Real Life Minimalist

Ever since I stumbled upon Miss Minimalist’s blog a few years ago, I’ve toyed with the idea of submitting my own Real Life Minimalist story one day.  But at that time, there wasn’t much of a story to tell.  I was living in a stuffed (but organized) loft and even though minimalism definitely appealed to me, no one would have associated me with the term “minimalist”.

Fast forward to present day, a lot has changed.  After three years of consistent decluttering and a life-changing move last year, my family, friends and even colleagues now often refer to me as a minimalist.  Twenty sixteen was the year I finally felt like I had a minimalism story to share.  So I started drafting my post.

Multiple drafts later, I was finally done… kind of.  For some reason, I wasn’t quite ready to submit it.  Maybe it was because I was still very insecure about “putting myself out there”.  The only people who knew about my blog that point were a handful of my closest friends.  I was afraid of criticism.  There are a lot of trolls roaming around the world wide web.

In hindsight, waiting to submit my post worked out for the better because it gave me the opportunity to add one more paragraph that wouldn’t have existed until very recently.

After I discovered this YouTube channel, I started caring a lot more about ethics and sustainability.  As I ran out of beauty and skincare products, I started replacing them with vegan and cruelty-free ones.  This newfound awareness and concern even trickled into my eating habits.  I replaced my half-and-half with soy milk and stopped cooking meat at home, for instance.

Once I added this unexpected side effect of minimalism into my story, it felt complete.  At the same time, I didn’t feel as insecure anymore.  Sure, a mean-spirited comment from a total stranger would still hurt my feelings.  But I try to remind myself that I am the expert of my opinion and my journey.  And if my story could help, encourage or inspire another person on their minimalism journey, like how so many others have inspired me, then I shouldn’t let fear stand in the way.

So.

I finally submitted my story.  It was published this week  :).