Friday, January 10, 2014

living with less creates structure

"Minimalism is not that you should own nothing. But that nothing should own you." -Joshua Becker



Living with less has so many benefits.  Sometimes I forget or take the benefits for granted.  This week I got to see, first hand, how much chaos exists with more stuff.


I went to help a friend organize her home.  She has 4 kids.  I could tell she needed help.  And as she began to explain to me the background of why her home was in such chaos, I was again struck by how much people can benefit from living with less. 


We are fed a lie.  The lie tells us that things make our lives easier.  Walk into Bed Bath and Beyond.  There is a special peeler for an orange, a grapefruit, an apple, an avocado, a melon baller, a strawberry huller, it goes on and on.  Somehow I can manage to eat every one of those foods without a special utensil.  Buy all these utensils and throw them in a drawer and it will take you five minutes just to find the right equipment for the fruit you have chosen to eat.  But each of these tools is marketed to make our lives easier.


My friend has a lot of stuff.  I mean A LOT of stuff.  Do you think it has made her life easier?  Not at all.  Or I wouldn't have been there to help her.  She says she no longer controls the order of her day.  She is living a reactionary life.  Someone is out of clean clothes?  Do some laundry.  Don't have enough clean plates for dinner?  Better wash the dishes.  Time to eat and the table is covered in stuff?  Better clean it off.  She isn't controlling her stuff. Her stuff isn't making life easier or more enjoyable.  Her stuff is now controlling her.


I forgot what it was like to live in that chaos.  Instead, I wake up, shower, get the kids ready, drink a cup of coffee, and get out my control binder.  It has in it my cleaning schedule from the Confident Mom.  Then I look at any appointments coming up in the next week.  I write down anything that I need to do to prepare for them.  I decide how my day will go, not my stuff.  It feels great.  I wish I could give her a better glimpse of that life.  Because she has no hope right now.  She has no idea how to possibly get through the day with happy children and a clean home.  She thinks it is impossible.  I assure you, it is not. But it may require giving up some of their stuff... ok a lot of their stuff.  I hesitate to use the word minimalist because it brings thoughts into people's heads of stark situations.  But this quote from my favorite minimalist sums it up for me.  "Minimalism is not that you should own nothing. But that nothing should own you." -Joshua Becker

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