Our New Minimalist Journey: Giving away our stuff

We gave away our couch!

Just gave it away on Sunday.  

Here's how and why we came to the big conclusion to give away our couch:

I don’t quite remember what we were talking about but let's assume it was about living with less. I was sitting on our sofa and asked Juan if he thought we could live without furniture.

Could we be happy without furniture? Having a couch is something that you are expected to have in a home. When people walk in they expect to see stuff like that. What would they say when they see our home?

Well we decided that we should try it. So we got rid of it. Very impulsive and crazy decision making right there! Totally not what is expected. We did it. When we told family members and friends we got a plethora of reactions(and insults!) A few family members were just angered about us deciding to give away our couch, as if we had told them we started doing drugs! Our friends were confused but really accepting. Most people who know us know we are a little more than crazy anyways :) that’s just Juan and Nicole <3 one friend told she can’t wait to have an “Indian night” so we can all sit on the floor and eat Indian food! J love without judgment makes my heart happy!

Surprisingly if you google “living without a couch” or “living without furniture” not much comes up. The few websites and blogs that I did find were amazing. There is a label for people who live without furniture they are called Minimalist. All about living with the essentials, the bare minimum, only what you need to be happy. Most of these people spend their lives traveling and living in small apartments. And they are happy with barely any material possessions! This lifestyle appeals to me simply because want to travel (India!) and I hate feeling tied down. I like being free. The more stuff we have the less able we will be to just get up and go. Clutter makes me stressed out and less patient. Weird?

When deciding to get rid of things I originally wanted to sell them. Juan wanted to give them away free. We spent good money on our things! But while explaining this to a lovely yogini, she taught me that those things, even though we spent our money on them, have served their purpose now its time to let go. Non-attachment to material things is another thing I’m working on. I’ll expand on that later. I’m having a tough time letting go of my cookbooks even though I haven’t touched them in a long time..

Since Sunday we have given away our couch, recliner, about 4 huge bags of lots of belongings to DI & the family crises center. We still have to go through the boys room and 2 of our closets and bathroom, oh and the shed.

It feels liberating.

There is something about doing things just because you can. Right now in this moment in time this makes us happy. We are living how we want because we can and we want to even if no one else understands it. Just cuz ;) 

the first thing we did after we got rid of our furniture was run around!

There is so much more space for activities!! I feel like I can do yoga all day! And we are always down on Noah’s level. He seems happier too. Elijah wouldn’t know the diff. I haven’t been inclined to sit and watch things online and Noah hasn’t watched as much tv either. The pros have outweighed the cons. This may not be the right things for everyone but for now its working for us. And if its making my family happy, I don’t have time to care what people will say when they see our home. It’s a happy home.

You know what we have realized? We can be happy without furniture(and lots of other things)!

if you are curious minimalism check out these cool sites :
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/
http://www.everydayminimalist.com
www.missminimalist.com/

Peace friends