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Living Less Through Organizing

arrowsandbow9 • Nov 02, 2020

Living With Less Through Organizing

As you know, we have had our share of unique living spaces and there is nothing more life changing than purging said life to move into 180 square feet. We wanted that change and we have never looked back.

I get a lot of questions about how we stay organized, how we live simply and with less - how we could have possibly lived in that space with all the ‘stuff’ we need for a family of 5. But truly, we don’t need a lot of stuff. We hold onto memories over ‘stuff’. We have vowed to live by experiences over material things - that brings us joy.

I came across pictures of our kitchen now, our kitchen in our previous house and our kitchen in our trailer. And I love each of them - each of the images showed me different points in our lives, and each of them brought me the same contentment as the next. I have managed to keep them all minimal regardless of square footage. This was such an eye opener of finding joy no matter your square footage. You can do it!

We spent the past weekend cleaning up and organizing - our garage was starting to be a drop all for tools and stuff like that. And that drives me bonkers...so it was a day of purge and polish! Soooo therapeutic.

I started wanting to do the rest of the house and I was walking around, walking into rooms and looking in closets, I noticed there wasn’t much to rid our home of… the linen closet? Nothing to clean, we use everything and need everything.
And we purposefully designed the kids bathroom with no storage - our towels and needs are on open shelving, in constant rotation because we use it all!
Same thing for other areas of the home. We don’t have uppers in the kitchen, we have dishes and needs and things that are functional and that we see everyday and we use everyday. We have drawers below for the storage or for the bulkier things to bake and cook - but that’s it.
I kept walking around and looking for things to organize and I couldn’t. We have officially accomplished what we wanted to - we didn’t fill our house just to ‘fill it’. We have everything we need. We are living simplistic and living with joy.
We did it!

I did clean out our junk drawer - and purged a few old utensils and clothes - and it felt GOOD. Even that little bit, sparked that old emotion in me and got me going!
So, how do you get to this? If you are feeling overwhelmed with the ‘stuff’ in your house, and you are living with just stuff - it may be time to evaluate what you want out of your material items. Do you have stuff just to have stuff?
Start small - I started with the junk drawer and once I get going it’s like a rush and I can’t stop - nor do I want to. I crank the tunes and purge, and you’ll figure out pretty quickly what brings you joy and what doesn’t. And those things are the things that are just ‘stuff’.
I am continually asking myself ‘Do I love this, do I use this?’ If not, it’s gone. I try to not hold on to things for sentimentality. I try to remember these things with a memory, instead of a thing and then let it go. And think if someone else can use it more than you...that will get you excited to donate!
Kids are a little harder - they are a little more mentally attached to things. When we moved into the trailer, I asked them each to keep the toys they loved that could fit into a box. We still do that to this day and we make it fun, like a game. Have them fill up a bag and for each bag they donate, they get $5! Things get realllll exciting there!
Remember that everyone is different and your needs are different than others, but breaking down what brings you happiness is for everyone and that is important!
I hope to encourage you in all of this - it’s a process. For us, removing excess stuff helped us to see our family, our marriage more clearly and live intently in our home.
We believe your home is about the humans inside not the stuff. xo