When you’ve been a hoarder your whole life, attempting to become a minimalist is extremely hard. However, I believe it can eventually be done. If I managed to travel for a year with just one carry on backpack, surely cutting the crap I have at home must be achievable, right?
Step 1: Stop buying unnecessary things. I am proud to announce that this year, I have only purchased one item of clothing – a pair of jeans. I also did research into the company before buying, as I wanted to not only make sure I was purchasing something that will last, but from a company which cares about its people and the environment.
Step 2: Say goodbye to existing unnecessary things. This is the hard part. Surprisingly, it is quite hard to get rid of clothes here in Berlin, if I want to make sure they are not going to for-profit companies. This has meant I have procrastinated for months in getting rid of my unwanted clothes. Sure, I could just give them away on Free Your Stuff Berlin, but I want to make sure that they are actually going to someone that will wear them, and not just someone who will wear them once then throw them away or to the back of their closet. I guess I should just stop being lazy and take them to a genuine charity (but then I have to travel at least half an hour away! which is a lifetime away in Berlin distances.) All I have done is packed up the clothes I don’t want and put them in our storage area – to be dealt with some other time.
We had a lot of unused things such as old bed sheets and towels, which I wasn’t sure what to do with, but now we have our house in Brandenburg, we are putting them to use there. So far we have been very lucky to equip our kitchen and have five sleeping places in our house, just by taking unwanted things from friends. We are flying to Sydney next week and clearing out my bedroom and all the junk I have will be a big challenge. It’s not like my parents want to get rid of my things – they’ve left my bedroom untouched since I moved out, but I know that having less and getting rid of the cutter will make me feel a lot better.