On Simplicity.
BY SARAH ANNE HAYES
Sarah Anne Hayes is a believer, writer, and unabashed bibliophile. She spends her days running her small business, planning out her next adventure, belting out show tunes, and hanging out with her incredible fiancé. Sarah believes life is a gift meant to be celebrated, Tuesday morning should be as memorable as Saturday night, and nothing boosts your confidence like the perfect red lipstick.
We all have those moments. The ones that stick in our brains, that we can look back on and say, “Yes, that is when things shifted.”
One of those moments happened for me in fall of 2014. I had just moved for the second time in four months and was completely overwhelmed by the number of boxes that surrounded me. I knew something had to change.
For obvious reasons, the thing I felt needed to change was directly related to my stuff. I was, quite literally, surrounded by a ton of things I didn’t need, evidenced by the fact that I hadn’t opened some of the boxes even once in the four months I’d lived in my most recent apartment.
So I began decluttering.
I sold extraneous furniture and random items. I reduced my closet from over 300 to about 50 items in one night. I reduced and donated and recycled until all that was left were clothes and books and furniture and things I genuinely loved and used often in my life.
You might think after successfully decluttering my home, I felt like I was done, but the opposite happened. Having simplified my home, I now wanted to simplify every area of my life, to remove the things I didn’t care about and make more space for the things I did.
Minimalism or simple living, for many, seems like a fad, and several years into this journey, I’ve met many who shy away out of a false belief about what it is.
Minimalism is not about a number or getting rid of your stuff until all your possessions can fit into your car. Simple living is not about living off the grid or never shopping at Target again.
I own nearly 400 books, with more being added to that number each year, yet I have no problem calling myself a minimalist. Much to my husband’s dismay, I adamantly refuse to give up my smartphone, but I don’t question my commitment to simple living.
The reason is this — minimalism and simple living, at their core, have the same goal. One that has nothing to do with the number of things you do or don’t own, how technologically connected you are or aren’t, and whether or not you make bread from scratch every week or buy it from the grocery store.
The goal is to live a life filled with what you actually love and care about and get rid of the rest.
This means your home, most likely, will have fewer things in it because I can almost guarantee you don’t love every book on your shelf, every trinket in your room, or every piece of clothing in your closet.
It means your life as a whole will have fewer things going on because, in a similar manner, I can almost guarantee you don’t love and truly care about every event, party, dinner, lunch, coffee date, social gathering, or other hobby or commitment that currently lives on your calendar.
To live in such a way though is to certainly go against the grain.
It probably goes without saying that we live in a fast-paced world. It is a world of instant gratification, mobile ordering, Amazon Prime shipping, and instant streaming services. It is a world of perpetual connectivity, with a possible party, dinner or event invite sitting in our pockets… along with the entire Internet.
We’ve gone from 0 to 60 and the result, if I may be so bold to say, is not a good one.
But what does it look like to live a simple life? If it doesn’t mean eschewing technology, going off the grid, and living a vagabond lifestyle, then what does it mean?
The answer, my friend, is up to you.
That may seem cliche, but it’s true. Simple, in its literal definition, means (among other things) “constituting a basic element.” But simple, in its practical definition, will vary from person to person.
Take food, for example. For one person, “simple” might mean simple ingredients and thus result in meals made from whole fruits and vegetables and other non-processed things. For another person, “simple” might mean quick and easy and thus result in microwave dinners or take-out meals multiple nights a week.
The difference is what matters to you.
To live a simple, slower life is to intentionally name what is important to you, in all aspects, and fight to make that a reality in your life.
Some things are easy to simplify, others not so much. But it starts by defining what is important to you and then asking this question, “What does simple look like?”
Does it look like simple ingredients or microwave meals? Does it look like 12 items in your closet or 47? Does it look like a 5-minute makeup routine or no makeup at all? Does it look like two free nights a week or five?
There is no right answer here, friend. There is no magic formula or specific equation to tell you how to live a simple, slower life.
My version of a simple life will look different than yours. My version of a simple life includes 400+ books contrasted with a wardrobe small enough to fit almost entirely in a carry-on suitcase. Yours might include 30 pairs of shoes and nary a book to be seen. One is not better than the other, because what simple looks like to me is different than what simple looks like to you.
Regardless of the outcome though, friend, I encourage you to pursue it. Pursue a simple life, a slow life, a life stripped of the extraneous things that don’t matter and filled intentionally with the things that do.