I truly believe that there can be more joy with less.
“Having less” in itself doesn’t save us, make us better off, or make us a better mom.
But having less can minimize the things we are managing and free up mental space to be more present in the things that truly matter to us.
In this blog, I will be sharing about practical minimalism for moms. I will get into the nitty gritty of how I have had more joy with less and some key tips for how you can implement minimalism with kids in your home.
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LESS INVENTORY, LESS TO MANAGE
When we have less inventory, we have less to manage. As moms, we already have so much to manage.
The culture that we live in does not leave a lot of margin. There is so much fighting for our time and our money, and there’s so many extra curricular expectations and stuff in our homes.
A lot of what I am sharing, I learned from the book The Joy of Less.
The first time I read The Joy of Less, I was a new mom and didn’t have much at all. Even though we didn’t have much money, I still had more than I needed to be managing.
THE CALL TO BE INTENTIONAL
I just had my 6th baby, and each time I’ve added a new member to our family, I’ve been called to be more intentional.
There is a lot of stuff that comes with a baby: lots of clothes, lots of books, lots of little toys.
So with each baby, comes a new opportunity to be more intentional with what I allow in my home.
EVERY PROBLEM IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO GROW
The pain points in our lives are something that can call us higher. Every time I look around my house and see that there is too much stuff, it is an opportunity for me to grow.
I am the only thing stopping me from going and grabbing a trash bag and changing my reality! That gets me so excited!
DECLUTTER STRATEGY
There are three categories I like to put everything in: trash, treasure, transfer
I will sit down with one category of things and decide which category each thing belongs in.
For example, I will sit down with my kids and a bunch of their toys and explain how to pick which category each thing goes in.
1. TRASH
Toys that are broken. Appliances that don’t work anymore. Overalls with a broken clasp.
If you know that you will not be going to get it fixed or that you cannot repurpose it or don’t have a real plan to repurpose it, it is trash.
If we are keeping broken things, we cannot see the things that are good and useful.
2. TREASURE
The things that you use frequently. I’m teaching my kids that if they play with that toy all the time, it is treasure and of course they should keep it!
3. TRANSFER
This is always the tricky one. This category gives us the opportunity to help other people and give them something good. On the other hand, we tend to feel guilty giving things away.
We tend to feel bad giving things away that were gifts because “what if they come and ask about it?”
Cut the ties! This mental hurdle will make us feel so much better once we get past it. But parting with things of value that are no longer serving our homes and can benefit someone else is powerful.
An example of this is when I am given a ton of baby items. I was given 15 blankets… I should not be keeping 15 blankets, even if I feel guilty about it.
I gifted those baby blankets to a pregnancy center in town that was helping new moms in tough situations. Instead of those blankets crowding my closet and going unused, they were gifted to moms who needed them.
Having too much stuff in our homes is an energy suck on the home. If we want to create a place people want to come back to, keeping the home intentional is important.
SIT DOWN WITH CATEGORIES
We live in North Carolina, where there are seasons. Switching out my kids clothes each season could be seen as a burden, but I see each season as an opportunity to declutter.
I like to go through one thing at a time: toys, kitchen utensils, clothes, etc.
This helps me get a holistic view of what I have and what is excess in each area.
REDUCE INVENTORY
Reducing inventory is one of my best hacks to maintain the home.
The kids get overwhelmed when there are too many clothes to put away or too many toys to pick up. I get overwhelmed when there’s too much laundry to do. A simple way to minimize this overwhelm is to minimize the things we have to the absolute favorites, no excess.
BE READY TO TRANSFER
I keep a bag in the closet and a bag in the laundry room so that when I see something that can be transferred to someone else, I’m ready to put it in that bag. When that bag gets full, I run it to the donation site.
CONTENTMENT IS A SUPERPOWER
Being grateful for the things that we have rather than constantly feeling like we need something else will change your life.
One of my favorite books that I reread constantly is The Power of Christian Contentment.
“Before you can reach for more, you must first be thankful for what you have.”
CREATE VERSUS BUY
When I’m constantly thinking about what I can add to my Amazon cart, I now choose to pivot and think about what I can create instead.
When I am not creating, I feel the need to buy more
Having less to manage, helps me be more intentional with the people that I love.
Being content with what I have keeps me from needing to part with my hard earned money and sell my time just to keep up with that what I feel like I’m supposed to have.
TAKE DOMINION OF YOUR HOME
It is so easy for me to shift the blame to other people.
I want to blame someone for giving me things I don’t need. I want to blame my husband for not getting rid of his stuff. I want to blame my kids for thinking they need all the toys.
Now, I like to shift the blame to myself. Maybe I did not set good enough boundaries or gatekeep the things that came into the home well.
BE THE GATEKEEPER
I didn’t want to say no to my mother-in-law or my friend, so I just took the things that I knew I did not need.
Now I try to be honest about my limits. If someone offers me clothes, I will say “thank you so much for thinking of me, but I am at my limit right now. Ask me again next time because hand-me-downs have been such a blessing.”
BE THE COACH
If my kids have a hard time parting with things, maybe it’s because I have not coached them on it.
It starts with me, I cannot be frustrated if I am not sitting down to declutter the things in my home.
It is easy to blame everyone else in my home, but it is freeing to blame myself.
When I take 100% responsibility for the state of my home, then I have 100% freedom to change it.
“It’s not the wind that blows. The wind that blows, blows upon us all. It’s the setting of the sail that makes the difference.”
Here’s how I interpret this to managing the home:
“It’s not the stuff that comes into the home or the messy people in the home. It’s the mindset with our home and how we choose to steward it.”
YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE YOUR HOME
The reality is, no one is coming to save us, so let’s not wait on it.
We can start today! We can get out a trash bag and start with one category and put them into trash, treasure, and transfer categories. We can get 10 items out of our homes every day.
Whatever you want to do to create the home you want to live in, you can do it! It’s not going to transform overnight because it did not get that way overnight, it will be little by little.
WE CAN CHANGE OUR PERSPECTIVE
When we have less stuff in our homes to manage, we have more time to spend with our kids and with our husbands doing things that we want to spend our lives doing.
Saying no to more stuff means saying yes to more relationship.
And that is how I want to live.
If you desire the same thing, I hope you will join me in choosing to have more joy in motherhood through minimalism.
RESOURCES:
Minicourse: Take Back Your Home
In this course, we focus on changing the environment of your home.
Decluttering course by my friend Margaret:
If you have no idea where to start and need someone to hold your hand, this course is for you! I did it, and it kicked started my minimalist journey.
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