It’s 7:43pm and you’re at mile 25 of your daily parenting marathon.
The finish line is in sight. So far, you’ve hosted a play date, dragged Halloween costumes out for dress-up, played at the park, supervised finger painting, and judged a Lego competition (which you determined to be a tie—naturally). Dinner is done and the children are bathed.
After your spouse reads a story to the kids and makes sure their teeth have been brushed, you seal the day with a kiss on their foreheads. You begin looking forward to a calm evening watching some television or catching up with your spouse.
Unfortunately, before you even have a chance to sit down, you quickly realize the day’s work isn’t done just yet.
While the children have “technically” cleaned up after themselves, your home still feels a bit chaotic.
Costumes are falling out of the king-size plastic bin you swore would solve all of your organization headaches. Kids’ and adult sneakers and flip-flops are scattered beside the shoe shelf you built beside the back door. The kids’ art easel is blocking the laundry closet, which is bulging with its own clutter. And while the kids did pick up most of the Legos from the floor, their favorite creations are still being displayed atop a stack of unread women’s magazines on the coffee table—the same coffee table you were hoping to rest your feet upon.
By the time you go to bed, the house is “mostly” back in order. But in the back of your mind you know the following evening you’ll be facing the same clutter once again.
Maybe It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
Ten years ago, after a conversation with my neighbor, my wife and I sold, donated, or discarded over 60% our possessions. We removed clothes, furniture, decorations, cookware, tools, books, toys, plus anything else we could find in our home that was not immediately useful or beautiful.
At the time, the concept of purposefully owning less stuff was foreign to our worldview—especially being raised in a society that relentlessly promises happiness and fulfillment in our next purchase. But, for some reason, the idea of owning less sounded oddly attractive.
I had been introduced to the world of minimalism. And I was drawn to it.
Today Americans consume twice as many material goods as we did fifty years ago. The size of the average American home has nearly tripled in size over the past 50 years and now contains about three hundred thousand items. Our stuff has even spilled outside our walls. Due to our garage clutter, 25 percent of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park cars inside and another 32 percent have room for only one vehicle! And I haven’t even mentioned the 10% of us who rent offsite storage.
We are drowning in a sea of possessions—and we feel it almost every day. We’re tired, stressed, hurried, and financially strapped.
The most popular solution to our battle against clutter seems to be “just implement better organization”—or at least, that’s what we’re told is the solution. So we’ve bought colorful buckets, bins and baskets from the same good folks who sold us the costumes and the Legos and the magazines and dryer sheets. But in the end, although the storage solutions we’ve bought promised to solve all our woes, they’ve only packaged them differently.
But there’s a solution that’s even more effective than organizing.
The surprising solution you’ll never find in an Ikea catalogue, plastered on a billboard or featured on a Google banner ad is to own less stuff. Owning less results in less cleaning and organizing and managing and repairing.
But the benefits go far beyond that: Owning less sets you free to pursue your dreams and become the person you desire to be.
The Unlikely Way
When you choose to live more lightly—both releasing some of what you have and choosing to add less to what you already do have—doors to pursuing your dreams begin to open. I’ve seen it in my life and you can experience it in yours.
Because when you own less, you’re freed up for what matters most.
My friend Marjorie had kept a jar of coins her grandfather had given her for about ten years. When she moved homes, she’d hauled the jar to a shelf in her new closet. They weren’t precious coins that could be sold for a profit; they would be worth whatever the screen displayed when she dumped them into the sorting machine at her bank. Marjorie had promised herself that she and her kids would do something special one day, like visiting a waterpark. But they never did.
When Marjorie’s heart and mind were captured with the more of less, she finally took those coins—and all the others she’d scraped out of junk drawers, couch cracks and purses—and cashed them in. After they’d gone to the waterpark, Marjorie had money left that she was able to donate to a local charity.
Similarly, Sarah recently told me her story of always wanting to do mission work overseas. When her church announced a weeklong trip to Haiti, Sarah began dreaming of going with her teenage daughter. Inspired, Sarah and her daughter made the connection between all they owned and what they hoped to be and do. Together they gathered and sorted much of the stuff in their home they no longer needed or used.
Sarah’s daughter made $325 on Craigslist and eBay selling electronics they no longer used. Sarah held a yard sale where she sold their extras and welcomed donations to purchase supplies for orphans in Haiti. Sarah and her daughter were not only able to raise the money for their trip, they experienced benefits they’d not even anticipated. Their clutter-free home didn’t accumulate more clutter each day because they were living with less. The space was pleasant to live in and they loved the extra time they gained by caring for less stuff.
These are real stories. And I hear more and more almost every day. Stories of people who have begun to live their dreams, because they chose to live with less stuff.
Just Do It
If the stuff you own is keeping you from pursuing your dreams—dreams for your family, dreams for yourself, dreams for others—then you can begin to embrace those dreams by taking a few simple steps to live with less. And while these baby steps begin with decluttering—which is, admittedly, not so glamorous—the ultimate purpose is to put yourself in a position to fulfill the dreams you have for your life.
So before you leave this article, I want you to write down your dream. If you use a journal, go get it. If you tape notecards to your bathroom mirror, grab a notecard. If you post sticky notes on your computer, go get a pad. Keeping in view the bigger picture of why you’re reducing the amount of stuff you own will help as you purpose to reduce the amount you own.
What is your dream?
If you keep your eye on the reasons you’re aiming to live with less, you’ll have more energy to do the work before you.
Now that your motivation has been articulated, here are a few tips to help you get started removing the excess from your home:
1. Start Small. Focus on easy battles, scoring quick wins and establishing momentum in your decluttering journey. Don’t make hard decisions. Just grab an empty bag and remove everything you can easily part with. Put them in the bag and set them aside for you. You can sort them later.
2. Start Easy. A bedroom, bathroom or living room will be easier to begin with than an attic or kitchen. Plus, if you remove what you don’t need from these frequently used spaces you’ll experience positive effects almost immediately.
3. Start Noticing the Benefits. Take a step back, look at what you’ve accomplished. Are you experiencing more peace, more calm, less distraction, and more peace? Notice the practical ways owning less improves your life—and use that motivation to tackle harder spaces in your home.
As you begin to declutter, experiment to discover what makes the process most satisfying for you. Is it offering scooters and baseball mitts to the younger kids next door? Is it seeing a once-crowded shelf become usable once again? Is it setting goals of gathering 100 items each weekend and relaxing during the week? Every person’s process is different, so find what works for you.
Live the Dream
Remember that index card on your bathroom mirror? As you choose to own less you’ll free up time, money and energy to be who you want to be. When you shop less, you spend less time driving from store to store and spend less money on what you don’t need. When you release what you don’t need you spend less time organizing and cleaning all you own. Don’t let those gains go to waste.
Purpose to take practical steps to realizing your dream:
- Spend 30 minutes each day working at your craft
- Mark your calendar with the day you can volunteer locally
- Devote three hours next weekend to developing a business plan
- Start a bank account to save for a mission trip
- Enroll for a class at your local city college
- Enlist your kids in collecting canned goods for a local food pantry
You have been gifted with a desire for abundant living. As you choose to own less, you’ll discover time, money, and energy that can be used to make it a reality.
S Goodman says
While reading the article I figured out my goal! Now, the process begins… Where to start, one small room, today, no excuses. Here I go…
Amy Howson says
Last night I realized my dream. I posted online pictures of my new paperless office space. There is space to teach my essential oil classes to groups of 8 and I can easily run my business from there. My office area feels so light and airy. I’m excited to see how my business flourishes simply because I choose to grab a garbage bag and fill it up.
Steve says
Great article. Stuff really does complicate life and place objects between you and your dreams. The sad thing is, most of the people that read articles like of this nature are the ones who have already realized (or are beginning to realize) there is a better way. The average person who has been trapped by consumerism is unlikely to stumble across this kind of information. When I tell people I’m a minimalist a lot of them don’t even know what that is. Rastafarians seem to get it though.
One day I was in sitting outside a cafe and a Rastafarian gentleman came over and tried to sell me something. I can’t remember what it was, but it was only small. I told him I’m a minimalist and only buy things I really need. He offered me a big smile and shook my hand. That’s that second time something like that has happened, so I’m wondering if there’s a less is more aspect to their religion.
Emily says
I love the bit about “work out WHY you are doing this” as ongoing motivation.
For me, it’s partly that I am happier and calmer when the house is not cluttered.
But more than that – I want to reach a point where I”m always happy to open my home to anyone who stops by or needs a cup of tea. I don’t want to feel embarrassed about the state of the kitchen or the mess in the living room. And that’s easier to achieve when there’s less stuff to be “everywhere” in the first place!
the other part, of course, is to drop the pride that says it has to be perfect, and just have people in anyway! :)
Wallace says
Joshua, great article. I have been a Minimalist for awhile but my wife not so much. She checked out a minimalist book from the library a couple of months ago; and told me the book conveyed the philosophy and benefits of minimalism from a female’s perspective; in a way that I was not able to. My wife has even convinced me to let go of more of my own stuff! I am a happy camper.
Ashley Logsdon, Marriage/Family Coach says
Great post, as always! We moved from a 1450 sq. ft home to a 240 sq. foot travel trailer – if we thought we were cramped with clutter before, it would have been a nightmare now! As we prepared for a lifestyle of fulltime RV travel, we were very intentional about what we chose to bring with us. We found the less we accumulated and gathered, the more opportunity we had to simply BE and enjoy one another! It’s not just about the clutter – it’s the mindset of holding on that we let go of – we cleared the clutter not just from our home, but our heads and hearts as well…and it’s been amazing.
Instead of me spending my days harassing kids to pick up their junk, they simply don’t have any. I’ve seen sibling spats become less and less as their toys have gone down – we spend more time outside playing and imagining than fighting over ownership of a precious thing. It’s been a freeing and liberating experience and we are having a blast in our minimalist lifestyle!
Alicia G says
Ha we still have issues b/c of just the daily clutter that hits after a busy day b/c no on in my family wants to put things away when they are done with them…..
Shoes – necessary, but don’t belong in the hallway.
Dishes from dinner – necessary but omg get them off the table. Book from bedtime – necessary but why is it on the chair still. Water bottles – necessary but one is still in car & others are who knows where.
Art project with paint drying so still on table – necessary.
Dish towel that somehow was on floor – necessary but seriously, just pick up the towel.
So sometimes even the purged, was-tidy-in-the-morning-homes are a disaster after a day of living & appointments & late dinners. :)
Definitely some of it is habit that I am trying *so hard* to work on with my daughter or at least have set times to tidy up together, but sometimes stuff happens & that falls aside so bedtime is not delayed. And I can’t get the other adult on board with tidying up as they go either….
I’m curious what other people do to manage all this, especially when it has been One Of Those Days.
Maria says
Hi Alicia,
What I decided to do since it seemed that I was the only person in the house bothered by the mess: I let it go, I just quit tidying up the stuff of the kids and my boyfriend. I tidy up my own things and once in a while I ask the kids to tidy up, when i have asked 3 times I bring a garbage bag and start putting everything in there. You should see how quickly they tidy up then ;)