My Personal Belongings

Hello every one,

Today I am writing this blog as part of my new minimalist video on my YouTube channel.

I decided to start a minimalist series because I have been a big fan of minimalism for quite some time and I really wanted to share how we are doing it in our home.

Around 5 years ago when I was pregnant with our daughter Claire, I stumbled across a YouTube video on minimalism with a new born and I just connected with it straight away. I have mentioned this in my other posts, that growing up, I lived in quite a minimalist home as it was just what my mother preferred. To have the things that you need, and a few special items that brings joy into your life. And I guess I have always been like that in some way or another and discovering that it was a sort of lifestyle choice these days just felt really exciting for me.

Over the last 5 years, Kyle (my husband) and I have been going in and out of minimalism and we always love the feeling of decluttering. I have realised that minimalism (like your health) is an ongoing thing (at least when you have kids). You don't come to a point and think "ok, I've made it, I am a minimalist" and expect things to stay the same with out trying to keep it up. And though we haven't really had this frame of mine, things do accumulate over time and by the 6 month mark, we start to feel a bit claustrophobic.

For 2020, I really wanted to focus on minimalism and start getting rid of the stuff we know that we no longer need and have no real value in our lives anymore. And as a fan of minimalism videos on YouTube, I was inspired to start a series on this journey.

In this video, there seems to be so much stuff! Maybe for some people this is nothing, but for me, it feels like too much. There are a lot of small things kind of hanging around and right now, I am not sure what things I want to part with. My plan for these things is to see what I use over the next few months, and if I have things that I simply do not use or need then I will pass it on.

One of the things that I talk about is my craft supplies and I thought that I would elaborate a little more. I have always been a crafty person. I have been making my own greeting cards and gift tags since my early 20's. I mean, really since I was a kid, but I don't count that. HAHA.

But, I have been making my own cards and tags for a long time, and it's only been the last few years that I was making and selling them. I also started crochet around 8 years ago, and crochet was that craft that I just fell in love with. But sadly, when you crochet so much for so long, sometimes there is a price to pay: Repetitive Strain Injury. I have had to take a big break from making and selling crochet items, but I am keeping my supplies for when I can come back to the craft again.

When making the video, it did not really occur to me that these bulkier items are actually business related. I make cards, gift tags and crochet items to sell. And I very rarely make things for the home, usually because I don't want a whole lot of stuff hanging around. And I started to think about other minimalist and how they don't count work related possessions.

Now, I don't think that being a minimalist is about numbers. It's shouldn't be a competition about who has the least but in saying that I am always really curious about people who live out of their backpacks and I am curious about their estimated numbers of personal items.

But for me, as I would like to live with a lot less, I would like to not count these bulkier items as personal belonging. I am actually really interested in doing a hypothetical packing video, to see what I would take if I were to travel.

Unfortunately, as a family, we are not in the position to travel overseas and for me to make a real packing video. And although we have booked flights to visit family down in South Australia, with the Covid19 situation, we might not even be able to make that domestic flight, which is booked for the end of May. If we are able to still go then that will definitely be a video I will be making.

I think one of the things I love the most about minimalism and the idea of minimalist back packing is the challenge. The challenge of living with essentials and really narrowing down what we really need or want. I love the feeling of knowing where everything is, knowing everything that I own. In the last 6 months, things have become so cluttered (for us) that a lot of the stress that happens at home is losing things. I seemed to be spending so much time trying to find stuff and it is horribly stressful. So that is one of the main reasons for wanting to declutter.

My next post and video will be sharing my minimalist wardrobe and I hope that you enjoy all my my future videos and blog posts.

Beke.