Becoming A Minimalist AGAIN In Two Days! 

Of course! Thanks for watching Svitlana! ☺️

Yay, I hope your minimizing goes smoothly! Thanks for watching Sarah 😁

It really does make a huge difference for neurodiverse households! 💕

Thank you so much Mary!

When you have more clothes, you let laundry build up more. With children it also results in clothing ending up all over the floor when they’re trying to find something specific, then what’s dirty versus clean gets confused. You end up cleaning clothes that may have not even been dirty. With smaller amounts, you clean laundry more actually, but with smaller loads. So while you are cleaning laundry more, you are actually doing less laundry because it’s simple and quick to put away and there is less mess during the in-between because it’s easy for your kids to find what they need and they don’t make a mess of their already clean clothing. I think this one has always been a hard one for people to understand, we get the question/confusion a lot haha! But I promise you, less clothes equals less laundry. We have lived 5 years as minimalists and 5 years as not minimalists (3 years at the beginning of our marriage, and these last 2 years). I can without a doubt say that minimal wardrobes makes a huge difference!

Hey Jodi!!

My partner is a “ just in case” fanatic. I was inspired I have cleaned out my kitchen cupboards, and have 3 bins ( keep, donate, garbage). I eventually ended up with 3 large bins in my car to take to the donation centre tomorrow and 3 bins in garbage. You inspired me! Thank you. 31:05

Thats awesome Penni! Im so glad this video was able to kickstart some minimizing motivation!

It did not end up working out for us unfortunately! That’s one of those things I need to purge still 🤣 We are using All About Reading successfully though! It’s actually a very similar concept, but it’s just a bit more interactive and seems to really click.

@@ariannapflederer thank you for letting me know. I’ll definitely look into All About Reading.😊

They are Schleich! We have been purchasing the animals since the girls were very young! They just started getting into some of the other parts of the line like the barns and things. But their animals are so sturdy and last for years! I love that they’re waterproof too, so they go outside and are used in the bath/shower as well.

I definitely understand that concern! I think people get minimalism confused with a restrictive living mindset. Our kids still have plenty of things and experiences they don’t need. Like horse back riding lessons, and a pony, and tons of farm animals, etc. They do still get new toys for birthdays, Christmas, and they have their own chore money that they can purchase things with when they so choose. It’s not a restrictive mindset, or a poor mindset - it’s about teaching children to appreciate what they have and see how less stuff makes you able to live more fully. When it comes to children or people wanting things being normal. Has it become normal in this society? Oh yes! But that doesn’t mean it should be. Adults have a “more more” attitude now a days, and that’s not healthy. It’s why adults end up in a lot of debt 😅 Of course how you were raised certainly can have an affect on that, but that is mental health related. I struggled with that myself when I went from a well off childhood, to never having groceries in the house as a teenager. It’s tough, and I fall into myself. I think I’ve done a video on minimalism when you love buying! But it is possible to have totally opposite outcomes of lifestyle whether you grew up low income or well off. It’s not a direct correlation to how you were raised, so much as what you do with that experience from there out and how your brain processes it. Our brains are pretty dang impressive…but they don’t handle trauma well. I can attest 😅 These last two years I fell into that “just give them the thing, it makes them happy for now” because I felt bad about living situations. We saw a direct result of change in our children where they gained expectant attitudes. That’s just not the reality of life as an adult, so you don’t want to teach a child to have an attitude of expecting things when you go out. It doesn’t mean it never happens, like giving Rensly the little pillow she wanted that she didn’t have for months lol. Or a child who’s just having a rough day and I go buy them something to cheer them up. But with shifting back into my minimalism mindset, I would choose an experience over the little toy they’re asking for. Like taking them for ice cream or something along those lines. The biggest thing that I mentioned at the very beginning is to remember that minimalism is never about restricting. Back when I did minimalism content regularly, I constantly would repeat that “minimalism is keeping what helps you live intentionally.” It’s not about keeping only what you need. My children don’t need a play room full a schliech toys, or legos, or playmobile, or the endless outside things they have to do on our farm. But it serves a purpose for them and we organize toys in a way that makes it less overwhelming for everyone, including them. I hope this helps explain better! ☺️

Oh I forgot one more thing and the fashionable child question! I wanted to mentioned that for this experience, I’m not sure if we said it, but we didn’t force the kids to get rid of anything. The only child I made decisions for was my youngest, cause she is only 4 and she isn’t mentally capable of those decisions quite yet. But my oldest children were handed three bags. Trash, donate, and keep but remove from the house. They were specifically given a bag that they were on the fence about but they wanted to experience living without it to see if they even thought about it. We asked them to just live without that stuff for a few weeks and then if they wanted anything specific back that they remembered, we would get it! No questions asked. Sometimes even as adults, we aren’t sure about whether we still need or even like something until we remove it from our space for a bit: So every decision regarding our older kids stuff was their choice, unless they asked my opinion and we would discuss and brainstorm the thing together. For clothing they chose their color and I gave them a number to stick to. They had no issues removing stuff or handing it down to their sister for when she gets bigger! Kids will surprise you honestly with how much they get it, and are even willing to partake when they understand why you are doing it. When it comes to an older stylish kid, or older kids in general, I will always be of the mindset that that child is their own person and nearing adulthood. Minimalism in general for any age kid (that is old enough to understand) should never be forced on them. No adult should have minimalism forced on them either (like forcing a spouse to minimize - it doesn’t work out well). The goal is to lead by example mainly but also help them learn how to live minimally and why they may enjoy it. Now where my opinion is, an opinion - assuming this older child is a tween/teen with makeup and such…I wouldn’t be buying anymore than the minimum. Base layers (jeans, shorts, basic t’s, etc) and letting them use their allowance or money they earn from working to get anything else they layer on top for fashion. I wouldn’t discourage fashion ever, but I also would not be doing their laundry 😅 if that’s their passion and they are wanting to go to school for it, I would encourage them by purchasing things that help them learn. That’s the homeschooler in me haha. Such as fashion drawing guides, or books on fashion design, or maybe there is a local fashion show you could take them to!

@Arianna. thank you so much for your response, that helps alot. I do see how my kids constantly ask for things every time we go out and I guess because it's an every day occurrence it seems normal, and I remember doing the same thing as a kid and always getting turned down and feeling discouraged. But I often think about how if we didn't live in a capitalist/ consumerist society, we wouldn't be dealing as much with these situations. I feel like every time I take one step forward with minimizing, it all gets undone because I just want my kids to be happy even if it's "momentary". But I want to set them up for success and not debt or chronic overwhelm like I've been suffering through! It's hard also because I feel like I missed out alot in my childhood and when I buy certain things or have common interests with my kids that I can put money into, it almost feels like I'm getting to "re-live" that part of my childhood that I didn't experience due to neglect. That's my issue and that definitely colors the way I react when my kids are upset about not getting things. I tend to over think and go back and forth about most things parenting related.