Photo by Isaac Benhesed on Unsplash
Live simply, have things in your life that serve your needs, purge and donate the rest.
For the longest time, I dreamed of being a minimalist. Someone that would only have a few things, and discarding the rest. Walking into a living room that had a couch, a table, a tv and not much else seemed to be perfect.
The environment I was in was not conducive for my desire of minimalism.
Minimalists often are described as someone that has one set of dishes, very few clothes, basics. In the smaller condo landscape of Toronto, this style of living is in alignment with the affordability of housing in this ever-growing city.
A few years ago I read Essentialism by Greg McKeown, which altered my perspective on things, and experiences.
Where minimalism has you having limited items, essentialism is to have the items that are essential to your desired living.
I used to have a huge DVD and CD collection. Also had a bunch of comic books, baseball and hockey cards, memorabilia, etc.
Most of those items have been sold and/or donated. My music is streamed, and when I do watch movies or TV I use streaming services or OTA (no cable!)
My books are mostly ebook flavor, although I tend to receive a couple dozen books every year to read/review by the author and/or publisher. Great gig!
Now my life consists of things that are essential to me, to accomplish what I want and choose to do in life.
I don’t need to rent a storage locker. I don’t have a basement full of things that I haven’t touched in months/years. People fail to realize they are spending money to store things they don’t use. You’re paying utilities on a larger property to have rooms that don’t get used, to store things that may have been of use to you before, but no longer are.
Much like the exercise of purging activities from your life every 6 months, you should periodically go through your belongings and see what you’re no longer using. Someone else could use those things, so donate them.
When you have the things in your life that are essential to what you want to do, you can help reduce your burnout, because you’re not suffering with the clutter or financial challenges of storing all of those things.
If you need help figuring out what is essential to you, reach out to me. Happy to have a chat!
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