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Rich. How does that word make you feel? Some people including many minimalists automatically feel negatively toward the word as if being rich is a bad thing and that being wealthy makes you a bad person. Other folks are envious and strive to be rich – in the money sense – and will do just about anything to get to what they perceive to be rich. I didn’t grow up poor or rich as far as money was concerned – we always had what we needed and my childhood was happy so I didn’t notice that our family had less than others. It is just the way it was and in the big scheme of things it really did not matter. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were okay for lunch and what we had for dinner one night would be leftovers the next evening. Our treat was ice cream and potato chips every other Friday when dad got paid. And most importantly, we were happy. My childhood, however, was the momentum that brought me to where I am today and I would never trade it for the world.
As you get older you start to notice things. Some families had better things than we did. What I didn’t notice as a child in the 60’s and 70’s was that the families that had better things also had 2 working parents. My mom stayed home with 4 kids. That was when I began working towards the lifestyle I thought I wanted – a rich lifestyle. I was about 12 years old when I started mowing lawns saving those dollar bills. From there I worked in an ice cream shop until I was of age to get a job in dietary at the nursing home. Always working and pushing toward bigger and better “things.” Back to college to get my degree. Moving into larger and larger houses. New cars. New clothes. You name it, we got it along with D E B T. This carried through into my family life for many years and my husband and I both worked to provide what we thought we needed to have. What we “thought” we needed for us and our family.
Then all of a sudden life changed when my husband was injured at work and we were down to my income alone. I still wanted the “rich” lifestyle and continued down that path always reaching for the illusive lifestyle I thought I wanted. This “rich” lifestyle I was busting my butt to get almost cost us to go bankrupt. Can you imagine almost losing everything to attain a life you thought you wanted?
Then Aly found minimalism and introduced it to me and it was love at first sight. All of the things I had been working my butt off to get really didn’t matter. Then I remembered my childhood and how happy we were then with what we had. It is experiences and memories that make life matter – not things. So I began my minimalist lifestyle, pealing away learned behaviors layer by layer to get where I am now. And you know what? I don’t have a new car or new clothes or anything else that requires money to attain because right now I don’t need them. I work from home and my time is my own to do as I wish and what I have I own. Today, I have happiness and peace of mind and to me, that is a rich life. So yes, I am rich and wouldn’t have it any other way. How about you? Ready to start your minimalist lifestyle? We recommend this essay: How To Begin Living A Minimalist Lifestyle
Blessings,
Denise
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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