Materialist to Minimalist – How We Downsized
Two weeks ago we announced that we are selling it all, paying off all debts, and living life a little differently. Since then, we have had a ton of questions about our decision and HOW we are actually doing the downsizing and purging. I feel super qualified to talk about my journey into a minimalistic life since I came from such a materialistic one! Seriously, the girl who previously lived in my brain was a shopoholic maniac with an insatiable thirst for MORE and now I am here cleaning up her mistakes and erasing the credit card debt that accompanied them. Okay so in the sake of keeping this blog useful and not overflowing with junk, (like my closets a few weeks ago) here are the main 3 reasons WHY we are radically downsizing: To feel lighter. I am experiencing this already! It's like a new corner of my mind has even opened up to allow more creative and positive thoughts as more and more psychical junk clears out. Items can weigh you down mentally, emotionally. To clear off debt. We are not ashamed to admit that we spent a lot of money over the last couple years and racked up some good ol' consumer debt! But it just SITS there collecting interest, and the things we bought SIT there collecting dust… so something doesn't add up. To be more location independent. Nothing says ‘stay home and go nowhere' quite like a huge mortgage payment. But HOW right? Although we are minimalists with training wheels, and no two minimalists rules have to be the same, here is our playbook on how you can get started too! How We Downsized and Embraced Minimalism Step 1: We determined NEED vs WANT The hardest (but most crucial) part of downsizing is to identify what you NEED and what you WANT. Trust me, I know how much a ‘WANT' can feel like a ‘NEED!' I have had many moments in my life where I NEEDED those shoes, that car, those blender attachments and that crop top with the tags still on it from 5 years ago. The first step on your journey will be to ask yourself when faced with any object: “Do I need this?” or better yet “Does this bring any value into my life now? Does it serve me?” My socks where knocked RIGHT OFF when I discovered how many of my once treasured items and mistake purchases did NOT serve me or fulfill a need whatsoever. I was merely holding them ‘in case'. In case of what? I wanted to open a professional garage sale of crap? Step 2: We just DID it. All of the following will mean diddly squat unless you just DO it. It's so easy to say ‘next week, next month, next year' and that is exactly how we wound up with piles of crap surrounding us. Just get er' done! Step 3: We started in the [...]