I’ve been on a big Purge the Excess kick for a while. What started as a weekend project to rid my pokey kitchen of clutter has become an exciting approach to a new lifestyle. A lifestyle that breathes easy, breeds simplicity, and involves a very gradual process of ridding our lives of distraction and noise.
For a few years, I’ve held the idea that I want the possessions we have to be few, but quality. I want to be satisfied with what we have and I want the stuff we have to last. There are a few reasons I’ve pursued less-is-more living and the first is hardly philosophical:
1) We have a little house. It’s not too small, but with just over 1200 square feet, our family of four little kids (and their toys), a husband, and a wife just barely fits. With no present plans to relocate, it seems that we’re here to stay and if that’s going to happen, then by golly, we’re going to be comfortable in our living space. And comfortable translates to clutter-free, or maybe just less clutter. Living in a little-ish house makes us prioritize and evaluate. Do we really need this? Do the kids play with this?* Do I need 6 pairs of flip flops? Granted, not everything we own is purely essential, but with a growing focus on necessity, it’s becoming easier to detach from what fails to qualify in order to preserve the quality of living in our home. I’d like to add, too, that husbands see what wives reveal: along the same vein of being a good steward of the income Andrew brings home, ensuring that our family fits into the home he provides conveys that his work is sufficient and good for us.
2) Less Stress; More Order. I visited my sister several months ago and sitting in her living room, I felt so relaxed. So chill. I looked around and there wasn’t a single toy or magazine laying around. Not a trace of disorder. Aside from a tall bookcase and furniture, her family of 10 doesn’t have anything stored in the living room. It was refreshing compared to our toy-lined walls at home and stacks of unread Southern Livings. Clutter stresses me out. It gets out of hand and out of place too easily and too quickly. When it comes to any room, less clutter and more space is visually appealing; it makes me want to be in that room to enjoy it. PLUS, less stuff = less clean up and I’m all about that.
3) More FUN. I don’t know about anyone else’s kids, but mine are rarely entertained with a living room floor covered in Hot Wheels and board books; they love both, but a room that’s messy with them just yields ennui and frustration with each other. Clean it all up, open up the space, and they’re set free. Very telling, I think. They run around looking for Andrew because as any toddler boy knows, a wide open floor means you can wrestle with Daddy. Wrestling, running around to music pretending to be firemen, and good ol’ fashioned brotherly love become the order of the day and we all relish in it. Less stuff = fewer fights over toys and more imaginative, interactive play. And that’s just the boys! With less stuff around, Andrew and I have real conversation and delight in each other’s company without extra distraction. Family life should be about being together in a home, not just individuals in a house.
4) Detachment from the material in pursuit of the spiritual. This is the crux of the matter – my most important reason to declutter and purge. Letting go of STUFF makes me realize and rerealize what any of this is for. Life, that is. What’s the point? As a Catholic I know the point of life is to know, love, and serve God (hats off to you, Baltimore Catechism); to hope for beholding God’s Face and try to participate in that heavenly life as much as I can now on earth. In short, “you can’t take it with you,” so why attach myself to something so temporary as a toss pillow or picture frame?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that I’ve achieved 100% material detachment here. Not a chance! I still like STUFF, maybe a little too much. Around this time of year (anticipating Christmas and then my birthday 2 weeks after), if I spot something I like, I pounce on it and borderline-obsess over it, only to be embarrassed when I have the thing in-hand. The minimalist in me is forever at war with my inner shopper. Even setting new possessions aside, many things I own have sentimental value; but I’m learning that the value isn’t in the thing itself, but the memory it represents. Getting rid of the thing doesn’t trash the memory or the person to whom the token is attached. There is so much that I keep for the sake of remembering and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it may not lend itself toward staying within our space and doing so happily.
What we’re working toward is going to take time and patience; purging our lives of excess won’t be an overnight process, but I’m hopeful the results will be a peaceful family with gaze fixed on Christ.
*FOR MORE INSPIRATION on simplifying life and cutting back on stuff, check out Ruth Soukup’s “Why I Took My Kids’ Toys Away (and why they won’t get them back)” and Joshua Becker’s “Benefits of Minimalism.”
___________________________________
featured image by bondidwhat
