Minimalism.

Until recently, I didn’t understand what that word meant. I knew it meant you didn’t have a lot of stuff, but I didn’t really understand the importance of it. Until now.

I have been engulfed in this journey of self-development and self-discovery when I stumbled across the documentary Minimalism on Netflix. I was really into watching documentaries about health and veganism at the time and this came up on my recommended videos.

At the time I was thinking, “I don’t know what this has to do with health, but I’ll give it a go.” I was instantly intrigued. I knew I was going to have to minimize in order to move across the country in my little Saturn Ion, but I was doing that because I had to. It wasn’t because I had fully understood that having less physical things, makes more room for the intangible things.

I have only begun to scratch the surface on my minimalist journey.

When I moved to Oregon from Illinois, I only brought what could fit in my car. I had given away a lot of my belongings, but I do still have some things stored at my moms. Who knows when I’ll get to that stuff, but I was on a great start.

After settling in, and moving a couple, or five times, I noticed that the amount of stuff that I had was growing. When everything I owned no longer fit in my car, and I had to start playing Tetris in the moving truck with all of the furniture and decor I had purchased. I also noticed that the more stuff that I had surrounding me, the more cluttered and scattered I felt on the inside. I went from having an apartment to myself to putting everything I owned into one room. It is crowded in here and I’m starting to feel it mentally!

I started researching minimalism again and something in me has clicked.

It isn’t about having nothing. It’s about needing nothing. We have all been programmed to think that we need material gain in order to gain happiness. First, we need a new cell phone and a new TV, and a new car, and a new house, and a bigger house, and a bigger car, and so on, until we die, and all we have to show for it is stuff.

Now, if it is your dream to have a big house, and a nice car, and whatever else it may be, then I want you to go after that. For me, I don’t care about those things. I want experiences and I want stamps in my passport and I want concert tickets and live Broadway shows.

I need to start clearing the way so there is room for these things that fulfill me and bring me joy.

Slowly, I been taking inventory of everything I own. To most people, they would probably say that I don’t have a lot of things. If you have seen the documentary The Minimalists, then you have heard the crazy statistic. The average house (in America) has roughly 300,000 items in it. Isn’t that insane?! And here we are constantly wanting more.

I think I had the first spark to this road when I was younger and I would visit my grandfather. He was someone who collected things. Most people would just consider him a hoarder, but he saw value in having thousands of nails. When he passed, though, and all of his things had to go into an inventory list of sorts; it was overwhelming. I couldn’t imagine what my mom was feeling at the time. Her father just passed away, and now she’s having to go through a 20-page index of everything he owns to try and split it between family members or deciding what stays and what goes. This is the first time I realized having a lot of stuff isn’t always a good thing.

I tried starting with my closet, and it didn’t take long for me to realize this was going to be harder than I thought.

Going through my clothes, even if I didn’t wear the pieces anymore, I felt weird saying I was going to just get rid of it. Some of them were so old, and they were once my favorite piece of clothing. I couldn’t get rid of that. Could I?

Somewhere along the way, while I’m researching this concept and hearing other peoples stories, I heard a piece of advice. When deciding whether you should keep something or get rid of something, ask yourself, “Does this item give me joy right now?” It might have given you joy in the past, but how does it make you feel now. Those letters from your ex that you’ve kept for years, do those make you feel joy? That one pair of jeans from high school you keep saying you’ll fit into again, do those make you feel joy?

I have so many little plastic knick-knacks, that have sat in the same spot since I’ve moved here. I have an entire bag of hair supplies that I haven’t opened in over 2 years. It’s big too, like 4ft by 2ft. There are so many books I have that I swear I’ll read again- five years later. I have a filing cabinet full of papers that can all be found online. I have games that haven’t been played and socks with no soul mate. There’s a bag of bags, and hats that don’t even look good on me.

Why do we hold on to all of this stuff?

What value does it have in our life?

Almost everyone has fallen victim to the falsely glamorized consumerism lifestyle. I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. I don’t want to blindly consume things when it’s not benefitting my life in any way.

I’m going to try minimizing again. This time, going into it with a lot more knowledge, advice and tips from people who have already gone through it. Also, because I have huge goals to go tiny on wheels. They say in order to truly manifest something in your life, you have to start living and feeling like this has already happened. It is all about the law of attraction, and I could not fit into a cargo van with the amount of stuff I have now.

#VanLife

If you are interested in seeing my minimizing process, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

I will be recording my closet first (and three different methods to do so) and then everything else on a second video. Look forward to those in the next couple weeks.

Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate you being here. You are amazing and beautiful, and I can’t wait to see what you create in your life. Be sure to subscribe to e-mails and comment below if you think you have too much stuff.

Xoxo

Chantelle

Buy The Minimalists documentary called “Minimalism”: https://amzn.to/2nVfsQi

Another good source is to read the book Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: https://amzn.to/2MnPS57