One thing I’m often asked is how I became a minimalist. It’s a little funny because I don’t really consider myself a minimalist. I tend to live more intentional, not minimal. I do live without a lot of stuff, and let me tell you, no clutter it is therapeutic and that’s the main reason I enjoy living with less.

I have never been one to collect things. Clutter and piles of stuff, stress me out. I prefer clean, open, mostly empty spaces. I love living small and will likely continue to do so when we buy another home. It’s so freeing to have just what I need as well as some fun unnecessary things I love. It’s a balance you get to create for yourself, and that in itself is pretty cool!

I prefer experiences over stuff. I didn’t always feel that way, I think the older I get, the more I value sharing a really cool, memorable experience.

Y’all, we own 4 bath towels. Four. When we look at model homes, all of the space makes me anxious. I’m super happy with 4 towels and the thought of buying more to fill the space gives me therapist worthy anxiety.

So transitioning from a 1,222 square foot house to 425ish square feet wasn’t that hard. We sold all of our furniture, my car, Mike’s truck, most of our clothes, pretty much 90% of our worldly belongings. If it didn’t fit in the 5th wheel, we didn’t need it. We didn’t get a storage unit and that was the best idea. It’s nice knowing we don’t have to pay to store our stuff that we might need one day. Or have to go back to get it. We’ll just purchase whatever we need when we need it. Which kinda gets me in trouble with Cowboy sometimes.🙊 

How To Start Living With Intention

You don’t need as much as you think. 

Intentional living is much more mental than anything else. Figure out your reasons for living smaller and remind yourself of those things when shopping. I have found it’s more of a mindset and once I set my intentions and defined what is more important, shopping became much easier. 

The first thing I would do to start downsizing is by going through what you already have. Then have a yard sale or donate/sale/toss what you haven’t used in the last 6 months.

It can be frustrating deciding what to keep and what needs to go. It’s okay to have a “maybe” pile to revisit in a month or two.

Next, I would start practicing being very intentional when shopping. Start with grocery shopping because that’s something we usually shop for most often. Try to purchase exactly what you need and work with food you already have on hand.

Once you feel a bit more comfortable living with less, go through your stuff again. Go through your “maybe” pile.

I did just start buying new clothes to match my environment. I bought some new sun dresses from Roxy because I was in a place that was warm and they were on sale. I still feel the need to have “Retail Therapy” and I like the way it feels have something new to wear but I don’t let it interfere with my “less is more” attitude. When I look in my closet/dresser, it only takes a moment to decide what to wear. That feeling is better than anything.

Since we travel often, I don’t see the same people and often wear the same thing several days in the same week ha!

Try to find new hobbies or activities. Take up hiking, photography, book a vacation. The idea is to shift your mindset to focus on adventures, not buying more stuff. Sometimes we buy out of boredom. Hello those add to cart days on Amazon or browsing the dollar spot at Target.🤣

And lastly, just because you have an open space on say, the kitchen counter, doesn’t necessarily mean you need to put something there. Try leaving it open for a week and see how you feel about it.

With all of that said, I do buy fun stuff that I don’t really need on occasion. It’s a balance for sure. I ordered a manicure kit from Olive & June. I’m learning how to give my self mani/pedis and it’s been so fun. Did I need a full kit? Nope. Does it make me happy? Absolutely.

I’ll tell you this, kick ass adventures > stuff. Always.

I’m thinking about turning this into a series. Are y’all interested in more specific intentional living posts like whats inside our kitchen, 4 non toxic cleaning products we use, how we grocery shop, bathroom organization, etc?

What do you wanna know? Get specific!