Our belongings, in their abundance, are holding us back, slowing us down, cluttering our lives, disrupting the flow, being used as an excuse and adding to our workload. Most of us own TOO.MUCH.STUFF.
As I step inside client’s homes and sift and sort and simplify there’s a profound shift in the energy of the home but it’s also like a switch flicks in them. They’re given permission to let things go.
We’re such funny creatures that we walk around with a set of ideals around what we should own and how we should care for it. Gifts that we feel obligated to keep, treasures inherited from those passed, boxes of memories from childhood and those items that we don’t even remember buying. On their own they’re often useful, beautiful and treasured; in their abundance they simply overwhelm.
Many of our beliefs around our belongings we learn from our parents. Often we reach for the absolute contrast we were raised in - a childhood of scarcity can lead to needing more things around us to feel safe, successful, accomplished. Years spent in a home with too much stuff may inspire an adulthood with just the bare minimum. Regardless of where we sit we can decide at any moment to begin the journey with less. Much like exercise our ability to let things go strengthens the more we do it.
While big leaps can be made when beginning the journey with minimalism, the reality is it takes time. We simplify, then we rest a little. We sink into what a little less feels like, then we re-visit it a week, a month, a year later. We’re often more ruthless and less attached so more space is made. And as we dance through this lifetime loosening our grip on what we own we inherit new habits, new rituals, new boundaries.
Minimalism becomes a way of living that’s far deeper than simply our stuff.