution for you.

This has proven to be a great solution for me as I am admittedly a bit on the sentimental side. In fact, now a days I admittedly buy shirts when I go places as not just something to wear but as a new square for future quilts some day. I realize many would call this not very minimalist but it keeps me from buying more things on trips, as well as fewer blankets for our home I would argue, arguably a win-win.

As for the clothes haven’t turned into quilts (read: everything else) I keep it all together, well, I keep it in two upstairs closets plus sharing a coat closet with my husband. What I mean by all together is that I don’t keep anything in “storage” everything is within reach – nothing is in storage totes/boxes in the basement, well, unless you count the fact that I keep my sweaters in boxes in my closet but that’s so they don’t stretch out on hangers and so that I have them handy still, I may be a Minnesotan, but I still get cold, and sometimes too warm so for me I think it’s best to keep all my clothes handy. Maybe that’ll change if we move to a warmer climate but who knows.

As for home decor I have very much bought my fair share of things but I’ve also given away my fair share and now my main home decor is photos, some miscellaneous items admittedly, and just a few pieces from my grandparents and great grandparents. I have carefully accepted the items that most remind me of them and that I find most beautiful. For me having my grandpa’s old tennis racquet, and my other grandpa’s pay-phone for instance remind me most of them, I love seeing those things in my home, especially since they passed. I know some minimalists would be happy with a picture of those items and photos of themselves with the loved one but since I love vintage and antique items this is a good balance for me since I like having some older items with a meaning in my home and they are great conversations starters in my opinion.

Getting rid of garbage has been a part of it for me and we’re no pack rats in my opinion, but getting rid of extra packaging, boxes, tags, and many receipts especially as they’re emptied or removed has been very helpful to us, it’s meant that what we have is our stuff and not the thing it came in.

I’ll very much admit we still have some storage and as long as is doesn’t grow too much I’m largely ok with it, as most of it’s our memorabilia, special toys from growing up, and holiday decor. I still limit myself in these areas but I feel pretty good about the quantities at this point though I know I still need to go through things and finish some projects overall.

Something I am experimenting with right now as far as organization and minimizing in my home right now is putting my board/card games into labeled gallon bags and storing them more compactly in a tub where I’ve added a list of the games we have taped to the back of the lid. I’m a little torn on officially getting rid of the boxes yet, but I like that we can keep all the games in the living room since the storage bin is aesthetic to me and much smaller than all the boxes would be so it’s easier to get them out to play.

So for my house, going more “minimalist” or as I’ve often put it “intentionalist” has been pretty great, it’s meant less cleaning and tidying, it’s easier for me to find things, and it’s meant that me and my husband like more of our stuff in all reality. I love that our spaces are relatively easy to organize, and that they’re comfy as we don’t tend to have things laying around. It’s so calming to live in a clean space as well as I’m not constantly thinking about items that would be out.

I would encourage you to start with Dana K White’s declutter process if you’re interested in doing the basics, and then looking to The Minimal Mom and Joshua Becker’s advice if you’re looking to go a little deeper and then to The Minimalists and the Millenial Minimlaists if you’re looking for broader lifestyle suggestions – all of which can be YouTube and/or Spotify searched. Even if you don’t intend to go minimalist I hope you can get some useful tools out of it.

I may implement more minimalism or I may tone it down in the future, we’ll see but I hope this provides insight into things we’ve found helpful or valuable to try.

Happy minimizing!