I have way too much stuff
Those were the thoughts running through my head around two years ago as I was packing up my life to move back to Sweden
after having lived in the US for a couple of years and now you might think that the mental aspect of emptying the space that's
Been once home for some time and leaving that space to go back to the other side of the world is what's going to be
the difficult part
The physical aspect of actually collecting everything you've accumulated over the last couple years and fitting it all into suitcases
Shouldn't be too hard in comparison
ya know
Spending 72 ish hours going through a bunch of stuff. That didn't mean much if anything to me and
Organizing it in to keep tossed gif or donate wasn't exactly how I had imagined
I would be spending my last few days there, but hey, I'm not bitter
Because after all dealing with that was what put things into perspective for me
see, although I didn't know exactly how I knew that from there on I wanted to have and do more of what actually
mattered to me in life and less of what wasn't and didn't and
I guess that's what kind of put me on the path of minimalistic living
What I didn't know at the time was that this journey was going to end up being about a lot more than just things
But let's not get out of Rostock skin
Now my name allistic living means different things to different people
To some it means selling everything and moving into a van to others
It means owning a maximum of five pieces of furniture and dressing in great t-shirts every day
To me just meant that if something did not bring me value
I did not want it in my life
And if something did bring me value, I wanted more of it in my life. And so I started to live by that
Or at least I started to try and live by that
Because let's be real oftentimes. We kind of suck at defining and determining what's actually valuable and what isn't
How does one really know and what counts as valuable is a dress that you associate with a certain memory
Valuable is a person who treats you poorly but makes you laugh valuable
I think those things are just what you learn to figure out along the way
by roughly speaking to me if I love something or need something then it's valuable and
Anything else will have to go
Now love and need are some pretty strong words, which is why I say roughly speaking
love and the scenario could simply mean that it's something I appreciate and
Need could just mean that something is necessary and neither needs to be materialistic
Although that's how it started when I got back home
Like getting one drawer in order and then I would take on a bigger task like my closet and then the whole room
and once I felt like I was starting to get my physical belongings in order I
Started looking at other areas of my life
What do my relationships look like? How do I spend my time?
What about my habits priorities and spendings are those in order what sub category do they fall under?
And it wasn't just about what I let go
It was just as much about what I let in because if you're going to let go of a bunch of shit
But then let a bunch of shit back into your life. And what's the point?
Now getting into this whole categorizing thing. I started to acknowledge how everything became a reflection of something else
Thoughts reflected thoughts actions reflected actions. Allow me to explain
So for example and not spending money on things that weren't important
that reflected itself and not spending time on things that weren't important the common denominator here being spending or
In only wanting to keep good quality items
I also became more intentional with maintaining good quality relationships the common denominator being good quality
What had happened was that in being more intentional with physical things?
It made me want to be more intentional with other non-physical things as well such as my time
Relationships my priorities and my habits and that's been the biggest takeaway from this experience
See in the beginning all I expected from living minimalistic aliy was to feel more clear minded less stressed
Freer and so forth, but it was more
It wasn't just about the time saved on knowing what to wear in the morning
or the money saved on not shopping on sale or the
Satisfaction of knowing exactly where all my belongings were because I had so few of them now
Although those were all good things what ended up happening?
extended way beyond that
living more minimalistic ly truly taught me how the small decisions I make for myself end up becoming part of the bigger picture and
I personally have my idea of what I want my bigger picture to look like and
So with that awareness I try to have every decisions that I make aligned with that. I
Really? Like what was said on a podcast? I was listening to a while back
they were talking about how
Not finishing the food that you put on your plate might reflect how you don't finish other things in your life
Now in some parts of the world, it's part of the culture to leave food on your plate, but that's another story
and I found there to be truth to that and how the decisions that we make might reflect itself elsewhere and
in using minimalism as a framework for decision making
Those decisions become more deliberate
Now this is of course just my experience with minimalism. Not everyone will have the same experience
And I don't even think it's for everyone
Some people thrive in cluttery environments and that clutter might not at all reflect itself than any other area of their life. I
Definitely don't have everything in order myself, and I don't strive to either I think there is charm and a little bit of chaos
But just a little bit
Now I wouldn't necessarily
label myself a minimalist
Partly because I don't know that I take all the boxes whatever they are
But mostly because I don't really want to have someone threw a potato at me because they see me lurking around. Hmm
But one thing's for sure
You definitely won't see me running around the airport with six suitcases. I will rather spend that energy right here