EMBRACING MINIMALISM-HOARDER STYLE

Downsizing to fit in the bus!

I must admit , so far , the idea of “downsizing” our things to fit into a tiny bus conversion, was initially one of the most uncertain aspects for us. .
See, we are a family of “collectors” , collectors of many things that probably serve little purpose, other than to bring us joy, because they are fun to look at. Or they hold some special memory, or represent some place in time that we hold dear . We tend to all be quite sentimental when it comes to objects , so there are certain things that must come , like my husbands grandfathers antique razor kit , a guitar, and a ukulele my mother and father gifted me . A folky painting the children’s grandmother painted (that we adore ) when she was in art school many years ago. The list goes on, and would be long , and as we narrow down our “things,” it seems to get harder and harder to decide what ultimately will come with us on the bus .
Another big question is what we will do with the bigger things that won’t fit. We have thought about perhaps gifting some of them to close family and friends , or having some things “babysat” for awhile, until we eventually get our little piece of land , to settle and build on, and then, we can bring these things back.
We know that we will always enjoy Knick knacks , and yard sales , and collecting bizarre and quirky objects . They bring us comfort, and make us feel at home . I must admit , that once we do settle , I am almost positive that we will begin the cycle again of collecting random yardsale objects, we can’t seem to help ourselves !
But as our bits and bobs diminish, it’s been incredibly freeing and we have been really enjoying the reduced clutter ! We have been pleasantly surprised To learn how much easier it is to find things in the cupboards when you get rid of 3 quarters of the Tupperware that had missing lids anyways !
So it’s still a slow work In Progress , but we are making great progress, we haven’t felt the need to summon a hoarding specialist intervention just yet! ,
Slowly, as the house gets emptier, we actually don’t miss anything at all yet , in fact, we can barely remember what’s gone !
We’ve also made a bit of extra cash to put towards our project , selling a few of our unwanted things on kijiji, and other sites , which is a great bonus ! We have plans to gift some other things , and donate various objects as well.
A big thing we are working on is all our extra clothes! But I saw another schoolie family who made really cute rag tie curtains (which I thought was brilliant, as who makes curtains sized for bus windows?? And another idea for all of those cute baby clothes I just can’t part with, is to make a lovely little quilt or throw pillow! , In some strange way, it’s actually exciting watching the house empty of all these objects that we really can’t remember when we used last! Most of them have been stuffed away in plastic totes, and taking up space for years, with us burdensomely carrying around , not even knowing what is inside most of them!
So, in a nut shell, downsizing hasn’t been nearly as scary or overwhelming, as we’d feared, we are taking it slow and steady, and at the end of the day, as we watch things go, we feel good knowing that we are making room for our new dreams !