Welcome to my blog! It has been a long time coming but it is finally up!
I am in the final stages of packing up my life in Perth, Western Australia and moving overseas with my husband and our two little boys. We are heading to Ubud (Bali, Indonesia) and I just can’t wait! We have no plans, just to live life and explore as much of the world as possible!
However, we are currently still living in our house and in the midst of packing everything up. We have sold and given away most of our possessions just keeping the things we really like or need when/if we return. Everything has gone! Culling in these kinds of proportions is very sobering and very confronting. All of a sudden you look at things from a new perspective, as though a new light has filtered through and you start to see everything as just being “junk”.
Things we have held onto for years “just-in-case” or because we had the space have been released without a care or thought. So many of our “possessions” have surprising held little or no emotional value, yet for some reason we have kept them. The act of going through it all has been quite cathartic, and allowed me to truly see how somehow we have blindly become dedicated consumers!
What is also becoming quite a surprise is how quickly people jump to take your junk away from you … and I am not just talking about the free stuff! I was a firm believer that “one man’s trash is another mans treasure”, however after this whole process I am starting to change my tune and it now is looking a little like “one man’s trash might also just be …another man’s trash!” So much of what we hold onto and place value on is unnecessary. Throughout this whole process I cant help but think that if I am holding onto all this unnecessary physical crap in my house, what kind of emotional and mental baggage am I also hoarding?
The idea that we don’t need to own things is not common in a Western Society, mine is no exception. We have been loosely taught to believe that ownership of something will most likely gain esteem, acceptance or social standing. As a result, we appear to come from a possessive society. When you look at how many “things” someone owns in a 3rd world country, you can sometimes count them on one hand. Yet I managed to sell over 100 large items online and also sold over 1000 items in our garage sale, plus we gave away countless others, and you cant even see the difference. Our house is still full, so full that my 4 year old son actually didn’t believe we had already had our sale (he was at his grandparents while we held it) as there was still so much stuff in our house! This feeling of constantly being “stuffed” has slowly been eating away at me over the last year or two and finally I just decided that I (and my little family) needed to make the change and cut out all the excess.
So it will come as no surprise that I am very much looking forward to our new simpler life. One where we have 4 suitcases and a passport pouch. My kids will have far less toys, which should mean tidying up will be a breeze. We wont have a freezer, fridge and pantry filled with “spare” food so cooking might become a pleasure again rather than a chore. We will have a small amount of clothing, some gadgets and I am sure we will pick up the odd treasure along the way. My new mantra for the next stage in my life is:
“I don’t have to own it to enjoy it!”
I have actually uttered that a few times over the last few months and it is surprisingly effective. Once I realised I didn’t have to own something to enjoy it, it became very liberating. When you start to look at all the other things you don’t have to own to enjoy your opportunities increase tenfold.
Bring on our new simpler and free life. I hope you stay and read all about our journey along the way. I promise not all posts will be this long! I cant wait to upload pictures of our new life up in Ubud. Feel free to comment. Until then, more sorting, culling and more packing for me!
