Andrea writes:
I may be one of your older minimalists, having been married for 40 years to a wonderful man who totally agrees with the minimalist way of life. We not only live minimally, but eat minimally and use our natural resources minimally.
Instead of owning a lot of unnecessary exercise equipment, my husband jogs everyday. He is 62 and in supreme health. I walk our dogs and run on the local high school track for my exercise. My health is also excellent. We eat vegetarian and we keep our cupboards and our refrigerator/freezer lightly stocked with groceries that we rotate and use quickly as not to waste. We had a problem with mealy worms years ago because we kept too many boxes of cereal and other grain products that the little moths got into. We had to throw out tons of good food and we decided then that it is a huge mistake to “load up” on sale items just to be “safe”. Safe from what?? I used to collect cookbooks, but rarely used any of them…when I would open a cupboard, the cookbooks would come raining down on my head. How foolish was that? I can get any recipe offline. There are millions to choose from.
My husband used to keep every receipt from bills, accounts, etc…now, he keeps one small box of receipts and purges those regularly…all of the paper trash was never necessary. And, I speak from long experience. We share one closet that holds all of our shoes and clothes on hangers. I set a small baby-changing table inside of the closet to stack our folded sweaters and shoes and scarves on. I found out that I did not need 70 pairs of shoes many years ago. We do not have a garage, a shed, a basement or an attic, so everything that we own HAS to be kept under our 3 bedroom home’s roof. Our children have their own homes.
I used to be a big time collector and had to force myself to purge and purge, but I was heavily motivated to live a minimalist life after watching every episode of Hoarders and Hoarding:Buried Alive. I kept every episode taped on my DVR and watched them repeatedly…I still watch the reruns to keep motivated. My sons accuse me of “hoarding” hoarders shows! Thank goodness for DVRs! No old VCR tapes in this house! I find that we can just as easily get any book from our library than to collect books like I used to do. I let the libraries “hoard” my books for me now. I have given Goodwill and other charities literally tons of clothing, books, appliances, toys, linens, etc. We kept just enough dishes and flatwear to have a couple over to eat. If we want to have more over, we can always use decorative paper plates and plastic cutlery.
All of our friends live such hectic lifestyles, they rarely even find the time to eat at other’s home any longer. Their calendars are packed with commitments and activities…We learned how to say NO long ago to commitments that our hearts were not in. What a relief NOT to have to go to jewelry parties (I have enough, thank you) clubs, ballgames, etc. We go to these events only if we truly desire to do it, not because we feel like someone will get mad if we don’t. There are many motivational books out there on how to say NO and also great books on minimalism and decluttering, as we all know from reading these blogs and resources.
We have constructed our lives to be carefree and calm through living a minimalist lifestyle. My home is now neat, clean and spacious and we love it! Speaking from 40 years of experience, you DO NOT need all of those items that you THINK you can’t live without. Begin to live a clutter-free life in all areas of your life and see what a huge burden is taken off of your shoulders. Let your home and your body breath a huge sigh of relief!
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Source: missminimalist
