How do you know that what you say is what you mean? How often do you change your words to suit your actions? Take, for instance, the difference between convenience and necessity.

If there’s one thing this extreme minimalist change in my lifestyle has taught me, it’s that we have a very skewed definition of “necessity”.

We think we “need” this, and we think we “need” that. But in reality, we don’t need ANY of it! Today I donated about 2/3 of my wardrobe. Mind you that I’ve gone through my wardrobe and donated THREE times now. Yet every time I go through it, I find more things I don’t need.

It’s crazy to me the things we gather around us because of convenience. For example – having more than one set of silverware – why? Because you don’t want to have to wash the fork every time you eat. But then if you want a whole set of silverware and don’t want to wash them all by hand – get a dishwasher! Which means you’ll need a bigger kitchen. Heck, let’s buy a new house so we have a bigger kitchen for the new dishwasher, and while we’re at it let’s throw in a double oven and a gas range top!

Take this concept and apply it to everything else you own. See where I’m going with this? We create more needs by finding more convenient ways to handle our crap! Wouldn’t it be nice to just have what you truly need, and nothing more?

Tomorrow we’re having a moving sale. We’re selling everything – all the furniture that’s left (which isn’t much – two chairs, a rug, and a mattress), all the kitchenware, decorations, linens, everything. We’re going to button down to what we can fit in our Subaru (with the dogs!) and in the cargo box on top. It’s not a lot of room, but we can fit everything we need.

That includes my husband’s plethora of workout equipment (which yes is a necessity – and he will argue with you to the death that it is).

Did I mention that our dogs are 100lbs and 55lbs?

Moto and Charlie