Over the past few years, I’ve found myself going deeper and deeper down a minimalist rabbit hole. This journey started when I found a book called ‘Down to Earth’ by Rhonda Hetzel in an op shop about 8 years ago. I purchased it on a whim because I wanted to see what simple living was all about. This book really fuelled a fire inside me.
At the time, I was in my first full-time job, working 9 to 5 in the fast fashion industry. As each day passed, I knew this job or industry wasn’t for me. It was wasteful and incredibly fast-paced, and I felt guilty about being part of it.
When “saving money” turns into hoarding
Through high school and university, I always wanted all the cool trendy things, as most kids do. We want to fit in and be accepted in our social groups. I stopped caring about being trendy, but I didn’t actually buy less. I just told myself I was being smart about it, hunting secondhand deals and sales for things I’d convinced myself we needed.
So one thing I do find difficult is letting go of the things I’ve accumulated over the years or passing up a ‘good deal’. From thrifting deals to being gifted stuff from family or friends, and as a DIYer, I found myself keeping a lot of things that could someday be used. Saving money in the long run (if I ever used the item, spoiler: 90% of the time I never did), but what I was actually doing was being a hoarder!
Most of these things were just being moved around our house from cupboard to cupboard, being reorganised into new pretty organisational bins or shelves. Never being used or thought about until the next time I got an itch to spring clean the entire house again.
Why letting go gives you back your freedom
So over the last couple of years, I have found a huge thrill in listening to The Minimalists and watching Dawn from The Minimal Mom. Not to become someone who owns 30 belongings, but to learn to let go of what is no longer serving our life. And you might be thinking, okay, but why?
To gain back our freedom.
Our stuff adds mental and physical clutter to our lives. We have to store it somewhere, then maintain it. That time could be used to go for a walk, catch up with family and friends, or spend time on hobbies.
Not reorganising clutter for the 10th time this month.
How I actually started letting go
Giving myself permission to let go of items I don’t need has been liberating, to say the least. At first I felt guilty for wasting money or being wasteful, but as I began to let go, I felt a lot lighter. Lighter from the mental load of owning all of these random things.
I started small. One shelf, one drawer, one cupboard at a time. I’d pull everything out and sort it into three piles: keep, sell, and give away. Anything worth a bit of money I photographed then and there and listed on Marketplace, and everything else went into a donation box by the door that I filled up and dropped off whenever it was full. The trick that kept me going was not trying to do the whole house in a weekend.
I’ve now made back thousands of dollars from selling our junk!
The “fantasy self” trap
It’s also helped me realise that I’ve been holding onto items that my fantasy self might use. These include books I’ve never read, clothing that’s too small for “when I lose the weight”, canning supplies even though I hate canning, and serving dishes for dinner parties I never host because we don’t live near our friends. These all have good intentions, but they’re not realistic in most of our day-to-day lives.
Every item you buy, store, don’t use, and then throw or give away was once money, which was once your time. That money could have been used to invest or pay down your mortgage quicker, thus saving you from having to work your entire life to make ends meet.
Once this clicked for me, it helped me see the bigger picture. It changed my mindset and helped me learn to become more intentional with my spending.
Choosing less so we can live more
Our goal isn’t to be perfect or to go without, but it’s helped us make better decisions. We ask ourselves: do we really need a new pair of trendy sneakers, or will the ones we already have continue serving us a while longer, so we can use that money to pay down our mortgage quicker or go on a vacation?
We have a hand-me-down couch, an 8-year-old fridge, a car that cost $5,000 9 years ago, and a mortgage we can afford. We could replace these things with bigger, shinier, newer versions, but what does that mean for our time and our future goals?
I don’t think the goal is owning less, exactly. It’s owing less…of your money, your time, your life…to things that were never going to make you happy anyway!
Thanks for reading!
Love,
