TYP: SIMPLE LIVING

The Treasure Yourself Project has exposed me to many new ideas in the form of books and people which has led myself and my family to make a life decision that I just know deep within is one of those pinnacle life moments and decisions that will change our lives. I haven't decided to speak about it because this would not have occurred without the knowledge gained from the project and I felt it was important to share this with you because it is part of my experience.

Live simply. Be present. The simple things in life are the best. The best things in life are free.
We place these quotes in our homes, on our (facebook) walls and we ‘like’ them because they make us feel good. I can only speak for myself but these quotes may warm my heart and put the world into perspective for a moment, but I am completely kidding myself if I think I live by them.

I have always dreamed of a high-powered career and success that involved prosperity and perhaps a small amount of fame. I have always wanted the big house and nice car, walk-in wardrobe full of clothes and in some ways I wanted people to envy my lifestyle. Because that is what you are supposed to hope for right? Prosperity, power and people to envy you. Our society is built around it. Well a few things have happened recently that has forced me to challenge the dreams I have always strived for and question whether they are really important to me anymore.
Whilst at the health food store recently, I started mindlessly looking through the selection books on the shelf and a title caught my eye - Down to Earth: How to live simply. A book written by a 60 year-old ex-journalist who had enough of working and wanted to go back to basics and stop consuming; the writer and husband went about changing their lives to eventually become debt-free and now spend their retirement living off the land. Inspired by the knowledge I have acquired about nutrition and whole foods within the TYP Facebook Group, I have become interested in growing our own fruit and vegetables and making food from scratch so this book suddenly appealed to me and I thought we could make some small changes within our lives so I bought it.
A friend recently moved down south with her husband and little boy into an old fibro shack near the beach and in her own words, ‘it has no closet space but so much soul’ (this particular friend has a penchant for wearing vintage Dior, sequins and fur…even to the movies); she buys fresh produce from the local market, spends their days at the beach and has taken up knitting (yes knitting – but it’s totally cute stuff!) and she said she has never been happier. Upon hearing these words from my wonderful friend - I felt a mixture of happiness for her, and total jealousy for me.
Recently, during an interview, I was asked to describe my perfect day– if money and time were not an issue. After considering the question I came to the conclusion that I would still do what we do most weekends. Be at the beach, with friends and family, eating and drinking, listening to music. That’s it. (I would also have a giant jumping castle floating in the ocean like in that COKE ad if you have seen it and maybe a The Black Keys playing live on the sand and a Corona bar - the elements are the same!). The interviewer described my family as being ‘extravagant in our simplicity’ and I really liked that description. It’s funny how an almost stranger can see you more clearly than you can see yourself.
These separate experiences, and moments in time all left behind their own little seed of thought and got me thinking about what really makes myself and my partner happy as individuals, each others partners and parents. We are simple creatures. We love our family, the beach (this probably doesn’t come as a surprise if you follow my blog!), camping, dancing, the people in our lives, watching movies at home and I am not sure when I turned into a 1950’s housewife but I there isn't much I love more than cooking for my family and drinking red wine. That is what happiness and success looks like to us. Our dream is to travel the world as a family, drive around Australia when the boys are a little older and one day own an old house we can renovate with a huge backyard, you guessed it – right on the beach. We want to have backyard parties and bonfires, grow our own vegetable garden, and I want to write about things I am passionate about while surrounded by mementos from our travels around the world and photographs documenting of our very full lives together as a family. I want four kids (I may retract that statement next week) and at least ten grandchildren and to never, ever leave my partners side. (Not including girl’s weekends).
Now let me tell you what we have been doing over these past two years.
We moved out of our own little beach shack with the soul dripping from the walls into a bigger house with no soul, which we have filled with more possessions, more clothes, more THINGS. We have been living way beyond our means by collecting and consuming and instead of making our life easier as we expected it would, if anything these extra possessions have created more work and have just weighed us down and ultimately stopped us from doing the things we really want to do. My partner works longer hours and is away from us far more than he would like to be, to support a lifestyle that we have created for ourselves that hasn’t made us any happier. I hate to admit it but we fell into the trap of believing that bigger, more expensive, more more more was better. And I think it is probably a common mistake, especially for younger families who aren’t in the position they imagined they would be in when they start a family (um, nobody is) so you go about collecting these ‘things’ because we are supposed too. We have been working towards the dream lifestyle of the fancy house/car/lifestyle and we have realised that we don’t want it anymore.

So we have made a decision. We are simplifying our life. Minimizing. Downsizing. Over the next few months we are going to organize and de-clutter, sell and give away, un-complicate our lives and get back to basics. Live simply, because that’s what makes us happy. We are moving back into our little shack after some renovations (I am completely contradicting myself but there is no way I am moving back in without a new bathroom – a girl needs a decent bathroom), we are selling and giving away a good chunk of our possessions (this includes most of my wardrobe - I actually can’t wait), but the most important part of this decision is that our mindset that has changed.
Making the conscious decision to stop placing so much importance on the material is honestly one of the most liberating things we have ever done.
Everybody's definition of simple living is different, but the basic definition is ridding yourself of anything that isn't really, really important to you. Our personal interpretation and starting point is basically stepping off the cycle of 'when I buy this I will be happy', 'we we move here I will be happy', 'when I have this job I will be happy' and stop the consuming, collecting and focusing on meaningless bullshit.
Some will say it is a romantic idea, and apparently the road to simplicity is far from simple, in fact it is a lot of hard work, but good things are never easy are they. We still have (BIG) goals and dreams, we still want to endulge often, be extravagant when we feel like it, and want security and comfort - we just want to get rid of all the stuff (and there is a lot of it) that doesnt matter to us anymore so we have got more time, money and energy for the things that do matter. The simple things.
We have lots of work to do to change our lives but the seed is planted and I know it will grow into a big, beautiful tree that our children can climb on one day.

Images via Pinterest
I don't want to label what we are doing - I certainly wouldn't consider us minimalists - we have just taken the bits that spoke to us. If you are interested in reading more about Simple Living I was recommended these resources which will give you more of an idea of the philosophy behind it.
The Minamalists (buy the book here)
Zen Habits (e-books available for $9.99)
Down to Earth (buy the book here)
And here is a good article that gives you a list of how to simplify your life which I found really helpful.
Finally, if anyone has any links or advice or stories I would love to hear it because this idea is still very new to us!