I have long been attracted by minimalism. It is
one of my life goals to give away what I have and have next to nothing by the
time I die. A nice thought, but in reality I find myself collecting all sorts
of things: gifts, stationary, jewellery, craft supplies. Five children bring
their own wealth of toys, clothing and school supplies. My mum-in-law visits
every year, so keeps some of her stuff here and I still have bags and drawers
of things other in-laws have left here. As time has gone by I have found myself
feeling as if I am being buried under stuff and as if managing and tidying it
takes up all of my time. Continuous attempts to declutter and dozens of bags
dropped off to the charity shop or cargo’ed to family in Pakistan seem to have
limited effect. My mum-in-law also dislikes waste and is adept at reusing and
upcycling items, so I sometimes have to sneak things out to the charity shop
before she spots them.
This week we started building work in our home to
create bedrooms in our loft. Initially this was mostly external and we were
supposed to carry on staying in the bedrooms. My husband decided he wanted to
lower the ceilings of our bedroom and gave us a day to pack up all of the
bedrooms so that the builders could bring down the ceilings the next day. This
was the day before the kids were due to go back to school.
We spent the whole day and a good part of the
night packing everything up. I gave the kids two boxes each, one for two weeks
worth of clothes and the other for all of their school stuff. I kept a box for my work clothing and
one for the rest of my clothing. The babies got a box each too and one for
Baby’s nappies. As we packed one wardrobe or drawer at a time, I took out items
to send Pakistan and some for the charity shop, reducing what was left to what
we genuinely used and wanted.
The eight of us are currently in the two rooms
downstairs. We are sleeping on mattresses and in sleeping bags and I am being very strict about
putting things back in our boxes as soon as we are done with them so that the
kids don’t lose their school things. It might sound horrible, but in truth I
have found it very cathartic and liberating to move most of our stuff into storage and it has
been very freeing to have so much less to manage. I and hubby are both clear
that we will not move it all back in after the work is finished.
Our stuff:
My house with the roof off, you can see the stars and the dust flying around:
It sounds ungrateful to complain about having so
much when so many have so little. That is not my intention. I feel incredibly
blessed and sometimes in awe of the sheer amount that seems to come our way.
Gifts from friends and family, freebies that my husband brings home because of
his job, some of the amazing bargains we have found for next to nothing at boot
fairs in the past, and the more we give away, share and gift, the more seems to
come back. What comes to mind is being careful about what we buy, consume and
hold on to.
I hope I can hold on to the principle of owning
and buying less, giving away the best of what you have and not the junk you
don’t want and not equating worth and value with material possessions.
I would love to hear from readers, are you a minimalist?
How do you remain clutter free with children? Do you find that the modern world
means you are surrounded by unnecessary things?
Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said:
“Will you not listen? Will you not listen? Will you not listen? Verily
simplicity is a part of Iman. Verily simplicity is a part of Iman. Verily
simplicity is a part of Iman” (Abu Dawood).
