Before we moved to our new place, I made an idle comment to my wife that, despite being minimalist, we might have more stuff than we thought as we moved.
Afterall, 9 years together in one place would lead to a few extras that we would have hidden away here and there, right?
Well, in the chaos of moving into the new place, it turns out I was wrong.
There was a lot more shit than we thought.
During the first week of living in the house, trying to find things could take ten minutes.
Before, in our ground floor, tiny house, it never took more than a few moments to find something. A large number of things crammed into every nook and cranny of our tiny house. There was not a single space that was not used to store something.
Uplifting everything and moving in else where opened a Pandora’s box for us – that we had actively hidden much of our clutter.
I am not suggesting we were hoarders. We have always been deeply intentional with our stuff. But we underestimated how the world can creep up on you.
And then, once we moved, the lid was removed and the truth revealed.
Things have settled now, a month on from moving in. But initially, this was a stressful experience, with no clue as to where basic things could be found.
There was indeed a lot more shit than we thought.
We have worked through our possessions, finding designated spots for everything, employing the Japanese approach of Seiton (or trying to.) This involves putting items back directly after use. Something we effectively did before in our smaller space.
And then, in this considerably bigger space, we found that there was actually…
Well, a lot of shit.
Numerous trips to charity shops, or dumping items outright has caused us to realise that there was much that we were not using, and much that remained weighing us down.
Life is all about learning, and growing each day. Minimalism allows us to do this. And we found that there were a lot of things we no longer needed in the new home. Things that might have worked in the old one.
Our minimalism is a work in progress. Afterall, practice of these things make progression, not perfection.
And now, there is not as much shit. Still a bit to work through. But not as much.