With spring just around the corner, I figured it was a perfect time to share our journey to minimalism. By no means am I an expert in this area. I am learning as we go, but it has been so impactful on our family and our happiness.
We purchased our home with the intent of staying just a few years, but here we are, almost eight years later! In those seven years, our family of 2 grew to a family of SIX!
I felt our home shrink in size and watched the clutter quadruple right in front of my eyes when we brought our fourth baby home in the summer of 2021. Shortly after we began this journey to declutter our home. With each bag of donations, free stuff put at the end of our driveway, and trash that was thrown out I felt more at peace. I felt each room doubled in size as we organized.
It had been on our hearts for a while to move and we definitely need to eventually, but the market just isn’t in our favor right now. That is when we realized that if declutter and downsize the amount of stuff we own then we can fit in this house just a little bit longer.
Minimalism looks very different for different people, so don’t assume our way is the right way. For us we have decades worth of stuff to purge and organize and it is going to take time to get to where we need to be. My hope is that when we are ready to move that packing will be a lot less stressful.
Here are a few tricks that have helped us declutter our home.
Start with one room
Start small. Don’t look at the whole house as the project. Go room by room starting with the most important. For us, it was our basement because I wanted a workout space and a place for the kids to play. In my mind, if we did the basement first and organized it well then we would have a better-organized storage area down there in addition to the two new spaces.
Learn to shop with intent
When you bring a baby home you are intentional about their nursery. The theme, the necessary items, the number of clothes, but sometimes we lose sight of that vision for the rest of our home. This has been the hardest part for me, but then one day it dawned on me that my home had more joy in it than any clearance rack could ever give me. I realized shopping for me was for the thrill of what I could find at discount or how much I could save and that didn’t serve a purpose in our home anymore. In the beginning, these habits and ways we live can be difficult to change. To help, I suggest that for every item you bring into your home you must donate one.
Turn the hangers
This is a simple tip that will do wonders for your family as it has done for mine. At the beginning of the year, turn all your hangers backward in your closet, and then during each season swap do it again. This is a great way to visualize which ones are never worn. It also makes it much easier to donate especially for kids when they can even see they haven’t even worn it.
Don’t wait for Spring Cleaning
As they say, don’t wait until tomorrow to do what you can do today. We have spent many weekends purging. Honestly, I would rather organize when the weather isn’t in our favor so that we can enjoy the beautiful days ahead. It is also a lot easier to sell items when no one else is thinking about cleaning out their closets and basements.
