Our family journey towards minimalism
With Black Friday sales everywhere, I just felt drawn to tell you a bit more about our family journey towards minimalism… So how did it all start?
Some of you might know that we have 3 kids. Simply add a fair number of toys, clothing and sports equipment to the equation AND a mom who likes clear and tidy spaces. In addition to that COVID hit the world! We were in a long and very strict lockdown in South Africa with lots of homeschooling… I remember feeling quite overwhelmed during that time. I wasn’t even able to coach because I was too busy ‘holding’ myself and my family.
‘Learning’ became my anchor, my me-time. I deepened my knowledge in leadership embodiment, yoga for kids and became an enneagram practitioner. And then I came across Joshua Becker’s self-paced decluttering course. Normally I don’t stick to self-paced courses but this was different!
The first question he asks is “Why do you want to declutter and live a more minimalist life?”
1) I wanted less arguing about tidying up with the kids and more time to connect.
2) I wanted to reduce my mental-load by not taking care of stuff that we didn’t actually need. I wanted to be able to focus on what really mattered to me!
3) I wanted to be in control of something! COVID was nothing I could control.
4) I wanted to change how we ‘consume’. I want generations to come to be able to witness South Africa’s beautiful wildlife, coastlines, deserts and people!! Well, all of this amazing planet! And this is a small part of our contribution!
As you can see my ‘why’ is quite diverse and I could even go on. The concept of ‘minimalism’ truly hit a nerve in me. Today we don’t live it in a radical way, but it has changed our mindset, our consumption behavior and our actions in many ways!
Getting the family buy-in for this journey is not always easy… Any advice from you is highly appreciated! But we are getting there. And I’m super proud that the kids happily donated toys in November to cheer up another small human being and to make space for whatever Santa brings for them!
What’s your take on decluttering and living a more minimalistic lifestyle?
Warmly, Viviane