Brittany: Oh, you got my hair.
[Laughs]
Aileen: Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.
I have a special guest today.
This is Brittany.
If you don’t recognize her, she is “Naturally Thrifty Mom”
and we did a collab before call “5 Days to Minimalism”.
This is Kaylee.
Brittany: That was a busy week.
Aileen: Yeah, it was a super crazy.
Brittany: It was a busy week but it was so productive.
Aileen: It was good, yeah.
Today we’re here in Portland.
I’m just here for the day.
We’re going to do something called the “Minimalist Tag” that we totally made up.
I don’t know if it’s a real thing, but now it’s a real thing.
We have five questions and I’m going to interview Brittany about minimalism.
Are you ready?
Brittany: Yes.
I think.
Aileen: What got you started out with minimalism?
Brittany: I think I was one of those that heard of the Marie Kondo
“Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”.
I just really like the idea of controlling some of the chaos.
I’ve got four kids.
I mean, that’s just chaos in itself.
I felt like things were getting a little stressful.
There was a lot,
you know kids have toys.
Kids have stuff they’re playing with.
I’ve got stuff, my husband has stuff.
I’ve got a busy house.
I liked the idea of simplifying, creating less stress, relaxing, the whole idea of that.
Just having the things around me that I really loved, that I really enjoyed.
To me, that struck almost an instant chord and I was like, “Yes!
I want that for myself.”
Minimalism just flew in right from there.
And YouTube, of course.
YouTube made the connection there for me.
Aileen: What is your definition of minimalism?
Brittany: I would say, not ‘minimalist’, not ‘a minimalist’.
Minimalism for me is loving the things around you, and letting go of the rest.
So if you’ve got 100 things in your closet and when you go in there
and when you look at one thing and it doesn’t make you happy,
you don’t want to wear that, just let it go.
Whether that’s, maybe it still has the tags on it, you bought it last week.
You can return it.
Or maybe you have a friend
that wears the same size as you, maybe you can offer it to her.
Donate it.
Whatever that be, just let it go.
And when you’re shopping, for future purchases, try to keep that mindset.
If you love it, go for it.
Or if it’s more expensive you want to pay for,
save for it, get that.
I think that’s minimalism for me.
[Scooter noise]
Little scooter just went by.
[Laughs]
Aileen: The way I shop now, I really listen to my intuition like,
“Does this make me feel good?
Do I feel amazing in this piece of clothing?”
If it does, then I buy it.
Before I used to be like, “Oh, I kind of like it,”
and then I would buy it.
But now I’m more picky.
Brittany: And I know there’s-sometimes my husband will ask me, “How much is it?”
But then it’s like, really I don’t just want to get something because it’s a bargain
or a big deal.
Aileen: Exactly
Brittany: I mean, I used to.
I’m very much a thrifty shopper.
I like to get a good deal.
But now, rather than just going straight to the clearance rack
and seeing if there’s something I can make work, now I’m like,
“I see what I like, I put it on a wish list, and then save up for it.”
And maybe it’ll go on sale while I’m waiting for it, and I’ll get it that way.
That’s kind of ‘minimalist’ for me, but into shopping.
Aileen: What was the hardest thing for you to let go of?
Or hardest area to declutter?
Brittany: I don’t think I have one specific thing, but for me-
I don’t know why-it’s the bath and body products.
I have a hard time getting rid of makeup or lotion
or anything that maybe I used it and I just really don’t like the smell.
I’m picky about natural products and I’ll only use natural fragrance and stuff.
But if i bought something like that and ended up not liking it,
I feel so horrible not finishing it up.
Aileen: Maybe you could give it to somebody.
Brittany: I just have the hardest time.
Aileen: Like wasting a bottle of lotion.
Brittany: I don’t want to give somebody my used lotion.
That’s the hardest area.
I don’t want to be wasteful, that’s another thing.
Aileen: That’s a thing too.
Brittany: I very much like the zero waste movement and I love that.
But that’s the hardest area because I want to keep it simple,
and I want to keep it minimized, but that was the hardest area for me:
going through all that stuff and just letting it go, and passing on what I could,
and the rest, getting rid of responsibly.
That was really hard.
Aileen: Number four: How do you deal with non-minimalists in your life?
Brittany: How do I deal?
The majority of people in my life are not minimalist.
I have a couple of friends who-they’ve heard me talking about it.
They’ve heard me talking about how to keep things more simple
and talking about minimalism and they’ve seen my videos.
I have a couple friends who are totally on board with it now
and they’re even making changes and stuff too.
What I would say is I don’t really deal with the people that aren’t into it.
I’m more so like, “Let them do their thing,” and kind of lead by example, I’d say.
I feel like if you’re going to try to convince someone to something,
they’re probably not going to want to be convinced.
But if you can just show them how you do something
then that might kind of pique their interest
Aileen: Yeah, lead by example.
Brittany: You know, if I’ve got my coffee cup-
I’ve got my coffee cup in that bag that the tripod was in.
So if we want to get a coffee and I whip that out,
people will be like, “Oh that’s smart!
I should bring my own coffee cup.”
Or I have a glass straw.
I can say, “No straw,”
and then they see my glass straw and they go, “Oh that’s nice!”
So that’s more of a zero waste type of thing.
Stuff like that.
It’s kind of contagious.
Aileen: It is, it is.
Last question is: What is your top tip for new minimalists?
Brittany: I think, don’t let the idea of becoming ‘a minimalist’ stop you.
Get started now, as soon as you’re interested it it, and don’t think you have to be perfect
at it.
I know with the Marie Kondo method, you’re supposed to get everything out of your closet.
I know a lot of people will be like, “Oh, I can’t do that,” and so they’ll wait
or put it off.
Or maybe they’ll try to do a mini-declutter
and then you’re decluttering over and over and over.
It’s the same cycle.
But I would say, whichever method you decide to go with, just do it.
Aileen: Just start somewhere.
Brittany: Take one day: “This is the day I’m going to do it,” and go for it.
Don’t let fear of doing something hold you back, because it’s really worth doing.
Aileen: It’s worth doing.
Don’t try to be a perfectionist about it.
As long as you’re doing something, it matters.
Brittany: Exactly.
Aileen: Alright, I guess that’s it for today.
Thanks so much for watching.
I also did this tag on Brittany’s channel, so if you want to check that out, I’ll put
the link below.
Thanks for watching guys.
See you next time!
Brittany: Bye!
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Bye!