This post is all about how living with less can transform your life and help you experience more joy and freedom.
Most people live in a state of wanting more. Chasing more. Being more. Having more. And needing more. This endless cycle leads to dissatisfaction, even when life seems picture-perfect on the outside
We are told that the more you have, the more successful you are, and vice versa. But that isn’t always true.
When you give yourself permission to slow down and embrace living with less, you’ll find your life transformed in more ways than one. Here are some ways that living with less can help you enjoy life more.
From complaining to contentment: jumping off the rat-race
Have you ever heard the saying, “The more you have, the more you have to have.”? This is becoming more true as I look around at today’s culture. I see countless ads for organizational tools to help others manage their clutter. There are hundreds of different options for packing away your out-of-season clothes or ways to contain your shoe collection.
With just a few clicks, you can have anything shipped to your door in two days.
Although it feels great to have the dopamine boost when ordering and unpacking everything, soon that feeling wears off into discontentment as you search for the next thing to make you happy.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Instead of having fleeting moments of joy with long spans of discontentment in between, you can jump off the rat race of needing to purchase the latest fad.
Living with less can help transform your life as you realize what matters. Then you can let go with confidence.
There is more joy to living with less
The more you have, the more you’ll want. For some reason, getting the job promotion, bigger house, or newer car doesn’t seem to satisfy us for long. Pretty soon, we start working toward the next thing that we just have to have.
Related post: Christian Minimalism | How A Popular Concept Points To God
Living with less tends to have the opposite effect on us. When we choose to live with less, we are intentionally adding things of value to our lives and rejecting anything that does not align with our goals and priorities. Because of this, living with less means finding joy and contentment with what you have and the season of life you are in, even as you work towards your goal.
Living with less allows you to figure out your priorities
So often, we get caught up in the Instagram aesthetic of what we think the perfect life looks like. And we lose sight of our own priorities and desires. When you intentionally live with less, saying no to the fads that pop up, you begin to realize your own personal style. You realize the things in life that really matter to you, and the things that you can let go.
Because I choose to live with less, I am very intentional about the things that I bring into my home. They have to align with my priorities in life. For instance, the last thing I purchased was a planner. Before I even looked into planners, I knew that I would need something to help me to stay on track in multiple area of my life. In the upcoming year, I needed a way to organize work, life changes (having a baby and moving), a toddler, meal planning, and expense tracking. Once I found a planner that could do all that, I thought about it for over a month. I wanted to make sure that it would serve me how I needed and not just be an empty purchase.
Living with a mindset of less allowed me to be able to wait and find a planner I love, because I was not focused on being like everyone else. I had time to think of my own life and priorities and use that to serve my needs.
Living with less means you have more money for things you enjoy
Imagine having the money to go on the vacation you’ve always dreamed of, or being able to buy the expensive dress you’ve had your eye on for a year now. Living with less can free up the funds to allow you to enjoy the things you once thought out of reach because you no longer make impulse purchases. Instead of buying whatever you see, you ask yourself if the purchase will benefit you in the long run. Does it align with your goals and vision for your life? Or can you get away with leaving it at the store (or your online shopping cart)?
When you live with less you are less tempted to spend money on things that don’t matter. Instead, saving up for the things that you know will add value to your life.
Stop spending time on things you don’t enjoy
No one enjoys cleaning, right? Well, maybe there are a few people who find satisfaction in tidying up a messy home or deep cleaning their fridge. But, for the most part, we get overwhelmed with the thought of having to do another load of laundry or running the dishwasher again. We get tired of the kids throwing their toys all over the living room within five minutes of us picking them up. It’s exhausting to do the same set of cleaning ritual without fail day after day, only to have the home looking like nothing has been kept up on in the last month.
Living with less means you’ll spend less time doing what you don’t enjoy. Hear me out. If you paired down your kids’ toys by 80% (studies show they only play with 20% anyway), how much time would you save cleaning up after them? And if you ruthlessly went through your home, decluttering anything that you don’t use and love, how much time would you free up from managing it?
Related post: 15 Steps To Begin Decluttering Your Home Today
There are so many ways that living with less can transform your life by freeing you up from the monotony that comes when you do things you don’t enjoy.
Make time for what matters
Once you’ve begun decluttering and living with less, you’ll find that you have more time. You will have less to maintain, and you won’t feel the pressure go out and buy the latest and greatest. You no longer have to research if something is a great deal just because everyone else has it. If it doesn’t fit with who you are and who you want to become, you can let it go with confidence.
You can now use this time to make time for what matters. Because you will have been forced to confront your ideals of what you should enjoy vs. what you actually enjoy while decluttering, you can now freely explore those areas of your life.
Living with less means you can Slow down and enjoy life
When you have a house full of things, you are stuck maintaining them. I know so many people who have basements full of stuff, and every few years, those basements flood. They experience stress with heavy rain, wondering if their possessions will be ruined. And they experience stressful weeks that follow the water damage, forcing them to sort through pile after pile, only to do it again the next time their basement finds some water.
Because I have chosen to live with less (and currently don’t own a house have a basement that succumbs to the elements), I get to enjoy the rainstorms and appreciate their beauty. My husband and I love sitting and watching storms roll in as we sip on hot coffee. We are able to do it carefree because we don’t have an excess of possessions that we have to store.
Related post: Simplifying Life Biblically – How To Focus On What Matters
Living with less is not just about the physical
It is easy to think that living with less is just about the physical clutter in your home. But there are so many other areas of your life that can be transformed when you decide that less is more.
Living with less in a digital age
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of time you spend on your phone? I did, too. Which is why I decided to transform my life by decluttering my phone. Although I still have my iPhone (I would get lost without the maps), I have deleted every social media off of it. For the last six months, I have not gotten on any social media platform. Not only has this saved me countless hours to pour into thing I enjoy, but it has also helped me to find contentment without comparing my life to others.
I don’t have any games or other “time-wasters” on my phone because I enjoy the challenge of being present in every moment.
Another way I reign in the digital clutter is to unsubscribe from any email chain that isn’t actively benefiting me. I don’t receive updates from clothing stores trying to get me to buy into their sales, and I hardly ever get spam. Instead, I ensure that my inbox is tailored to what I enjoy receiving. I have a few Bible studies and a pregnancy update delivered each week, and that’s about it!
Living with less in your Calendar
Take a good look at your calendar and see if everything on it benefits you and is in line with your life goals. Perhaps it is time to cancel or change some of your appointments or time commitments that you thought were necessary.
Living with less in your finances
Another area that you could live with less is your finances. If you look at your bank statement, you will probably notice some subscriptions or impulse charges that don’t benefit you. Go ahead and cancel whatever you can. Analyze what caused you to make those impulse purchases so that you won’t be tempted next time.
How can your life be transformed by living with less?
Living with less is not about depriving yourself. It’s about liberating your preconceived notions and the need to follow other trends so that you can pursue what truly matters to you.
When you embrace this mindset, you’ll find yourself naturally slowing down, spending less time managing things, and more time doing what matters. Creating memories, pursuing passions, and enjoying the freedom to simply be.
How could your life be transformed by living with less today?
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