In the last few years I have been moving a lot. During my studies I’ve lived in 3 different cities and back then I didn’t have a car. I was using public transport especially for long distances when I was visiting my parents. I was carrying my stuff back and forth.
Then I’ve started to live abroad and change the place at every few months. It was getting difficult to move around with lots of stuff and make myself comfortable when getting into a new place.
I am a girl and we all know that girls need lots of stuff. So, this is how I started. By asking myself what’s really important to carry and use. By doing this, every time I started to leave behind lots of things that were less likely to be used.
Step by step I started to change the way I feel about things. I’ve created a list whit the most important stuff for work and my day- to-day life style.
I’ve started to appreciate more the places, people and all the experiences I am going through every time when I get into a new place and care less and less about things.
By being strict with my ‘take away’ list, I’ve started to be more aware about the way I spend my money and the stuff I buy.
I was in Berlin when I moved into a new place, which was almost empty. I felt quite happy about the idea of decorating the room by my own.
I’ve decided to keep my room as empty as I can and not to spend too much on stuff. And after a few weeks, this was the result.
My investment for the room alone was around 40 euro. But I had good friends around, former colleagues and the owner who has brought some nice stuff for the house.
Really nice people 😉
Maybe some of you will wonder why I did this. Well, my answer is very simple actually.
I believe that we don’t need much in life in order to feel comfortable and happy. Keeping life simple is quite hard in the world we currently live in. Buying, throwing and wasting so much is something that doesn’t fit my lifestyle anymore since I’ve started to choose more sustainable ways of living.
Living simple and trying to enjoy life and people instead, has taught me a few valuable things:
1. Don’t be greedy! Don’t buy, consume or throw away more than is actually necessary;
2. Don’t buy stuff on sale unless you really need them;
3. Give away old clothes and stuff that haven’t been used at all in the last 2 years;
4. When buying, think in terms of ‘I need’ not ‘I want’;
5. Don’t spend too much money on fancy stuff. Invest instead in creating life time stories and valuable experiences;
6. Get practical when buying clothes but never ever forget what really defines you!