I Got Rid of Everything I Own! Minimalism Before and After

[Music] the less you own the less that owns you [Music] so I got rid of 95 maybe 98 of everything I own and it's a little odd feeling I grew up in the 70s and 80s in a middle class large family and being the youngest of six kids pretty much everything I owned was second hand from my older siblings so my Wranglers came from my big brothers and my ruffled collared shirts all came from my big sisters when I was given a Christmas gift or birthday gift it meant so much to me I really valued each possession I owned even my peaches and cream Barbie I barely touched I would gently take her out of her bag and brush her hair and straighten her dress and then just display her nicely for a little while on my shelf before I put her back into her box [Music] and I was like this with everything I would just treat all my possessions with the utmost care even my Huffy bike I would spray down and give it a wash every weekend to make sure that all of the mud was off of it in my 20s as my family began to grow we had very little money and so most of the things that I would give my children were handmade handmade toys and even handmade Christmas ornaments that I did with my son when he was a baby which we still use on our Christmas tree so even these few items meant so much to me and I would really take good care of every possession I owned because it all meant something to me I kept all of my children's baby clothes their favorite baby toys books and every single card they made me I would make sure that I kept them in perfect condition and a nice little keepsake box during my 20s and 30s I would cherish every possession I had almost like it had a magical special meaning to it and so if anything got broken or lost or damaged I kind of felt like there was a magical part of that possession that now was lost and I'd never get it back so I never got rid of anything [Music] until 2008. the recession hit our little family of five very hard and we had to sell a lot of things just to survive we had to short sell our house we sold our cars and we had a downsize from a big house to a smaller house to an apartment and every time we needed to downsize more things had to get sold [Music] I was heartbroken I had so much of my identity wrapped up in these material objects that getting rid of them was the equivalent of losing a limb uh it was really hard and now looking back it's shocking to me how emotionally attached I was to these objects [Music] even though we had given up a lot of our possessions I still kept a hold of my very most cherished possessions my children's baby clothes and their Keepsake my peaches and cream Barbie my baby blanket my great great grandmother's antique glass jars thank you and the Christmas decorations that I made that first Christmas with my first born son foreign but with this initial Purge of my attachment to my possessions what it actually did was start my minimalist Journey [Music] the first step of crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don't [Music] 15 years my family gave up not only a lot of our possessions but we also gave up that status quo of what a normal life looked like my son after graduating high school backpacked through Central America and my 15 year old daughter left home to study ballet so my husband and I threw caution to the wind and we bought an RV and traveled around the United States with our youngest daughter but we still had a storage unit that was filled with our most precious cherished possessions and also so that we would have something to fill a new home with when we landed again after RV living for 18 months we found a home and settled and sent for the pod storage unit it arrived we unloaded it we set up shop in our new home for six months and then the travel bug struck once again so everything went back to storage and we traveled with our youngest abroad with only a suitcase in hand [Music] oh thank goodness we kept all of our stuff because we were back from traveling abroad in just a couple of years and of course we needed all of our stuff to fill our home [Music] time and time again we have purchased packed moved stored and unpacked all of our most cherished possessions and the Comforts of home [Music] but this time is different we boxed and moved and donated and sold 95 to 98 of everything we own thank you with all of the times we have downsized and moved I thought getting rid of things will be easy I was wrong as I wrapped my daughter's baby blanket around my great grandmother's antique glass jars shipping them to Germany I thought I'll never be able to scoop out a cup of flour to bake something delicious again I brushed my peaches and cream Barbie's hair one last time as I shipped her off to the highest bitter haribe and I held my baby blanket one more time before I put it into the donation back even though I've been a minimalist for over 14 years it's amazing how much I still own and how emotionally attached I have been to my possessions [Music] we sold furniture and paintings that I had owned for the last 30 years our house was a steady parade of people walking out with our things that we had sold them we made countless trips to the second-hand thrift store with boxes and bags furniture so many things that we were just donating [Music] one by one each room was empty every cupboard and closet was Bare [Music] it's an odd feeling giving up everything I own I'm really surprised with how attached I was just so many things I mean I broke down and started crying several times when I was trying to decide which pictures to keep and which ones to scan in [Music] foreign there's also something very liberating about not being Tethered to any material object not having to repair clean pack or move any more objects is very freeing [Music] also I'm a little vulnerable without any of my things to hide behind I feel like my identity has been Stripped Away and the only thing left is just my authentic self [Music] so as I sit in this very empty house I'm overwhelmed with nostalgia there's something in me that wants to cling onto and hold on to the Past [Music] but at the same time I'm filled with excitement to Turn the Page of this last chapter so that I can begin to write the new chapter in my life [Music] so what is this new chapter you ask well I will tell you on the next video thank you so much for watching today I really do appreciate all of your support [Music] a beautiful day my friends [Music]

Channel: Connie Riet

Views: 436,108

Keywords: minimalism, minimalist, minimalist living, extreme minimalism, extreme decluttering, decluttering results, minimalist family, simple living, minimalism changed my life, minimalist lifestyle, declutter, minimalist life, minimalist journey, extreme decluttering minimalism, live minimally, minimalism decluttering, i sold everything, declutter before and after, got rid of everything, i own nothing, connie riet, letting go of my stuff, minimalism before and after, own nothing

Id: t3me_Kr4y2s

Length: 13min 27sec (807 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 23 2023