live a minimalist lifestyle

I’m saving up to move out of my dorm, so I’m spending less and less money. This means I’m making do with what I have and learning to not crave new things all the time. It feels pretty good!

I have been de-cluttering for about a year to date. I moved a great deal in my late teens/early twenties and finally settled down when I had my daughter. In June we’d been in my current home five years. In that time I had managed to collect crap-galore. I had to break the bond with my stuff when my boyfriend started spending more time with us at home. The crap slowly dwindled away and then we did all out overhauls. Yes, plural. There have been five or six overhaul excursions. Mind you I live in a modest home. I feel like we are finally getting there! I want to complete the process well and maintain the clutter-less atmosphere. I stumbled upon this site and I hope it offers some sort of accountability or mindfulness of this commitment.

I have decided to live a minimalist lifestyle. After much deliberation, it has become apparent that I must simply get rid of my junk. Everyday when I come home, my time is spend cleaning and decluttering, rather than focusing on my kids or having a relaxing evening with my husband. And the reason why I am constantly decluttering, is because I am simply moving junk from one place, and relocating it to a different place – not to mention “hiding” stuff under the beds and in closets to “appear” to be more organized. I am very excited to see the results of my new personal journey.

There can be too much ‘clutter’ around you to focus on what is important and what you are seeking to achieve. It is so liberating to be in a simple zone, which for me can be anything from a woodland park to an uncluttered hotel room (with TV never switched on). When in such an environment, creativity is inspired, and it can be a joy to accomplish one’s goals.

My goal is to evolve my lifestyle, aspiring to a greater level of minimalism.

An epiphany…

I went shopping today at Costco, and I realized that the movie fight club is indeed true.  Remember the famous line in movie?  " The things we own end up owning us." As I was shopping for food I looked around, and observed that most of the stuff people were buying they could do without.  Here's 5 of them!

First off, you do not need to spend 3 thousand dollars for a super big screen T.V. I am pretty sure no one ever wished they watched more television when they were on their death bed. Yet on the excellent Sunday afternoon dozens of people were spending more than a thousand dollars to watch television.

Secondly, people love to spend money to buy food that will help them to a heart attack. When did people start buying pepsi, and beer by the truck loads? All this processed food is making America fat. The line to buy hot dogs at Costco was about ten minutes, and yes everyone in line was fat.

Whats third on my list? Businesses are just peddling trash to the average american. Really, who says jeans, and shoes have to cost hundreds of dollars. Do you know what you could do with a hundred dollars in another country? You could live a whole month… food included. Isn’t that what life should be about? Shelter? Food? Friends? When people are on their death bed most will often wish they spent more time with loved ones or took more vacations. No one is on their death bed wishing they dressed with Calvin K. shoes. Yet, here I am watching people scoop up new shoes, new pants, and everything they can handle with their credit card. As I write this I can see my closet filled with clothes I never wear! I was also part of this society we call ” living in debt.” But no more.

The fourth thing I realized as I shopped at Costco? People can never be free if they have to work! Life was not designed to work 50 hour work weeks just so you can go home to a big television, and wear C.K. shoes during the weekend! whatever happened to running on the beach, reading a good book, swimming in the ocean. All these events have been replaced with fucking American Consumerism.

And the last thing that caught my attention in Costco! There are two types of debt collectors. The ones that come after you for not paying your bills, and the one shopping at the wall buying shit he or she really doesn’t need, but will end up paying interest on whatever they buy because they used a citi- card. This is the first day of me living as a minimalist!

This will take a while to accomplish, but it’s definitely a good challenge. I would really welcome any suggestions on this. Getting rid of the clutter in my room was a first step. Next, clothes maybe?

I am about to try this new form of lifestyle.

A minimalist way of living. I just know it deep in my heart the amount of satisfaction that Im gonna experience if I can lead such a way of life.

As I’ve read Spartans led a simple, extremely disciplined, fearless and a bold living.

Im gonna try this out.

I’ll update after a month so you guys know how I did.

Wish me luck..

Cheers!!

Harsh Parmar

Yesterday I made some good progress towards minimizing. I went through my whole closet and cleared it out. Completely. Most of my clothes are now in sacks to give away to Goodwill. I’ve managed to pare down to roughly 10 outfits. Since I live in Colorado where we have 4 seasons, I need to keep winter and summer clothes around all year. So I’m keeping a few wool sweaters and about 6 T-shirts. Plus a few “in-betweens”, if you will. I will just use my dresser from now on to store my clothes.

On another note, I found a box in the deepest recess of the closet with some of my old high school clothes. Things I haven’t seen or worn in 10 years. I’ve gotten into pretty good shape since I started using my bicycle for transportation a year ago, so I was curious to see if they still fit. And they do! The shorts are about 1 inch LARGER in the waist than I would buy now, but the shirts are the same size shirts I wear today. :-) I thought that was pretty cool, so I took some pictures with me wearing them and will post them on facebook to brag to my old high school buddies. :-D I’m still giving them away, though, since I don’t need them anymore.

For anyone else out there trying to get rid of stuff, I found a cool site that buys used CDs online. I just sold some of my old CDs to SecondSpin.com and made nearly 70 bucks!. CDs aren’t on my “Things to keep” list, and all the ones I listen to are on my computer anyway. The ones they wouldn’t buy I’m going to give away to friends/family/goodwill.

Now that my (physical) CD collection is mostly taken care of it’s off to the DVD collection. I already sold most of my DVDs in another fit against clutter and materialism several months ago, but now I’ll get rid of all the rest. My Futurama collection will be tough to get rid of, but I’ve seen every episode at least 5 times, and I realistically don’t actually watch them very often anymore so I should get rid of them. Maybe I’ll donate those to a family member or something. :-) At least that will be an intermediate step for me. Donating them to the family collection will get them out of my life (probably forever), but it won’t be so hard in the process. What they say about things owning you is true. I really need to get over this. I don’t have many collections I’m attached to, but that’s one of them.

The way I see it, if I can get something out of my life for at least a month without missing it, it will stay out for good without me ever missing it.

I don’t desire to become an ascetic or live a deprived life, that’s not why I want to become a minimalist. I want to become a minimalist because I want to be free. I want to live my life on my terms and not be held down by the constant need to maintain and care for a bunch of stuff. I want to travel, to learn new things, and experience life directly. When I go out to eat with my friends I want to live in the moment, knowing and feeling that that is all there is to my life at that moment in time. Having a bunch of STUFF that I never use at home constantly demanding my attention to keep it straight, clean, protected from theft, etc. just gets in the way of being able to fully relax and enjoy the things that really matter.