#Minimalism

Have you ever bought a house that was twice the size of your previous one and thought it was all you ever wanted in life and within months realize that your entire family only lives in half the house happily because that is all you need.  We sure have!

When is enough, enough?

After reading multiple books, blogs, watching countless videos, and spending hundreds of hours discussing our future, my dear husband and I have latched on to the idea of minimalism.  In a nutshell it is the idea that you don't live beyond your means (instead, way under your means), with items you barely use, hate taking care of, or don't bring joy to your life, and you learn to be content with what you have, use, and love.



Moreover, you start to focus on what really brings happiness to your life, and start living simply in happiness rather than chasing some unattainable dream.  There is more to life than just earning a paycheck and buying all the things.  Abstract as that may sound, it was music to our ears, friends.  Life was getting heavy, expensive, hard to maintain, and just exhausting.  We wanted more time to concentrate on our daughters, traveling, making memories (which are priceless), and plain enjoying life instead of loathing Mondays, Sundays, and everyday in between.

So much of our life is spent chasing after a dream that some people never live to see.  Let that soak in.  That retirement package is going to be so great, they say, only to not live but a few years (if at all) past retirement age.  Yeah, no thanks.

What, you don't like the idea of retiring back into lower middle class?  Neither do we.

Maybe the status quo is incorrect and instead of buying into the idea of the original "American Dream", they should re-write the life thesis and name it the "American Dream: #Minimalized". You know, the dream without all the debt and regret.  The hashtag is for good measure and so that all generations feel included.

To some, this idea is going to be so far-fetched that it will seem as though we are just inconsistent in our life choices or can't make up our mind.  You may  be right, but you know what?  I would rather make a million wrong choices to find the right one, than to settle for what I think is right when this whole time many missed opportunities have occurred because we were so caught up in what we thought was the way to live.  So when is the right time to change? We asked ourselves this question for about a year and a half and we have decided now is good.

I am not sure what this will look like in the end, but DH and I are no longer scared of that thought.  In fact, we are so excited to do this we are going to tell our story publicly!

Areas we are downsizing:
*Housing
*Homeschooling
*Spending on things that don't bring joy to our lives (Read the book "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo or click here - it changed our lives!)
*Our person belongings
*Worry/Stress
*Tremendous amounts of regret in the form of crap we bought (see photo)

Our garage sale pile has definitely grown!  Can you believe we couldn't live without all this stuff???

Things we are upsizing:
*Traveling (we have family all over and it is time to see them!!)
*Camping (It gets its own category because it is amazing!)
*Family Time
*Savoring the moment (rather than continuing working towards goals constantly and missing the world around us - Facebook anyone?)
*Love for time not money
*The amount of knowledge we can attain from living more and spending less (a true treasure in our eyes)

More to come on our progress through this huge transition.


Remember: It is never too late to change your mind regarding your life path and by doing so you may just make the decision that leads to true happiness.  Never settle!