Wanting less and finding more
Would you trade more for less?
It depends on what you’re trading, right?
In most areas of my life, I’d choose simplicity over excess. I guess it’s why I love cleaning closets.
Can you imagine what the Victorians would have thought of Urban Farmhouse or contemporary decorating? The Victorian style was just so EXTRA. Patterns, layers, and frilly things absolutely everywhere and on everyone. I used to like going in those Victorian mansions; now if I’m inside one, I start chafing and wanting to de-clutter.
I’m not remotely a minimalist because I’m too sentimental, but I love the concept of minimalism in all of life. Reduce clutter. Reduce your carbon footprint. Reduce your work hours. Reduce spending. Reduce your wardrobe. Reduce your medication. All good stuff. All helpful emotionally, psychologically, physically, medically.
But what I’ve noticed is that everyone who’s reducing and conserving in one area is inevitably increasing in another area. That can be a good thing. Reduce eating out, make more home-cooked meals. Reduce media, spend more time outdoors.
What are you doing less of and what are you doing more of? What’s in your exchange?
Whenever we cut something out, we must consciously replace it with something better, probably the opposite. If I’m cutting out chocolate, for example, (which I would never do), I would have to find a suitable and superior replacement. (Hence, the problem.) However, I have eliminated my milk chocolate intake and replaced that intake with dark, sugar-free and chemical-free organic chocolate. And then I eat less of it.
Eventually, your replacement will surpass your cravings, and you won’t even like it anymore.
My brother’s been an expert mountain climber for many decades. He eats only real food and never puts anything bad into his body. He is contemplative, family-focused, and incredibly healthy. I admire the simplicity of his life. He’s always asking about my stress and my health. It used to annoy me. But now I see the value in being accountable for my mores and lesses.
Retreat time, prayer time, family time, friend time, meditation, and walking have become paramount to my living happy and healthy. When I value fewer things–when I focus on the things of eternal value, like faith and family–I crave the distractions less and less. The fancy vacation or the impressive church program actually becomes a distraction to the personal time I crave with my family or God. I actually want simple. Although I’m not a minimalist, I want a minimalist mindset if it means holding on to things with eternal value and releasing everything else.
This statistic is a couple years old now, but it’s probably still accurate. 38% of Americans are not content or happy. (CNN 2/2/2022). And we own more stuff than any other people on the planet.
Some minimalism advice:
- Watch a Netflix documentary here
- Clean out a closet every week
- If you haven’t worn an outfit in a year or more, donate it
- If something no longer fits and isn’t likely to fit soon, donate it
- Stop buying stuff “in case you need it”; shop intentionally
- Don’t buy in bulk if you don’t have a huge family
- Keep your countertops, table tops, corners, chairs, dressers, shelves free of clutter; assign a place for everything
- Decorate in groups of 3; leave the rest of the counter, table, or wall bare
- Create a staple wardrobe of 10-15 pieces; you mostly only wear whatever is new
- Leave some of your walls and windows open and uncovered
- Choose quality over quantity
- Have one dominant piece of furniture in each room
- Keep messy work, like filing and papers, in one specific place you don’t have to look at all the time
- Digitize memories, photos, and papers
- Live on a budget
