Two years ago my wife, Colleen, decided to start reducing the amount of stuff in our home. Rather than race through the house and getting rid of everything at once, she chose to simply remove one item every day for a year. To document her journey she started a blog, 365 Less Things, and today has a close community of people who want to reduce the clutter in their lives. While Colleen shies away from the minimalist tag, I think we have embraced a minimalist approach to our lives and it allows us to be who we want to be. We are not on a minimalist quest to see who can live with the fewest possessions, rather we pare away the excess and waste to reveal the best part of our life. Starting slow and following the one thing a day principle made the difference for our success because it allowed us the time to understand our stuff.
My Epiphany
As I agonised over every item I started to see these common themes in my possessions:
- items bought to have ready for a future need,
- collectables that represented a phase in my life or
- happiness either through a memory or continued use.
I learned that unless an item brings me happiness then it does not belong in my life but it took time for the message to get through to me. Last week I finally broke through a barrier and started questioning how much stuff I still have sitting around home. I credit the The Minimalists for this final epiphany, when I read this article something clicked in my brain.
If the best movies are instantly available online when I want to watch them, why do I have drawers full of DVDs?
I started reading 45 years ago and I rarely read a book twice, so why do I have a library of read books?
Why is a box of baseball cards tucked away in the garage more important than watching my local team play a game?
If I want to own wonderful art, why have I filled the walls with cheap and uninspiring art?
The answer is simple because filling my life with this stuff is easier than doing something I dream of doing but seems to hard to achieve, the impossible. Well it is time to get moving, start doing and stop collecting stuff.
A Rapid Transit to Minimalism
So after two years of slowly reducing my stuff, I am on a mission to reach my minimalist vision as quickly as possible, this year for certain but within weeks if I do the impossible. Some stuff is already boxed for charity, and the box of books is listed on Fishpond, for someone else to read now I have finished with them. The DVDs are next, the baseball clutter is close behind and the garage needs preparation for a future project. Right now I need to attack the clutter and stop thinking, stop agonising over every item and just do it. But reducing my stuff is not the goal, only one element of a broader project to live a fulfilled life so I am not on a mission to have the fewest possessions. That is just a Bizarro World version of keeping up with the Joneses. My minimalist dream is a home containing the things that give us great pleasure or help us realise our dreams. The number of items is irrelevant, so long as there is room for my life.
Making Room for my Life by doing the Impossible
The goal is simple, strip away the unnecessary, the excess and the unused items so that there is room for my life. A life where I spend more time with my family and friends, rediscover the winding roads that my motorcycle is made to cherish and start to do the impossible. Write my memoir, travel more, read and develop new skills. Once I am surrounded by only those things that inspire me, give me happiness or serve a purpose in my life then I will have the room I need to live it. Just writing this down gives me chills, I am planning to change my way of life and do the impossible, and it is a little scary but I’m determined to do it because I need the room to live.