Simple Living

When I started to clear out my home in order to give a potential buyer the feeling that they were not buying a sardine can to live in I noticed quickly how much stuff we had that we did not really need. Now that my home has been eliminated of most of the possessions that were once housed here I am realizing just how little I really need. This has caused me to really reevaluate the type and size of the home that I am looking for to be our next home. Instead of 2000+ square feet I am now looking at homes between 1300 -1500 square feet. I am afraid that if I buy a larger home that my family and I will just fill it once again with stuff. We don't need more stuff, and the empty home that we now live in (minus the necessities and some extras for staging) is proof that less really is more. I think that if I did not want to expand my family and this house had a dining room I would be completely content to just stay here. I don't need a 2 car garage or a multitude of bathrooms (although our 1 bathroom does have a waiting list sometimes) or a living room, family room, recreation roof, etc...I just need a home that will house my family and allow us to host a Thanksgiving or two. If I could, I would take all of the boxes that we have in storage right now, and throw them away. We don't need any of it. The toys, the extra clothes, the dust collector items that sit on our shelves and dressers, all of the shoes, the extra towels, just all of it. I can think of only a handful of items that I really am missing. Our books, crafts, and my Willow Tree figurines (okay, I know those are not a necessity, but I really love those things) are all that I really need back in my home.

Thinking about what I need in my home has led me to question what else I could live without? What else can I make more simple? Our diet? How many cars we own? Our activity schedule? There is so much in my life that I make more complicated than it really needs to be. There is also so much money I spend on unnecessary items. Instead of spending money on those things I thought I needed I could instead funnel that money into making memories with my kids. Taking them places and seeing new things. Enjoying each others company without the complications of material possessions.  I would have never thought that I could live without the stuff that I had in my home before I moved it into storage, but clearly not only can I live without it, but we are thriving without it. I wonder what else that exists in my life, that if I just pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and tried to eliminate it, would I see that my life is better off without it?

Wikipedia characterizes simple living as being or having only those things that need to survive not want. I think I need to take stock of what I have both emotionally, spiritually, physically, materially and evaluate it as a need or a want. Then I need to pack some stuff up, and get rid of it.