A few glorious months as DINKS (Dual Income and No Kid).

Having a strong desire for minimalism doesn’t mean accomplishing minimalism.  Thinking about it more, it’s not just clearing out the kitchen of unnecessary utensils or the stockpile of rubber bands, but it’s about reconceptualizing the way we think about money, in particular.

For us, we’ve never been very good at keeping to a budget.  We actually lived off of one person’s fairly meagre earnings through most of our relationship together and only in the last year or so have had a dual income.  What a glorious few months that was!  As DINKS (Dual Income and No Kid), we ate out every weekend, making a point to try the top 100 restaurants in Toronto, which are inevitably pretty darn expensive.  Reading some other blogs, this lifestyle inflation happens innocuously when inoculated with raises, bonuses or second incomes.  Lucky for us (for our spending habits at least), this didn’t last too long as we soon found out that I was pregnant.  Actually, it was a blessing in disguise.  I think we could’ve gone years living on the edge of our means.  That thought is sobering.  I don’t necessarily agree with those who write that spending money gave them little happiness at the end of the day; I was plenty happy.  Who doesn’t like fine dining and the rest?  But the point is that we needed to be responsible.

The problem with accumulating stuff (besides the money already spent, also known as sunk costs), is that eventually it catches up with you and you have to get rid of it.  Having too much stuff was becoming irresponsible because we were being bogged down, sluggish at daily tasks.  We weren’t functioning efficiently since we couldn’t find a can opener to make something for dinner, or we (let’s be honest, it was only me) tried on three outfits before finally settling on something mediocre to wear in the morning for work, etc.  More than stuff, being inefficient is even more irksome.

First post.

The cleaning and purging was prompted by the sudden purchase of a new home, but it has led to much more than that. In the midst of getting rid of things, I came across some minimalist lifestyle blogs that have inspired purging not just as an event linked to moving, but a movement of sorts. A lifestyle shift.

The question certainly begins at why do we (my husband and I) have so much stuff? Well, we spent the last 10 or so years moving from country to country, both independently and together, and every time we came back to Toronto, we dumped our stuff in storage (that is, our parents’ homes), and off we went again. After moving back in 2011, we have already moved twice and getting ready for the next move. Never having the luxury of time for each move, we just piled things into boxes and transported them to the new place. And that’s how we accumulated all this stuff.

While we were selling our current home, we had to get rid of tons of stuff for the staging. We donated to Goodwill (not those sketchy “donation” boxes you find in parking lots – more on that later), and posted a bunch of items for free to Facebook for our friends. Things go fast when they are free. Now, with 6 weeks to go, we are determined to get rid of even more stuff. It’s been inspiring to read about other people’s journeys, so I thought I would document our journey to a simpler life.  And if I can be so cheesy, go lightly to our new home and be happy in the process.