How my daughter lives minimally and why it’s important

Before motherhood {which is now just about two years in the making} a lot of people used to tell me that I would have to let a lot go with motherhood when it came to “stuff”.  Children come with a lot of “stuff”, they would tell me.  There are always things coming in.

Of course I know that but it was good advice – a good reminder that children aren’t usually born with a keen understanding of how much they actually do have (if they are blessed to actually have “so much”). It is up to the parent to instill that lesson and that has become harder and harder to do in this society that is all about consumerism.

To me, it isn’t so much that there is ample opportunity for things to come in, rather how we decide what to let in, and when to decide to let things go.

I literally just finished this post about minimalism when my daughter came downstairs in the early morning with a doll in her hand.  She has a few dolls and stuffed animals on her bed to keep her company at night but this sweet, little doll was clearly on her way out.

My daughter just simply said, “Mamma, I want to donate this doll to someone who doesn’t have a doll.”

She actually caught me a little off-guard.  Not because she doesn’t freely give things away for someone else who has none.  She does.  A few times a year we go through her toys and clothes and things and decide what we don’t use or like anymore.  I was caught off because it felt coincidental given my post on minimalism and a little random since we had just done a purge last month.

But I didn’t question it. That is in fact who my daughter is. And I find it fantastic and really cool that without any suggestion from me she decided to lighten her load. And her reasons seemed simple and clear: other children don’t have dolls.

How can you argue with that?

The minimalism myth

Many people think about minimalism as giving everything away. Living sparingly.  But it really isn’t accurate.  Minimalism is about living with less – not none at all.  In fact, minimalism is even more than that in my eyes.  To me, it is about living “with whatever possessions give you the life you want.”  It’s about having possessions that have purpose, meaning, and use, and not getting cluttered with accumulation of excess possessions that cloud judgment, give false feelings of happiness, and hurt our bank accounts.

And contrary to what some believe, minimal is not about organizing your stuff.  Of course organizing has it’s place – and is necessary. Minimalism is about simplicity; owning just enough.  Organization, if done correctly, is then about giving a good home to those things – so that you can find them, use them, see them, appreciate them.

A minimalist in the making

My daughter has minimalism in her.  She likes her things, don’t get me wrong. She asks for things – she is quite normal. But she has a keen sense of how much she has and realizes – when she asks for something and I answer “ahh, not now, maybe later”  – that she has enough. And when something doesn’t fit in her life anymore, she freely gives it away.

Whether this is just the way she was born or whether the environment she came to live in has fostered this organized and minimal attitude doesn’t matter.  She is a girl who doesn’t like too much clutter or confusion around. And being in an environment with less has allowed her to appreciate the more that she has.

Which is perhaps the greatest lesson of all.