Minimalism Design: “Less is more” or “Doing more with less

Clean and Fine: another definition of minimalism.

Why and who the heck influenced me?

Okay, fine, I’ll admit it…

I watched all the Hoarders episodes – the Clean House Episodes and oh yeah… a few Vloggers on YouTube. 

I have been carrying around a bunch old stuff my “sentimental treasures” that I just could not part with. Why? Well because I am like many people who place feelings and sentiments into items. I must admit i cannot part with a couple of 4th grade notebooks from my childhood. Those are real treasures to me. The good news is – I can keep them! YEY! Why? Because I am the curator of my life and thank goodness for that.

Being able to donate and sometimes toss items I don’t really need has been super therapeutic for me. It is allowing me to question myself and ask myself why I have this or that and what purpose are the items serving me. We moved to our new apartment last winter and I was amazed at how much STUFF I owned. I’ve lived in relatively small spaces during my life in the States and I’ve become very good at making things fit into small spaces through trial and error organization. Which equals to me being able to pack a regular size closet to its fullest capacity and be organized and capable to fit more items.

It was so much work moving all of my items to our new place and it was a new challenge to make everything fit as well. During our move I gave away quite a bit of stuff  – including a love seat, chair, table, king size bed and its bedding, kitchen items, frames and clothes. I had also sold some furniture on Craigslist as well prior to the move.

It has been one year since our move and during the past month alone I managed to pack 12 bags (Ikea blue bags) filled with mostly my stuff. Most went to Goodwill, some to my church and some to friends.  As I type this I have 2 bins and a Trader Joe’s bag filled and ready to go, I am finding so much peace when I come home. The clutter is being sorted, organized, donated or tossed – it feels good to know that I am able to let go of things which really don’t matter.

Minimalism is something beautiful. We have become a bunch of hoarders in this country. “THE BIGGER and MORE THE BETTER & SUPER SIZE THIS AND THAT CAUSE YOU GET A BETTER BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!” No my friends, bigger and more doesn’t mean better, it simply means more…  But do we really need 20 pairs of shoes? 15 pair of Jeans? 20 Shirts? Tons of picture frames and figurines? IS ALL EXTRA CLUTTER! We become slaves of our Clutter – after all if we don’t dust and clean them, then who will? I will continue writing about my minimalizing journey…

So – Stay Tuned.