Over the years, I have experienced moving probably a little more than the average person. I have moved from one country to another, from one state to a neighboring one, traveled to another continent for a little more than just a couple of days, and more recently moved from the east coast to the west coast. Such activity requires organizing the trip, leaving a job and therefore finding another one, packing and finally moving. It is time consuming, it can be expensive, and it can also raise the level of stress of an individual. I quickly became overwhelmed by the moving process and it all started when I opened my closet door and thought: "I have too much stuff". That's when I started doing some research and came across minimalism on YouTube* and I have to say, applying minimalism to my space minimized the level of stress I was feeling.
I started taking steps towards simplifying my life by re-evaluating not only my material possessions, but also by freeing myself from emotional attachments I had to items. I took a step back and decided that before packing I would go through the process of de-cluttering. By doing this, I was able to reduce the number of things I needed to take with me to the new home. It felt like lifting a heavy weight off my shoulders and it made me feel less stressed. The action plan to move started in January and by late May I was ready to start packing.
I knew shipping could get very expensive so I wanted to pack as fewer boxes as possible. I managed to move with a total amount of ten USPS Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Boxes, which you can get for free at your local post office and can ship up to 70 pounds domestically for less than $19. I wanted to travel with just a carry on but I still had a few more things I knew I would need so I needed to pack those. I decided to use a checked in addition to my carry on. Unfortunately, when I got to the airport and was checking in, I found out I went over the weight limit on my checked bag (which costs $25 within the US anyway) and I had to pay an extra $100 bucks for a couple of extra pounds!
Another thing that I found minimalism helped me with was by reducing the amount of time it takes to unpack. When people move, it can take them days or even months to unpack. I was able to do this task the day after my arrival and it only took me a few hours. I had almost everything I needed but I left big items like my bedroom furniture, tv, desktop computer and other things behind. It would cost more to transfer them than to buy them at the new city. One thing I do not recommend is throwing things away if someone else can still make good use out of them. Minimalism doesn't mean that you have to get rid of stuff. In my opinion, de-cluttering is a necessary thing to do every once in a while so you can feel more comfortable in your own space. To me, it is more pleasant to look at an empty wall or a wall with just one or two decorations than to look at a wall with a thousand things hanging off.
To conclude, minimalism helped me feel less stressed during the process of moving because I was able to reduce the number of things I possessed. I went through everything I owned and only kept what I really needed, a few things that I did not want to part with and some that constantly bring happiness to my life when I use them or look at them. Even though I have less belongings than before, there are still areas that I feel I need to tackle even more, but I'm going to leave that for another post.
How has minimalism helped you? Did you know about it before reading this? I'm very interested in finding out your minimalism story. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment or ask questions.
*If you want to know more details, I suggest you read my post "How I Discovered Minimalism" by clicking here.
