Simple Living Vs. Minimalism

If you would have told me five years ago that I would someday consider myself a minimalist in any form, I would have laughed in your face. Minimalism always seemed too extreme to me, but in January of 2021, I found myself slowly being drawn towards the minimalist lifestyle. We had spent multiple months at home with no place to go the previous Spring during the beginnings of COVID-19, then we started homeschooling in August of 2020, and then we found out we were expecting baby #4 in October of the same year. The combination of these three things caused me to slowly realize that we had way too much stuff. Looking back I can see clearly how the Lord was preparing me for the multiple moves that were to come over the next three years (including the eighteen-hour to and from Montana).

Maybe you’ve come to the same place in your own life– one day we look around and realize that maybe it's not us that’s the problem, maybe we aren’t just lazy or a poor home manager like we so often tell ourselves. Maybe the problem is the stuff in our home, or more specifically, the amount of stuff in our home. Minimalism is appealing to many of us because of its simplicity. In fact, we see the draw of simplicity in many of our culture’s “trends” today, like homesteading and those who are choosing to limit technology in their lives. We have certainly seen the effects of “too much”-- we are tired and broke, and we are passing on that same legacy to our kids, all because of too much. So how can minimalism play out in our own lives? Do we throw ourselves full throttle into the minimalism movement or do we keep treading water, while our stuff threatens to pull us under? Or is there perhaps a middle ground?

I like to think of minimalism as inspiration for my home. This means that when I consider how much of something to have in my home, I lean towards the side of less. Most decluttering experts will tell you that in order for your home to function well, you have to get rid of more than you think you do. I found it helpful early on in my decluttering journey to use minimalism “rules” to challenge me to go deeper than I would have on my own. For example, I limited us to a certain number of dishes and silverware in the kitchen in an effort to reduce our inventory and simplify my kitchen. Now, a couple years later we have a little more in some areas of our kitchen than what minimalists recommend, but I’m comfortable with it because I know now what I can manage. Sometimes it's helpful to go “too far” with decluttering something and add back in what you need to find your family’s sweet spot. If the frugal side of you just cringed at that sentence, then don’t get rid of the excess. You can always box it up and store it out of sight for a few months until you are ready to make a final decision. But you won’t know how little your family really needs until you try it. 

When we give ourselves a minimalist base in our home, then we have the freedom to add in more where it really matters for our family. Like I talked about on my substack yesterday, books are an area of “more” in our home. Because we are passionate about reading, books get some of the most valuable “real estate” in our home. But this also means that other areas are simplified to allow space for them. I would much rather get rid of extra clothes if it means I have space for my books; you may be the opposite, and that’s totally okay! Just know that you can’t keep everything and still have your home function well.

I’ve found that my home and family function best when we stop trying to live in the “extremes,” and instead embrace our God-given limits, because contrary to what our culture tries to tell us, we do still have those. This is why we don’t follow a detailed diet, why my kids don’t do school from 8-3 everyday, and why we try to keep white space on our calendar. It’s also both why I don’t want to get rid of everything, and why I don’t want to live in a cluttered, messy space. Every family is going to have a different “just right” level with these things, because our families all have different dynamics, sizes, and life situations. Don’t try to base how your home operates off of what someone else does. Look to others for inspiration not imitation.

If you walked into my house today, you certainly wouldn’t see a minimalist home. With only a week and a half to go until we move and because of the middle-of-the-day, I’m-homeschooling-four-kids mess, it doesn’t look very simple at the moment. But it feels extremely simple to me because I’m not trying to pack way too many things, meanwhile wondering how we will possibly fit it all into the smaller house we are moving to. I’m not managing overflowing closets on top of the stacks of boxes already invading my living room. I’ve done moves both ways, and I would take the simplified space over any “advantages” of having more any day. If your home sometimes feels like it's suffocating you, if you know you are trying to manage too much, then it's time to start letting go of things. You don’t have to be a minimalist, but you may find yourself drifting towards the minimalism side before you’re finished. Happy decluttering!