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Are you wondering if you can truly live a minimalist life with kids? How about with pets? Absolutely and there is no better time to embark on your new lifestyle than when you are adding to your family particularly children. In the world we live in, the absolute best thing you can pass onto your children is the minimalist lifestyle.
When you think about it, our pets or animals, are minimalists from the start. They only pursue what they must have to survive. You do not find dogs in the doggie boutiques trying on the latest bedazzled collar or a leopard print doggy sweater do you? No. That is us – the human that is in the store buying all this stuff that pets do not need. Does a dog need a leopard doggy sweater? Not really. They have fur. 
Does a cat needed a sparkly collar? No. Matter of fact, the cat does not find it “needs” anything. Animals just need food and water to survive and if by chance they have a shelter to get out of the rain or snow, that’s even better but it is not unusual to see animals making their own shelter in a tree or a cave to get themselves out of the weather. Maybe we should take a tip from our pet friends. We honestly do not need any more stuff in our lives and homes.
As we grow both physically and emotionally, we find ourselves looking for a partner to move through the rest of our lives with. Many times when we find our partners, the next step is to begin a family. If you already are a minimalist, you will find that you can implement many of your beliefs right in with your developing family. Kids do not NEED to have all the latest and greatest gadgets. WE do not need to keep up with what the neighbors just bought. It is generally a peer pressure thing that pushes us in that direction.
We find that in our 30’s and 40’s we are so focused on acquiring S T U F F that we bring things into our house that we really do not want nor need and then we have to look at the credit card bill every month until that whatever it is that we brought into the house has been paid for – that is if it ever truly is because it is usually bunched in with our things we did not really need. Imagine the relief you will feel when you do not have to stress about how to pay the credit card bills next month? Feel it? Your shoulders just relaxed didn’t they?
The most important rule to keep order in your minimalist house while raising a family is very simple really. Don’t buy anything you don’t really need and when you decide to bring something new into your home, you must let something move out of your home. This will help you in not accumulating hundreds of toys, baby clothes, hair accessories or whatever else comes along with a growing family, buy in every room in your home. If you had to get rid of a coffee cup to bring in the cup the company gave you, you may think twice about bringing that cup home if it wasn’t very special to you.
As with all things minimalist, stop and think about what you are thinking about bringing into your home. Just stopping and thinking do we really need this is often enough of an incentive to not buy it. Let’s take a quick glimpse into the future. What will your kids remember? The many toys that were all over the house or the unstressed parents that did not have to work themselves to death to pay for all the latest and greatest gadgets and actually spent time with them every day? What do you think?
For tips on how to begin your decluttering journey, you can Start Here, or snag a copy of the 30 Day Challenge (our Minimalism and Decluttering eBook).
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