Growing up, I lived in the same house. In 18 years I never head to deal with packing up everything I own and moving. Because of this, I never really felt the need to regularly go through my things and "purge". When I moved down to VA for college I started realizing how much stuff I'd held on to, unnecessarily. I donated a few boxes/bags to good will and purple heart, but since a good bit of my stuff was staying with my parents I still kept way too much useless crap.
Shortly after moving back from college I moved in with some friends and then about four months after that, I moved in with Josh and some other friends to the house in the country. It was then that I began to realize just how much crap I really had and what a pain in the ass it was. I started purging stuff during these moves, and then again when we moved into the townhouse, and again both before and after our move here to Fort Drum.
The Army and looming moves was definitely a huge motivator, but there are a few other factors that went into my decision to embrace minimalism. When my Grandfather passed away back in 2007, my Granny wanted to move into a smaller place closer to family. It took her, my Dad, uncle, and aunt FIVE YEARS to go through all of their stuff! From that, you'd probably think their house was cluttered, but it wasn't, not even a little bit. They had a huge basement, a 2 car garage, a detached 2 car garage with an upstairs storage area, and a large attic. All this was filled with tools, the worlds most insane gun collection, and God only knows what else. All things that they never used and a lot of which sat forgotten for years.
Then we have another family member (by marriage) ... Hoarder is an understatement. I'm going to keep it simple to stop myself from going on a major rant. Their house is 4,200 square feet plus a three level detached garage, and you couldn't move in that place if you tried. Literal floor to ceiling stuff. It's insane. I know I'd never be like that, but damn if it isn't a motivator to minimize!
I watched the documentary, "Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things" a few months ago and I was really intrigued by the idea. I knew I'd never be quite as minimalist as the guys on the documentary, but I still liked the idea of having less stuff and consuming less. I didn't do much about it at the time, but the documentary stuck with me.
Once I started listening to Dave Ramsey's podcasts, I decided I really liked listening to podcasts and I needed another one to listen to. I began listening to the Minimalists (the guys from the documentary) a few weeks later. The more I listened, the more I realized that minimalism really does align with my values (something they reference a lot on the podcast) and am really motivated to live a more minimalist lifestyle.
I began de-cluttering a few months ago and it feels great! I can't wait to see where this minimalism journey takes me!
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