What does minimalism mean to me?

Minimalism has been on of the hottest topics around the internet lately. Everywhere you look, someone is talking about discovering minimalism or decluttering their house. I will admit that I didn’t know much about it myself until it a couple years ago.

I had gotten to a point where I was so overwhelmed with the amount of stuff in my house and finally was ready to do something about it. I immediately turned to my favorite site for finding information and help with almost anything, Pinterest. I eventually found the book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo and the Konmarie method of purging and letting go of your belongings. I had spent about a year prior to reading her book, decluttering using various other methods but it never seemed enough. I was still very much attached to my belongings.

Something in me just clicked once I stumbled on Kondo’s book. I started following her method. I will admit, it didn’t fully work for me but I loved the concept of everything having a home and returning it to its home every time you finish using it. I also liked the concept of keeping only what brought you joy. My mom joked with me that the vacuum doesn’t bring joy so time to pitch it. The process made me look deeper into what I thought to be joyful. The vacuum stayed since having a clean house and not stepping on bits of dirt, food, or cat litter brought me joy and the vacuum was the tool needed to achieve that joy filled house.

My attempt at the paper category of the Konmarie Method.

But I didn’t fully finish her method and as time went on, it seemed to work for me less and less. The categories I had completed kept re-cluttering themselves. Especially the kids clothes. I mean kids outgrow clothes so fast that you have to constantly rotate. Add in my daughter’s health effecting her growth pattern, her clothing size changes were not predictable like my son’s. But Marie Kondo helped me focus on what I truly wanted, a house filled with only items that are useful and joy inducing and nothing more. I wanted the simplistic life that was portrayed in Marie’s book and I still do.

Since the konmarie method was abandoned, I have still worked toward only having what I have found useful in the house. I was getting very close to the minimum number of belongings I needed to live the life I wanted to. Unfortunately, I then had to combine households with my mom to help her out. Two households shoved into one means double of EVERYTHING. So now we must work to purge the unused, unneeded duplicates while trying to figure out what exactly is needed for our new household configuration. This is where this blog comes to play. I will be sharing my journey towards my ideal minimalistic home.

But what is my ideal minimalistic home? To me minimalism isn’t the stereotypical minimalist home with all white stark house with very few modern furniture pieces and no personality. To me minimalism is having only what you need to live the life you want. If you want to travel the country, then living in an RV full time with very few belonging would be ideal. If you want to homeschool and work from home selling several different products, you might need a separate office and school room fully stocked with inventory, supplies, and equipment. For me this is only enough dishes for those in my household out for everyday use and a stash of additional dishes for when we entertain. It means only the books I actually reference regularly and use the public library and internet for pleasure reading. It means not having so many items in any category that it takes hours and hours cleaning. But most importantly, it means I’m not being weighed down by the chaos of my material belongings so that I can spend valuable time with my family creating happy, calm memories.