Minimizing 'stuff'

It's funny. I've been thinking a lot lately about minimalism (I'll probably write/elaborate on that separately later). Then I read this article. Ok, let me make some things clear right at the start. I love to cook and don't think that eating out everyday is my cup of tea. I also love to entertain and have people over. Anyhoo, aside from all that, it still made me wonder.....how much stuff do I own?!

The smallest space A and I have lived in was a 640 sqft 1 bedroom condo, our first home. When we were looking to buy our first place, we knew we wanted to live in the city. The idea of a cozy condo close to downtown was very appealing (still is). We looked at numerous condos and none of those said 'home' like this one. Something about the condo itself and the location was just perfect. The moment we walked in we knew we wanted to live there. And so we got it! However, the first few months after moving there was something of a challenge, space management wise. In retrospect, it was the best thing that we did to ourselves. It taught us to keep our possessions to a minimum. We started going through several rounds of selling unwanted items, giving things away to Goodwill, throwing random junk, realizing along the way how much we own that is wasteful. We finally reached a point where everything we had pretty much fit inside our little closets and creative storage solutions. However, entertaining was a little tough...especially long staying visitors like our parents.

After about two and a half years in that little home, we moved just five blocks away, still in the city and close to downtown, to our 2nd place - a two bedroom condo of about 1016 sqft. We still live here and love it. Generally speaking, both of us gravitate towards living spaces that are just enough and a little more. The lack of a guest bedroom in the first condo was slowly turning out to be an issue. So we finally upgraded. While this place had tons of storage space of its own, I found after we moved and unpacked in this condo that nearly two of the closets were pretty much empty! I was exhilarated! But we've since accumulated some stuff.

So it's time to declutter once again. I've always liked the idea of living as minimally as possible. Luckily for me, A thinks similarly too. Of course, it's not possible for us to give up everything and go live in a cave...that's not what I mean. But the idea of consuming as little as possible, materialistically speaking, given your life's interests and style is very appealing. It's definitely a constant struggle but feels like a worthwhile one to pursue. Also, the second part of this equation is wanting less materialistic stuff and therefore buying less. Luckily, we're already pretty good about that.

Therefore, as part of my home organization project (that I mentioned in my earlier post), I will be decluttering our possessions once again. I can say with absolute certainty that I will be able to free up AT LEAST the guest bedroom closet completely once again. So may the decluttering begin!