Hoarder to MINIMALIST| How We Got Rid of All Our Stuff!!

well we all have a Tipping Point but a lot of us don't know where that Tipping Point actually is until we've reached it my Tipping Point came several years back when I had just had a baby my third child and I was exhausted so tired of feeling like I was on this hamster wheel of cleaning and never really getting caught up Not only was cleaning my house and trying to manage all my possessions taking all of my energy it was taking time away from my family and I just I looked around at everything I can remember this clearly I looked around at all my stuff I was so tired and I thought man I wish this could all just go away I wish all of this I could wake up and it would all just be gone basically the house would have cleaned itself and I wouldn't have to do all this work and I suddenly thought oh my gosh who is stopping me from making that a reality who is telling me that I can't just get rid of all of this and I can in fact wake up one day and have all of this be gone and I realized nobody no one was telling me this I had fallen under pressures into thinking that you know getting rid of stuff was wasteful at least this is what I thought and I would be ungrateful by decluttering things what if I need it someday isn't this just so irresponsible but when I realized that there was absolutely nothing and no one holding me back keeping me from actually being in charge of my own stuff and I'm I don't have to be kind of bossed around by my stuff but that I was in fact in charge of all of my things now bear in mind I am someone who is incredibly overwhelmed by decluttering projects I had kind of become a stuffer as my husband called it so I would be able to keep the main living areas generally picked up throughout the day mind you with a lot of effort but I would stuff things like a little kid stuffs their closet it full of things when Mom says clean your room I did this all around my house nothing was organized I had way too much in every single space and every single category of my home and here's an example of my pantry as you can see we have food mixed in with holiday decor with birthday stuff there was just no Rhyme or Reason Not only was there no organization but things were overflowing they were absolutely to the brim and beyond my closet is another example nothing makes any sense in here it is just completely over filled with stuff so you have to realize that I was like the least likely candidate to actually volunteer to take on a huge project a huge decluttering project like my entire home which hopefully is encouraging to you meaning if I can do it literally anyone can and I just decided that I would start in areas where I I knew there was a lot of extra I had tried attempted this is actually after I had attempted to organize my pantry the step that I was missing was decluttering and then I tried to organize using bins that didn't actually work and then I never found a good solution and I never labeled anything so because of that I had made this attempt and failed so I had felt like there's just no point I can't do it like I can't declutter I can't organize I can't keep it under control I really wanted to get the pantry I I knew I was in there multiple times a day and if I could get the pantry under control it would instantly change my life and I knew if I could get that overwhelming project that I already failed at completed and I could actually succeed I could do anything the only methods and strategies I'd ever heard of in my life were by Marie kondo I had also read a book that had encouraged me to break things down and make a list so I I had some direction there but Marie kondo's style is to pile everything up so that's what I did I piled everything up which was not good that's what's not good for me because of my anxiety I've since learned that taking off bite-sized chunks actually can be very effective if you continue to go back to these areas and revisit them so consistency is the key it doesn't matter if you go Marie condo style this might work great for you and you pull everything out it's kind of meant to overwhelm you I feel like the Marie condo method where you're meant to go whoa I have way more than I thought I did if you're already prone to anxiety though this is not effective as effective as it's meant to be because it just triggers that anxiety so I did this I triggered my anxiety left right and center but I did not give up so the lesson that I learned is that no matter how you're feeling emotionally even if it's feeling really overwhelming or really difficult if you stick with it you'll get it done whether you're motivated or not whether you're overwhelmed or not not if you're committed you can actually make a difference whether you pile things up in huge heaps like Marie kondo or bite things off slowly but consistently you can make progress all right like I said one of my big worries was getting rid of things that I would actually want later I was really really nervous that I would declutter things and then be super regretful I decided that it was worth it to me to get the most volume out of my house and potentially have to borrow Thrift or re-buy a couple of items that I accidentally decluttered or ended up needing now I didn't really have keep boxes a lot of people recommend having keep boxes and I think when you're at the very beginning stages if this is what is keeping you from decluttering I am just so worried I'm gonna get rid of something that I'm gonna need and I'm gonna regret it and it's gonna cause me more hassle if I get rid of it you absolutely should have a keep box have a couple just set these boundaries and know how much you're allowed to have this is what Joshua Becker calls leveraging he says in the beginning he really leveraged with himself he didn't so much worry about getting the most volume out but he worried about making sure that he had just in case boxes in the beginning when he wasn't sure this really helped him keep going this didn't work really well for me I wanted this stuff out I was on a literal Rampage I was in full-blown beast mode I was willing to take all kinds of risks in getting rid of stuff that I might potentially need later because I was so desperate just to have this stuff out of my house so depending on where you're coming from you might approach this differently so what did I do with my stuff I did a combination of hauling things away to the dump we made more than a dozen carload trips to the actual landfill stuff that was absolute garbage that could not be saved Salvage repurposed and it was lit to roll garbage so we had multiple car loads go to the dump and then I just maybe three or four times a week would take carloads to the Goodwill now I love the idea of putting stuff up on Facebook Marketplace as long as you are careful and you don't let this hold you back I didn't sell hardly anything I sold a couple pieces of furniture that I could get around 75 dollars for that felt worth it to me but as far as everything else in my house I literally just took it to the Goodwill I wanted to get off this hamster wheel so bad that I was just gonna take it away and do whatever would get me there at the fastest plus I hated decluttering and I hated that overwhelming feeling and I wanted to get it over with rip off the Band-Aid and have it be done so I took things to the donation center um a few things I left out on my front porch and just said hey giving this away for free or does anybody want this especially bigger items that I didn't want to hassle take talking to the Goodwill I gave away a toddler bed I gave away an art easel gave away a couple smaller pieces of furniture that I just didn't want to muscle in to the back of my car and people took them it was not a problem but I really really wanted to get stuff out so there are many many ways that you can recycle repurposed I actually made a whole video on this but if you are like me and you're in the beginning and you just want stuff out and this might be the best way to go so I had gone through my house layer by layer after about four months of absolute beast mode I was burned out I was completely worn out by having to make all these decisions one the actual physical labor was really intense I was really really tired and I had to take several months off so I decluttered like I said for about four months and then probably took three months and just recovered from what I had just done I was already reaping enormous benefits I had massively curbed my shopping habits and so I wasn't bringing new stuff into my home and so that was really helpful I was actually able to just enjoy a more stress-free not as hard to clean not as hard to manage home even with taking a huge break and not having my entire house decluttered looking back in hindsight I should have rested a little more I should have just cooled the Jets just slightly because man that exhaustion was legitimate the main thing though is that I picked back up I didn't stop there I didn't give up there and I think that was the lesson that no matter what you feel no matter how tired you are sure take a break but don't take a break forever just take a break for a minute and kind of recoup get some energy back revamp on your motivation and so that's what I did took some time off and then I got to work again and I started off again with that list that I had made at the beginning and I had checked things off so I knew exactly where I was in my home I knew exactly what I hadn't gotten to yet and I just started where I left off and I finished that whole thing um in a little under a year that whole thing of being my entire house it completely transformed the way I value my own time the way that I see possessions and I will never go back so what was left I I'm actually kind of surprised to think back on this and remember like what was I surprised after about a year that I came across that I was like wow I could have sworn I got rid of this or I got rid of this more of this category what surprised me was home decor I was really shocked at how much home decor I had actually kept in fact I went through a bin recently it was literally a massive box I'm almost four years into this or maybe I am maybe a little more than four years it's been a while and I came across this massive box full of Home Decor I hadn't used it it was just sitting in my basement I was so incredibly surprised at how much home decor I had left just sitting down in my basement so the thing that helped me the absolute most was making a list knowing what areas that I was going to attack so basically organizing having a strategy a plan of attack was the thing that helped me the most or made this the absolute easiest the thing that was the hardest was keeping that momentum going and feeling very overwhelmed and exhausted by these projects but not giving up that was a hurdle that was a really really hard hurdle to get across and then curbing my shopping habits was that was a little bit tricky because I had a real shopping habit maybe a shopping addiction I don't know but that was actually quite difficult for me to leave things in the store it's a lot easier now because I built those muscles and I have had lots of practice but in the beginning that was a little bit more difficult so what surprised me during this whole process says that I was not expecting at all was that by getting rid of a large volume of stuff we got rid of about 85 of our stuff it was a lot that we got rid of the majority of our possessions what surprised me is that I actually eliminated the need for a lot of organization by doing this and I wasn't expecting that I thought okay step one declutter step two I'm gonna go through I'm gonna spend as much time organizing my home well organizing actually became really really easy and a lot of areas that I thought I was going to need to organize I actually didn't because I had so few possessions that it really eliminated the need for a lot of organizing or a bunch of organization bins that was really a happy happy surprise the other thing that I wasn't expecting was my kids my kids to be so on board with this my kids to be so much less bored with less stuff and for them to be just generally happy overall happier overall there was some battle in the beginning as especially but I think my kids also started seeing the benefits and they were feeling lighter they spent less time cleaning their room during the week and on a Saturday and they were able to resurface toys that they had totally forgotten about and that was really really fun for them that I was not expecting that the other thing that really ended up surprising me was that I just didn't miss my stuff remember that was one of my big fears is that I was gonna be left in the Lurch that I was gonna be regretting and remorseful that I had gotten rid of these useful items why did I get rid of all five of my crock pots you know I was worried but I actually did not miss anything at all like nothing I was absolutely so pleasantly surprised it just made me realize that you can let things go it's okay even if you end up maybe needing something that it's gonna be there there's Amazon there's neighbors there's free stuff on Facebook there's Facebook Marketplace it it's like endless the options for getting back the things that you might need but I never found myself in that situation in that bind in that pinch where I was really regretful and that's not to say that if you go through this process you won't regret getting rid of anything you might actually have those moments in fact I think a couple of years ago I did regret getting rid of a couple things and I felt kind of bad I was sad for a day or two and then I moved on so even if you do find yourself darn I wish I hadn't gotten rid of that you actually will be pretty resourceful most likely and find a way to work with something else you have or find a way to borrow it so your resourcefulness kicks in here are the things that I was absolutely counting on saving money a hundred percent yes that happened because I curbed my shopping habits wasn't easy but I did it and so yes I saved money too spending less time cleaning a hundred percent yes that is what I was counting on and that is exactly what happened I was able to cut my cleaning routine for from two hours a day to about 30 minutes a day which was life-changing for me absolutely amazing because I love having a clean house but I don't necessarily love cleaning so that's exactly what I was counting on and that absolutely happened I was hoping it would help me with my anxiety since minimizing since getting rid of a large volume and trying to maintain a simplified home my anxiety level has gone down so significantly when I feel that my anxiety level is rising I know I'm getting closer to my clutter threshold and I've got too much in my house I need to declutter some stuff I just kind of know that about myself at this point that when I feel that anxiety it is likely linked to the amount of stuff that's in my space everybody's clutter threshold is different but my anxiety lets me know when I'm getting really close or I'm starting to reach that clutter threshold and it's time to declutter again if you are feeling inspired to get some stuff out of your house to minimize or declutter here is a video on the screen to help you do just that see you over there

Channel: Simply This Life

Views: 146,645

Keywords: minimalist, minimalism, decluttering, how to become a minimalist, how to declutter, how to minimize, minimalist home, minimalist lifestyle, minimalist living, family minimalism, minimalist mom, hoarder to minimalist

Id: RXCkU06qRY4

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 27 2023