Advise from Mr. Bradbury

Minimalism

The concept of minimalism intrigues me. Yet, having children makes practicing minimalism harder. Especially when one of my sons is very attached to toys, every toy.

I have watched YouTube videos talking about curating a functional wardrobe of 30-40 pieces, I have listened to Podcasts herald the glory of living with less stuff and I have read the buzz worthy book by Marie Kondo, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. All of these modes, at one point or another, have inspired me to get rid of things.

A few years ago, we were constantly on the move. Living in a townhouse, moving to a little house in the Forest Heights area in Edmonton, moving to Ottawa for Big Dragon's law school, flying back to Alberta in the summers, living in St. Paul, Alberta for a year for B. Dragon's article, moving to Westlock and renting for a few months and luckily, having our rental's basement flood so we could break the lease and purchase a house.

Phew, that was a lot to remember! During this time, I was on constant watch on what I was adding to our home, whether it be clothing, furniture or other items. Everything had to be very practical and most things eventually were parted with, given away or sold to lighten the load of our moves.

Now that we are starting to settle down, I have found that things quickly start to accumulate. Every few months I try to make the time to look over items of a particular room and ask, have I used this item in the past 6 months to a year and does it bring me joy? If I answer "no" to one of these questions it should go in the donation bag and on to someone who might say yes.

I am a firm believer of donating to and shopping at second hand shops, especially ones that are non-for-profit and benefit good causes or employ people with special needs. I would say 90% of my children's clothes are purchased at these shops. They really wear things for one season most of the time and then outgrow it, it's crazy! Really, the only things that are worth purchasing new for these guys are running shoes because ones at the thrift stores, especially for boys, have no thread and are in pretty rough condition and the other things that I may buy new are certain, specific pieces Khaki pants or white shirts for church, stuff like that.

For myself, I used to probably have 50% off my wardrobe from second hand shops, from high school to university and throughout Big Dragon's law school run. Now that we are doing a bit better financially, I can make more intentional clothing purchases and buy less stuff and get things of high quality that aren't trendy that I can wear for years, trying to stick to the rules of minimalism. Practicing of buying less, and being able to save for your future self and also give your present self more time to explore doing thing and creating things, is what it's all about.