Time is a scarce commodity and a luxury in today’s modern society. It feels like the clock is ticking faster and faster with each passing year and it feels like 24 hours are not enough to do everything we want and need to do.
In some countries, like where I come from, women work full time, which is equivalent to 8 hours a day. Including transportation to and from work and lunchtime, we are often away from home for almost 11 hours. 8 hours of sleep is recommended, so if you can do the math, you can clearly see that there are only 5 hours left for anything else. During these 5 hours, a woman (sometimes even men) should have time to shop for food, clean, cook, wash dishes, do laundry and take care of the children. I think everyone can see that this equation is difficult to put together. When will I have time for myself, you may be sitting there thinking. And the fact is, you don’t. If you want more time, you need to cut back on something else, and that’s where minimalism came in for me.
I was single for a while with a child, working part-time and studying full-time. I had a home full of stuff and I was completely exhausted. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t handle it, the feeling of always pleasing others and never having time to just sit down and breathe. I started to reflect on what I wanted with my life. How I wanted it in life and I came to a very big realization. I spent a lot of time cleaning and tidying up my home but I hated cleaning. I hated having to say no when someone asked if we could meet, I hated feeling suffocated in my own home, I hated all the time I spent on something that I then had to do again the next day. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to spend that much more time cleaning so I started decluttering.
The more I got rid of, the more relieved I felt and the more time I had for other things, but it took a long time before I realized that minimalism suited me.
At the beginning of my declutter journey, I kept buying new things, which didn’t help at all. All that happened was that the cycle started again.
I knew about minimalism long before I became one myself and at that time I never thought it would fit into my lifestyle. What I saw were people traveling around the world with all their belongings in a backpack. What freedom, but it wasn’t for me. Eventually I discovered that you could shape minimalism to fit your own lifestyle, I mean who else knows what I need in my life than me. So today I call it family minimalism.
We have exactly what we need, love and use. Of course there is always something to declutter but that’s just life. We cannot avoid introducing new things to declutter because we live and therefore need a certain amount of consumption both in things and above all in food (cartons and plastic always accompany food when you shop).
What has minimalism done for me?
Yes, mainly it has made me reduce the number of cleaning hours, which was my goal. And I think that is exactly what is important if you are going to make a lifestyle change, to actually have a goal with why you should do it. And of course motivation too. Without motivation it will be difficult to change anything.
So if you are sitting there now and thinking that you also want to have time for other things, I advise you to first sit down and reflect on what you want with that time. It must be something individual for you, such as more time at the gym, more time with the children, being able to travel without feeling anxious about leaving everything at home or something else that you long for and strive for.
Once you have set a goal, you need to break it down into sub-goals. How are you going to achieve your goal? That question can only be answered by yourself, but a big part of becoming a minimalist is to first start decluttering your things. If you want inspiration for that, I have many blog posts on the subject on my blog, which you can find at www.marysdeclutterlife.com
If it feels tempting to have time for other things, I hope you try becoming a minimalist. You won’t regret it. I feel so much better and feel so much freer when the burden that all the things gave me disappeared. I feel more motivated than ever to make my dreams come true, such as running this blog.
Good luck with more time.
Just leave a message if you have any questions.
I believe in you, now you just have to believe in yourself.
Best regards