A New Level of Minimalism

A new level of minimalism.

Seven years ago I decided to live with significantly less stuff and let go of 75% of our family’s possessions.

Minimalism started out as an experiment—a tool to help me focus on what mattered by letting go of what didn’t.

Soon, it became evident that this experiment was a calling. A lighter life with less stuff led to deeper relationships, less stress at home, and a deepened spiritual life. A year into minimalist living, I knew there was no going back. We’d reached a level of “enough stuff” in our home and our family was thriving. 

Minimalism felt like the ultimate life hack. I shared about living with less any time I could, and I eventually wrote a book to help others feel this freedom in their lives. For seven years, this worked.

But after my dad’s cancer diagnosis this fall, I felt a pull to enter even deeper into minimalism. When everything got quiet, an old, familiar question began surfacing: What would life be like with less… a lot less?

The answer was also familiar. Less stuff would mean a laser-like ability to focus on what (and who) mattered.

I felt the pull to welcome more adventure into our lives and to pursue relationships with God and family even more deeply. 

It was time to try a new level of minimalism. 

For us, this vision has meant putting our minimalist home on the market, living out of backpacks, and preparing to travel for 6 months through Texas, Arizona, California, and Washington, eventually relocating near family in Austin, Texas. 

The journey started on January 1st. Each member of our family of seven who could pack a backpack did. Then, we loaded the bags into the car along with other essentials—diapers, dog food, lots of snacks—and headed south.

Many of our possessions were donated while a few things (furniture and sentimental items) will wait in storage while we travel.

My foray into living out of just a backpack has been wonderful—I wouldn’t change a thing. 

Here are five things that I return to that have inspired me to pursue a new, deeper level of minimalism during this season of life. Hopefully they will inspire you to live with less, too.

1. The amount of goodness in your life depends on your ability to see it. 

I’ve found that minimalism helps me see the goodness that’s waiting in everyday life. A living space teeming with possessions and clutter leads to distraction and stress. And it’s very difficult to be grateful when chronically overwhelmed. 

Our lives are filled with goodness. In my experience, the goodness of life is often found in its subtleties. Viewing the world through the “lens of less,” with minimal distractions and clutter, has the power to morph your vision. You begin to notice the vibrancy of a sunset. The intensity of your five-year-old son’s long lashes. The intricacies of your favorite flower. 

This is goodness. And it’s always been there, waiting in life’s details. Minimalism will free your life from distraction and clutter so you can more clearly see it.

2. You don’t get time back—every day isn’t one more, it’s actually one less.

Minimalism changes how you view and use your time. As you strip away excess stuff, you become more intentional in all areas of life—including your schedule and commitments. 

You realize you don’t get these days back. So you begin filling them with more of what makes you come alive. And a life filled with what makes you come alive is a life aligned with how we were designed to live.

What is it that makes you come alive? Living with less stuff will help you answer that question with more clarity, and then free you to spend your time doing more of that.

3. How you spend your days is how you spend your life. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. -Annie Dillard

Minimalism has been the fastest way I’ve found to break out of an unintentional life. 

Our lives are made up of moments. Ones we either choose to live on purpose or ones we drift through on autopilot. Stripping away life’s excess has an uncanny way of showing you what matters most. Then you get to choose if you spend your life focused on these things that matter.

Without intention, we can spend life’s moments just going through the motions. And we run the risk of waking up one day at the end of our lives, looking back, and wondering what happened. 

In the words of poet Mary Oliver, we may find that we were “breathing just a little and calling it a life.” 

When we live on autopilot, we miss life’s surprises. We miss the magic and wonder when our heads are down, mindlessly wading through life.

Ask yourself: What dreams has God placed on your heart? Is what you’re doing today moving you closer to that dream? 

Intentionally removing things from your life that don’t matter will give you more space to answer that question with a yes.

4. In every walk with nature one receives far more than they seek. -John Muir

Minimalism has given me a greater appreciation for nature and freed me to spend more time out in it. (With less stuff to care for inside, it’s easier to get outside.)

Since I’m schooling our kids in this season,  I’ve decided to anchor our learning in nature. I’m not calling this homeschooling or worldschooling—we are educating label free. Learning by living seems like a better fit. And in this spirit, we’re designing our days peppered with novelty and nature. 

Nature teaches us about God. His pace, his creativity, his grandeur. In it we receive more than any planning, striving, or seeking could have offered. We remember how to breathe deeply and rush less. We marvel more, and, in some visceral way, are reminded how little we actually need to be happy.

5. The things that matter most in life aren’t things at all.

Minimalism constantly reminds me that the things that matter most are intangible.

Many people asked me if leaving our minimalist home would be difficult. We built the house ourselves and loved it. I wasn’t sure, but after three weeks away from it, I haven’t missed it. 

While we all need basic things, including shelter, possessions aren’t what we’re meant to cling to in this life. Happiness isn’t found in white-knuckling tangible items—ever. Houses included.

And home, I’m learning, isn’t truly a physical place at all. Home is within you. It’s an inner structure, a place where God stands at the door and knocks, eager to reside with you. Cultivating our inner home allows us to feel safe and at home anywhere. 

When you look back on your life, you’re not going to wish you had a bigger home or more stuff. Its relationships (with God and the people you love) that truly matter.

Conclusion

To quote Oliver again, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

However you answer that question, I have no doubt that minimalism will help you live it with more depth and intention.

If you’re feeling called to embrace minimalism, or venture even deeper into a life with less, I encourage you to go for it.

You won’t miss your stuff.

You’ll be too busy living a full, meaningful life focused on what matters.

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You can now find my book Declutter Your Heart and Your Home: How a Minimalist Life Yields Maximum Joy everywhere books are sold!