This morning I had my garage sale, I’ve been prepping for the last few weeks. I have done some SERIOUS purging in my home. I’m trying to live a simple life; Quality over Quantity kinda life. I listen to 2 daily podcasts, Optimal Living Daily, which are short narrations of blogs revolving around minimizing and simplicity. The other, Optimal Finance Daily, which are short narrations of blogs pertaining to financial independence. It hasn’t been an easy transition for me. I was raised by my dad who filled voids with material things. I’ve also been raised with a parent who has financial independence, which in turn made it easy to obtain pretty much anything I ever wanted as a child, and teen (within reason). I was not your 16 year old who got a brand new Range Rover and had a $100k Sweet Sixteen birthday party, I’m not talking rich…I’m talking comfortable. To me there is a difference. Fast forward, here I am 32, with 3 kids that my husband and myself are SOLELY financially responsible for. So, when I think big picture, I think about the years of school tuition, since we have opted for our children to have a private education, future college tuition, and just everyday expenses which equal A LOT OF MONEY. Its been EXTREMELY hard for me to stay off Zulily, not take random Target trips, and cut down on some things I consider to be luxuries. This “saving money” approach does not include our most recent home improvement projects. We’ve been slowly saying up money to renovate our bathroom due to its mold infestation and poor design layout. It’s been about a month of this transition, and I’m feeling good. I took some extra money I had and opened up a CapitalOne 360 Savings account. It was recommended on one of the podcasts I was listening too, as well as on a couple blogs I read. I took advantage of it while they had a bonus $25 offer when you sign up. They still may have that going on…. not sure. Saving money has never been something I considered to be a HUGE priority, but I’ve since changed my views on that… Its now right up in my top 5.
In addition to saving money, I’ve made it a point to purge things in my home. I am no hoarder by any means, nor am I a minimalist. Both of those lifestyles to me are CRAZY! I just knew its time to get rid of the stuff thats been collecting dust and or sitting in cupboards/storage for months and years. I started slow, going through drawers, and cupboards, then moving into my kids rooms, going through clothing and toys. I decided I wanted to implement the ONE IN, ONE OUT rule in my house. ONE IN, ONE OUT is basically keeping all the toys/games in a contained area and allowing the kids to take one out, and when they want to play with something else, that was previous played with toy goes back in. Pretty simple, and pretty fucking genius. I had tried this in the past and failed. I don’t think my kids are quite old enough to really understand ONE IN, ONE OUT. This also meant I had to clean out an entire closet, purchase storage bins and totes, and organize Toys I felt are educational , and or have a purpose. This took me an entire weekend to do. I sifted through so much random shit, I have nooooo intention in buying a single toy until christmas or a birthday. I donated many toys and books to my kids’ preschool, which they were stoked about. It has been difficult to get rid of some things I deemed as ‘sentimental’ but in a podcast I listened too, they talked about how its not the “ACTUAL” ITEM that is sentimental its the memory of it. Which is so true, the memory isn’t going anywhere, I don’t NEED the item. This perspective has helped me get rid of a lot of things.
As a mother of 3 kids that are wild little people, and being home alone as much as I am, I have been feeling more and more overwhelmed by “STUFF”. My house is small, but regardless of its size its not easy to keep up when its FULL of stuff. I most recently started purging clothing, I personally don’t have a lot of clothes, I have no interest in the “latest” fashion trends, or designers. I like my Lulu’s, Graphic Tee’s, and occasional trip to Anthro though never hurt anyone.My kids however, thats a different story, they have TONS of clothes. The funny thing about them having a ton of clothes is they still wear the same thing over and over. Sometimes I think I’m crazy when I get these intense impulses to want to get rid of stuff. Maybe its because my whole life has always revolved around stuff? I don’t know, simplifying has been therapeutic in a way for me. I just want my kids to appreciate what they have. I want them to realize how hard my husband works for the nice things they do have. I want them to show empathy to others who are less fortunate. I don’t want them to obsess over having the latest and great thing, rather have satisfaction in what they do have.
As I sit here in silence on this Saturday following my garage sale clean up I did, I just wanted to take a minute to share something I’ve been pouring my time and effort into. Hoping maybe to motivate you to want to save some money and simplify your life a bit.
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