A Perspective Of No More, No Less

Many people would already consider my home to be minimalists. Books like The Cozy Minimalist from @thenester speak my love language. But the truth is, we aren’t minimalists by true definition. Instead, we are good at organizing and hiding our stuff. Like many people, we have closets and drawers filled with more things than we need.

Our mostly unfinished basement has been an easy dumping ground for all the items we don’t want to deal with at the moment. But we have come face to face with the need to address our excess stuff. We’ve decided, it’s time to tackle the job of turning some of our basement into actual living space. And as we looked at all our stuff in the basement, we began to discuss other areas in our home. We could organize and store things, but instead, we want to look at our possession from a new perspective.

Before we can change a perspective, it’s important to understand our current perspective. It’s good to ask ourselves why we hold onto stuff? Google that question, and you’ll find more articles than you have time to read. Here are three of the most commonly noted reasons:

We hold onto items because they have sentimental value.
Our identity is attached to having things. We bought into the idea that more possessions equate to a higher social status.
We lack self-worth and fill the negative emotional spaces with the accumulation of items.

While I’ve never considered myself an accumulator of things for the sake of having something, without being intentional in our purchasing habits, stuff quickly creeps in.

As we’ve reflected on what we’ve learned this past year, we’ve found a renewed desire to be intentional about how and where we spend money. We’re working on changing our perspective about what we keep and what we bring into our home.

Sentimental items can be the hardest. It isn’t easy to part with anything that holds memories. As we approach these items, we ask ourselves, is this something our children will want to inherit? If it’s not something to pass onto our kids, it’s not something to keep. We don’t want to burden our children with mass amounts of stuff they have to feel bad about not wanting.

It’s easy to allow the influence of advertisement and cultural expectations to define what we think we need. The truth is what we think we need and the items we use can look very different. So as we go through things, we are looking at how each item provides a function in our home. There may be exceptions for seasonal items you want to keep, but for most things, if you aren’t using them regularly, do you need to keep them?

The things we have do not define us, nor do they make us happy. What if we changed our perspective about shopping? Not looking at shopping as a way to make ourselves happy, but a way to help others. During this pandemic life, my eyes have been open to how my purchases can have an impact. There are so many great opportunities to purchase the things you need or want while also making a difference. The two easiest ways are buying local as much as possible and purchasing from fair trade and environmentally friendly organizations.

In this new year, as we continue to spend most of our time at home, let’s take some time to reflect on our house and the story it tells.
What story are the contents of our house telling about our lives?

How might a different perspective change what we keep and what we bring into our home?

What would it look like to have a perspective about stuff as having no more than we need and no less than we need?

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
The Apostle Matthew