Becoming a Minimalist: Great Lessons On Moving Into a New Apartment

A couple of years ago, I moved to a new workplace. The stage of moving requires planning to ensure a smooth and less stressful experience before moving into a new house.

During Christmas break, I requested an appointment with the university's housekeeping to see the place before starting my employment the next month. Since I will be moving to a new house, the staff had informed me earlier that there was an available house for my family and me.

So my wife and I were pretty excited to see the house inside the university. It was a lovely apartment and fully furnished with two bedrooms.

Moving things to a new place

While we were thinking of transferring our things, my wife planned to sort out a bunch of stuff from our current house and bring in the new apartment. 

However, I thought we didn't have to move most of our things because it has been furnished already—from the refrigerator to the closet, kitchen stove, sofa, and bedding.

I was delighted and relieved. The truth is moving things is not that easy, especially if you have a lot of belongings to transfer. I remember we had rented a truck before and asked for help to unload our things.

It can be an energy-draining experience. After all, we've been moving six times already while staying in Thailand for over 13 years.

Decluttering our belongings

As we went back home to see what else to bring, I began to reflect on the frivolous items inside our house. We have a lot of things that are still useful; others were slightly used, while some items have not been used at all. 

For instance, we purchased things that we have rarely used, such as the oven, vacuum cleaner, old toys and books, clothes, etc. We need to declutter such items.

More stuff doesn't equate to happiness

Moving away from materialism can be a challenging lifestyle for most people. For instance, most impulse buyers can't just resist the offer at the department store, believing that purchasing more items will bring happiness.

Sadly, we tend to define happiness by the number of branded clothes in the closet, having a bunch of designer bags, and several pairs of shoes on the shoe rack.

In other words, we tend to think that the more stuff we have, the more we will be happy. Sadly, it's unfortunate that most of the things we have purchased that piled up in the stock room.

Introspection about our possessions

When you get your clothes in the closet, how much stuff have you just discovered that you didn't use at all? Are they essential? Or do you buy such things out of impulse buying?

The truth is less is more. It simply means a more peaceful life and satisfaction, but fewer worries and avoiding annoying situations.

For instance, when I open my closet to get a long-sleeve in the morning, I have no issues choosing which one to wear because I don't have many clothes to choose. Because I know what to wear, I can save time, and my mind is at peace.

Lessons about becoming minimalist

This transition has provided me with a great learning experience and reminded me of a lesson about becoming a minimalist. The concept of being minimalist is not new to us. It is a great practice that reminds us that fewer possessions are much better.

I believe it's great to have a few simple things that are useful rather than having many things you didn't use. For instance, how many of us will buy something that we only used once or twice?

There is peace in lesser things that are valuable or important rather than buying more stuff to showcase to our neighbors. The true essence of stewardship is to have less that matters and live a simple life.

Final thoughts

We don’t want to waste our hard-earned money purchasing something we don't need. When you have less stuff, you have fewer distractions. Minimalism is a life spent on what matters, like investing in a relationship through meaningful activities, rather than just on material things.

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”  - Luke 12:15, NIV