Excess possessions rob us of time, money, energy, and focus. As the old proverb goes, “Those who buy what they do not need steal from themselves.”
Additionally, excess possessions add stress, worry, and burden. As Randy Alcorn writes, “Every increased possession adds increased anxiety onto our lives.”
Our lives have become busy, hurried, rushed, and stressed because we own too much stuff! Consider this: Never in human history have individuals owned as much stuff as they do today.
There is freedom in owning less—if only we could catch our breath long enough to take hold of it.
Some of us have become so busy pursuing, accumulating, and caring for our things, we can’t even find the time to remove those that are no longer needed. How long has your basement been filled with boxes? How long have the shelves in your garage needed sorting? Or the clothes in your closet needed to be gone through?
On one hand, I can see it. Minimizing possessions takes work (especially if you have a lot to begin with). It takes effort and energy and an investment of time. And if both parents are working jobs to make ends meet, finding extra time to own less can be tough.
It can be hard enough to minimize just one room of a house—much less an entire home.
On the other hand, it is essential we find the time to reclaim our lives.
Consider these three truths:
1. Any time invested minimizing your possessions is never wasted.
Not only is it not wasted time, it is time multiplied back to you. There’s an old quote from Abraham Lincoln that goes like this, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”
When we invest minutes removing unnecessary possessions from our homes, we receive an hour on the backend of less cleaning and tidying and organizing and maintaining.
And the sooner we get started, the better. The sooner we free up our lives to live the one we want, the longer we get to live it!
2. Don’t waste the rest of your life decluttering.
Sure, you can commit 5 or 10 minutes/day to your minimalism journey. But as Zoë Kim says, “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life decluttering?”
The better investment is to set aside intentional time, as soon as possible, to remove as many possessions as you can, as early as you can, so you can begin enjoying the benefits of owning less as quickly as possible.
Here are 7 specific ways to create the time you need.
3. Your life is too valuable to waste caring for things you don’t need.
Joy, happiness, and fulfillment are found in the invisible things of life: love, hope, peace, and relationships. They are not on sale at your local department store. Stop looking for them there. People who live their lives in pursuit of possessions are never content.
Our lives are too important. Don’t sacrifice your important role in this world by settling for possessions that can be purchased with a card of plastic.
If you’re feeling rushed and stressed and overly-busy, creating the time to minimize your possessions is your first step in the right direction.
Valerie Rogers says
They keep working so they can buy MORE stuff, and support/fix/maintain stuff they already have. Makes no sense, yet considered normalcy. The drumbeat of consumerism goes on. Glad I don’t hear it.
Diana says
I have been working to minimize for a while now and have come to one road block I don’t know what to do with. What about guests?
My husband and I both feel like a big part of what our home/family should be is always accommodating to guests. Our kids share a room so we have guest rooms. Our church knows they can always call us if they know of someone– or many– that need a place to sleep. If we ever want to invite someone over for dinner or for the night or for the week we know the other will say yes. As far as our relationship with stuff goes, the goal is that we remember that our home, and all that is in it, is a gift from God and not something to hoard. Our home is open. We let people use it without worrying that it will be damaged or used up.
But that all comes with extra stuff. Extra sheets for extra beds, extra towels, extra blankets. Extra food in the pantry for extra mouths that may come by. In our kitchen we have minimized our daily utensils but I kept a crock of serving utensils in the cupboard that I pull out when everyone comes over and needs a spoon or spatula to serve whatever they brought. In the freezer or pantry I have basic ingredients to stretch most meals to feed more. Our sheets and blankets are organized but there are a lot of them. Is this the right way to handle this? Any suggestions?
JL says
Diana, you seem to consider hospitality to guests to be a priority in your life. The extra towels and sheets and utensils are necessary for you to continue doing something that is important to you. I would not consider those things to be clutter.
Kate says
Diana, I agree with JL – hosting others in your home is part of life for you – perhaps part of your “why” – and, imho, a wonderful and generous way to live. It would seem to make sense that you have what you need on hand so as to comfortably fulfill that element of your life’s mission. In your case the extra linens, etc. are not clutter at all!
Connie says
What does imho stand for?
Melissa says
In my humble opinion
hashmo says
Totally agree too with what everyone is saying. If hosting guests brings value to your life (which is what the essence of minimalism is), then definitely keep just the items that you need to help you to do that.
Pat says
We have just started our journey to DECLUTTERING thanks to finding you through the Mininal Mom you tubes. We downloaded your list of ideas to declutter that you offered in an email and are working our way through it. We have finished all our clothes—those in the closet and what we stored in the garage for “when we lose weight”. We identified clothes and paperwork as the two largest areas of “clutter” in our home and garage. So, next we are tackling the paperwork we have kept for years and don’t really need anymore. After that, we get on to the smaller stuff. Thanks for your constant encouragement and reminders of what owning less can mean for us. God bless.
laura ann says
Pat, totally agree w/ you on areas of clutter, clothes and papers as papers need to be culled once a mo. or so (receipts). I keep utility bills for 6 mo, then shred. The kitchen is another clutter trap. Too much food buying (on sale) and kitchen gadgets no longer used. This incl dishes, glasses, mugs, bowels and bakeware that sits there un used. I just did a kitchen purge and trying not to buy BOGO food that isn’t eaten in a week unless room in freezer for later. Garage is highly organized.
Beate says
Just last week I sold two small cuboards on Facebook after beeing sick at home with a cold for a week and having had the time to continue with decluttering. Very often I walk through the house and think “what else can go”. Sometimes it’s like an inner urge even. I am in my 4th year on my way to becoming a minimalist and I find so much freedom in getting rid of things and feeling able to “breathe” again that I do not understand other people (friends and family) who remain sitting in crammed houses can feel comfortable. One of my aunts was a hoarder and very messy and I can not name the hours I spent at her place helping her “organizing” her mess. A key moment was when I was at her appartment and needed a pen to note something down and took a random one out of the mug that was crammed with pens and she instantly told me “this one is not working” …
I use this example very often when it comes to discussion about letting things go. Why the h..l can you not dump a pen that does not write any more ….? I am very pleased that I never was a hoarder but still had a lot of things. Today I can sit on the sofa in the living room, enjoy silence, read a book and feel totally in peace with me, the world, my relationship and the clean and minimal house I live in. You, Joshua, still play an important part in my journey without even knowing. Thank you for beeing out there and not giving up on encouraging us.
hashmo says
I found the packing party technique really helped. It gave me a chance to ‘taste the benefits of minimalism’ like you mentioned (feelings of peace, calm, ability to breathe and finally think straight) but without having to make the upfront hard decision to let go of something. I only kept things I’d used in the last year and boxed up everything else and got them out of the house. I loved the result so much, that when I went back to open those boxes, letting them go and not letting their contents back in the house was something I WANTED to do now rather than felt uncomfortably forced into doing.
Now I find decluttering a lot easier because of that experience. I know I can simply do a ‘have you used it in the last year? No? Then you know you won’t miss it.’ approach.
roxy says
Ten years ago, after my divorce, and I moved from a large home into this smaller townhome, I got rid of so much stuff because it would not fit into this townhome. And I did not want many of the things from my “old life” around. It was so Zen in my townhouse….lots of empty drawers, shelves and closets and an empty room. Well, in ten years, much stuff has come into my life (as I knew it would!) so now every drawer, closet and shelf is full. I am purging now in an attempt to get it back to the way it was when I moved in. It has taken a lot of time and energy (gladly spent); but I am surprised at my struggle to get rid of so many things! I am finding it a struggle to give up pretty items I don’t need and have no place for, and also items that I don’t use that I might need one day. I keep as a daily mantras: “Do I really need this?” and “what can I get rid of today?” I am keeping at it no matter what and my journey continues!
pam welton says
i am so enjoying reading about this & have started to purge my things. i have a friend who has very little by choice & i feel so refreshed when i visit her!
Connie says
I know the feeling, Pam. Every time I visit my friend’s house, I feel so calm. She is a minimalist by nature. Her house is clean and neat and she never has trouble finding things.
roxy says
Ten years ago, after my divorce, and I moved from a large home into this smaller townhome, I got rid of so much stuff because it would not fit into this townhome. And I did not want many of the things from my “old life” around. It was so Zen in my townhouse….lots of empty drawers, shelves and closets and an empty room. Well, in ten years, much stuff has come into my life (as I knew it would!) so now every drawer, closet and shelf is full. I am purging now in an attempt to get it back to the way it was when I moved in. It has taken a lot of time and energy (gladly spent); but I am surprised at my struggle to get rid of so many things! I am finding it a struggle to give up pretty items I don’t need and have no place for, and also items that I don’t use that I might need one day. I keep as a daily mantras: “Do I really need this?” and “what can I get rid of today?” It helps and my journey continues!
laura ann says
Roxy: we recently moved to a retirement community sold a house and had to call up several group homes to haul off several pc furniture, a tv, and other household items that didn’t fit. Gave yard tools to a nabor and a group home. We downsized again after moving because we still didn’t know what we needed in the new place, and two group home managers came over after we settled in. The movers took two small end tables and said people give them furniture all the time. Now I will fine tune any unneeded stuff. I will send this out to others even if they aren’t planning to move soon. I don’t waste time with yard sales, as charities need donations in my city.
Rodgella says
I’ve been on this decluttering journey for about three years now. At the begining, I was just getting rid of things and throwing things away without any true direction. I just knew that I felt I had to get rid of things. After finding you on YouTube, I was in awe. Because the things I heard you say, resonated within me. Hearing you describe the reasons why you began minimizing, hit the nail right on the head for me! It was then that the direction for me to minimize, became much clearer. And it helped me to focus on minimizing and getting things done quicker instead of dragging the process out. Thank you for your wisdom and insight!!
P.S. I know there will always be more decluttering in the future, but I think I’m almost done with my “major” decluttering!!?
Angela says
We have done loads of decluttering in the last few years, staring with my craft/sewing materials and tools and more recently we got rid of 4 large pieces on furniture and other items so our lounge is looking good now. However, your point about doing a lot of it in one fell swoop really resonated with me. When it’s just bits and pieces here and there, it never really looks ‘done’. I do seem to be taking a carrier bag of unwanted ‘stuff’ to the charity shop every week and although my home looks a lot less cluttered I still haven’t got it to where I want it to be, sleek and easy to clean. I live in a small home and I cannot even think where all these items I’ve given away or sold even lived in my home. It seems impossible AND there is more!
Sarah Lee From Los Angeles says
Yes I started getting rid of things and am so much happier now that stuff is out of my life