What is minimal living? I bet if you asked 20 people you would probably get 20 different answers. I think minimal living means something different for everyone who is interested in the idea of it. If you research minimal living you will find a huge range of lifestyles ranging from people who can fit every item they own into a backpack to people who live in extremely large beautiful homes. To me it is largely a mindset. To make a conscious decision to pare down and stop buying and keeping things you really don’t need. I also don’t think it needs to be done overnight. In fact, I don’t think I would have ever been interested in paring down if someone forced me to do it all at once. Minimal living for me has happened over time. When I was younger I always thought I wanted bigger and more. Bigger house, more stuff in my bigger house, more cars, more clothes, more shoes, etc. Then I owned 2 different houses over time. And something started to change in me. I realized that the more you have, the more work and stress it becomes. Someone has to clean, organize, maintain, pay for, repair, etc., all the “stuff.” You know what I figured out, I don’t want to be that someone. I discovered that every time I cleaned out a closet or a cupboard and threw out or donated a huge garbage bag of “stuff” my happiness level increased. I would repeatedly would go back and look in the area I cleaned out just to gaze at it again. I know, I’m weird. But it was kinda addicting. I just love getting rid of stuff I don’t need. I even love organizing and paring down at other peoples houses! Although, that is a little different since it is not your belongings and opinions can differ about what should and shouldn’t be saved.
So what does minimal living look like for me right now? Well, for starters I now live in a rental home that is probably 600 sq ft. Try not being minimal in that size space and soon you will not be getting through the door. Unless you are comfortable in clutter, it’s simply not an option. When we build our next home will things look different? Probably a little. But I can’t ever see myself going back to want the “more.” I am just too happy with the simple, minimal life we have now.