He tells his story about how he came to realize how much stuff he actually had. He woke up and said that he wanted to spend more quality time with the things and people that matter. Instead of spending so much time organizing and cleaning the junk he didn't really need.
His main idea in this book is to live intentionally and he talks about finding our purpose in life.
What do I need to own to accomplish my purpose. Does everything I own have a purpose and do I use it regularly? These are good questions to ask when we are trying to get rid of stuff. Why do I want to minimalize? Then write it down and put it somewhere I see it everyday so I am reminded why I am doing all of the cleaning out. It will keep you motivated.
One of the hardest things I think is with the kids. They had so many toys and my kids have been pretty good about letting me get rid of them or not even noticing they are gone. I love it. I have put it down to the toy box. I just read something that said we shouldn't just have a big box of toys because then they dump it all out instead of getting just one toy out and playing with that so I will have to work on that one next.
He did talk about having boundaries with kids.... you can keep as many as fit in this box or or dresser. Then they can choose but they still have limits as to how many. This lets them have their part and opinion on what they keep. I think this will come in handy when my kids are older. Right now they are too little to care too much. Giving them a limit will help though.
He talked about how with less toys they became more creative, cooperative, and have more imagination. They are forced to use that imagination that they love to use when they are little. I love to see my kids make things up and fun games they play. They learn to use one toy for many things, they can be creative in their play.
Minimalism is more important when you have kids you can teach them they don't need stuff to satisfy their needs. They need to be outside playing. My childhood memories is all playing outside and not wanting to come inside. Being creative. It teaches them that spending time with loved ones is more important than managing and organizing our stuff we don't need.
This leads us into gift giving and receiving. Its quality over quantity, needs over wants, experiences over possessions. Go do something fun and have a fun experience with them that they will remember forever. Memberships somewhere... zoo, treehouse. gym consumable presents.... food or coloring pages, Piano lessons paid for. I love this idea of experiences over things. We love to go places and the kids are always asking to go fun places. We can use those as gifts and then we don't have more and more toys floating around and cluttering up my now clean spaces.
I don't really remember toys from when I was young but I do remember things we did, experiences we had. Those are where the good memories are.
The last part of the minimalism that I had never thought of is that when you clean out and you find that you can donate those extra 10 towels you had to a homeless shelter or a womens shelter. That will meet their basic needs where they were an excess in our home. Our extras can meet their needs it makes me realize that we don't NEED those and someone else does. It makes you feel good. Then as you look around at other areas of you life you will see how much you don't need. How much other stuff you can get rid of and it will be so much easier knowing that it will really help someone else less fortunate. Generous people realize they have enough and that is why they can give.
This is going to be hard for me because I know that I like to buy things. I need to work on it and I know it will be a process but that is ok little by little we will get where we are going.
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