it all started when we decided to move overseas from maui to portugal
we had to fit our whole lives into five suitcases and figure out what to do with the rest we went
through every drawer kitchen shelves bathroom cabinets and closet looked in every corner of the
house to the surface of all the furnitures from the big items to the small ones we had to make
a decision for every single item that we owned to see if it was worth taking with us halfway across
the world just trying to empty out this desk i just put it on marketplace and someone's coming
to pick it up all of our stuff that we emptied from the office i sold my car this morning and i
got really emotional i didn't think that i would today i donated most of my books but these are
the ones that i'm taking with me the house is an absolute mess right now this is what it looks like
everything i had accumulated became the weight that i had to shed
to take a step closer to my dream of living in portugal and it made me question why i bought
these things in the first place did i really need so many of the same item of clothing
who was i trying to impress how many times did i actually read these books listen to these finals
or turn on this lamp why was i holding onto a shoebox full of letters from people who
are no longer in my life and more importantly what did i really trade for it in the process
decluttering my entire life was exhausting and at the same time really eye-opening as i began
to slowly see what was truly essential in my life and what wasn't and along the way
i learned a few life-changing lessons which i thought was worth sharing with you today
i truly didn't know how much stuff i had until i gave myself a five bag limit to fit my whole
entire world in the beginning i was really skeptical i didn't think that we could do it
so i even called around some shipping companies to see how much it would be to ship some boxes over
to portugal and even looked into storing some things on mali but when we actually
started getting into the process of going through everything we were both shocked at how easy it was
to kind of condense down to just our essentials and i would say about ninety percent of the staff
in my house i really had no attachment to it and didn't think that it was important and now
that i've been traveling for about three weeks i think that i could have gotten rid of even more
i am taking some of my favorite books of course little decor items just so that i can feel at home
i don't want to just go completely bare it's been crazy and very chaotic but i think overall
it's really good we never had a reason to go through everything even though i declutter on
a regular basis so we're really taking advantage of this opportunity this whole entire process
has been so eye-opening for me but one of the biggest things that my husband and i realized
is just how little we really need and to think about how much of our lives is dedicated to
acquiring this stuff i really questioned where we place our values we work to afford nice things
and it's almost expected that the more money we make we upgrade to a nicer home better car
cooler toys just buying things to fill our home but how much of it is truly essential to us
and for some of us spending is completely habitual maybe we buy something because we're so used to
having it in our homes or maybe because we're just so used to picking it up from the store
without really having a use for it and i just wonder how much or little we could all live
with if we stopped and thought about what we truly needed and wanted do you really care
about having that nicer home or is having a small apartment studio just fine to accommodate your
lifestyle do you really need a whole wall full of books in your home or do you just prefer to
borrow them at the library do you really need to upgrade your car with all the new features
or are you okay with having a 10 year old car that just gets you from point a to point b
and the thing is there is no right or wrong answer but i think just taking the time to kind of ask
ourselves these questions it can save us a lot of time effort and money from over consuming the
things that we really don't need when it comes to the bigger picture now i know how little this
stuff matters and when i'm creating my new home in portugal i'm definitely going to keep this in mind
and i hope to be more conscious of the things that come into my life moving forward i am definitely
going to slow down once i get there just take time to settle and not buy everything right
away some of the stuff you know we bought for this house and it's just been sitting there for years
different brands and companies are getting so good at not selling us just the item but also selling
us a lifestyle if you want to be a cool young professional then you would dress in these clothes
and if you want to seem like you have a healthy outdoor lifestyle then you would drive
this car and you would wear these shoes whatever the product is it seems like now
we're not just buying the item itself but the whole image and the lifestyle that comes with it
but i think it's associating and just attaching so much meaning to these products
can be a slippery slope to over consumption i definitely fell for the marketing i thought
that maybe having the specific kitchen set is going to make my home really picturesque maybe
wearing a specific brand is going to associate me with that specific lifestyle but at the end
of the day i learned that stuff is just stuff no matter who's marketing it or how it's marketed
it's just another t-shirt or another kitchen gadget and it really does not change our lives
i thought about my happiest moments and to me that's having a really good conversation with a
friend or maybe exploring a completely new place with my husband um just being out in nature and
going for a nature hike and in these moments it's almost like an out of body experience
and what i mean by that is you're so completely removed from yourself because you're just part
of the moment you're part of your surroundings you really don't care about what you're wearing or how
many cool shoes that you have or what kind of car you're driving none of this stuff really matters
and i think chasing these experiences over trying to build up an image is a more genuine way of
living our lives instead of just trying to build an image of our lives i think it's really cool
to support a company because you really love what they stand for or maybe you'll buy from a specific
brand because you really love their clothing but none of this stuff adds to our self-worth
and it definitely does not define us somehow managed to make everything fit but it is just so
heavy so i have to go through it all over again and i definitely need to take out some pieces
and i think that i know which pieces to take out we're going to be traveling for a while
so i definitely don't want to carry this with me all across the u.s and overseas to portugal
i once read a quote that said everything you own begins to own you and i really
think that there's truth to this not only does it cost money to buy it up front but
then you have to think about upkeeping it maybe discarding it or replacing it down the road and
we really don't think about the hidden cost of things like our time and attention i honestly
thought that the hardest part of this whole move would be the paperwork the bureaucracy but
actually it was emptying out our house and deciding what we're gonna do with all of our stuff
it took a lot of effort over the course of many many months and it was really exhausting
and now that i buy something new of course i'm going to keep my experience in mind and
know that this thing is ultimately going to take up room in my life and also it's going
to be my responsibility and that definitely makes me think twice about buying anything
in fact moving forward i really don't care to own everything that i need i think there are so many
great resources out there like for example i think i will always take advantage of borrowing books
instead of always buying books maybe even renting clothes for specific events and maybe i can rent
some tools that i need for specific baking or gardening things like that i think it's just
the more gentle approach to life and it allows me to feel more lightweight as i move through life
we did it we did it oh my god no sleep just in time right yeah
minimalism intentional living or simple living whatever you want to call it i
think the point is not to be so careful that we can't experiment or make mistakes
or even have fun because i think there's nothing wrong with enjoying things
that's where they're there that's why we work to enjoy these things but the point is to not
let it take over our lives and not lose sight of what's truly important to us because we might not
realize it but it might be the very thing that's getting in the way of us reaching our dreams