Minimalists

As of today my family of five are minimalists. We are in the process of moving, and we just loaded up a 27 foot Uhaul and sent our stuff to New Orleans. For the next five days we live in our house with just the bare necessities. We have no washer/dryer, refrigerator nor furniture of any kind. We will be sleeping on blow up mattresses, living out of suitcases and storing our food in ice chests. As I type these words, I am sitting on the floor in my bedroom (quite uncomfortably). In five days (on Tuesday), we head off to New Orleans for a road trip that will take us another five days. We’ll stop in San Antonio for a day and a half for some sight seeing. So, that’s a total of 13 days living as minimalist. Fun!

It is quite an interesting experience living with just the minimum. Easier on the road, harder in my own house. Here are some thoughts swarming around in my head.

Stuff distracts us from what’s really important. The more we have, the more we have to upkeep it all. Upkeep requires time, money and energy. Having less to upkeep means we have more time and energy to invest in relationships with others. For me, that means I get to spend more time with Jena, my wife, and three kids. As you see in the above picture, we set up all our inflatable mattresses in the living room. I anticipate we’ll grow closer to each other over the next few days.

We need very little to be happy. It is so easy to fall in the trap of the “bigger and better” mentality. A bigger house or car won’t really make us happier. Having the new iPhone or latest MacBook Air isn’t really going to give us happiness. As we go through life, we accumulate so much stuff and it often creates the opposite of happiness and peace – stress. When I get a new car, new laptop, iPad, etc – I have a new thing to protect. When my son accidentally scratches the car, I freak out. Or when my son spills a little water on my new laptop, I yell at him. I could go on and on about this, but I won’t. Bottom line is that we need very little to be content and happy. Less is better, not more.

On a side note, a little over a year ago we went from being a two car family to a one car family. We traded our minivan and Jeep Wrangler in for a new family SUV. At that point, my main source of transportation became a scooter. I’ve enjoyed the freedom that comes with that decision. We have less to maintain and we save a few hundred dollars a month. For all the reasons stated above, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. To my surprise, I have found a new sense of peace and contentment.