I thought I had been making great progress in my decluttering journey until I learned a lesson from my toddler the hard way.
Most toddlers and children go through a phase where cupboards, drawers, dressers, and closets become the most magical sort of entertainment out there. It’s a time where a whole new world of mystery items can be explored, just by pulling open a cabinet.
Have you been there?
This is where I was just after moving into our new home and trying to unpack all the items we had moved and pulled out of storage.
It was chaos.
Plus, I had a “little helper” who insisted on discovering the contents of each drawer and pulling a lot of it out onto the floor to examine and play with.
All parenting advice and techniques aside, this experience led me to a new minimalist perspective I hadn’t noticed or considered until this point. I didn’t mind that my toddler was exploring their world and our home—it gave us a chance to find new items to play with and to work on our clean-up skills. BUT, my time was quickly getting eaten up by replacing the contents of the space back into its original home from where it was strewn on the ground (and I was about 8 months pregnant at the time)…
This was not sustainable for me and it was time for a change.
One day, while I was returning a huge pile of baby clothes to the dresser drawer, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
It was so simple and SO obvious, that I actually audibly laughed.
What if I just had less stuff?
You’d think as a self-proclaimed minimalist, this would have occurred to me sooner, but here’s the important lesson my toddler taught me:
I didn’t realize how much stuff I had until I was forced to see it all and maintain it all on a regular basis.
I had all of these items hidden away, and it wasn’t until my toddler whirled through the space and flung everything into plain sight that I realized things needed to change.
What a wake-up call!
Instead of going into full crisis mode, here’s what I did instead:
When my toddler unloaded a drawer, I asked myself, “Is this item worth the time and energy I’m spending replacing it in its home over and over again?”
I was surprised by how many times the answer was a resounding, “No!”
This one question completely shifted my perspective – suddenly, the items I had been so unsure about for so long or wondered if I would ever need became easy to let go of.
Instead of being wracked with guilt, I felt more peace in simply choosing based on the present and letting items go without a second thought. I GLADLY let those items go, and that enthusiasm spilled over into more than just my decluttering sessions.
This wasn’t just about my stuff…it was about my LIFE. Were there areas of my life that I was holding on to just a little too tightly? Where I was worried about some unseen future over and over again instead of simplifying what was in front of me so I could enjoy the present?
Yes.
To all of it, yes.
I’ve carried this new perspective with me as I’ve gone through some huge changes in life and I have to say, it’s brought me a lot of peace in some chaotic and stressful times.
Who knew 2-year-olds could be so wise?
Little Minimalist on the Prairies 