(energetic, peppy music)
- Hi family.
Thank you so much for being here.
Today I want to talk to you
about practical minimalism,
but before I get into
that, I have a few updates,
one being that I have tried to film this
a few times already.
I'm stumbling over my words.
It's been a long month, and we
are about to move next week,
so thank you guys for
being patient with me.
I really hope that this
thought comes out to you
in a valuable and whole sense.
I wanted to also update you guys
about our schedule.
We have Minimalism Mondays,
and if you haven't caught on
we also have Healthy Hump Days,
which I'm super excited about,
because we have our five
areas of health series
going on right now.
I know that a lot of you
guys have also signed up
to this channel for the idea of finance,
entrepreneurship, money, and
so I wanna bring to you guys
Freedom Friday starting this week,
and then we'll move the
vlogs over to as many Sundays
as I possibly can manage.
That way you guys know what
to expect for the week,
and hopefully we cover all
the topics that you guys
had signed up for.
Practical minimalism has come up recently
because I'm moving a lot,
and there's a lot of stuff
going in and out.
It just got to this
point where I was trying
to really minimize, and take
the opportunity of moving,
to minimize all my stuff,
and of course I was having a hard time
thinking you know am I gonna
go someplace that has cups
because I only own two coffee mugs.
I mean everything in
this house is furnished,
so am I going to have to
replace this when I go,
or is it worth actually shipping it,
or taking it with me?
Ultimately after having
a couple of garage sales,
and selling a lot on Facebook Marketplace
and Craig's List ads, I got to the point
where as I was packing my boxes,
I realized that it would cost way more
to replace all items in the box,
or even half the items,
or less in the box,
than it would be to ship them,
so I just started throwing them in there
and just shipping them.
We'll see what gets unpacked
once we get to our final destination.
I noticed that in my own mind,
and something that's coming
with new minimalists,
or people who haven't been
introduced to minimalism
is the idea that minimalism
has to be extreme.
Extreme as in like if
you only own 50 items,
then you're a real minimalist,
but if you own more than that,
then that's not real minimalism.
If you have a phone or a car,
that's not real minimalism.
The truth is minimalism is a practice
of keeping what adds value to your life,
and removing what doesn't.
That's different for everybody of course,
because everybody has
different circumstances,
and different situations.
The idea is that minimalism
allows you to be adaptable
but with a common goal,
which is to hopefully not
just add value to your life,
but also contribute and add
value outside of your life
and with more forward conscious thinking.
I tend to be a little
bit of a perfectionist,
and I tend to think, well you know
if it doesn't fit in a box
then I don't know what it is.
The truth is you can't really
be too hard on yourself.
I always believe it's great
to strive for perfection,
but in fully knowing that perfection
is not ever gonna be the case.
I do think that it's important for us
to be as conscious as we possibly can,
but to also remember that
we're forward moving creatures,
or individuals, or consciousness,
which means that in solving our problems,
we can equally try to
remove ourself of disengage
from what we think is causing problems,
or not adding value outside of ourselves,
but we also have to first give ourselves
what we want to give,
because you can't give
what you don't have,
and also try to contribute to
potential solutions as well.
I think solutions are really the big key,
because there's a lot of
focusing on the problem
and trying to remove
ourselves from the problem.
I really find a lot of value
in focusing on solutions
and how we can also contribute to those.
A couple examples I
wanted to give you of this
in my own life, and stuff that
you guys can check back on
in the old vlogs, which if
you are searching for them,
you won't find them anywhere
unless you go to the playlist
under old vlogs.
Back in Utah when I was
pregnant with Elavy,
we were in the snow.
We were cloth diapering,
love at that time,
and we didn't do laundry
with a washing machine
even though we had one,
and we didn't have a car.
We rode bikes, or we walked,
or took public transit,
and we really wanted to try this
from like an ecological sense.
It wasn't easy on our
budget believe it or not,
because it was expensive
having the bikes that we had,
and it was expensive doing the
public transit all the time
and having to rent a car
every once in a while.
I think it really came
out to be about even
at the end of the day, and then time wise,
it just became really impractical.
We spent all of our days doing laundry
and walking to the grocery store,
and thinking huh, where did the day go?
You know at the end of the
day, the idea is to experiment
and try things out, and find that balance.
Again, always be adaptable.
When we moved here to Hawaii,
we decided to get a car,
and even though we sleep on the floor,
we decided to leave this bed,
because we find that it added value.
We were able to spend more
time with our children
doing things we were passionate about,
and have our guests over feeling
like they were comfortable
just like they were in their own home.
Things change.
One of the things that I
plan on moving forward with
in this move is like I said,
I kind of packed everything
at the end of the day,
but I want to do a
legitimate packing party
when I get to our new place.
I wanna go through that with you guys,
and basically I'm just going
to leave everything in the box
and take things out as I need it
and everything else stays in.
It's been really amazing to
see the kids not have any toys.
I mean they literally, no toys
except for a couple stuffed animals
that they wanted to snuggle with at night.
It's been fun to watch
them get really creative
in nature, and outside, and with art.
I mean we got them some
sidewalk chalk and some
like the thick paper that's colored.
I forget what that's called,
but they've been so creative
and just engaging in play
with one another.
I have to admit that prior to all this,
I was really kind of scared
as to how they would handle it
because I work, and Brett,
you know he's in the house.
We're at the house together,
but there's only so much
we can do as parents.
I mean you guys know with little kids
if you let them, the kids will look to you
to be entertained, or
engaged all the time.
That's not really healthy at all.
They need to learn to be creative
and learn to be
independent to some extent.
It's been fun to watch
that develop in them,
but in a healthy way,
and to kind of evolve
with them as parents.
Yes it was hard at first,
but now it just feels so worth it.
I just don't even know
if I want to take out the toys any more.
I really don't.
They don't fight any more as much.
They don't have problems
with who gets what toy,
or how bored they are.
They weren't really
bored in the beginning,
but like oh what do I do?
You know there was all
these amazing things,
and I feel like to an
extent is really practical
for the time being, but I
really want to see how it goes
as we move forward.
Anyways I feel like I'm just rambling now,
but I hope the idea of
practical minimalism
and applying it to
yourself really ultimately
just being as adjustable,
and as honest as you can with yourself,
and trying not to define.
Don't be so hard on yourself.
Realize that it's a tool.
It's meant to help you and not
add more stress to your life.
Ultimately if you decide
against what your feel like
was practical in the first place,
like hand washing your laundry,
and not owning a car, that's okay too.
Every moment changes.
Life always brings us new
situations, new events,
and there is a lot of value
in things that may seem
like there's not value too.
I mean at the end of the day,
I'm a firm believer that
there's an equal and opposite
to everything.
You can use something for good or for bad,
like you can use a knife
to murder somebody,
or you can use a knife
to chop your veggies
and create beautiful food
and dinner for other people.
You know it's all about
intention, and only you can know
what your intentions truly are,
and if that really, truly
adds value to your life.
I hope that was really
helpful to you guys.
Let me know in the
comments below if you feel
like I'm missing any points,
or if there is any way that
you have found this situation
to be true for you, and kind
of what you did with it.
That would be really interesting.
Also make sure you give
the video a thumbs up
if you like this.
Also if you're new and
have just subscribed,
thank you so much.
Welcome to the family.
I'm really excited to be here.
I love you guys so much,
and this is just such an exciting journey.
Life is so beautiful and
you guys help me equally
to see that as well, so thank you so much.
I will remember, and
this is important for me,
just be good, be great, and be grateful,
especially through this crazy
like unknown period of our lives.
I will see you all either on social media
or in the next video.
Chau.
(cheery, bouncy music)
