A lot of people have the wrong idea about minimalism. They think it is mostly about stuff and counting the number of possessions they own. While some minimalists count their possessions, there is no magical number you need to achieve to call yourself a minimalist. Minimalism is rather a sort of life style in which you remove excess from your life so you can focus on what truly matters.
A couple of years ago my life had no real direction. I was living with piles of stuff that grabbed my attention at every turn. Online games, text messages, emails, console games, books, and clutter were stealing my time and attention. There is nothing wrong with most of these things per say, except perhaps clutter, but I spent so much time with my electronic devices and stuff that I didn’t take time to sit in the silence and reflect on my life. What did I want to do with my life? Was I on track? Was I making good use of my time, and by good use I don’t mean checking off a bunch of stuff on a to do list. Rather, I am referring to doing valuable things with my time. Was I using my time to better my life and the lives of others around me? Unfortunately, I wasn’t on most days. I worked, and lived, and cleaned my house, but real meaning and purpose seemed to have escaped me.
I finally decided things needed to change. Here I was in my 40s and my life really wasn’t the kind of life I wanted. I thought about what was keeping me from living the life I had envisioned for myself and many answers came to mind. First, my over use of technology was impacting my ability to have alone time to think about what I really wanted and how I was going to achieve it. Additionally, my apartment was full of stuff, so much so that I had to store what I owned in about six different locations. Having so much stuff ate up a lot of my precious time because I spent so much time cleaning and sorting through my possessions. My apartment also felt like a place I didn’t want to be. I hate being in messy places and clean often, but even after cleaning my old apartment it still felt messy. The reason for this is that it was extremely cluttered. I had no place to go where I could really rest and relax in my home. Every room was just jam-packed with stuff, and the rest of what I owned was stored in other places.
You are probably wondering at this point just how much stuff I had, and I will say that it was much too much. Being an American I was used to the more is more culture and collected nearly everything. I had action figures, comic books, antiques, dishes, video games, movies, porcelain dolls, books, stuff animals, happy meal toys, board games, collectible cards and more. Anyone taking all of that stuff with them when moving to Europe will surely have problems. I had no idea how small the apartments in Europe are. Many of them have no garage, and while most come with a small storage unit, and by small I mean very small, some have no storage whatsoever. Moving from a 150 square meter house into a 60 square meter apartment was a huge change. I lost nearly two thirds of the space I had before and nothing fit in my new apartment in Sweden.
I had decided to move to Sweden to live with my fiancé who I am now married to. He had his own stuff and bringing all mine into the picture meant there was just much too much. We ended up storing stuff in a variety of places such as my mother in law’s apartment and storage unit, my husband’s office, the storage unit that came with our apartment, the extra storage unit we rented, plus some stuff I was still storing at my dad’s house back in America simply because I was out of space in Sweden and shipping more boxes over was not an option. Having so much stuff stored in all these different locations created a lot of stress and inconvenience. Not only did it take so much time having to drive to all these different locations to pick stuff up when I needed it, it also cause stress. My mother in law was asking us to please get our stuff out of her apartment and storage unit, but where would it go? Perhaps into another storage unit which I needed to rent? And renting storage units wasn’t cheap. Not only did we have to pay for the unit, but we had the costs of transporting the items to and from all these different locations.
While I never intended to live like this for long, the days turned into months and the months turned into years. I couldn’t find peace or serenity at home and I felt like my life lacked purpose. After I realized this, I started to search for answers. I was able to make a mental note of the things that were robbing me of time and energy, and I decided to do something about it. I started reading books about finding purpose in your life. I read about ways to increase your productivity. I studied texts that talked about why you could and should implement self care into your daily routine, and I also encountered minimalism. The vast majority of the books, articles, and texts I read touched on minimalism to some extent. The idea in many of these books was that removing unnecessary things from your life lowered distractions and thus increase productivity. Having less distractions also gave you time to reflect on life by freeing up more time and mental energy for personal growth. I also learned that by removing excess you create space in your life for what is important and what matters most.
After lots of reading and studying, I decided to start implementing most of what I had read about in my life. I got rid of about 60% of what I owned, and am still in the process of donating selling, or trashing unused and unwanted items. Instead of having to store my belongs in 6 different places, I currently have everything I want and need inside my one apartment which is around 800 square feet . In my small 25 square foot storage unit which I rent, I have items that I am undecided about, or are seasonal such as winter clothing and sports gear. I also store my suitcases here as well, since my new apartment lacks a storage unit. The storage unit is conveniently located next to my apartment and is only a five minute walk from where I live. I now have less distractions, more time, and feel peaceful when coming home. I have found time to focus on myself, and have started to reconnect with my goals, dreams, and purpose in life. As I continue on this journey, I want to share it with you. My hope is that my story will help you start the process of changing your own life. The one universal truth is that your time here on earth is limited. Time is one of the most precious resources you have. Don’t you want to spend it on valuable pursuits that improve your life and the lives of others?