Initially when I thought of downsizing I absolutely despised the idea. Less stuff? A smaller home? Who would want that?

A few weeks ago my family up and moved our life from a 1900 square foot house to an 800 square foot apartment. Along with us we brought the bare minimum – our kitchen table, plates/cups/cuttlery, our bed, tv, our clothes and one car. The rest of our belongings are stored in a 16′ POD, 1700 miles away in Greenville, SC. Think about that transition- a four bedroom house to a one bedroom apartment. Sounds awful doesn’t it? Honestly, I wish we had done this sooner.

Living with less square footage is much more intimate. We don’t have much space to work with, which has our family closer physically and emotionally. No space is unused, whereas in our last home we had a dining room and three bedrooms that were never touched. On top of that there is drastically less to clean (which might be my favorite part).

So far, small living has been incredible.

Coincidentally with this move I came across the documentary on Netflix, Minimalism (if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend looking into it). That documentary was extremely eye opening to me and it really got me thinking..

Although our new home has MUCH less stuff, it is still too much. I feel cluttered. I feel as though we STILL have too many belongings- clothes that haven’t been worn in years, random knick knacks, shoes lying all over the house(who needs this many shoes?!?!?!), and all of Grayson’s toys. How could I dare get rid of his things? It’s not like he’s outgrown them or anything.. and all of his clothes? Well I obviously need to keep them in case we have another boy down the road.

We come from the American culture where more is optimal. The more belongings and higher quality your things are, the more superior you become. They call that “Keeping up with the Jones'”. You know, people who make a new purchase and instantly have to invite you over to come see it, or make it a point to bring it up.

NO ONE CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE! Why does our society continue to live this way?

I don’t want to be part of that cultural norm anymore.  I don’t think I could ever go as extreme as a true minimalist which is definitely not my intention, but i do believe in simplicity.

As they say, an uncluttered life produces an uncluttered mind…